Unions No Good For America

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For the third quarter ended Oct. 30, the company said earnings slid to $92 million, or 25 cents per share, from $188 million, or 47 cents per share, a year earlier.

Wall Street analysts on average were expecting profit of 37 cents a share, according to Reuters Research, a unit of Reuters Group Plc.

Shares of Albertsons fell 4 percent.

The Boise, Idaho-based chain, along with rivals Safeway Inc. (SWY) and Kroger Co. (KR), is embroiled in a dispute involving some 70,000 striking or locked out Southern California workers opposing planned health care cuts.

The action by the 1.4 million member United Food and Commercial Workers Union began Oct. 11. Albertsons also was hit by a brief Teamsters strike in the Midwest during August.

If not for the labor disputes, the company said it probably would have met analysts' estimates. The strikes reduced gross profit by $70 million and sales by $132 million, it said.

On a conference call with analysts, Albertson's said added costs from the labor disputes included money to hire and train temporary workers, travel expenses for employees temporarily assigned from elsewhere, store security, and legal fees.

Albertsons said its mediator asked it not to comment further on the disputes.

The company said it could not provide earnings forecasts because of the labor problems. Last month, it withdrew its financial guidance for the remainder of the fiscal year.

Third-quarter sales rose 1.6 percent to $8.80 billion from $8.66 billion a year earlier. Albertsons said identical-store sales, which exclude new or replacement supermarkets, slid 1.1 percent, but would have risen 0.3 percent without the labor disputes.

The company said a deal allowing Toys R Us Inc. to put toy aisles in its grocery stores was proving successful so far, with the 800 stores that have them showing "strong double-digit" sales gains in the product category.

Albertsons said 1,200 more stores would have toy aisles by the end of the first quarter.

The company's stocks were down 85 cents at $20.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. Courtesy of FOXNEWS.

What? Unions hurt America? This is just one of thousands of cases proving that Unions hurt America and the American economy.

http://www.bestandworst.com/vote/processrate/ratetheballot.php?7813

 

[007]

No reply yet to this by G Edward Cook. Hmmmm... I can only think he's incapable then of defending unions.

I win.

 

[5stringJeff]

I can't think of any real reason to belong to a union, except maybe to be an insider in Democrat politics. Unions serve no good purpose any more. But what REALLY gets me upset is laws that force employees to belong to a union in order to work at a certain company. IMO, that violates the freedom of association guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

 

[GotZoom]

Unions are only beneficial to Union Leaders.

 

[Mr. P]

Unions are only beneficial to Union Leaders.

Hoffa might argue that's not always true.

 

[007]

I can't think of any real reason to belong to a union, except maybe to be an insider in Democrat politics. Unions serve no good purpose any more. But what REALLY gets me upset is laws that force employees to belong to a union in order to work at a certain company. IMO, that violates the freedom of association guaranteed by the 1st Amendment.

As I've mentioned on this board before, I worked in a supermaximum prison back in Wisconsin. Well, that was for the state of Wisconsin, Department of Corrections, and yes, I "had" to belong to the union. I had no choice. Oh yeah, I had a choice... belong to the union or get fired. I did go to my union rep though, and demanded that none of my union dues be used for democrap campaigns. I had to write a letter officially requesting this, and then I had them give it to a local church. They did however continue to take my union dues, of which I also had no say in the matter.

I don't see how this union ever did anything good for me. The dues was sky high, and I never saw anything from it. The way this union applies it's power is frickin communistic. I would NEVER work somewhere where there's a damn union again. They hurt the company, and protect the lazy.

 

[shepherdboy]

I have been in and out of the Teamsters for twenty years. Those in and out years were to fulfill a military obligations. Have I seen corruption? Yes. But you can find that anywhere if you look hard enough for it in your own work place. Do the unions protect the lazy and abusers of the system? Yes and No.
I have seen guys who should have been fired get their jobs back, yes. But in most of those cases the company did not do their homework to provide the evidence to prove the worker was at fault. The union was just better prepared to defend the worker. If the company presents a clear and cut case that a worker has broken rules or a policy of the company, then in most cases the employee is terminated. Now there are certain steps of disciplinary action that company and the union can agree on such as suspension and loss of pay, but thats a company and union agreement. Somethings the union do are good. I worked in a fast pace building and material handling environment. Because I was young and in good shape I could out perform the the older guys (some in their 50's) in the production area. Now because those guys have gotten older and can not move as fast as the new younger guys. Should they lose their jobs because they can't cut the muster anymore? Many jobs that don't have unions to protect guys like that would terminate those guys and bring in new younger batch. Hey don't get me wrong I believe in capitalism, but these older guys were there for the company all their lives working and making money for the company and now because they are old and a little slow they are gonna get the boot!
You can't do that to loyal hard working employee's who have served the company well. Many of these guys I worked with were Veterans too. Their has to be unions in some area's of the work place to protect the less fortunate. As far as corruption goes, there will always be some kind of it in the work force. From the Unions to Wall Street to Corporate America to that white collar guy to that blue collar guy, man is man and he is a very greedy person. "Greed is good." Who said that?

 

[opewon]

I do agree that their is greed and corruption at the union levels and that unions may be past their prime to a certain point. But greed and corruption carries many faces, including big business and government. So what is the worst of two evils here? Health care is out of control, pensions are a thing of the past and accountability has gone down the tubes. we are going through a huge change in this country, peoples rights are dwindling, liberalism is rearing it's ugly head and our deficit keeps jumping off the meter. Wish I had the answer all but i don't. But for now I think we need unions to keep what little balance we have.