I've decided to try to get answers from the other side of my union protest argument (as outlined in previous blogs). I am sending an email to the UFCW to try to get some actual numbers on what the unions are claiming the strike is over. I will post whatever response I get here, even if it contains claims other than numbers that I disagree with, My letter is as follows:

To: UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers)
From: Bobby Thompson (bobby@torgo.org)
RE: Why haven't you reported costs?

I'll start this by saying in general I do not support the protest of the grocery stores in CA, as I've never like unions in general. I will also clarify that I am a normal working class employee. My salary is around [can?t post here, but it?s not very high] a year, and I pay over $1000 a year in medical insurance. I also currently owe over $10,000 in hospital bills (solely to the hospital, more to other medical organizations) due to the level of medical coverage I have.

At any rate, this was to inform you that I am an average low paid employee, and I pay for health care that isn't that great. I wanted to clarify that I am not in the upper class, and that I my feelings are not based off of an event that has left me with a bias. I learned about unions in my high school economics class, and from that point had decided I really don't like them...

I've been openly shopping at the grocery stores since this protest had started. To be honest I've actually been visiting the stores more frequently than I normally would.

I made a comment to one employee when I was smirked at while going into a store that led me to try to do a little research. I had indicated I paid for my health care and the response I got back was a "so do I". I also got a couple of other statements that I was able to pick up because I have very sharp hearing, but I don't think there's a point of repeating them here.

I have been searching around to try to find out some numbers. You see, the stores are stating that up until now your employees have gotten free health care coverage, and now they want to start charging (singles) $5 a month, which works out to $60 a year....

I have attempted to scan this website, along with several others and have noticed that in all of them only 2 numbers are ever quoted. The first is that 70,000 union members are now on strike, and that store profits have soared 91% in recent years. The numbers I'm looking for are quite simple...

How much to employees currently pay for health care coverage? Stores and news are quoting $0, but no where have I been able to find any number, percentage or value (average, lowball, highball) indicating what it is if it isn't 0.

The second is: How much more will these new increases the stores are asking for cost employees? Again, the only quoted number I've found anywhere is $5 a month. Neither your site, nor any other sites seem to quote just how much more the health insurance will cost if it's not $5.

I can only base my conclusions off of what I can find. And obviously based off of what I found, I have to doubt the reasons for this strike are much more than $60 a year. I do realize that the health insurance is not the only reason for the strike, but most of what I read indicates it is the central reason.

I have made an argument regarding this already on my web site. I will state that it isn't as polite as this email, but figured I would include it anyway. You can visit it at http://www.torgo.org/new.html


To recap this in a more concise manner, just to be sure there is nothing unclear:

Up until October 5th how much has the average union worker at a grocery store paid in medial insurance per month?
How much would the average grocery store employee pay per month in health care coverage if the unions where to agree on the current store proposals?

I thought I would at least try to let you clear this up, as I have not been able to find what your claimed costs would be.