Kroger to Slash Hourly Workers to Avoid Obamacare Penalties

[dodger501]

This is going viral (FB, Twitter, etc):

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2012/11/red-alert-kroger-to-slash-hourly.html

I did The Google, can only find RWNJ blogs and websites.
This doesn't make sense, there should not be penalties for employers due to Obamacare, should there?

[Horse with no Name]

1. Kroger only hires Full Time Managers

and keep the rest of the employees at Part-Time.

This isn't a new thing.

[Iris]

17. That's not true. I used to work with an adjunct professor who kept a full-time job at Kroger for

benefits. She wasn't a manager.

[Horse with no Name]

19. Maybe that is just in our area

but that is what the employees say here?

[Iris]

20. Yeah - I noticed down thread, there were stories similar to mine. It must be different in different

areas. Odd, though, b/c I'm in GA - union busting central. I guess they throw the people a bone every now and then to keep them from revolting.

[Journeyman]

2. Excellent. Stories like this will help get Single Payer back into discussion. . .

[liberal_at_heart]

3. The Kroger in my area is unionized

They earn a pretty decent hourly wage. They may have something to say about cutting their hours. I shop at Kroger and would completely support a strike.

[GoCubsGo]

8. They are unionized pretty much everywhere.

Even my local store is, and n one of those Right-to-Work-for-Less states. My sister works for them. I have not heard her say anything about this. And, believe me, if it's true I'd have heard about it by now. I think this is a bunch of BS.

[Omaha Steve]

12. Not in Omaha!

Not a single unionized store left in Omaha.

[Ikonoklast]

4. It's bullshit, anyone that is part-time (28 hours or less) doesn't get any medical benefits anyway.

They don't pay anything for these people to begin with, so what's going to change?

[Luminous Animal]

9. It's in the article, current employees that are categorized as part-time

but can work more hours if they want, will be restricted to 28 hours a week. Period. New hires will be 28 hours a week employees.

[Ikonoklast]

15. Doesn't matter, those people are STILL classified as 'part-time' employees.

Yes, they DO work more than 28 hrs. a week sometimes, and NO, they still did not get full-time benefits.

Kroger would make sure that hours worked in any given quarter never cross the threshhold of automatically kicking in full-time status.

The part-tme employees have no rights under the contract to work more hours than their initial hire classification, and as long as the employer schedules the employee at least the minimum hours available, the employee has no grievance.

This is nothing new in the retail food industry.

[Luminous Animal]

21. Show me the contract.

[Ikonoklast]

22. UFCW Retail Clerks have always been rated as part-time at anything scheduled at/under 28 hours.

14 Hours is the actual minimum number of hours that a part-timer can be scheduled, there really is no maximum, but if a part-timer averages more than 28 hours in any given quarter of employment, full-time health and welfare contributions by the employer to the union kick in.

The employers rigorously watch those scheduled hours to make certain they stay below that threshold so they do not have to make those contributions.

You won't find that in this overview of the contract, the actual document is quite a bit larger than than this summation.

I don't have a current contract for every Local scanned into my computer to show you, but if you have a telephone I suggest you call any UFCW Local office that covers Kroger within their jurisdistion and they can give you that information first-hand.

Here is a copy of the last contract I for my Local, previous to the current one, whose basic language hasn't changed.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dol.gov%2Folms%2Fregs%2Fcompliance%2Fcba%2Fprivate%2Fcbrp_2323_pri.PDF&ei=6TydUL_0EqrD0AHsyoDoDA&usg=AFQjCNErNVXwhvRGpQjOzz1dt3JjP4H82A&sig2=bs9nNEY0B5QXvzyWoreiPw

[Sherman A1]

5. Nothing would surprise me

they can slash the hours of the workforce or threaten to do so and they can hire some to fill the gap in hours thus created, however that works only on the short term and then usually partially. The shelves still need to be filled, the registers staffed and the many other jobs done. When people cannot find what they want on the shelf and that situation happens on a continuous basis, they tend to find somewhere else to shop.

[EC]

6. Likely were going

to do this before. Aren't they getting more of the self-checker machines?

[Generic Other]

7. Boycott them

Along with any boss who fires people as retribution for the Obama victory. Gees. We can play hardball too ya scabborous bastids.

[GeorgeGist]

10. Kroger starts plan to hire more Vets.

http://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/blog/2012/11/kroger-starts-plan-to-hire-more.html

BTW those who followed the OPs link will discover that this is a ruse to end Obamacare.

[Iris]

18. Thanks for posting. I was about to point out the link in the OP had no evidence.

It was like a stupid email forward. It'll probably be debunked by Snopes by this time next week.

[CuriousAboutPolls]

11. Used to work for Kroger.

Wouldn't surprise me. Most of my coworkers were Republicans. They would run around complaining that the Union was to blame for their wages not going high enough. One coworker(who was later fired, though not for this instance)actually physically assaulted the Union Rep when he came to talk during contract negotiations. I tried to explain that we needed to support and work with the union....but my coworkers believed that it was Kroger trying to help them and the union was holding them back! Really! To be fair, this is a very far right area(Southern Illinois)so I am sure their political ideology played a part-but I was shocked.

That being said, the RWNJ are making up a lot of garbage right now...and this is probably just more of that.

[GeorgeGist]

13. BOGUS!TeaBagger bullshit.

Trash this thread

[RebelOne]

14. The Kroger in my neighborhood never has enough cashiers.

In fact, the managers fill in as cashiers most of the time. I once remarked to one of the cashiers that there are so many people out of work, why did Kroger not hire some more cashiers. She said that the store won't.

[renie408]

16. Yeah, and Jeep is moving jobs to China.