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Whole Foods employees striking over requirements to work Thanksgiving

Use all the emotional rhetoric you want. Employees DO NOT OWN THE BUSINESS and thus do not dictate the rules. If my employee won't comply to my policies by choice they will not be my employee, if they get blacklisted that's too ****ing bad, they can learn from their mistakes the next time someone takes a chance on them in the distant future and maybe people that can learn a lesson from the smackdown will.

What about federal law that prohibits a termination where a reservist is deployed? Try that and get the feds on you.
 
Use all the emotional rhetoric you want. Employees DO NOT OWN THE BUSINESS and thus do not dictate the rules. If my employee won't comply to my policies by choice they will not be my employee, if they get blacklisted that's too ****ing bad, they can learn from their mistakes the next time someone takes a chance on them in the distant future and maybe people that can learn a lesson from the smackdown will.

Again, all the more reasons unions exist.
 
At BJs, employees are supposedly not required to lift more than 30 pounds without. They set it at 30 because most people can fairly safely lift 29 pounds, and that is the OSHA standard...don't lift more than you can handle. Above 29 pounds is supposed to be a team lift item. Upon getting hired, you see a training vid of this, and many other OSHA standards. Then you sign a doc stating you understand these policies, and that failure to follow them will result in disciplinary action, up to termination. Then you start work. You are told what you need to do, and how much time you have to do it in. You walk into a room full of boxes, all weighting 40+ pounds, and are told to stack them just so. You ask about team lift. No payroll for another person. At this point, you have a choice...violate policy, which the company doesn't really care if you do, or don't get the job done on account of not having help. Which the company DOES care about. Truth is, just about every box in BJs weights 30 pounds or more. The 30 pound policy is to protect the company from injury suits, and nothing else.

This happens millions of times per day, across the country, at thousands of retailers. If retailers followed every standard and practices they put in place inspired by OSHA and it's ilk to protect itself, they would all literally have to double their payroll to get the job done. They don't want to do that, and frankly, YOU don't want them to either.

Dont be silly, the policy is enforceable and the employees can see that it is. THey can do a number of things, including make anonymous calls to regulating agencies and videoing unsafe practices or conditions.

ANYONE, can break rules or laws, including employees. This does not mean that they do not have those rights, which is exactly what you wrote.
 
No, there isn't any logic there. The reality is it's already been the case for decades that some retail folks work Thanksgiiving and even Christmas day. It's not an end of the era, and holidays still persist. When you go to work at a grocery store, generally you get seven holidays a year. Believe it or not, not everyone celebrates Thanksgiving or even Christmas. And there's always folks that want to work and get the time and a half. I've done it.

It isn't retail and the fact that they've been open for holidays for years and years that is interfering with uninterrupted family gatherings - it's that damn smart phone and these computers that have done that.

Yeah?


Well, right now, BJs does not open on thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is talk that they might next year, because other companies do, and BJs wants a piece of that pie. What am I to do when that happens? Pick up and change careers? Again? Not too many "safe" career choices left, at least not without taking a gamble on more college...a 30-70k gamble. I have a wife who also works retail, and two kids. What do you people who retail to do? Would you have us all seek alternative employment in fields that are more family friendly? And what fields are those? I make 55k a year, where am I gonna get that pay while starting all over..again?

It seems to me that many of you are debating this issue from a cometely ignorant and self centered possition. What, am I a loser and a degenerate and a societal failure because I work retail, deserving of no family life, nor holidays? I worked my way from the bottom to get where I'm at, after totally rebooting and switching careers...twice. I'd like to see any of you try that and meet with the same success I have.

Truth is, so long as it doesn't affect you, you don't give a ****. Except that it IS going to affect you some day, you're just too short sighted to see it, and by the time you do, it'll be way past too late to do anything about it.

I say, if the Walton's want to be open on thanksgiving and Christmas, they should have to work those days as well, right along with their employees. If congress thinks it's fine, then it should be fine for them, too. We vote for people who run often on the premise of family values, but what family values can they possibly have when not even thanksgiving or Christmas is sacred?
 
Protections from employers who bully like what was displayed so well on this thread.

The only way i would agree is if the employer is holding a gun to the employees heads. If not, then go find another job.
 
Dont be silly, the policy is enforceable and the employees can see that it is. THey can do a number of things, including make anonymous calls to regulating agencies and videoing unsafe practices or conditions.

ANYONE, can break rules or laws, including employees. This does not mean that they do not have those rights, which is exactly what you wrote.
If something can be taken from you, that something is not a right.
 
People shouldn't have to feel they have to get a new job if they disagree with something at work.

I cant help peoples feelings. If a job has a policy in place you dont like, you either deal with it or find another job. You can dispute it and say you dont like it. Your employer can say "my way or the highway".
 
If something can be taken from you, that something is not a right.

For one thing, they are not 'rights,' they are protections. Didnt you write that earlier?

And you have a right to life, that doesnt mean it cant be taken from you. Illegally/unfairly, or even legally in some cases. Certainly we can take the right to liberty when someone is convicted of a crime.

When people's rights...or protections...are unfairly infringed on, they DO have recourse. As I even gave an example of.
 
What about federal law that prohibits a termination where a reservist is deployed? Try that and get the feds on you.
Nope, you are guessing here. I can fire them for any legal reason I like, and once they've pissed me off it's a matter of time till they are gone. I'm not going to fire a reservist for being deployed, but if he misses a shift by 1.5 minutes when in he is late, goodbye.
 
Have you ever heard of an employer in a wrongful discharge suit ADMITTING they fired the employee for the illegal reason?


I only know of basically 2, and they were sidestep admittance, because the penalty was not big, as both were Public Policy exceptions cases where the PP had not been recognized yet.
I wouldn't fire them for an illegal reason, I would fire them for something they actually did and document. If they say "you fired me out of spite" I would say, no "I fired you for violating company policy, we're getting tighter on enforcement now".
 
Moderator's Warning:
Civility, gents. Let's not get personal here.... and let's not run borderline baiting into the ground either.
 
I wouldn't fire them for an illegal reason,

Well, I'll give ya credit on that, as MOST employers have lied in wrongful termination suits, I was fired once, sued, and felony perjury was committed by thier agent.
 
Yeah?


Well, right now, BJs does not open on thanksgiving and Christmas, but there is talk that they might next year, because other companies do, and BJs wants a piece of that pie. What am I to do when that happens? Pick up and change careers? Again? Not too many "safe" career choices left, at least not without taking a gamble on more college...a 30-70k gamble. I have a wife who also works retail, and two kids. What do you people who retail to do? Would you have us all seek alternative employment in fields that are more family friendly? And what fields are those? I make 55k a year, where am I gonna get that pay while starting all over..again?

It seems to me that many of you are debating this issue from a cometely ignorant and self centered possition. What, am I a loser and a degenerate and a societal failure because I work retail, deserving of no family life, nor holidays? I worked my way from the bottom to get where I'm at, after totally rebooting and switching careers...twice. I'd like to see any of you try that and meet with the same success I have.

Truth is, so long as it doesn't affect you, you don't give a ****. Except that it IS going to affect you some day, you're just too short sighted to see it, and by the time you do, it'll be way past too late to do anything about it.

I say, if the Walton's want to be open on thanksgiving and Christmas, they should have to work those days as well, right along with their employees. If congress thinks it's fine, then it should be fine for them, too. We vote for people who run often on the premise of family values, but what family values can they possibly have when not even thanksgiving or Christmas is sacred?

Wow. First off, it was you and your wife who chose careers in retail. I have no clue what BJ's is nor why I should care if they are open Christmas or not. However, most of the grocery stores around here have been open for at least a part of Christmas Day for decades now. I find it very hard to swallow that you've worked retail for years and not been asked to work a holiday shift. The possibility of working holidays in retail has always been a part of the job.

Now generally, the places I've worked and seen will ask for volunteers first and that generally takes care of it so the family folks who really, really don't want to work holidays don't have to. But if you're raising a kid on your own as I was, the time and a half was a welcome thing. Not to mention, even if you're not in a traditionally tip field, people tip on Christmas, big time.

And stow the nonsense about working your way up the ladder. Most of us from my generation have done that, more than once.

If you don't want to ever work a holiday and you're in retail, you do indeed need to change your career, or wise up and change your head.
 
Again, all the more reasons unions exist.
Why, because you don't get your way. **** unions, let me tell you something, I worked my ass off for years, and if I go back into business I'm going to work it off some more. I worker EVERY HOLIDAY FOUR YEARS IN A ROW without complaint, so excuse me if I don't feel sorry for someone who has to work a Thanksgiving. If they don't like it they can quit, it's kind of funny, employees complain when a minor policy changes, but the employers don't piss and moan when they have to pay the check. The reason people are seen as unprofessional these days is because they want to play an ownership and partner role without actually doing anything to earn it.
 
Well, I'll give ya credit on that, as MOST employers have lied in wrongful termination suits, I was fired once, sued, and felony perjury was committed by thier agent.
I don't like some laws as I think they are overkill, but I would follow them because it's the easiest course. That said I would not be forgiving on the mistake end if my employees decided to unionize, IOW, don't **** up once I've been crossed, I'm looking for any excuse to get some payback. Petty? Sure, but so was unionizing or entertaining the idea to attack my decision making.
 
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