The Amount of Bullshit Astounds Me
So, because I'm learned and literate, I can read things. I read a particularly interesting thing in the break room (which also serves as the storage room. Albertsons cares!) at work, and among other things it said this: Starting pay for the first 26 weeks of work as a GENERAL MERCHANDISE CLERK is $7.55 an hour, and that's what I'm making. I read that the legal starting pay (first 26 weeks) for a FOOD SERVICE CLERK is $9.78 an hour. I thought that was very interesting. SO I asked aroung a bit, posed some questions, inquired some what-if's... and for 2 days, I didn't find any management person that knew what the hell a FOOD SERVICE CLERK was. They didn't know of any difference between them and the rest of the employees. Then today I found one who did. I asked what the difference was between a GENERAL MERCHANDISE CLERK and a FOOD SERVICE CLERK. He said the following: "Yea, the food service clerks generally work with preparing food, hands-on kind of stuff, like what you do in the deli, instead of stocking shelves and bagging groceries at the front". I thought that was very interesting. I also said that I knew about another difference.
This guy was completely on my side. So, today I did some rough paperwork, basicly illustrating my point of "what the fuck, you're supposed to be paying me $2.33 more an hour than you are" and if it clears, I'm going to be making that rate instead of my old rate and get BACK PAY. If this goes through, I'll get a dandy check for about $600 instead of $300 for all the hours I worked when they were giving me shit wages.
This is were the other shoe drops. For one, it is very very probable that someone high up will just veto this, no matter how right I am. And fighting it more would be a bitch. The implications of them caving to me make the stakes even higher for the company, because if they give in to me, and I spread the word about how they've been screwing everyone, for years it sounds like, they stand to have to pay everyone in the store/division and beyond that the new rate. I talked with my (ignorant) coworkers about how we're being screwed and one thing I didn't expect was anger. "You can't make that kind of money when you've only been here 3 weeks! I've been here way longer than you!" and I stopped short of swearing at them saying that "I'm trying to do you goddam dullards a favor and get you possibly thousands of dollars in back pay from a company that fucks you in the ass without you even saying 'ooooh'". Stupid people piss me off. So... I'm going to talk to the union guy, because I'm guessing that the 1 manager who's with me is going to cave to pressure higher up. I'll ask for a job description, and when they still insist that making sandwiches isn't FOOD SERVICE... I don't know what I'll do. Of course if they give me what I want, then I'll be very happy, lay low untill I'm out of there, and then try to make them give all the deli people the same rate, because they're still getting screwed.
So don't lie, give people what they deserve (in the good way) and take fucking responsibility.