The union representing workers across Northern California said they overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike last week, with a 95% approval.
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You’re required to be available 24/7 but they won’t pay you for being on call? That’s utter bullshit.
It is. Many retail jobs like this maintain the same requirement; be available all the time, but we won’t schedule you enough hours to qualify for benefits or be able to afford rent.
What happens if the scabs vote to form a union?
take the job, show up and join the picket line
“yeah boss frankly i’m not sure what you expected”
It’d be very funny. But they’d still be scabs lol, still taking another unions work
Looks like I have to stop shopping at Safeway. No matter. There’s a one-off mom-and-pop grocery that I already go to for fresher produce anyway. They cost more, but I’m fortunate in that we can afford it. Sure sucks losing convenience and wider selection of items, but fuck strike-breakers all day long.
Apply for the job and waste their time. Lie all you want, since you don’t want the job anyway. Take it as far as you can, right up to calling in sick the first day if you get the job, string them along as long as you can.
If you’re going to do that, complete all the mandatory paid training and call in sick right before the actual work.
Besides just clogging up the recruiting pipeline you’ll take a training slot from an actual scab and make the bosses waste scab wages on training.
If you have the time for all that you might as well join the striking workers outside instead of just calling in sick
Punch in as a scab, THEN join the picket line, ya know, as you got lost collecting carts or something.
Don’t forget to punch in and out for lunch!!
“My experience as a Cargo Specialist in Starfleet makes me especially well suited for restocking shelves. And no, I didn’t serve on the Enterprise, so that falling barrel that almost killed Worf totally wasn’t my fault.”
How does $27.7/hr compare to the hourly pay of the actual employees?
I could only find the Safeway union agreement for British Columbia.
In Canada, Safeway employees make between CAD$16.40 to CAD$27.26 an hour.
Since USD$1 ≈ CAD$0.74 it sounds like they’re paying the scabs at least a 33% premium over what the strikers are asking.
There’s a spreadsheet somewhere showing this, I guarantee it.
Companies don’t do shit without spreadsheets
Slightly above average according to salaries reported on Indeed. But you’d be a scab and no one likes those assholes so not worth it.
Found some info on various sites. The average Safeway salary in the United States is $32,976 per year. Safeway salaries range between $27,000 a year in the bottom 10th percentile to $39,000 in the top 90th percentile. Safeway pays $15.85 an hour on average. Geographic location also impacts Safeway salaries. Safeway employees in Yakima, WA get paid the most. California’s minimum wage is $16.50 per hour. (Strike is happening out in CA.) Most of the data I am finding is taking the average across the whole country, which doesn’t take into account the higher min wage in CA. We can safely say that the floor for safeway workers out there should be $16.50 hourly in CA based on state law, and I imagine that someone working checkout, bagging, or the customer service desk isn’t making $27 an hour. Per Zip recruiter: As of Jul 15, 2025, the average hourly pay for a Safeway Employee in California is $12.43 an hour. While ZipRecruiter is seeing salaries as high as $15.66 and as low as $7.59, the majority of Safeway Employee salaries currently range between $10.67 (25th percentile) to $14.23 (75th percentile) in California. The average pay range for a Safeway Employee varies little (about 3), which suggests that regardless of location, there are not many opportunities for increased pay or advancement, even with several years of experience.
Basically, Safeway is paying higher wages to scabs because they think they can outlast their workers who will be on strike with scab labor. In theory, when the strike comes to an end, all the scabs would be out of a job. Higher wages for the scabs is supposed to offset the instability of their employment with Safeway. If the strike goes on long enough, theoretically, Safeway will cross a financial line where the scabs end up costing more than just giving workers a fair deal.
Yakima has like 10 Safeways and the majority of them are being sold to another company so expect that figure about Yakima to change and also take into account that it’s over+represented in the data simply by having so many stores in one city.
WTF is up with the hundredths of cents pay? Fuck off with rounding down.
Is there such a thing as double agent scabs? Take the job to drain money from the abusive employer but sabotage them from the inside?
Just do the worst possible job while trying to get fired? That sounds pretty fun.
Yeah–Fucking make them REGRET resorting to scabs!
Scabateurs
Hmm, I would get hired and then just not show up. Make them scramble.
That sign is surprisingly straightforward (for a corporation). Is it an intimidation tactic, or clarity mandated by California? Or neither? Or both?
$27 is not enough to deal with all that, on top of being a scab
I can’t believe it. Safeway is an overpriced pile of shit that sells basic food that all other grocery stores sell? Impossible. And they hate their employees! No fucking way!
Go strikers!
