I was vacationing last week in California with my kids and had the occasion to visit a local “Nugget” Grocery Store in West Sacramento. When we arrived there we noticed several folks picketing outside the store. As we walked in, a rather pushy picketer attempted to make sure I got his literature. Me being the mild-mannered capitalist that I am, I let him know in no uncertain terms what I thought of his blocking my way to the store and suggested (perhaps with a superlative or two) that he find a better job if he didn’t like working for Nugget.

To this he replied, “Why should I do that? I get paid to picket.”

For those of you who know me personally, you know that I am SELDOM at a loss for words, but this stopped me dead in my tracks. “You what”, I said, incredulously? He stated that the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 8 paid him to stand outside the store and picket them. “You mean you get paid to NOT WORK”, I asked? “Yep”, was the reply. Dumbfounded, I walked into the store and did my shopping. As I was leaving, I checked out the guys store with the manager of the store. Sure enough this dude was being paid by his union to NOT WORK.

I did a bit of research and found that Jacques Lovell, president of the local, said the union is asking the public not to shop at the store, alleging they provide substandard wages and benefits to their employees.

“Our members are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure that workers at Nugget Markets and Wal-Mart have the same access to the good wages, health care benefits, pensions and job security provisions that are enjoyed by union members,” he said.

Now, if I understand all of this, the Nugget is a “non-union shop” meaning they do not employ union members and as such do not have to kowtow to the union rules with regards to insurance, retirement and other benefits. Of course, those benefits and wages to the workers will ultimately be reflected in the price I have to pay for a loaf of bread or a gallon of milk. That may be the reason why Wal-Mart, Nugget, and other non-union stores are so cheap.

So, let’s see how this adds up for all us hard-working Americans out there: The Union wants the Company to pay the employee more for doing less, therefore driving the prices up for you and me, and is willing to pay the union member to not produce any sort of work in order to get that done. Guys, I hope this story is scaring the crap out of you, because that sounds dangerously like socialism and communism to me.

Oh, one more thing, how many of you have had a gun put to your head and been told you MUST WORK any particular place. Seems to me if you do not like your wage you should go find another job. Heck, here is a better idea…since these unions can obviously afford to pay their members to NOT WORK, maybe they should start their own grocery stores, pay their employees the highest wages with the most benefits on the planet, have to lowest prices of all the stores so they can attract all the customers away from the other stores and still somehow manage to stay in business….Yeah buddy, good luck with that one!

A last thought: The picture used for this article was taken from the UFCW-8 website. It depicts several picketers “doing their job”. Is it just me or are every one of these guys overweight? Maybe they already make too much for doing too little…