To make sure your child’s back-to-school supplies are union-made, check out this great resource from the Union Label and Services Trades Department!
The flyer also notes that the luckiest kids in the nation are getting an education provided by union teachers, principals, and custodial/support staff. We couldn’t agree more.
If you’re a young millennial today, you’re working in retail.
In a study published this week by Generation Y research firm Millennial Branding in conjunction with PayScale, it was found that the most common job among Millennials, or Generation Y, is sales representative or merchandise displayer. Not only were these the most common among this generation, but Millennials are five times more likely to hold these jobs, in comparison to all workers.
There would not be anything wrong with this, except the fact that these positions tend to be among the lowest paid jobs.
According to a recent article from USA TODAY, “for an age group struggling with a poor job outlook and hefty student loans, many settle for retail while they look for jobs in their preferred field”, says Dan Schawbel, managing partner at Millennial Branding. “A lot of them will end up in these retail jobs while applying for professional jobs and hoping there’ll be openings,” he says.
The study of 500,000 worker profiles shows that over half of merchandise displayers have a Bachelors Degree, and 83% of clothing sales associates have them as well.
The bad job economy has resulted in many similar cases, where recent graduates are forced to retain retail jobs they previously held while in school, or otherwise. It is unfortunate that millennials cannot find work in the fields they spend thousands of dollars to be educated in, but what’s worse is that the retail jobs they move into, cannot support a living wage most of the time. This is not just true for millennials, but for countless others who work in retail, struggling to make a living.
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| young workers sticking together |
Stagnating wages and income inequality are ever-growing issues in our country. Workers who are overworked, underpaid and do not have any job security or benefits are all too commonplace. The fear of not being able to pay the bills, getting sick, or getting fired at any moment is plaguing workers in an industry that will become the backbone of the American economy.
So, what can we do about? We can all take a stand by supporting retailers who provide solid-work schedules, and paychecks and benefits that pay the bills.
Although many millennials see their retail jobs as a transition job, or stepping stone to something bigger, many will end up staying where they are. That’s why its more important than ever to stick together and advocate for what’s right. Union workers at retailers like Macys, H&M, Modells, and Bloomingdales already know that having a union voice on the job means they’ll be compensated and treated in a way that reflects their hard work. They’re able to bargain the middle class wages and health care benefits they earn and deserve.
With a union on the job, empowered retail workers can bolster the growing service industry and re-create the modern middle class that workers had in the past, and what we certainly need now.
The latest news of a big retail company bailing on self-checkout, this time IKEA, seems to point out a growing consensus on automated check out: it’s not working.
Other chains who’ve recently shed their self-checkout option include Big Y, Kroger, and Albertson’s.
Why get rid of something that is meant to make it more convenient for customers to shop and quickly pay for their goods?
Well, besides making it five times easier to shoplift items in the checkout area, both intentionally and unintentionally- as was the case this year at Home Depot- self-checkout is often inconvenient for customers, can be unsafe for the public, and is detrimental to workers.
Self-checkout’s Inconvenience
What busy mom, shopping with her kids, wants to have to check and bag her own stuff? She’s paying for service, and for human interaction, not to do the job herself.
Looking at the case of IKEA, it is obvious just how counter-intuitive self-checkout can be. Typically, the cashier lanes were opened only on peak shopping days. That meant that customers were funneled into a smaller group of self-checkout lanes that became clogged with shoppers trying to operate the system and self-manage their purchases.
As stated in a recent article from RetailCustomerExperience.com, Francie Mendelsohn, president of Summit Research Associates, an international consulting firm devoted to kiosks, personally experienced the frustration with IKEA’s self-checkout. Mendelsohn described a typical shopping experience when the only option for checkout was the self-service kiosks. Roughly half of the shoppers hopped from lane to lane in attempt to shorten their wait times. Once able to use the self-checkout, users found the directions to be unclear and the scanner uncooperative.
“There was no explanation on how to use them,” said Mendelsohn, who has tested kiosks worldwide. “I was aiming the scan gun at the bar codes and it just wasn’t working.”
Mendelsohn explained that while checking out at IKEA, “an employee came by and said I needed to hold the scanner about six inches from the bar-code. I asked her, ‘How was I supposed to know that? There is nothing on the screen to indicate that this is how the thing works.’ She shot me an angry look and walked away.”
Of course, this sort of thing happens not just at IKEA, but at countless other retail stores and grocers across the country.
“When self-checkout is done well, customers love it,” said Sheridan Orr of consulting firm Interrobang Agency. “However, when it is clunky and confusing, the customer is left to think, ‘I have to work this hard to give you my money?’”
“Customers should feel that they are getting value from self-service—saving time, money or convenience,” Orr said. “This convenience may mean that the customer scans the items while a willing associate helps them get their new desk to the car. If retailers only look at self-checkout as a way to remove headcount, they are doomed to fail,” she said.
Risks to the General Public
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| One of the many workers whose job is put at risk by self-service checkout |
Among the risks the self-checkout poses to the public, is access to liquor and other alcoholic beverages by minors. Minors are able to purchase alcohol through self-checkout machines without showing identification over 8% of the time; but more frequently, minors use the lax supervision of self-checkout registers to steal alcohol or scan a 6-pack of soda and put beer in the bag.
This has been such a great problem that the State of California passed a law last year banning the sale of alcohol through self-checkout machines. Enforcement of the law has been postponed due to a lawsuit, but since the law was passed, the food retailer Fresh & Easy has been cited four times for selling alcohol to minors. Each sale was conducted through a self-checkout machine.
Hurting our Workers
When it comes down to it, self-checkout kiosks take jobs away from able-bodied workers. And what for? To do a sub-par job of ringing up merchandise, only to break down and force a customer to wait for an attendant? When there are actual people manning checkout lines, these problems seldom arise, and the customer is more likely to have a speedy, friendly, service-oriented experience.
Whenever self-checkout kiosks are introduced to a store, retail clerks subsequently get replaced by the machines. With retail jobs set to become as important to our economy as manufacturers once were, this can only negatively affect our country.
