MemeMachineGo!

Twenty years ago at this time, I was working as an “associate” at Bradlees department store in Manchester, CT.

Five years ago at around this time, Bradlees announced that it was going down for the last time, and would close its doors forever in early 2001.

I have many stories from my Bradlees days, some better than others. I’ll share some of my favorites here.

Bradlees, as part of the Stop and Shop Companies, was a union shop. In my youthful idealism, having recently studied the Progressive Age and the Depression in my history class and caught part of F.I.S.T. on television, I was caught up in the fervor of a moment that had long since passed. I felt a swell of pride at becoming a card-carrying member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, and became familiar with all of the union’s propaganda on the benefits it brought to the working people.

This is not to say that I have become anti-union since then; I still recognize that unions can do a lot of good in today’s working environment. But as time went on and I grew up, I noticed a lot more of the corruption and abuse that takes place in the upper ranks of these organizations.

And not all of their policies are fair to the workers. I received an object lesson in this soon after I left Bradlee’s. The union sent me a letter saying that if I wanted to remain a member, I had to keep paying dues even though I was no longer employed with one of their companies. If I didn’t keep up my membership, I would have to pay all my back dues if I ever wanted to work in a UFCW shop again. At that point I said, “The United Food and Commercial Workers Union can kiss my ass.”