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Post Info TOPIC: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


Founder of The Meat Cutter's Club

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Meat Clerk Duties ??????


From a Kroger board, What is your companys policy ???? Most every one on this board posted in

 " Anonymous " that is why there is no names to the two answers I posted with it.



I work in the meat dept for alittle over a year and a half and I am just a meat clerk nothing more. My manager tells me I have to cut meat like strips, ribeye, and other steaks if a customer ask me to. But I don't get pay extra for it, I am stuck at 7.45 right now. I got mad and told him to find out from the union if I am suppose to or not. I would of called them but I rather not have the store manager up my butt. But he said that I have to from what they said. But I don't believe it one bit. From what others have told me that I don't have to cut meat. So now I have been cutting meat for customers when they ask "tell me to" like a freaking meat cutter. So I am wonder if I am suppose to cut meat for them or not. I know from what my manager told me is that I don't have to cut for the case thats all. Its bs that I get 6 ten cent raises and I pay the union almost 8 dollars now and they don't help me at all. Does anyone know if I am suppose to or not? I even look online and the websites I vist doesn't say meat clerks cut meat the only thing it says is to grind meat. Thanks and this is for the state of Indiana south side of indy. 


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Leon Wildberger

Executive Director 



Founder of The Meat Cutter's Club

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Meat Clerk Duties ??????


.If you are just a meat clerk you do not have to cut. My fiance is a meat department back up and I asked him. He said unless you are training to be a cutter it would be in your best interest not to cut anything, because if you get hurt Kroger won't pay disability or cover your expenses for anytime off. Also, if you are just a clerk they will do everything possible to not pay you for cutting. So, if I would tell them that unless they're going to pay you a cutter's pay that you're not going to cut



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Leon Wildberger

Executive Director 



Founder of The Meat Cutter's Club

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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


Technically, meat clerks responsibilitys are to wrap, work lunchmeat, and clean the meat shop at night.  However, that isn't necessarily the case.  Just be advised that if you do learn how to cut and you are not considered a cutter and you get hurt, you may have a harder time getting Kroger to cover as a result.

 

I work in the meat shop and have learned to cut meat because at the time, we only had two others in the store who were trained on how to cut (Dept Head and Backup).  Our fulltime cutter left and the job bid was held up due to realignment within the district, so I had to pick up the slack and do his job until the bid was filled.

 

In all honesty though, I advise everybody who comes back there to try to learn how to cut.  If anything, if you are ever unhappy with Kroger and want to look for work in another grocery store in your area (sans Walmart, no meat cutters there), you would be surprised what other stores would pay for somebody they don't have to train on how to cut.  Kroger is tied in through the union, but other stores that aren't could pay more and you would likely get steady hours.

You aren't "supposed" to be cutting, but use it to your advantage.  Learning how to cut meat is a skill that a lot of people don't have, so my advice is learn how to do it.  It could be worth it later on down the road. 



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Leon Wildberger

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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


that would be why the last line in every job description says something a little like this


"And other duties as assigned by the manager"

for cripes sake this person probably cuts a few boneless steaks that people request...like can I get a 2 inch thick ribeye please


What happened to take care of the customer they are the reason we have a job

glad everyone I have on my team realizes that we are there to take care of the customer and that is what we do

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Joe Parajecki

Operations Manager/ Partner

Kettle Range Meat Company, Milwaukee WI

Member Meat Cutter Hall of Fame and The Butcher's Guild



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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


Big Beef wrote:

that would be why the last line in every job description says something a little like this


"And other duties as assigned by the manager"

for cripes sake this person probably cuts a few boneless steaks that people request...like can I get a 2 inch thick ribeye please


What happened to take care of the customer they are the reason we have a job

glad everyone I have on my team realizes that we are there to take care of the customer and that is what we do


 biggrin Big Beef, I think you and I would work well together. Very well said.



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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


in all honestly, if the union contract does indeed list that as a duty they are to perform, then they are obligated. but, in the truthful world, you cant make someone do something they dont want to.
i ran into this situation a few years ago. i had to a an emergency shift cover in a different store. the only cutter in the store hurt himself unloading the truck. i was called to cut meat after my normal shift in my store. as soon as i was reported in to the store manager, the two clerks who were trying to fill the case as best as they could started complaining the they should get meat cutter pay for the the few hours they were helping out.


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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


Generally in Texas, Kroger excluded (union), a meat clerk can do a wide range of things: deli, cleanup, counter service, and light cutting. By light cutting, I mean trimming chicken breast and making simple slices that includes cutting x" thick steak for a customer. At our particular store, they make burgers, trim and cut lamb, veal, and bone-in meats. It's fairly light duty though compared to the real cutters, but they are paid decently, not $7 an hour.

Just because a meat clerk has to cut a couple of steaks doesn't mean he's a meat cutter. I work at a $100K+ a week store, and we have only 2 primary cutters--myself being one of them. When a meat clerk can come in and get the counter cut & set, then cut 4 cases of bone-in pork and 6 cases of T-bones in 3 hours scraped and trayed and not be late for break, come back and work through lunch while cutting the remaining pallet of T-bones while maintaining a full counter all by himself without whining or injuring himself, then we'll pay him meat cutter pay.

There's nothing worse than a whining meat clerk. It's like working at a clothing store thinking all you do is check people out. How DARE they ask you to fold or hang up clothes.

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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


I can see both sides of this. For me, the issue is his pay and our job security. I don't like a company or a manager trying to save on labor by having meat clerks replace journeymen cutters. I'm 100% for a clerk wanting to cut and learn as much as possible, but only if there's a good likelihood of promotion. There are too many clerks and too few journeymen. We are hurting ourselves by letting clerks do our jobs. If clerks can do it, then why hire journeymen? And that's what is happening and it's getting worse. By not cutting meat, the clerk is protecting your job and mine. And our future too. If the clerk gets cut, he/she and you will be in trouble (I think that's a sissy rule, but for another thread). There are plenty of other things to keep a clerk busy. I do dislike when a clerk won't cut a shortrib or ham shank in half on the band saw (for a waiting customer). Actually they aren't allowed. I say screw the rules and for the clerk to cut the item. But to demand that a clerk does regular production cutting, that's just wrong. Let him do it if he wants, but you can't make him do it. Because you don't pay him correctly. I like a gung ho clerk who will do anything, but I see the other side too.

I don't know the exact situation of the clerk who started this thread. Maybe he has a great point. Maybe they laid off a journeyman and won't replace him because they have a clerk to do his job? Since I don't know him, I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. I did work with a clerk who (often) was walking around not knowing what to do. So I asked him to clean a floor drain. I'm not a manager, but doesn't he need to do what we all ask of him? He said "I'm not going to get down on my hands and knees". and continued walking around with his hands in his pockets waiting for customers (we didn't have any it was slow) Now that's the kind of guy who is a problem.



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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


When I started and was a clerk, I took every opportunity to hold a knife- even on my own time/days off

I know times have changed, but even if you cut alot as a clerk and get clerks pay,,,,maybe down the road you can be a cutter somewhere's else and get better pay

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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


In my time as a clerk I learned everything possible. Grinds, cube steaks, bnls pork, even ordering. Just in my nature, but it helped a great deal when I did start cutting.

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RE: Meat Clerk Duties ??????


The theory that it doesn't take skill to cut meat... or better yet that anybody can cut meat is plainly ridiculous.

I watch this go on where I work (A Food Network inspired chain of shops). I see a lot of meat get ruined and get flipped. And, a lot of steaks get sold very poorly cut, cut in the wrong direction, with bone-skin on them, bone-chips in boneless meats. I see an awful lot of dangerous handling of ground product, misrepresentation of lean percent. I see things getting sold as one thing when they are another (most commonly culottes labeled as tri-tips) but also lesser-grades put in as higher-grades. I see obviously wrong things. I never ceases to amaze me. It's all in the name of yield and margin. The managers want all primals to yield over 90% (including bag and purge weight) and all margins to be greater than 35% (some as high as 75%). What is scary is that almost nothing ends up in the waste log. Eventually the little chain I work in will crash and burn, but not without giving meat-cutters more of a black-eye.


I'll just do my time and get out when I have enough time under my belt.

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