Weis Markets, Inc. announced a capital budget of $102.8 million in 2010, a 27% increase over last year. Weis Markets records 5.2% profit rise in Quarter 1. Sunbury, Pa. (April 13, 2010) Weis Markets reported Tuesday that the grocer recorded an increase in net earnings of 5.2%, from $16.5 million a year earlier to $17.4 million. For the quarter ended March 27, the company's sales increased 9.6% to $664.3 million, compared with $606.2 million for the same period in 2009. They cut payroll in half even though sales increased. That is their secret to success killing the poor people who are left. Horrible people!

At Weis Market I wasn't a boss, just an associate, but I covered for my boss Phil Feeser who's the Dairy Leader whenever he went on vacation or out on personal leave. When I first accepted this responsibility, I was approved overtime because the department was down 40 hours of its most productive employee. Phil is our most experience person in the Dairy Department; he has been with the company for over 40 years. When he is out, we are down our best person to handle freight and to order specials. It's a tremendous loss to the Dairy Department, but with a little overtime and a lot hard work I could still do an excellent job. But as time passed, the Store Manager (Matt Mumma) would schedule me less and less overtime. I went from 8 hours to none. So as you can see this really adds to the stress level. One time when my boss was on vacation, we had a show in our store where vendors come in to see how we want products displayed. Also in the same week, the President of the company visited. That was stressful because everything has to be perfect and accomplished with no overtime. I lost over 9 lbs. that week; what a great diet program. No other department heads, but Phil was allowed to take off. The next week when Phil returned, the Store Manager (Matt Mumma) approved 14 hours of overtime for Phil when we where fully staffed. That is unacceptable behavior from the Store Manager. Do you think he may have something against me? The facts say yes! No other department head but the Dairy was allowed to take off that week. No other associate had my responsibility.

The week of Easter everyone but one person, a part time employee was out. My boss Phil was in the hospital getting stint put in his heart. Our best part time employee (Brian) was burned in a fire (he's a voluntary fireman) and out indefinitely. My night person Brandon was on vacation until Wednesday. So you can see I was in dire need of manpower in a very busy holiday week. I worked alone except for one elderly man (Charles) who came in from 8 am to 1 pm and he only works the yogurt section on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays which is just one small section of the Dairy. On Saturday evening I spoke with Brandon, he told me to hang in there until Wednesday and he would be back to help me. When Brandon came back, the Store Manager (Matt Mumma) put him in the Produce Department instead of helping me in Dairy. I was livid. What kind of Store Manger would but personal in a fully staffed department over a department which was down there Dairy Leader and best people?

I was worked so hard I started to developed chest pains. The night before I quit the chest pains where so bad it woke me up at 4 am in the morning. I knew at that point that I had to make a decision. Knowing that I didn't have any real good help (Dairy Trained Personnel), I had decided not to go to work and risk a heart attack and/or stroke. I chose health over financial security. I said to my self "I will have other jobs but I have only one life."

I have recently applied for unemployment benefits and was rejected for section of the law 8-1001 basically stating that I left work voluntarily without good cause. I told them Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation (DLLR) that I was so over worked due to lack of staffing that I started to have horrible chest pains. I was told by the DLLR because I didn't follow up with this (whatever that means I can only assume that they think I should have gone to a doctor) but yet, I can't afford health benefits of any kind. How can you expect someone without income to go and get treatment? I'm unemployed I can't afford medical treatment and I haven't received a penny since the beginning of April. After receiving a few letters from the DLLR, they change their dismissal to Gross Misconduct. Believe me all I did was walk out after being worked so hard to physical failure.

And this wasn't the first episode with Weis Market:

I had Jury Duty for a week and they didn't pay me for my time in court, regardless of what the employee handbook said. Not only did they not pay me, they deducted my court pay 30 dollars from my check and I walked out. Rent was due and I had a paycheck for less than a hundred dollars. After a week, they finally said if I come back they would correct the problem. They did pay me for my time in court, but I still lost a week worth of wages because I walked out. They never would have paid me if I didn't walk out.

Once I was accused of stealing. One day when I was leaving work, I was stopped by security. I already had clocked out for the day, but somehow they thought they could detain me for search. The search was done in front of the store where all customers and employees could witness this degradation. After searching all my compartments in my backpack they found nothing. I was furious. I asked the security guard if she was F***ing done. Three or four days later, they took me to a back room to write me up for dropping the F-Bomb. I said I done nothing wrong and I walked out again. I only came back to work after they dropped the accusation and disciplinary actions. Again, I loss a weeks worth of wages.

How can Companies get away with this? I was born and raised here in Hagerstown, Maryland. These people use intimidation and fear to abuse their employees. The Store Manager (Matt Mumma) where I left has told other department heads that if you don't like it here, I have at least 15 other applicants to replace you. Weis Market is taking advantage of the poor economy and no one cares at all - but me. I can think of at least 10 people who where treated like this. They were either worked to death, accused of steeling or had their hours reduce so much it wasn't even worth the cab fare to go to work. If I had the money I would help these poor people by bring a class action suit against Weis Market. It's time to level the playing field. I had to make stand against these horrible people I just hope you will to.

If you don't want this to happen to someone in your family or you think this mistreatment of employees is unacceptable, then go to the link below and tell them you are not shopping at Weis Market until they start treating their people better.