So this morning I was listening to the radio, and the topic of discussion was labor unions. In particular, labor unions and Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart’s union history is long and checkered. Employees have repeatedly attempted to form unions, and been met with impressive stonewalling tactics, from shutting down stores where employees were organizing, to firing employees involved in organizing a union, or refusing to hire employees who had previously belonged to a union. The Wal-Mart management handbook states that managers should be “constantly alert to any signs your associates are interested in a union… Wal-Mart is opposed to unionization. You, as a manager, are expected to support the company’s position.
They include an aggressive anti-union video as part of their indoctrination process, and weekly meetings which frequently discuss labor issues in an attempt to prevent workers from supporting unionization.
Some estimates suggest nearly 40% of Wal-Mart’s 1.3 million workers rely on welfare (your tax dollars) to pay for their health insurance due to Wal-Mart’s cost-cutting practices: 28-to-32-hour work weeks, low pay, and extremely high health insurance costs. Workers have provided compelling evidence that Wal-Mart went to great lengths to educate workers on how to apply for public assistance in lieu of company-provided health insurance.
Yet on the other side of the coin, the company is known for hiring disabled people and the elderly as door greeters, being a cheerful place to work, and that for most employees, it does not represent their primary income-earning outlet. There’s a case to be made that the case against Wal-Mart is overblown. The language of Wal-Mart opponents, such as “third-world slave-labor camps” lends itself to easily discounting their opinions as biased. And heck, my family shops there.
Wal-Mart brings in more cash than all but the six largest nations in the world (by GDP). Unionizing Wal-Mart: Good, or bad, for America?
I think that we as a nation
I think that we as a nation should come together and help the employees of this store. I find this insane that we are letting this happen in our nation. I have seen alot of articles on what Wal-Mart has done to make sure that the employees do not form a union. Look this up on the internet and you will find the articles in the thousands. I have seen articles on how Wal-Mart has shut down stores and all the laws that they have broke. Why are we as a nation letting this store have complete control over their employees, on what is fair and what is not? We as a nation are seeing how unfair this is and just letting it happen. We should should support the employees, we should try to help them in what I feel is fair, and I know that most of you’s feel is fair. We as the consumers control the out come of how successful Wal-mart is and could be. I have to admit that I do shop at Wal-Mart for alot of items because they are less there than at other stores, but I would not mind having to pay a extra penny to help the employee’s get better health insurance, or a raise, and when you really think about it that extra penny on some of the items is still less than what you are going to pay elsewhere. I also would not mind paying the extra money at another store to prove to Wal-mart that what they are giving to their employees is not fair, and the extra money on a item at another store will make me feel better knowing that they give their employees what they can, and that their employees are the real asset to the company. Why are we letting this happen? How would you feel if you were one of the employee’s? What are we as a nation trying to do to fix this? Why will Wal-Mart not let their employee’s form unions? and Are we willing to change this or let other companies know that if they are big enough and offer the consumers a good deal it does not matter how they treat there employee’s?
If you really think about this situation we may see a deal on our reciepts at the register, but we are paying for the slack that the company is giving to their employees through are tax dollars, so in the end how much of a deal are we getting, and what are we letting happen for it!
Where is all are money going that we give to this store??