Taming the Walmart Bully

[xchrom]

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/23-0



n the radical spirit of Buy Nothing Day, thousands of Walmart workers are staging a nationwide walkout on Black Friday . . .

Walmart is notorious for forcing small retailers out of business, pushing suppliers to bankruptcy, depressing labor conditions and paying employees the barest minimum wage. And Walmart is a committed union buster – when workers in the USA and Canada tried to organize, Walmart closed entire stores to avoid setting a precedent. Now . . . finally . . . there's some blowback across the country, inspired by the workers at Walmart warehouses in southern California. “The warehouse workers did it,” Walmart associate Dan Hindman explains, “if they can, we all can do it. We're protected by the law. We're doing it for our rights and to get the company to follow their own policies that they've broken.”

Hindman is a college graduate who takes home $75 for a two-week pay period ever since Walmart cut his hours. “I can't afford to work at Walmart, but I have no choice,” he says, “I'm fighting for a lot. This is a big deal for me...All we're asking for is respect. ... I've never been a slave, but I don't like this. It's out of control. This is about freedom, about our rights.”

Just mere days before this planned nationwide walkout, Walmart executives had the gall to file a complaint with a federal agency, accusing United Food and Commercial Workers union – one of the largest labor unions in America – of unlawfully organizing picket lines, in-store “flash mobs” and other demonstrations. Walmart executives also warned employees to show up for work on Friday, or else, “there could be consequences.”

[marmar]

1. k/r

[lonestarnot]

7. Solidarity!

I'm going to go check out the picket line.

[littlemissmartypants]

2. LMSP kicking...n/t

[99Forever]

3. K&R

[pipewrench]

4. +1 xchrom

Everyone should have the right to a living wage.

[Overseas]

5. K&R.

[SoapBox]

6. Kicked and Rec'd!

...somewhat off topic...

A widowed neighbor gal, got a job a few months ago...something that I actually always wanted to try! Stocking greeting cards.

No, it wasn't for that company that starts with an "H" but a competitor.

At first she was doing it 2 or 3 days per week...not sure of the hours but something like 10-12ish? Just enough for her to have
something to do and get a few bucks...she loved it. AND, she's REAL efficient, personable and works hard (her home is beautiful.)

Then....the hours started getting weirder...a few weeks ago I asked her how it was going...she quit. Why?

They wanted to give her TWO hours per week of work and pay.

Huh? TWO hours? A week?

America's employers...hard at work, not giving American workers, work.

[DhhD]

8. Let go right before she had enough work time to claim unemployment benefits and maybe

health care through the county indigent care program (federal grant). Both agencies look in to why the worker was released.

[SoapBox]

13. I never thought about that!

...hmm, just to make her MADDER, I'll mention that!

[chervilant]

9. Thousands of

denizens of Arkansas view Wallyworld as the best thing since sliced bread. They shop there, they congregate there to swap news and gossip on all the 'shopping days,' and they will defend vociferously the company's right to do business in whatever manner keeps them the most profitable corporation on the planet.

If one of their own gets the Wallyworld shaft, they're likely to shake their heads in resignation, and observe, "that's just the way things are in this economy..."

[BlueCaliDem]

10. The bully is whining that it's being bullied.

Projection is very very strong within the fascist DNA.

I refuse to shop at Wal-Mart, and if I can't afford something, I'll just wait until I can. I still need to get a Costco card, though. It appears they're good to their employees despite not having a union. But for now, I'll just shop at stores that have unions and/or are treating their employees with respect, or just shop at local Mom&Pops.

Again, it appears, that California is taking a leadership role in fighting back against the taxpayer-burdening Republican bully, and may it not stop until each and every employee at Wal-Mart is treated with the respect they so rightfully deserve.

[lunatica]

11. They've been advertising non-stop on TV here

Warm, fuzzy, Christmasy stuff.

[SoapBox]

14. Oh ya...in SoCal

non stop...and I see ads on multiple sites.

[WillyT]

12. HUGE K & R !!! - Thank You !!!

[freshwest]

15. 'This is about freedom, about our rights.' That's it in nutshell. Not free-dumb to starve.

[AllyCat]

16. Had a heap of fun with them on FB today. Me and hundreds of others

They want to spam my page, they deserve what they get. About 8 or 9 of every 10 comments was someone demanding they pay a fair wage. It was awesome. They deleted our posts, tried to tell us we could "unlike" them at their website (except I'd never gone there), and at last, sent a huge spam PM to me and hundreds of others. They had someone there swatting flies all day and the hits just kept coming.

But we sit behind our secure little keyboards while these folks are on the front lines. Could not be with them today, but I think it is interesting that Wally World appears to be nervous about this whole thing. Much more to come I am sure.