Walmart and Unions

[stevestojan]

That's wierd...it was your tag inside of his tag.  That usually doesn't happen.  Fixed.

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Thanks!

[mead107]

Actually, yes.  It is well documented that Henry Ford paid his auto workers $5 per day, a sum that was WAAAY above the existing wage levels of the day.  He did it to inspire loyalty, reduce turnover (and thus cost) and thus improve productivity.

 

He didn't need to be forced by some greedy, corrupt union.

And anyway, what does any of that have to do with reality in the 21th Century?

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ford was a good guy , you should look a little deeper in to the working conditions . he owned a lot of the housing that people lived in and charged high rents . god for give you if you had to go to the bathroom when you where working on the line you pisses yourself .

[KD in CA]

the white collar guy cann't do sh-- with his hands . his brain power would be useless with out the guy to put the car together 

 

Nice to see the stupidity level of your posts reach a new low. So can we also conclude that blue collar guys can't do sh-- with their brains and would be living in caves without white collar guys to think up and design things?

[millbank]

WalMart Store Closings Spread

Written by Morgan Truce

 

All stores locked up their doors before they even had a chance to have a 'Going Out Of Business Sale!'

TORONTO (AP) A loud noise was heard in Jonquiere, Quebec as the door slammed shut at the local WalMart store. The worldwide retailing giant decided to close the doors to its store rather than give in to demands to unionize the huge discount store. The sound echoed throughout the region causing other WalMart stores to close. One by one, WalMart closed down operations at each store as the news of the Jonquiere closing spread. Fearful of having to pay workers a decent living wage, the corporate giant instead chose to quit doing business rather than start dealing with labor unions. As news of the WalMart stores closing spread across Canada, ordinary people reacted by throwing block parties complete with marching bands, with food provided by little mom and pop stores anxious to once again start serving their communities. Within two hours, 86 WalMart stores had closed.

 

The ripple effect of the WalMart closings hit the Upper Peninsula of Michigan by noontime and loud cheering could be heard all across the state. The closest a U.S. union has ever come to winning a battle with WalMart was in 2000, at a store in Jacksonville, Texas. In that store, 11 workers -- all members of the store's meatpacking department -- voted to join and be represented by the UFCW.

 

That effort failed when WalMart eliminated the job of meat cutter companywide, and moved away from in-store meat cutting to stocking only pre-wrapped meat.

 

But this time, WalMart could not stem the tide. Since there was no way they could eliminate all the minimum wage jobs in their stores, they had to just lock the doors and go out of business. All across the mid-west and then extending out to the east, south, and west the store closings continued throughout the day. As each store closed, the celebrations grew and grew. In a few instances, local police had to be called in to keep the peace, but for the most part, Americans all across the land were very happy to see the horrible stores finally closing down. There were a few instances of looting in the WalMart stores around Camden, New Jersey, but other than that things remained calm. By midday, all trading in WalMart stock was halted in New York.

 

In world developments, thousands of sweatshops in Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Indonesia, Thailand, and Costa Rico closed up shop. Worst hit was China where thousands of factories that produced low quality merchandise for WalMart were closed and the workers were sent back to the fields.

 

As the sun set on the west coast, the last Walmart store locked its doors. Already many bankers and small businessmen made arrangements to re-open the thousands and thousands of small businesses so that local shoppers would be able to buy the things they needed. There was talk among all the old line shoe manufacturers of re-starting American shoe making and re-introducing the American public to high quality genuine all-leather shoes. Newspapers across the land reported a sudden and steep rise in help wanted ads offering jobs with decent living wages.

 

On Main Streets all across the land, once boarded up storefronts began springing back to life as five and dime stores, shoe stores, clothing stores, and drug stores moved merchandise back in. Steady streams of shoppers flowed into the once-desolate downtown areas again. Neighbors bumped into one another on the street, smiling and agreeing to have cups of coffee at the luncheonette.

 

Town council meetings were being held to discuss what to do with the abandoned WalMart properties. Many citizens suggested that the empty WalMart stores be burned to the ground, the parking lots ripped up, and that it all be replaced by trees and playgrounds.

 

At the Vatican, Pope John Paul II got out of his bed to give his blessing to the WalMart store closings. “This is the best news since the end of communism!”

 

Tomorrow will be an interesting day on Wall Street as markets re-open and the world reacts to the closing of what was once the world’s largest retail operation.

[mead107]

Nice to see the stupidity level of your posts reach a new low.  So can we also conclude that blue collar guys can't do sh-- with their brains and would be living in caves without white collar guys to think up and design things? 

235691[/snapback]

just saying both need each other . every time a union member gets his raise the whte collar guy gets one all so

[stevestojan]

just saying both need each other . every time a union member gets his raise the whte collar guy gets one all so

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HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

Funniest post of the day!

[John from Riverside]

That right there is another huge problem with unions. I'm not referring to your case, but companies are afraid to fire people who might even be incompotent because they then have to deal with the union.

 

I think teachers being in a union is absolutely absurd.

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Except in my case it was a gutless, toothless, union who asked me for dues every month and then didn't back me up when push came to shove....

 

I am back working at the same university (the Union didn't do crap to help me in that regard) in a different department...and once again they ask me for dues and carry a picket sign when they want to protest something. (I will NEVER do that again)

[mead107]

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

 

Funniest post of the day!

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why

[mead107]

GE stock up today as UNION workers kick ass

[2003Contenders]

Here is a great Union Story for you.

 

I work as an IT Manager for a company in Northern Virginia. Last week my computer's hard drive died on me, and I needed a swap-out. So I put in a call to our internal Help Desk -- and they said they'd take care of it right away. Since I've got some important deadlines to meet, I asked them to put a rush on it.

 

An hour or so later, I got a phone call from the Help Desk informing me that they had the parts in hand. But that it would take TWO WEEKS to get my PC fixed. Why? Because the Help Desk employee (not union) was not allowed to physically bring the parts for my PC up to my office. Only a Union Employee could do that -- and the union employees claimed they wouldn't be able to get around to it for 2 weeks! When I asked if I could just walk down there myself and pick up the parts, the guy said no because the Union would file a grievance against me.

 

 

Since waiting 2 weeks was out of the question, I walked down to where the union guys were working. Did I find guys so busy that they couldn't possibly get to my situation for 2 weeks? Of course not. I found several employees sitting around doing nothing. Fortunately, I manged to sweet-talk one of them into by-passing the two week wait and picking up my PC parts and bringing them back to my office. The funniest part of this whole story is that is ALL that the union employee did. He just physically carried the parts. It was left to the help desk guy and myself (neither of whom is union) to unplug my machine, open up the case, and replace the parts...

 

This story is 100% true.

[IDBillzFan]

My union story:

 

Doing a trade show in Chicago. Have a 10'x20' pop-up booth that takes 20 minutes to put up. Then hang foamboard velcroed signs on the booth...four in all. Union guy comes by and asks if a decorator put up the signs. I said "No, I did." He said I needed to hire a decorator by union rules, so I literally have to go across the convention hall to hire a deocorator for a minimum of one hour. I go back to my booth, pull the signs down, wait an hour for the decorator to show up. When he does, he hangs the four sings in less than a minute...and starts to leave.

 

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

 

"To my next job."

 

"You're not done here yet. I still have you for 59 minutes."

 

"Yeah, but I'm done."

 

"I don't care." We went to the order desk, and sure as sh--, he was mine for the hour although he could only do decorating. So he sat in my booth for an hour doing nothing.

 

Yep. God bless the unions. I'd have never been able to decorate my booth if not for the unions.

[Alaska Darin]

Here is a great Union Story for you.

 

I work as an IT Manager for a company in Northern Virginia. Last week my computer's hard drive died on me, and I needed a swap-out. So I put in a call to our internal Help Desk -- and they said they'd take care of it right away. Since I've got some important deadlines to meet, I asked them to put a rush on it.

 

An hour or so later, I got a phone call from the Help Desk informing me that they had the parts in hand. But that it would take TWO WEEKS to get my PC fixed. Why? Because the Help Desk employee (not union) was not allowed to physically bring the parts for my PC up to my office. Only a Union Employee could do that -- and the union employees claimed they wouldn't be able to get around to it for 2 weeks! When I asked if I could just walk down there myself and pick up the parts, the guy said no because the Union would file a grievance against me.

Since waiting 2 weeks was out of the question, I walked down to where the union guys were working. Did I find guys so busy that they couldn't possibly get to my situation for 2 weeks? Of course not. I found several employees sitting around doing nothing. Fortunately, I manged to sweet-talk one of them into by-passing the two week wait and picking up my PC parts and bringing them back to my office. The funniest part of this whole story is that is ALL that the union employee did. He just physically carried the parts. It was left to the help desk guy and myself (neither of whom is union) to unplug my machine, open up the case, and replace the parts...

 

This story is 100% true.

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I've seen that happen too many times. We changed a contract because of it.

[stevestojan]

My union story:

 

Doing a trade show in Chicago. Have a 10'x20' pop-up booth that takes 20 minutes to put up. Then hang foamboard velcroed signs on the booth...four in all. Union guy comes by and asks if a decorator put up the signs. I said "No, I did." He said I needed to hire a decorator by union rules, so I literally have to go across the convention hall to hire a deocorator for a minimum of one hour. I go back to my booth, pull the signs down, wait an hour for the decorator to show up. When he does, he hangs the four sings in less than a minute...and starts to leave.

 

"Where are you going?" I asked him.

 

"To my next job."

 

"You're not done here yet. I still have you for 59 minutes."

 

"Yeah, but I'm done."

 

"I don't care." We went to the order desk, and sure as sh--, he was mine for the hour although he could only do decorating. So he sat in my booth for an hour doing nothing.

 

Yep. God bless the unions. I'd have never been able to decorate my booth if not for the unions.

235758[/snapback]

 

I would at least made his juggle, or stand on his head --- something..

 

nah, forget it, you'd probably get pressure from the union for over working him.

[Live&DieBillsFootball]

One of the problems with Walmart is that they are becoming more and more of a Supermarket. In some areas such as Canada and California, most chain supermarkets are unionized. The union forces the stores to pay a living wage and provide benefits to all employees who work full-time. This forces stores to charge higher prices, but if all of the stores have to do it, none have a competitive advantage.

 

Now Walmart moves in and offers minimum wage and no benefits for grocery workers and can offer lower prices than the chains. Is it better for the supermarkets to kick out the union and move to minimum wage and no benefits in order to compete? Or is it better for a union to force Walmart to pay the living wage and give benefits?

 

We all love low prices, but we pay it back in higher Medicaid costs to pay for the health care of low wage workers who don't get company provided benefits. As Walmart becomes the largest employer in America, do they have the right to make Medicaid the health care provider for their employees?

[stevestojan]

I think the underlying issue is people trying to live above their means.

 

Everyone talks about a "living wage". Well, listen, if there is someone bitching that they are only making $7 an hour at the grocery store, there is someone else that will take your job. And not only that, if you don't like because you want more things, well, who's fault is that.

 

There is a reason you go to Topps or Wegmans, etc and see 40 year old men bagging groceries. Does it suck? Maybe. Is it the rest of soceity's problem to deal with? No. "But he has to make a living wage". Well, ya know that clunker he drives to work? He should't be. He's living outside of his current means. Go buy a used bike and huff it to work. No gas money there. Things like that in these people's lives everywhere.

 

I make a decent buck. Enough to drive a nicer car than i do if i didn't have an assload of student loans to pay back. So, when I bought a new vehicle this past year, i went with a Toyota Tacoma, not a frigging BMW. Well, grocery bagger that is bitching about his job should downgrade too.

 

The thing about it is, most of these people that DO ride a bike to work, and make $7 don't B word. It's the union guys who are making $20 an hour and think they should be making $21.47 because of some stipulation in their contract.

[2003Contenders]

Uh, as I mentioned in a post earlier, Wal-Mart actually has pretty good benefits. So this Medicaid argument doesn't hold water. And before you suggest that Wal-Mart forces people to work 39 hours just so that they don't have to pay them benefits, every employee that works 28 or more hours is considered full time and eleigible for benefits.

 

Like I said, I worked there during my college days. The pay wasn't the best in the world, but that is what happens with younger workers like myself (at the time). The people that had been there for awhile and made a career out of retail, were far from well-to-do, but they at least made a living wage.

[KD in CA]

"I don't care." We went to the order desk, and sure as sh--, he was mine for the hour although he could only do decorating. So he sat in my booth for an hour doing nothing.

 

 

Great move. I had to 'reserve' the freight elevator in my building (minimum one hour) to have ONE desk delivered to our office.

 

So glad people are out there fighting for workers rights.

[Bob4Bills]

I think the underlying issue is people trying to live above their means.

235828[/snapback]

 

No one could successfully argue this so it's a great way to end the thread.. IMO

[Hammered a Lot]

I would like to point out the equation between unions and the state of NYS and WNY.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories...07/daily21.html

 

I hope pro-union homeowners use/support a union contractor next time they need work done on their house.

 

My company did a job for the local fire dept. a while ago. I could have done the job for around $25,000 yet NY state money was involved, so I had to pay my workers union wages. Cost of the job increased to over $40.000.

 

Wonder why NYS is #1 in tax and losing jobs while the Carolinas have the least union jobs and .....

[mead107]

I would like to point out the equation between unions and the state of NYS and WNY.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/buffalo/stories...07/daily21.html

 

I hope pro-union homeowners use/support a union contractor next time they need work done on their house.

 

My company did a job for the local fire dept. a while ago. I could have done the job for around $25,000 yet NY state money was involved, so I had to pay my workers union wages. Cost of the job increased to over $40.000.

 

Wonder why NYS is #1 in tax and losing jobs while the Carolinas have the least union jobs and .....

235937[/snapback]

and ????