Walmart strike. Do you support them or not?

[SirPiken]

Striking is a fundamental part of negotiating with a company this large. Collective action is the most effective way to get what they want in this instance.

Is anyone in this thread saying that private sector unions should be illegal or do you just like arguing against a point no one is making?

[Wells]

Is anyone in this thread saying that private sector unions should be illegal or do you just like arguing against a point no one is making?

IDK, maybe you should read the post I was responding to.

[Nightspear]

workers of the world unite!

[theredviola]

I support it. I was in the class action lawsuit against Wallyworld a few years ago (I think it was a regional lawsuit).

In case some of you don't know, there is a Black Friday strike against walmart this november 23.

https://www.facebook.com/events/436392286418592/

[IIamaKing]

I worked for Walmart while going to school and wanted to buy their stock (had to be an employee to purchase it then). We had a union guy show up and were told if we so much as talked to him that we would be fired. Once you deal with their grass roots program you will see why a union would be the best thing for Walmart employees.

I wonder if you know why it would be bad for the consumer though.

[srockkiller]

Fist off A LOT of this information is wrong. First off there is a so called strike that may happen mostly made of and started by people who do not work at Walmart. They are trying to get the company to join a union and become unionized. Second your whole no benefits claim thing you have is bogus. Full timers AND part timers do get benifits. Give that after two years at Walmart you so get most of your benifits. They get sick, vacation, personal time off also including dental/medical. You are also awarded a 401K in which they match 6% of your total earnings, they also allow you to purchase stock from day 1 in which they match 15%. You as well get profit sharing which can be up to $2200 bonus on your check. They also rolled out this year that any major surgery is FREE, no out of pocket expense at all. These included open heart surgery, spinal surgery ect. Walmart is actually one of the bigger company's that gives part timers benefits, as i'm told Target does not. I have been with the company for a little over a year and have been promoted twice to a ZMS a supervisor(non military) and no retail experience. The company as a whole looks down on overtime as it cuts into your own profit sharing. Just think of everyone in a store usually minimum 200 employees per store have 10 min of overtime and times that by how many stores there are in america alone. Well over 4000 walmarts /supercenters/neighborhood markets/Sams club. That's a hell of a lot of money. Now i'm not saying every Walmart is the same. Mainly what the problem is, is the management themselves. I luckily have amazing management above me and it is very enjoyable place to work. Do i hate my job some days, yea its retail it can really suck. But dont go on and tell minor details about things you are not completely knowledgeable on.

[Wells]

I wonder if you know why it would be bad for the consumer though.

Unions aren't necessarily a net negative.

[Unfair]

You can't control rain or the outcome of experiments. You can control the wage you pay employees. I'm like, kinda dumbfounded and I'm not quite sure how else to respond to this beyond what I already said.

You can control the rain. We can create a rainstorm in a bell jar by effecting humidity and air pressure. Whether modification with silver cloud seeding is quite predictable, and reproduce-able on a large scale.

There's no difference between a farmer demanding you reward him with the rain he deserves and a worker demanding Wal-mart reward him with a lifestyle he deserves.

In both cases, someone just feels he's entitled to get what he deserves ... and he thinks his neighbor should pay for it.

[Edge-]

You can control the rain. We can create a rainstorm in a bell jar by effecting humidity and air pressure. Whether modification with silver cloud seeding is quite predictable, and reproduce-able on a large scale.

There's no difference between a farmer demanding you reward him with the rain he deserves and a worker demanding Wal-mart reward him with a lifestyle he deserves.

In both cases, someone just feels he's entitled to get what he deserves ... and he thinks his neighbor should pay for it.

So why was there a huge drought this summer in the US if we can so easily control rain?

[Enderfish]

The decent living isn't so decent when everything he buys is more expensive....

Listen people.... When you make X amount an hour, and your food costs X amount per week... if you now make X + Y per hour, your food will cost X + Y per week. There is no change in how much you are worth, no change in how much you can buy, or it's value.

That might be true if Wal-Mart was the only store that sold food at X price. But just speaking of groceries, there are multiple stores that sell food and Wal-Mart will always try to beat their prices so they get the business. If they have to pay their employees more money, that doesn't mean they will raise their prices so high that customers will now shop somewhere else. They will still try to offer the cheapest groceries to get the most business, the increased employee pay/benefits will have to come out of somewhere else.. like somewhere way up the chain.. which is why they don't want to pay their workers more.

That argument is used WAY too much by rich owners that warn if they have to pay more all their prices will increase and screw over the little guy and that is just BS. I'm not saying you won't see any raise in prices, but any business will never raise it's prices so high that no one will shop there anymore. They will always try to be completitive and thank god we live in a country where we have multiple options in how to buy most of our goods.

The only areas where this doesn't apply is when Wal-Mart moves into a small town with ultra cheap prices driving all the other stores out of business and then raises its prices when there is no longer any competition..which is exactly what Wal-Mart does. And I recognize those towns do have a problem now because they don't have any choice but Wal-Mart, and I know internet isn't available to all Americans (even though you'd think it would be) but with multiple online ways to shop (even with a smart phone if you don't have internet) there are still ways to get goods at cheap prices without having to give in to monopolies in your town.

That being said I fully support this strike. I don't see why anyone wouldn't. If you find Wal-Mart and its employees/customers disgusting then why would you care if they stop working for a while. Like an above poster said, strikes have brought amazing change and quality of life improvements to the work force over the years. Sometimes talking about it isn't enough and you have to actually do something to get the attention of the population and hopefully get results.

[Wells]

So why was there a huge drought this summer in the US if we can so easily control rain?

Thanks for nothing Obama.

[IIamaKing]

Unions aren't necessarily a net negative.

When a union raises wages and benefits of the employes they represent those extra cost are almost ALWAYS made up by raising costs of the goods/services they produce.
Why do you think Union tradesmen are roughly 20% more to hire than non union? It is not because the work they do is done 20% faster or better.

[Unfair]

You want to abolish property, you think any form of posession should be regarded with equal value? If someone steals your stuff, you will happily accept that, and accept the thief running around with what was formerly yours...

You're confusing me with a democrat.

[Wells]

When a union raises wages and benefits of the employes they represent those extra cost are almost ALWAYS made up by raising costs of the goods/services they produce.
Why do you think Union tradesmen are roughly 20% more to hire than no union? It is not because the work they do is done 20% faster or better.

You're looking at it too narrowly. Those union workers also make more money and pump it back into the local economy. Its worth pointing out that the some of the strongest economic times in our history have had heavy unionization.

Keep in mind businesses don't necessarily raise prices as a first resort. Sometimes they're better off making a smaller profit margin.

[Edge-]

Why do you think Union tradesmen are roughly 20% more to hire than no union? It is not because the work they do is done 20% faster or better.

Actually, the work is generally of higher quality. Trade unions make sure their members are certified and the quality of work is up to a certain level. This isn't something that happens at non-union shops. A friend of mine has worked in the elevator industry for decades and is union. He has to go through re-certification every few years to make sure he understands all the proper construction rules/regulations ect.

One of his biggest complaints is going and working on anything that's been touched by non-union. He has to deal with more problems caused by shoddy workmanship from non-union jobs than anything else.

So actually yeah, you are getting better quality work out of union tradesman.

[Appletini]

When a union raises wages and benefits of the employes they represent those extra cost are almost ALWAYS made up by raising costs of the goods/services they produce.
Why do you think Union tradesmen are roughly 20% more to hire than non union? It is not because the work they do is done 20% faster or better.

The problem with making a blanket statement like "unions cause prices to go up" is the exact opposite statement works just as well: No unions causes people to make less money. Net neutral argument.

In the end, unions can be a good or bad thing just like not having a union can be a good or bad thing.

In Walmart's case, it's clearly a bad thing for the workers and the communities the Walmart store has all but turned into its thralls.

[Wushu]

It's not though, that's a myth. Self regulating capitalism leads to the monopolies we saw in the robber baron age, the kinds of environmental destruction we've seen in the past and in other countries with little to no regulations, and extremely exploitative business practices.

A capitalist market only self regulates in theory. It has never done so at any reasonable level in reality. It's like the trickle down economic theories that function on the premise of a closed economy. We don't have a closed economy so that's why it's never worked.

Trickle Down economics wouldn't work anyway. Its absolute rubbish...

If we pretended that things did in fact trickle down, and we would have to be tripping balls on some acid to pull this off, then even in this best case scenario it still fails. An aristocrat is only going to produce a job if he makes more money from it then what he pays you. So in the end the aristocrat continues to make more and more money as he hires more and more people. The aristocrats get richer and the poor get poorer. The disparity of wealth increases, and the aristocrats gain more and more control. Thus even in the best of circumstances the money trickles up, and not down.

[Unfair]

So why was there a huge drought this summer in the US if we can so easily control rain?

Who is this 'we' and why do you imagine it's easy? It's expensive. Someone would have to pay a lot of money to provide that imagined entitlement. Just like someone would have to pay a lot of money to provide the folks you're talking about with the lifestyle some imagine they deserve.

Both are not happening, because you haven't volunteered to pay that money yet.

[Appletini]

Trickle Down economics wouldn't work anyway. Its absolute rubbish...

If we pretended that things did in fact trickle down, and we would have to be tripping balls on some avid to pull this off, then even in this best case scenario it still fails. An aristocrat is only going to produce a job if he makes more money from it then what he pays you. So in the end the aristocrat continues to make more and more money as he hires more and more people. The aristocrats get richer and the poor get poorer. The disparity of wealth increases, and the aristocrats gain more and more control. Thus even in the best of circumstances the money trickles up, and not down.

Ironically, if the people were making a sustainable level of income, they wouldn't need anything to "trickle down" to them to survive.

Instead they're latched onto Walmart's teet, paying for Chinese goods with money the government gave them because that very same Walmart won't give them a full time job and there are now no more low skill jobs in their area while armchair economists like yourself dictate untruths over the Internet.

[IIamaKing]

Actually, the work is generally of higher quality. Trade unions make sure their members are certified and the quality of work is up to a certain level. This isn't something that happens at non-union shops. A friend of mine has worked in the elevator industry for decades and is union. He has to go through re-certification every few years to make sure he understands all the proper construction rules/regulations ect.

One of his biggest complaints is going and working on anything that's been touched by non-union. He has to deal with more problems caused by shoddy workmanship from non-union jobs than anything else.

So actually yeah, you are getting better quality work out of union tradesman.

Having worked 10 years in the trades next to union workers I can say quite firmly you are incorrect. Union workers work slower to get into overtime pay the quality is basically the same as any non union company as they have to keep standards up to snuff or they will go out of business. Most trade work is gotten via referrals no one refers the company that did a hack job and ended up charging double the estimate.