Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html" target="_blank">http://online.wsj.com/article/...381.html</a> I've been to meetings like this. It's always a wake up call to know what your company really is all about. Of course, I understand that employers are in business to make money. They aren't a charity. But that's why it's all the more important for people to vote for their own interests instead of for big business. There has to be a health tension between the two.
Originally Posted By dshyates I saw this earlier today. This is a sure fire way to get your employees to vote Obama. This is like showing your hand in a poker game.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << This is a sure fire way to get your employees to vote Obama. >> Don't be so sure about that. Contrary to what some critics may want you to believe, the majority of Wal-Mart hourly workers do not want to be unionized. While I disagree with these sorts of workplace political tactics, the message certainly goes out loud and clear to the Wal-Mart workforce: Obama = Unionization. If you don't want to be in a labor union, this message could be troubling for you if you were leaning towards Obama.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Unionization will mean the end of the use of illegal aliens by WalMart as well as the end of their abuse of overtime for employees.... I amnot a union person but wouldlove to see WalMart slapped for their repeated abuses - only to have Bentonville write a check andmakethings all go away
Originally Posted By vbdad55 It's a shame my pal Spirit is out of the country and doesn't venture into W/E - he'd love this thread
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << Unionization will mean the end of the use of illegal aliens by WalMart as well as the end of their abuse of overtime for employees.... >> What will it mean for small business owners? In aggregate, small business owners pay lower wages, have less benefits, work their employees for longer hours, and have worse workplace practices than any large corporate enterprise. The unions like to go after the large corporate entities because they can capture a larger membership pool if they break into any one of these businesses. Meanwhile, the real abuses are happening in the small business community where union organizers don't really give a hoot about what goes on. I like to think of myself as pro-union, but I really have to scratch my head at the people who criticize Wal-Mart about employee relations and compensation when there are dozens of small business owners in the community that pay very little heed to compensating their employees to the level that Wal-Mart does. I know a lot of small business owners. They all drive luxury automobiles and extract cash from their businesses to support a middle class lifestyle while their employees scrape to make ends meet. Wal-Mart is a saint compared to them.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 Most small biz owners do not drive luxury cars and have vacation homes,but feel free to generalize. All one needs to do to see why people criticize WalMark is a quick google to the thousands of lawsuits for HR violations - and the % they have been found guilty of. Wal Mart isn't a saint in a lineup of crack sellers and murderers - sorry.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy Unfortunately, there is no such Google search for small business owners or smaller retail players to do a comparison. Of couse Wal-Mart attracts a lot of lawsuits -- they are the largest retailer in the world. Lawyers salivate at the idea of winning a verdict against one of the top 10 companies in the world.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 the ones I know concentrate on cases that are easy to win, like most of the ones against WalMart.... Wal Mart bets most cases won't get to court,or that they save more money ripping people off then the fines they have to pay when caught - quite the business model.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Exactly right, and it always kills me when some business (not just Wal-Mart, often it takes the form of environmental polluters) figure out that even if caught and convicted, the fines they'll have to pay are less than the money they saved by breaking the law.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder While Wal-Mart is indeed evil, Target isn't much better. As some of these articles point out, it just seems that way. The first article is three years old, but it is still accurate today. <a href="http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=12289" target="_blank">http://www.corpwatch.org/artic...id=12289</a> <a href="http://allfinancialmatters.com/2008/03/24/an-interesting-piece-on-target/" target="_blank">http://allfinancialmatters.com...-target/</a> this link is contained in the above link: <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/18/news/companies/reingold_target.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008031815" target="_blank">http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/1...08031815</a> As a matter of disclosure, I worked at Target for six years while I was in law school. I hated it. Every single minute of it.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder <a href="http://www.alternet.org/workplace/35610/?comments=view&cID=118628&pID=118609" target="_blank">http://www.alternet.org/workpl...D=118609</a>
Originally Posted By fkurucz <<Don't be so sure about that. Contrary to what some critics may want you to believe, the majority of Wal-Mart hourly workers do not want to be unionized.>> In our hometown the workers the Walmart tire center tried to unionize. Days before the vote Walmart stuffed the tire center with dozens of new, anti-union workers. However, it is true that a segment of the working poor are fiercely anti-union. Read "Deer hunting with Jesus" to understand why the working poor often vote against their economic interests.
Originally Posted By Sport Goofy << However, it is true that a segment of the working poor are fiercely anti-union. >> Ask workers in the state of Michigan if the labor unions that are prevalent there have helped give them the highest unemployment rate in the nation.
Originally Posted By cmpaley <<Ask workers in the state of Michigan if the labor unions that are prevalent there have helped give them the highest unemployment rate in the nation.>> Um...I think that would be corporate greed and incompetence. Just a thought.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 a combo -- GM and Ford just clue less to the world market it seems and unions that really did take care of their workers atone time to the nth degree, but now GM/Ford saddled with retireehealth carecosts and pensions they can't afford - and people making outrageous amounts of money to put bumpers on cars. Saw a couple on 60minutes a few years back - the husband put bumpers on cars and the wife used a finishing drill to takes 'burrs' off the body... each had 25 - 30 years in at the time and combined income was over $175K per year.( before benefits). Regardless of how one feels people should be paid - and how outrageously overpaid senior management isin these companies - those kind of salaries leave them uncompetitive today.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>the husband put bumpers on cars and the wife<< <--- in best Groucho voice: "And why he put bumpers on his wife we'll never know!"
