$54 million settlement in Minnesota wage case

What else is new for the company that SPECIALIZES IN CHEAP?! It is my understanding that similiar cases are pending in many other states.
I will say it again many times: “How many of you pro Wal-Mart’ers want to work without getting paid for it?” Any takers? Somehow I didn’t think so.
This is story is just another in a long line for Wal-Mart. Pro Wal-Mart’ers can say all they want about how none of this is true. But when it makes the courts and Wal-Mart is found guilty, this story becomes much harder to deny.
Okay, you pro Wal-Mart’ers--go to work and don’t receive your fair share, or your breaks!! Come on now lets see you do it!

Thank you to the staff of WalMartWatch for compiling the “Wal-Mart’s Wage and Hour Violations” SAVING MONEY ON THE BACKS OF ITS EMPLOYEES (Revised July 2008). A remarkable document.

Last March, I, and several other associates in my store,
received notice by mail that we were part of a pending
class action law suit against Wal-Mart in South
Carolina.

Is it just me ,or is the timing of this just serendipity? Like JUST before we get a new Secretary of Labor ?

And a new WalMart CEO,AND a new President for the U.S...can a Dukes settlement be far behind?

A new president also means a new National Labor Relations Board.  Appointed by a democrat.....I am guessing judgements will finally go in favor of labor.

Jane,

““How many of you pro Wal-Mart’ers want to work without getting paid for it?””

That depends on what you call ‘work’!!  What if I asked you whether or not you should get paid for ALL the time you put in being involved with work related activities!!  Would you say that you would not do anything related to your job, without getting paid for it? 

Think about this: Do you get paid for the time you spend commuting, to and from work?  Do you buy special clothing or tools, to do your job?  Do you get paid for the gas used to run your car traveling to and from work?  All of these things, are not for your own personal use, but rather work related, therefore, you DO work without being paid for it, without knowing or thinking about it!!  Techically, you are giving time to your job, from the minute you start getting ready for work, to the minute you get home from work, but you only get paid for time ‘at the job site’!!

...from the minute you start getting ready for work...

That’s why I won’t get out of bed for a paltry profit.  ((yawn))

How much merchandise will Wal-Mart have to sell to make up for a $54 million pop?

Wal-Mart is the exemplar of a form of corporate colonialism, which is to say, organizations from one place going into distant places and strip-mining them culturally and economically. ~ James Howard Kunstler

RDS-

“Think about this: Do you get paid for the time you spend commuting, to and from work?  Do you buy special clothing or tools, to do your job?  Do you get paid for the gas used to run your car traveling to and from work?  All of these things, are not for your own personal use, but rather work related, therefore, you DO work without being paid for it, without knowing or thinking about it!!  Techically, you are giving time to your job, from the minute you start getting ready for work, to the minute you get home from work, but you only get paid for time ‘at the job site’!!”

What does this have to do with forcing eployees to “punch out” and then go back to work “at the job site.” Don’t confuse the issue with cute little insights into stretching the argument.  The point is they forced them to work off the clock, and changed time cards to take away pay for breaks.  Anyway you cut it it is a violation of law.  2,000,000 times in ONE state. 

You still never answered my question........how can you defend this position?  With ALL of the labor violation accusations against them, how can you possibly say that walmart is anything but a sweatshop?

In case anybody forgot

Wal-Mart has faced similar lawsuits in other states. In Pennsylvania, for instance, workers won a $78.5 million judgment in 2006 for working off the clock and through their breaks.

In California, a $172 million verdict was entered in 2005 against the company for denying workers their lunch breaks. In 2002, a federal jury found the company forced Oregon employees to work unpaid overtime between 1994 and 1999.

That is 335 Million in penalties, NOT 54 million.

Boo: how can you possibly say that walmart is anything but a sweatshop? ~~~~NOTE: Defending the indefensible is a mercenary mission....not a mission of mercy for many of the corporate apologists here.

I just want to hear what the logic is behind this argument.  I can’t even think of a Devil’s Advocate arguement for this.  I just can’t even PRETEND that this in any way is right.

Plain and simple Walmart is a Demon. The managers do the work of Demons. Walmart gets what they deserve in the way of law suits and judgements! It would be nice if some judges LOCKED up the Corporate & Store Managers for the inhumane and illegal treatment of their workers.

The stories in the “employee speak out” section, are horrific. The stories sound a familiar bell of illegal & inhumane treatment, especially of the workers who have or developed medical problems while working for Walmart-the beast!

Monetary judgements hurt the company in the purse, however JAIL TIME and a LOT of it, Stops the inhumane & illegal treatment, and deters it further!

Walmart has not changed its inhumane & illegal treatment of its workers with health problems, especially the health problems developed as a direct result from employment there, It is time to start LOCKING UP the Management team, especially the ones who violate Disability Laws, and inhumanely treat employees.

Victory for Precautionary Principle, Citizens’ Rights in New Jersey
Community puts burden of proof on corporations to demonstrate safety, rather than forcing citizens to prove harm

By Peter Montague
Published November 12, 2008

Editor’s note: In almost every battle pitting citizen groups against corporations or corporate institutions, the burden of proof is on citizens to wait until harm has occured, and then prove the harm and causation before being able to stop it. This story exemplifies the necessary paradigm shift we advocate.
The town of Lyndhurst, N.J., yesterday adopted a precautionary principle ordinance to guide municipal policy.

Lyndhurst, an old industrial town with 20,000 residents in the Meadowlands of northern N.J., is only the second municipality in the U.S. to adopt the precautionary principle as an overarching guide to municipal policy, and the first on the East Coast.

The City and County of San Francisco adopted (pdf) the precautionary principle in June, 2002.

Ordinance #2674 (Word doc) was introduced Oct. 14 and finalized Nov. 11 by a unanimous vote of the township Commission. The Ordinance reads: “The following Precautionary Principle shall be established as the policy of the Township of Lyndhurst: ‘When an activity raises threats of harm to human health, or the environment precautionary measures should be taken even if some cause and effect relationships are not fully established scientifically.’ (Wingspread Statement, 1998)” ~~~~~~Reclaim Democracy.org~~~~~~~Note: Although much of the wording relates to environmental harm, the precautionary principle could be adjusted to include verbige tegarding the legal necessity of averting personal harm tothe general public involving corporate sales events,holding corporations civilly and criminably liable for death and personal injuries resulting from said events.

Wal-Mart start paying,

“You still never answered my question........how can you defend this position?  With ALL of the labor violation accusations against them, how can you possibly say that walmart is anything but a sweatshop?”

I can answer that the same way I can say Wal-Mart workers are not ‘slaves’, IF YOU DON’T LIKE IT, DON’T WORK THERE, go to work for Target or K-Mart!!  And, if they ask you to ‘work off the clock’ or ‘pass up your break’, DON’T do it!!  Wal-Mart does not ‘force’ anybody to apply for a job or work for them!!  If they KNOW what their pay rate is going to be, BEFORE they get hired and they ACCEPT it, it is their fault if they don’t like it!!

Now, I would like you to put yourself in management’s shoes for a minute, can you do that?  Say you had 2 employees and Employee A comes to work everyday, has a good attitude and puts in a good day’s work, while employee B misses a number of days a month, has a poor attitude (admitting they tell their friends NOT to shop in your store) and ‘goofs off’ a lot, would you give BOTH of them the same size raise?  Many employee B types have posted here, and wonder WHY they don’t get raises!!

Think about this, the average wage is $10.00+/hr, but the turnover rate is about 60%, which would mean that 40% make well above that $10.00+/hr figure!!  You tend to concentrate on the starting rate employees and ignore the ones making $15 to $20/hr (which BTW, are the type A employees)!!  Besides, people who jump from job to job, tend to always be making the lowest wages, no matter where they work!!

WalMart is slow motion economic suicide for the United States and the American workforce. It comes with propaganda trolls and WalMart worship slobs for the internet to preach the insanity of a justified stealing from labor. More and more wage slaves increasingly trapped in economic desperation brought on by WalMart business theology, a WalMart that could care less about what has been happening to the American people.

RIP Jdimytai Damour. America saw what WalMart did to you.

WalMart- Duty to care? We are ‘love of money’ psychopaths, we don’t understand and...we don’t want to either.

SDV: Duty of care? Check out the LA Times article ,Dec.7,2008 about the events that occured outside the WalMart PRIOR to the trampling of Mr. Damour.The police were called there because of unruliness, one girls arm was broken, but there was no evidence to quell the increasingly anxious shoppers. I have not seen anyone bring this information up.Goes to forseeabilty of a stampede .~~~~"Wal-Mart crowd unruly long before trampling”
Trampled by a mob of bargain-hungry Black Friday shoppers, Jdimytai Damour, 34, died by asphyxiation, leaving people asking: Why, and how?

By Erika Hayasaki

Los Angeles Times,December 7,2008. You can link over at Writing on the Wall.[ Click on LA Times in blue script.]BTW< in the saddest of ironies,damour translated means of love. Brother, I don’t think that he was feeling much love that day. God rest his soul.

RDS-

What about managers changing time on payroll to deuct the breaks?  Which they were found guilty of.  That is walmart “stealing” from the employee.

Posted by Al Norman at www.huffingtonpost.com

A $10 Minimum Wage At Wal-Mart? Better Wish For Two Front Teeth
Posted December 7, 2007 | 12:27 PM (EST)

The second study, “Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart: How a Higher Wage Standard Would Impact Wal-Mart Workers and Shoppers,” concludes that Wal-Mart could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers. Even if Wal-Mart passed on to consumers the entire cost of raising its wage floor to $10 per hour, the average impact on a Wal-Mart shopper would be higher product prices of less than 1% (0.9%). On the other hand, almost half (46.3%) of the wage income gain would go to workers living below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Less than 1 in 3 (29.3%) of shoppers with incomes below 200% of the poverty level would be impacted by the small price increase from raising wages. Giving Wal-Mart workers a more livable wage, it turns out, would literally be a ‘small price to pay’ for consumers. The study estimates that the average Wal-Mart shopper would have to pay an extra 36 cents per shopping trip, or less than $10 a year. Wal-Mart workers would gain $2.38 billion more in wages---a 9.3% increase in Wal-Mart’s current payroll. For the lowest income Wal-Mart workers, a $10 minimum wage at Wal-Mart would translate into $1,020 to $4,640 more a year in pre-tax income. The Wal-Mart workers would notice the increase in their paycheck, but the average Wal-Mart shopper wouldn’t even notice a change.

Wal-Mart claims that its average hourly wage is $10.11 an hour. But payroll data suggests that what workers get depends on their gender, race and job title. According to the wage study, 769,666 Wal-Mart workers are earning $9.02 or less per hour. There are 376,061 Wal-Mart full and part-time workers making less than $8 an hour. If all these workers were from the same city, they would equal the population of Minneapolis or Honolulu. If Wal-Mart raised the wages of its 238,872 full-time workers earning less than 8 an hour to $10, the average worker would take home an annual increase of $4,640. That’s the definition of “live better” to the retailer’s workforce.

According to the new wage report, as of January, 2007, Wal-Mart had sales exceeding $731 million every day, with around 18.1 million shoppers per day, and 127 million customers every week. The average shopper would pay $9.70 a year to give Wal-Mart workers a $6.52 million raise per day, or a total wage hike of $2.38 billion annually. This assumes that Wal-Mart absorbs none of this wage cost itself.

the entire post can be read here.....http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-norman/a-10-minimum-wage-at-wal_b_75815.html

Michelle:Black Friday Death Inspired Legislation
Monday, Dec 1, 2008 @08:14am CST

(New York, NY)—Legislation has been brought to New York City Council meant to stop things from getting out of control during extreme shopping events.

The so-called “Doorbuster Bill” would require malls and large retailers to take appropriate security and crowd control measures during “doorbuster sales.” The proposal comes in response to the death of a 34-year-old Walmart worker who was trampled to death in his Long Island store on Black Friday.

New York City Councilman James Gennaro Under proposed the legislation. It would force stores to hire security personnel trained in crowd control, and retailers would be held responsible for any injuries.~~~~~~~~~~~~

NOTE: I hope this legislation strikes a chord with th NC Council-and city councils and state lgislatures across the nation in the coming Obama administrtion. This incident has already struck the nerves of the nation and the world. “Corporate personhood “ has allowed companies the privileges of a person,but without personal responsibilty and culpabilty associated with private citizens for unethical and/or criminal behavior. An EXCELLENT site for info on “Corporate Personhood” is Reclaim Democracy.This is specifically designed as a multi venue resource on the interactions between corporations and our society’s dwindling democracy. There is a special section devoted exclusively to WalMart. The materials therein are quite extensive,revealing and rxtremely informative. I HIGHLY recommend it as a first stop reference point and invaluable aid in restoration of a civil society..

Reclaim Democracy! Revoke Corporate Corruption of American DemocracyReclaimDemocracy.org is committed to revoking corporate power and reviving grassroots democracy.
www.reclaimdemocracy.org/ - 14k - Cached - Similar pages

Introduction
ReclaimDemocracy.org is devoted to restoring citizen authority over corporations, rather than repeatedly fighting harms caused by individual corporations. So why do we compile such a vast collection of information on one company and assist communities resisting its power? Simply because Wal-Mart is perhaps the most visible symptom of the disease—runaway corporate power—that we work to cure, and a magnet for citizens who we hope will go on to address structural problems.

We use Wal-Mart as an entry point for deepening readers’ awareness of systemic problems and—most importantly—pro-active solutions. We selectively archive articles we believe will be of lasting interest, including many that are pro-chain or otherwise oppose our positions. If you seek daily news or commentary on Wal-Mart, see our links page for sites providing that.

Our work related to Wal-Mart includes:
* revoking corporations’ power to override local decision-making authority;
* enforcement of laws that protect workers’ rights and safety;
* stopping massive subsidies that flow to major corporate chains, unfairly handicapping independent businesses and precluding true market competition

Our pages on Corporate Personhood, Corporate Accountability and Independent Business offer a wealth of related information~~~~~~~~~~~~~Reclaim Democracy

Wal-Mart start paying,

“What about managers changing time on payroll to deuct the breaks?  Which they were found guilty of.  That is walmart “stealing” from the employee.”

If the managers did that, they were wrong and should be punished for it, my suggestion, FIRED!!  Was there any evidence that UPPER MANAGEMENT instructed them to do it?  Either way, if it was done, it is a violation of the law and Wal-Mart is responsible for the actions of their employees and should compensate the employees affected!!

“Posted by Al Norman at www.huffingtonpost.com”

Is that the same Al Norman who runs the Sprawlbusters/Anti Wal-Mart group?  And, isn’t the Huffingtonpost, that far left/wing rag run by the, former right/wing, now left/wing, Arianna Huffington?

“The second study, “Living Wage Policies and Wal-Mart: How a Higher Wage Standard Would Impact Wal-Mart Workers and Shoppers,” concludes that Wal-Mart could increase its minimum wage to $10 per hour and greatly boost the well-being of its low-income workers with little financial impact on most shoppers.”

I don’t know what the starting wage is, but I heard it was $7.00/hr!!  Using that amount, it would require a $3.00/hr wage increase and as Wal-Mart has 1.5 million employees, it would cost the company $4.5 million for every hour the employees worked, over and above what they already pay!!  Let’s assume that on any given day, only half of the workers work and they work 5 hours each, okay!!  The total amount EXTRA, would be $11.25 million (for 1 day), times 365 days, would equal a little over $4.1 billion extra per year, or about 1/3rd of their yearly profit!!  Now, Ken V, has stated that he ‘wouldn’t even get out of bed for the Wal-Mart profit margin’, because he thinks it is too low, so what would only 2/3rds of their profit be to him?  Now, if the company has about $265 billion in sales, yearly, to generate $12 billion in profit, it would take an increase in sales of $88.33 billion, just to cover the extra cost!!  My question is, how much would they have to raise prices, to bring in an extra $88.33 billion in sales?  Logic, would tell you that prices would have to be raised by 33%!!  If Wal-Mart raised it’s prices by 33%, how much sales would they LOSE to their competitors, thus causing lay-offs? 

Now, all that said, it doesn’t take into account, all of the extra costs to the company, for things like 401K contributions, unemployment insurance, workmans comp, social security, etc., for the higher wage rates!!

“If Wal-Mart raised the wages of its 238,872 full-time workers earning less than 8 an hour to $10”

Think about it, if Wal-Mart raised the wages of JUST the $8.00 workers to $10.00, what would be the reaction of all the workers who make $10.00 now, after working years to get up to that wage level?  You can bet, they would be pissed off!!  Wal-Mart would have to raise the wages of ALL the employees, not just some!!

It’s not always as easy as just saying ‘DO IT’!!

RDS-

Think about this, the average wage is $10.00+/hr, but the turnover rate is about 60%, which would mean that 40% make well above that $10.00+/hr figure!!  You tend to concentrate on the starting rate employees and ignore the ones making $15 to $20/hr (which BTW, are the type A employees)!!  Besides, people who jump from job to job, tend to always be making the lowest wages, no matter where they work!! -----------WED 1:18 pm

I don’t know what the starting wage is, but I heard it was $7.00/hr!!  Using that amount, it would require a $3.00/hr wage increase and as Wal-Mart has 1.5 million employees, it would cost the company $4.5 million for every hour the employees worked, over and above what they already pay!!  Let’s assume that on any given day, only half of the workers work and they work 5 hours each, okay!!  The total amount EXTRA, would be $11.25 million (for 1 day), times 365 days, would equal a little over $4.1 billion extra per year, or about 1/3rd of their yearly profit!!  Now, Ken V, has stated that he ‘wouldn’t even get out of bed for the Wal-Mart profit margin’, because he thinks it is too low, so what would only 2/3rds of their profit be to him?  Now, if the company has about $265 billion in sales, yearly, to generate $12 billion in profit, it would take an increase in sales of $88.33 billion, just to cover the extra cost!!  ------Wed. 10:35 pm

Which arguement are you making that 40% make well over $10/hr, or that 1.5 million make 7/hr.  Have ONE arguement and stick to it.  I would like to see JUST ONE statistic anywhere that documents 40% of walmarts employees making “well above the $10/hr figure.”

“If the managers did that, they were wrong and should be punished for it, my suggestion, FIRED!!  Was there any evidence that UPPER MANAGEMENT instructed them to do it?  Either way, if it was done, it is a violation of the law and Wal-Mart is responsible for the actions of their employees and should compensate the employees affected!!

Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Hit Me Baby One More Time: Wal-Mart Slapped with Yet Another FLSA Overtime Suit
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. ("Wal-Mart") continues to fend off legal attacks from current and former employees for alleged violations of various employment and labor laws. This month, former inventory specialist Rita Hinesman filed a complaint alleging Wal-Mart failed to pay overtime pay for employees and proposing a class action to address these violations. The lawsuit, Hinesman v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., case number 1:08-cv-0779 filed in N.D.Ga on March 5th, alleges a variety of ways in which the company through its managers and supervisors manipulated employee’s time to eliminate overtime and even pay in some cases.

Hinesman alleges that Wal-Mart managers and supervisors were directed by the company (or the company knew of this practice) to delete overtime hours of employees, deleted employee punches, altered time records to include meal periods that weren’t taken and deducted time for breaks. Hinesman worked for Wal-Mart for approximately 25 months and alleges that these violations occurred on multiple occasions.

Walmart’s Own Audit Documented Constant Violation of Labor Laws
In 2000 nationwide audit, 127 out of 128 stores failed to document that employees enjoyed legally required breaks
By Mark Friedman,
First published by Arkansas Business, July 28, 2008
read this article...it is an eye opener.
http://www.reclaimdemocracy.org/walmart/2008/internal_audit_proved_violations.php

Wal-Mart start paying,

“Which arguement are you making that 40% make well over $10/hr, or that 1.5 million make 7/hr.  Have ONE arguement and stick to it.”

The arguement is, anytime you only give a raise to part of the employees, the one’s who DON’T get a raise will get angry about it!!  It would make them say, “What about me, am I not good enough to deserve a raise too?”!!  How do you think YOU would feel, if you worked for years to get up to where you are and then your company rasied wages (bringing them up to your level), for new hires, but kept you where you were at?

“I would like to see JUST ONE statistic anywhere that documents 40% of walmarts employees making “well above the $10/hr figure.””

Do you know what an average is?  Logic would tell you, that if the average is $10.00+, and 60% are making LESS than $10.00, the the other 40% must be making MORE than $10.00!!

“Hinesman alleges that Wal-Mart managers and supervisors were directed by the company (or the company knew of this practice)”

Alleging something and proving it, are 2 different things, that’s why we have courts to sort these things out!!  There are a number of ‘valid’ reasons for changing punches!!

PDF] Wal-Mart and Norm Coleman’s Campaign CoffersFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Coleman Has Taken $27500 from Wal-Mart Since Running for U.S. Senate in 2002. According to. campaign finance reports, Norm Coleman has taken a total of ...
allianceminnesota.org/page/-/Wal-Mart_Coleman_7.2.08.pdf - Similar pages

Campaign cash register: Anti-union Wal-Mart backs anti-union ...Norm Coleman, R-Minn., recently—and some say falsely—said that the Employee ... Both Coleman’s and Wal-Mart’s fierce opposition to the pro-union bill ...
staging.minnesotaindependent.mypublicsquare.com/view/campaign-cash - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

Business Charter School created by US Sen. Norm Coleman, funded by ...Norm Coleman, funded by Wal-Mart, closes. The Minnesota Business Academy, a fledgling charter school in St Paul is closing its doors. ...
www.mediatransparency.org/aroundthewebblurb.php?aroundTheWebBlurbID=441 - 10k - Cached - Similar pages

PDF] Wal-Mart and Norm Coleman’s Campaign CoffersFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML

If you say so <snicker>.

MN’s WCCO CH4 news’ “Reality Check” segment destroys, point-by-point, a new intentionally misleading Sopranos-spoof TV ad by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is actually a cartel of national business groups including the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Wal-Mart, masquerading as a pro-union, pro-worker group on behalf of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) against his Democratic challenger Al Franken.

The ad exploits “a distorted stereotype of the Mafia, and of labor unions as tools of organized crime” to misrepresent legislation that, despite what the ad implies, would actually make it easier for workers to organize unions.~~~~~~~~Crooks and Liars ~~~~~~~~ July,2008

MN Progressive Project—Community Blogging, Political Activism ...Dec 11, 2008 ... The question now becomes a classic one: what did Norm Coleman know, ..... Translating the Walmart PR Spin by: WakeUpWalmart - Oct 29 ...
www.mnprogressiveproject.com/ - 172k - Cached - Similar pages~~~~~~~~~~NOTE: This is an EXCELLENT site for MANY issues involving Minnesota. It also provides a link to the Norm Coleman Weasel Meter over at the mnblue website. Good stuff!

Twin Cities Pioneer Press reports that a probe has been launched into Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman’s ties to businessman Nasser Kazeminy:

Federal investigators are looking into allegations that a longtime friend and benefactor tried to steer money to U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman, the Pioneer Press has learned.

Agents with the FBI have talked to or made efforts to talk to people in Texas familiar with the allegations, according to a source familiar with the situation.

Houston is where the first of two lawsuits was filed alleging Nasser Kazeminy, a Bloomington financier, tried to steer $100,000 to Coleman via his wife’s Minneapolis employer. The second suit, filed in Delaware, alleges Kazeminy initially tried to get money directly to the senator.

Both Coleman and Kazeminy have denied any wrongdoing, and Coleman last month said he welcomes an investigation.

A lawsuit alleges that Kazeminy tried to funnel money directly to Sen. Coleman. Sam Stein reported recently for the Huffington Post that Coleman could face an ethics investigation for his ties to Kazeminy if he is reelected to the Senate. A Minnesota good government group has called for am FBI probe.~~~~~~~~~~~Excerpt,Sam Stien,Huff Po,12/10/08

RDS-

“Do you know what an average is?  Logic would tell you, that if the average is $10.00+, and 60% are making LESS than $10.00, the the other 40% must be making MORE than $10.00!!”

Yes, I am well aware of what an average is.....I also know that if employee A earns $15/hr and works 10 hrs/wk and employee B earns $7/hr and works 40 hrs a week they AVERAGE $11/HR.  15+7=22/2=11 BUT, the average hourly pay is actually $150+280=430/50hours worked for an AVERAGE of $8.60/hr.  Do you see how you can distort the numbers? 

“They increased my pay, then slashed my hours so that my check is a fraction of what it used to be. The full-time sales associates in my department, other than the department manager, have been cut to 25-35 hours a week instead of 40.” ------The Employee Free Choice Act: Wal-Mart’s Last Stand Against Unionization? Dec. 11, 2008

Is this actually a Raise then?  The wage goes up....making the AVERAGE go up, but the employee makes less, basically costing the employer nothing.

Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. - Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain)

If you are good enough with numbers you can make them say anything you want.

Here is why it is dangergous to throw around “average” wages. 

While the mean is often used to report central tendency, it is not a robust statistic, meaning that it is greatly influenced by outliers. Notably, for skewed distributions, the arithmetic mean may not accord with one’s notion of “middle”, and robust statistics such as the median may be a better description of central tendency.

A classic example is average income. The arithmetic mean may be misinterpreted as the median to imply that most people’s incomes are higher than is in fact the case. When presented with an “average” one may be led to believe that most people’s incomes are near this number. This “average” (arithmetic mean) income is higher than most people’s incomes, because high income outliers skew the result higher (in contrast, the median income “resists” such skew). However, this “average” says nothing about the number of people near the median income (nor does it say anything about the modal income that most people are near). Nevertheless, because one might carelessly relate “average” and “most people” one might incorrectly assume that most people’s incomes would be higher (nearer this inflated “average") than they are. For instance, reporting the “average” net worth in Medina, Washington as the arithmetic mean of all annual net worths would yield a surprisingly high number because of Bill Gates. Consider the scores (1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 9). The arithmetic mean is 3.17, but five out of six scores are below this.

It takes to many cashiers to balance out one manager.  For example 5 cashiers making $6/hr total $30/hr.  1 general manager making $30/hr. total 6 employees $60/hr average $10/hr even though 5 out of six make less than the “average.”

In his excellent new book, “The Squandering of America: How the Failure of our Politics Undermines our Prosperity, “Robert Kuttner writes:

“Between 2000 and 2006, the productivity of American workers increased by 19 percent. But the total increase in the wages paid to all 124 million non-supervisory workers was less than $200 million in six years—a raise of $1.60 per worker—not $1.60 per hours but a grand total of one dollar and sixty cents in higher wages per worker over nearly six years! Labor market researcher Andrew Sum of the Northeastern University Center for Labor Market Studies compares the $200 million for workers to the $38 billion paid in bonuses alone by the top five Wall Street firms during the same period.” (Kuttner, p. 21)
For many years now scholars and journalists including Robert Kuttner, Kevin Phillips, William Greider, Barbara Ehrenreich, Noami Klein, and others have provided a mountain of data showing that Republican Party rule has produced greater inequality in America, and that Republican class war policies have enriched the few at the expense of the many. With the current economic meltdown millions of Americans might be starting to wake up to the new reality brought on by years of unbridled greed masquerading as economic policy.

Deep inside the engine of our capitalist economy is a powerful incentive for the owners of society’s productive forces to do everything in their power to discipline labor and to push workers’ wages down as low as possible. This imperative manifests itself in the form of crushing labor unions, outsourcing jobs to low-wage countries, exploiting immigrant workers, slashing social programs that benefit low-income people, and silencing the collective strength of working-class people generally. Beginning with Reaganomics, through Rubinomics, and on to Bush’s Kleptonomics, the Republican Party, (and its enablers inside the Clintonite Democratic Leadership Council), have set the economic agenda. They have been gleefully dancing on the heads of working people in this country for decades.

This class warfare directed against the average working American with the aim of holding down wages contradicts the necessity for capitalism to sell goods and services to these same cash-strapped workers. In other words, when capital succeeds in keeping wages low (especially in times of increased labor productivity) it constricts consumption and eventually produces crisis. [cont.]

Kuttner writes:

“The prices of things that enable Americans to be middle class have been rising far faster than average prices. Official inflation statistics understate the real cost of living. Young Americans are increasingly reliant on the unequal wealth of their families of origin. The time squeeze on families has increased the stress of raising children in an era with two working parents and no new social supports. And, quite apart from incomes stagnating, new forms of economic insecurity have increased, such as dwindling health care and pension coverage. . . . [T]he costs of college education, housing, and medical care have greatly outpaced wages and average prices. It just happens that the prices that have risen most steeply are those of the big items that signal entry into the middle class.” (Kuttner, pp. 22-23)
Add to these rising costs for the average working American the shredding of the social safety net, the Department of Labor turned into a union-busting institution, and President George W. Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations and his vetoing of social legislation such as the S-CHIPS children’s health benefit, and we see the Republican class war at its ugliest.

With luck, the current economic crisis will force the nation to take a new direction away from perpetual war and the lowering of living standards to a world where we can begin to innovate again and address creatively and energetically our most pressing environmental and social problems. ~~~~~~~~~~Joseph A . Palermo,"Republican Class Warfare”,January ‘08

ddrb-

I am as pro worker as it comes...and even I had to say wait a minute this can’t be right.  Did they mean that each employee only earned $1.60 in real wages?  I would want to see that in full context.  That is a very misleading post.  I honestly don’t know how to take it.  As cynical as I am, and believe that management is about making as much profit of of the backs of labor, as labor is about getting the most pay for work, these numbers just don’t make sense. Less than $200 million over six years for 124 million employees?  My wages alone over 6 years have gone up $8/hr.  In our 1000 person local that is $8K/hr. or 64K a day. That would mean my local alone accounted for 1/2 of all the reported increase.  If we want our argument credibility, we have to use credible arguments.  I would say this one fails the logic test.  Even for me.  As much as I would like to be able to use this, I can’t logically justify it.  Maybe you can make it make sense to me....as I read it and try to comprehend 2 and 2 just doesn’t make 4.

Boo: The entire piece can be reviewed at Huffington Post, the source of the original article by Joseph Palermo. Robert Kuttner and David Cay Johnson have superb books on this subject,also,.American Rights at Work website has much info that would be of specific interest to you,also. BTW, I find your posts a welcome addition to the discourse here,as do others,no doubt.

“Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. - Samuel Clemmens (Mark Twain)

If you are good enough with numbers you can make them say anything you want.”

That $10.00+/hr figure, is the one that WalMartWatch uses to claim ‘low wages’, so who is lying and are they making them say whatever ‘they’ want them to say?  Why do you think it is that WMW doesn’t use the ‘median’, if it’s more accurate?

RDS-

Because walmart wont release their median figure.  If you can get them to do that I will be glad to use it.  Just out of curiosity, why won’t they release that median number?  Usually but not always it is higher than the average.  Unless, maybe, just maybe....they aren’t using CEO and board of directors pay to raise their average are they?

Just a point to ponder.

The ruling said, ““willfully” allowing employees to work off the clock.”

Walmart start paying your own way said:
“What does this have to do with forcing eployees to “punch out” and then go back to work “at the job site”

There is a big difference between forcing someone to work off the clock and supposedly knowing about it.  It didn’t say they forced or even encouraged it just that they allowed it.  Quit changing the facts.  Also your median hour argument while true is wrong in the fact that you are trying to include upper management which is salary and therefore do not have an “hourly wage” to be averaged in. 

“Is this actually a Raise then?  The wage goes up....making the AVERAGE go up, but the employee makes less, basically costing the employer nothing. “

They still have to have someone there to work so while that employee’s wages aren’t costing any more, the part timer that they would have to hire to work the other 10 hours, or however many were supposedly cut, would still be an additional expense and would make this strategy pointless since they would also have unemployment and other expenses on the new employee.

BTW, I find your posts a welcome addition to the discourse here,as do others,no doubt.

Curiously enough, I find his posts to resemble those of one of your recently-departed anti-types…

Dave-
“There is a big difference between forcing someone to work off the clock and supposedly knowing about it.  It didn’t say they forced or even encouraged it just that they allowed it.  Quit changing the facts.”

Here are the facts in black and white....would you like to argue with these?  GUUILTY in a court of law.  I will continue to say they were forced since that is what the jury said.
Directly from the court order .... I did not change a word.

In this class action, by special verdict, the jury found that the defendant required
its employees to work without pay by directing them not to record their hours on
Walmart’s computerized pay system. The jury found that Walmart saved $1,031,430.00
during the statutory period by not paying their workers for all the time they had worked.
The jury also found, that defendant Walmart prohibited employees from taking the
needed rest breaks which they had been promised. By prohibiting promised rest breaks
during the statutory period defendant Walmart saved an additional $48,258,111.00.

the whole opion of the court and summary is here if you want to see it in its entirety...http://courts.phila.gov/pdf/cpcvcomprg/040803757.pdf

Notice the use of the words REQUIRED AND PROHIBITED.

As for the median wage argument......I am just curious WHY walmart doesnt release median wage, since it IS usually higher and holds more statistical credibility.  Hence my question .... Are they manipulating the numbers to have a higher average?

bbrd-
If my posts offend you, then I must be doing something right, since I haven’t yet agreed with any of yours.

For the record I don’t care who does or doesn’t like my posts.  However, when I questioned ddrb’s post, that was the first time I have seen anyone from the “same side” question a post from “their side” of the arguement.  C’mon people start thinking for yourselves.

Wal-Mart start paying,

“that was the first time I have seen anyone from the “same side” question a post from “their side” of the arguement.”

Screwedby, has questioned this site many times and he is on ‘their side’!!  When you see things the same as the others on ‘your side’, there is no need to question what they say!!  It is only when you don’t agree, that questions pop up!!

“C’mon people start thinking for yourselves.”

Review the posts on this site and see which ‘side’ makes more rational arguements!!  “Wal-Mart Sucks”, or “propaganda trolls and WalMart worship slobs”, doesn’t take much thought, name calling is easy, making a rational arguement requires thought!!  Also, an ‘open mind’ is helpful!!

..question a post from “their side”..

It’s only the right wingnuts that insist on “all-or-nothing”. In order to be right you have to be right 100% of the time, in order to be wrong you only have to be wrong once.

As the joke goes, I was wrong once when I thought I was wrong.

...making a rational arguement requires thought!!  Also, an ‘open mind’ is helpful!!

You are one funny dude, RDS.

Behind a fence topped with razor wire just off U.S. Highway 71 is a bunker of a building that Wal-Mart considers so secret that it won’t even let the county assessor inside without a nondisclosure agreement.

“http://courts.phila.gov/pdf/cpcvcomprg/040803757.pdf “

Interesting that the case we were talking about took place in Minnesota, but your PDF is from Philadelphia. 

As far as the median income, I looked on Walmart’s site and no where does it say which type of average it was. It just says the average hourly wage.  I think it is antiWalmart conspiracy theorists like yourself that decided it was mean and not the median that they used.  As far as the median income being higher, if the turnover rates is over 50% like people on here like to say it is, than the median wage would pretty much be the starting wage which wouldn’t really be a meaningful statistic for the average wage.

Dave-
“There is a big difference between forcing someone to work off the clock and supposedly knowing about it.  It didn’t say they forced or even encouraged it just that they allowed it.  Quit changing the facts”

“Interesting that the case we were talking about took place in Minnesota, but your PDF is from Philadelphia.  “

Just showing precedent.  The MN courts took it into consideration.  Would I be doing my job as your hired representation if I did not bring this ruling to the attention of the courts and the jury in MN.  You wanted facts that walmart forced or even encouraged this practice.  I gave you those facts.

I have never tried to get the median wage myself directly from them.  I have only read from multiple sources they do not disclose it.  But to be fair I just learned today that neither do Target, or Costco.

Ken V,

“It’s only the right wingnuts that insist on “all-or-nothing”.”

Would you call Screwedby, a ‘right wingnut’?  A number if times he has claimed just that and I told him things were not always ‘black or white’ but, rather different ‘shades of gray’!!  Your view of Wal-Mart considers only one thing “Nothing-No more Wal-Mart, period” and you have stated so!!

“Would I be doing my job as your hired representation if I did not bring this ruling to the attention of the courts and the jury in MN”

I never knew that this site was a courtroom.  My mistake. 

“I have never tried to get the median wage myself directly from them.  I have only read from multiple sources they do not disclose it.  But to be fair I just learned today that neither do Target, or Costco. “

SO you’re going by information you got from sites like this?  Way to choose good reliable sources.  Also try to find this sort of wage information on any of the unionized grocers.  Walmart’s average wage that they release is more information than I have found on any of the unionized gorcers such as Jewel, Albertsons, Dominicks, Cubs foods, and others.  Apparently the UFCW wants Walmart to unionize but doesn’t want any of the workers to know how little they would be getting if they did.

No, I tend to get my financial information from CNNmoney.com, or the Wall Street Journal, Or Forbes, or BusinessWeek. 

It isn’t a true representation but I just found this website the other day and it is kind of interesting......

www.glassdoor.com

they deal with salaries reported by individuals...the bad news is you have to input your information and review your workplace, you can do it anonymously, and then you can search what has been put in.  Low numbers as far as statistical research, so the +/- margin might be off, but at least you can see location so you can take into account standard of living variances.  Check it out.  Wouldn’t base an argument on in but it does give real worker input.  Can’t vouch for the integrity of the inputers though.

RDS-

Yeah, we already have a foot of snow.  Fell on Monday.  As for Packers........sorry I am a Viking fan.

Boo: On the home page here is a tab entitled research. I don’t know if you have viewed any of the topics or studies that are available in this category, but they are extensive and varied. The Conressman Geprge Miller Congressional study is extremely interesting .You may want to check it out,if you have not done so already. You can click on the link to the study by going to the research tab on the home page. Much data and info,on many subjects-going back years- compiled in the various tab headings.~~~~Everyday Low Wages:
The Hidden Price We All Pay For Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart’s Labor Record
CONGRESSMAN GEORGE MILLER
Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
U.S. House of Representatives
16feb04

Wal-Mart start paying,

“Yeah, we already have a foot of snow.  Fell on Monday.  As for Packers........sorry I am a Viking fan.”

That’s why I moved down south, because I got tired of the snow and cold as I got older and the ‘cost of living’ is a lot less!!  It was 62 degrees here today, not a speck of snow in sight!!  The Vikings are my second favorite team!!  Brett Favre is my favorite player, so I have been watching the Jets, lately!!

RDS-

I am going to preface this with......."this is not a PERSONAL attack.”

13 of the bottom 20 scoring elementary schools come from the southern right to work states.  Your own state of residence being #40.  That is not a “cost of living” I am willing to pay.

Wal-Mart start paying,

“this is not a PERSONAL attack”

Don’t worry, I don’t take things personally!!  Sometimes I dish it back to the ‘idiots’ here, but not to rational people, which I consider you to be one!!

“13 of the bottom 20 scoring elementary schools come from the southern right to work states.”

Two things you have to consider, 1.) Since the ‘civil war’, the South has almost always been ‘poor’, most industry was located in the north!!  That is slowly changing, as many companies are moving South, (look where GM built their Saturn plant)!!  2.) The so-called ‘redneck mentality’, that doesn’t require people to Keep up with the Joneses, because the Joneses were ‘poor’ too!!  That is changing as well, as Northern people move to the Southern states, they are changing the ‘culture’!!  It takes time to change the way people think, sometimes generations!!  Education, is not as important to ‘poor’ people all over the country, if it was, they wouldn’t BE ‘poor’!!  Besides, you can find areas in the North, where the education level isn’t any better than here in the South!!  Check out parts of Milwaukee and South Chicago!! 

Lastly, NWA (where I live), is not like most other parts of Arkansas, it is not ‘poor’, but thriving, (our unemployment rate is probably around 3.5% now), and the educational level is much higher here, but we share in that state ‘average’!!  The reason: I would bet that 70% of the people living in NWA, came from other states!!

BTW: My daughter moved here from LaCrosse, and she thinks the schools are ‘better’ here than the ones there!!

Study: Wal-Mart Lowers Area Wages, Employee BenefitsA second study out this week from the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education demonstrates that new Wal-Mart stores lower area wages and employment standards. This subject was also noted in a 2004 study by the Universtity of Pennsylvania. Click here to download the UC Berkeley report, and here to see more research on the affect of Wal-Mart’s employment practices. From the study’s executive summary:

Empirical evidence suggests that employees at Wal-Mart earn lower average wages and receive less generous benefits than workers employed by many other large retailers. But controversy has persisted on the question of Wal-Mart’s effect on local pay scales. Our research finds that Wal-Mart store openings lead to the replacement of better paying jobs with jobs that pay less. Wal-Mart’s entry also drives wages down for workers in competing industry segments such as grocery stores.

Looking at the period between 1992 and 2000, we find that the opening of a single Wal-Mart store in a county lowered average retail wages in that county by between 0.5 and 0.9 percent. In the general merchandise sector, wages fell by 1 percent for each new Wal-Mart. And for grocery store employees, the effect of a single new Wal-Mart was a 1.5 percent reduction in earnings.

When Wal-Mart entered a county, the total wage bill declined along with the average wage. Factoring in both the impact on wages and jobs, the total amount of retail earnings in a county fell by 1.5 percent for every new Wal-Mart store. Similar effects appeared at the state level.

With an average of 50 Wal-Mart stores per state, the average wages for retail workers were 10 percent lower, and their job-based health coverage rate was 5 percentage points less than they would have been without Wal-Mart’s presence. Nationally, the retail wage bill in 2000 was estimated to be $4.5 billion less in nominal terms due to Wal-Mart’s presence.

The study addressed a number of methodological issues that have plagued previous attempts to assess the effect of Wal-Mart on local labor markets. A less sophisticated statistical model risks confounding the effects of Wal-Mart openings with unobserved economic factors (positive or negative) that might have drawn the retailer to specific locations. We use the spatial pattern of Wal-Mart’s
growth (radiating out of Arkansas over time) to identify Wal-Mart store openings that are not driven by local economic conditions. This helps ensure we are measuring the results of store openings, not
preexisting conditions.

Further, we investigate (and reject) the possibility that wage declines were an artifact of changes in demographics of the retail workforce. If Wal-Mart jobs bring more minorities, women, young people
or workers with lower educational attainment into the retail work force, the wage decline could be accounted for by the lower earning potential of these groups. But controlling for age, gender,
ethnicity and education did not change the results. Overall, the results strongly support the hypothesis that Wal-Mart entry lowers wages and benefits of retail workers.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Thursday, December 06, 2007

RDS-

Sidenote:  Check out WI QEO law.  It explains why our scores are dropping in this state.  We are losing all our good teachers!

As far as “Southern” Education, on a personal note....my Dad is a high school history teacher.  When he graduated from college in 1982 (he didnt go until he was 32) his first interview for a job was a phone interview with a high school in Texas.  Here is how I remember that conversation ending.  I heard him say “you have to be Fu$%ing kidding me” and he hung up on the interviewer.  I asked him what that was about and his response was “They want me to teach that the South WON the Civil War.  They asked if he would have a problem doing that being from the North.

The textbook he uses still isn’t allowed south of the Mason-Dixon line.
As far as I am concerned...even the educators aren’t concerned with educating the uneducated.

Wal-Mart start paying,

““They want me to teach that the South WON the Civil War.”

First, you have to consider that that was in 1982 and in Texas (you know how Texans like to brag that they are the BEST), it is now 2008!!  Second, I have a text book used in the local public schools (Creating America - A History of the United States, by McDougal Littell publisher) and nowhere in it does it say that the South WON the Civil War!!  Very few people believe that anymore, just like very few people believe in segregation anymore!!  The South, is no longer the OLD South!!  Sure, you meet the occasional person who thinks he is ‘Johnny Reb’, but they live in trailer parks and are usually laughed at now, for being so ignorant, I have met 3 in the 18 years I have lived here!!

Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Big Day in Benton County
The Confederate soldier, a few blocks from Wal-Mart Headquarters in the heart of the Bentonville Square, will celebrate his 100th birthday this week. The city’s Confederate monument was erected through the efforts of James H. Berry Chapter No. 821 of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and by A. J. Bates, a Bentonville businessman.

Proud city leaders are throwing a party to honor the monument this Friday. Bentonville Mayor Bob McCaslin will read an official proclamation, and box lunches will be available for purchase. Organizers say they are hoping no one will fly Confederate flags, at least during the event. Not everyone seems to appreciate the importance of the monument to the residents of Benton County, and the county has spent $1,600 to replace its balls stolen by vandals.

Barack Obama, whose Arkansas ancestors fought for the Confederacy during the Late Unpleasantness, is not planning to attend the ceremony. However, many local dignitaries will be in attendance for the event, and it is anticipated that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette will provide extensive favorable coverage of the ceremony and glories of the Lost Cause.

Senator John McCain is flying into XNA and will be bringing his campaign message to Benton County that day. Having chosen the day of the Confederate ceremony to catch local Republicans in a buoyant spirit, McCain will hold a $500-per-person reception later that day at the Embassy Suites on Pinnacle Hills Parkway in Rogers.

McCain did not attend the original parade and dedication of the Confederate statue in 1908.

Posted by Jonah at Wednesday, August 06, 2008

ddrb,

“McCain did not attend the original parade and dedication of the Confederate statue in 1908.”

McCain may be old, but he is not THAT old!!

“The city’s Confederate monument”

So, what’s your point?  Doesn’t the NORTH also honor their fallen soldiers?

“Organizers say they are hoping no one will fly Confederate flags”

That would show that things have changed, wouldn’t it?

RDS-

Quote the whole sentence, it changes the context.

“Organizers say they are hoping no one will fly Confederate flags, AT LEAST NOT DURING THE EVENT.”

Looking at it from that point of view, the way I read that is.......

“Don’t let them know how really ignorant we are!  Be ignorant when the national press isn’t here!”

A bit more history ,circa 2000 and 2006,regarding the Confederacy and John McCain.To [and with]wit:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
McCain dressed supporters in Confederate uniforms. In the year 2000. 

Tue, 08/29/2006 - 9:28pm — lambert
This article (une tippe of le vieux chapeau to the man in the grey turtleneck) is about George Felix Allen (Racist-VA), but the interesing part is down at the end. It’s about an episode McCain had to have known about:

Senator John McCain’s misadventure with the neo-Confederate movement in the 2000 South Carolina primary provides a cautionary tale that must not be lost on Allen. Facing George W. Bush in South Carolina, McCain hired Richard Quinn as his state field manager. Quinn was an editor of the neo-Confederate magazine Southern Partisan, and a frequent critic of Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, who he once dubbed a “terrorist.” Before the primary, Quinn organized a rally of 6,000 people in support of flying the Confederate flag over the statehouse. Quinn dressed up McCain volunteers in Confederate Army uniforms as they passed fliers to the demonstrators assuring them that McCain supported the Confederate flag.

Well, look. He didn’t dress them up in white sheets, did he? Let’s be reasonable here, people.

But then McCain flip-flops on the Confederate flag issue, and all the racist loons and goons get pissed, and turn on him. To the benefit of the “compassionate conservative” George W. Bush, of course:

As soon as news spread that McCain had called for removal of the Dixie flag from the statehouse, the SCV’s Richard T. Hines funded the distribution of 250,000 fliers accusing McCain of “changing his tune” and describing Bush as “the [only] major candidate who refused to call the Confederate flag a racist symbol.” Bush surged ahead of McCain and took South Carolina, dooming McCain’s presidential hopes.

“People didn’t buy it,” [Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) organizer Gordon Lee] Baum told me about McCain’s gambit. “When he thought the flag issue would help him, he was for it. When thought it wouldn’t help him, going north, he denounced it. And you still have all these gullible liberals who think McCain’s a saint.”

Not this liberal, thank you very much. And not any liberal I know. Maybe there’s a gullible Centrist who might believe it. The kind of Moderate who thinks Vanity08 is plausible.

OK, so maybe McCain called for Confederate flag to be taken off the statehouse dome. Fine. But why dress his supporters in Confederate uniforms in the first place?~~~~~~~~

Wal-Mart start paying,

““Don’t let them know how really ignorant we are!  Be ignorant when the national press isn’t here!””

You are right, but it only pertains to so-called protestors, the few who still are living in the distant distorted past, mentally!!  I think Wal-Mart would hope for the same thing, when they open a ‘new’ store, that the protestors, spouting their ‘foolishness’, would stay away while the press was around!!  Wouldn’t ANY rational person or entity want to avoid that?

Speaking of ignorance and Arkansas:

Will Sen. Lincoln kill the Employee Free Choice Act?
The U.S. Senate showdown over the Employee Free Choice Act just got a little tougher: Arkansas Dem. Blanche Lincoln has gone on record saying that the EFCA “isn’t necessary, bringing the number of “yay” Senators down to 57, three short of the 60 needed to prevent a filibuster.

The EFCA would allow unions to represent workers by getting sign-up cards—“card check”—as opposed to drawn-out elections in which companies frequently subject workers to harassment and intimidation, the recent battle at Smithfield Foods in North Carolina being a sharp example.

Over 60 million employees say they’d join a union if they could, but workers are subjected to almost relentless attacks during union organizing campaigns:

30% of employers fire pro-union workers.
49% of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to form a union, but only 2% actually do.
51% of employers coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery or favoritism.
82% of employers hire high-priced unionbusting consultants to fight union organizing drives.
91% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.
As Matthew Yglesias points out, the Arkansas Senator’s ambivalence towards unions might have something to do with the largest company headquartered in her state:

After all, non-union Arkansas is a bastion of prosperity! Well, actually, no, it’s poverty-stricken and features ultra low wages. But guess who likes low wages? Wal-Mart. And guess who loves Wal-Mart? Arkansas politicians like Blanche Lincoln.

The Center for Responsive Politics shows that Sen. Lincoln has indeed been a direct beneficiary of Wal-Mart’s political largesse, with donors associated with the company giving Lincoln over $35,800 in her career.

Lincoln has also received $44,000 from Tyson Foods, the poultry giant with its own checkered record of worker abuses and hostility to unions.

Workers in Arkansas could use more unions. Arkansas has the 5th-highest rate of poverty in the country. The state’s median income ranks 48th in the nation; only Mississippi and New Mexico are lower. Per capita income ranks 48th in the nation. Nationally, the “union advantage” that results from having a union is about a 12% boost in wage levels.

December 17, 2008 ~Institute for Southern Studies

Have our governments values really changed?

This is just for fun but it is a FBI memo from 1946 to J. Edgar Hoover showing that the “great classic” movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” is COMMUNIST.

Note the main concern is the way the banker is portrayed.

To: The Director

D.M. Ladd

COMMUNIST INFILTRATION OF THE MOTION PICTURE INDUSTRY

(RUNNING MEMORANDUM)

There is submitted herewith the running memorandum concerning Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry which has been brought up to date as of May 26, 1947....

With regard to the picture “It’s a Wonderful Life”, [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a “scrooge-type” so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.

In addition, [redacted] stated that, in his opinion, this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters. [redacted] related that if he made this picture portraying the banker, he would have shown this individual to have been following the rules as laid down by the State Bank Examiner in connection with making loans. Further, [redacted] stated that the scene wouldn’t have “suffered at all” in portraying the banker as a man who was protecting funds put in his care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money rather than portraying the part as it was shown. In summary, [redacted] stated that it was not necessary to make the banker such a mean character and “I would never have done it that way.”

[redacted] recalled that approximately 15 years ago, the picture entitled “The Letter” was made in Russia and was later shown in this country. He recalled that in this Russian picture, an individual who had lost his self-respect as well as that of his friends and neighbors because of drunkenness, was given one last chance to redeem himself by going to the bank to get some money to pay off a debt. The old man was a sympathetic character and was so pleased at his opportunity that he was extremely nervous, inferring he might lose the letter of credit or the money itself. In summary, the old man made the journey of several days duration to the bank and with no mishap until he fell asleep on the homeward journey because of his determination to succeed. On this occasion the package of money dropped out of his pocket. Upon arriving home, the old man was so chagrined he hung himself. The next day someone returned the package of money to his wife saying it had been found. [redacted] draws a parallel of this scene and that of the picture previously discussed, showing that Thomas Mitchell who played the part of the man losing the money in the Capra picture suffered the same consequences as the man in the Russian picture in that Mitchell was too old a man to go out and make money to pay off his debt to the banker.”

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Republicans (Bushites) come out with the same sense of reasoning. 

Just when you think the world can’t get any stupider, you stumble across something like this.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Republicans (Bushites) come out with the same sense of reasoning to have shown Citigroup,AIG,Countrywide,Bear Stearns, to have been following the rules as laid down by the State and Federal Bank Examiners in connection with making loans. Further.......,portraying the groups who were protecting funds put in their care by private individuals and adhering to the rules governing the loan of that money

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