See Jane Crack

Quite interesting to see this little team they’ve put together. I’m sure their services don’t come for free. Political hackdom is alive and doing well--it’s one resource of ours that isn’t being privatized or outsourced.

oh, SNAP

Jane Thompson just got Wal-SERVED

Hey Jane!  Guess what?  The Unions ARE doing thier “regular work” .. deal with it!

It’s nice of Jane to say that the ‘the unions are attacking every syllable we say’ but I think she’s trying to create the impression in the minds of some that is unions, unions, unions and that this is just some battle between good (large corporations like WM just looking out for their customers) and evil (such as unions). In any case there are a lot more groups than just unions lined up against WM here and I think most people on either side of the argument would agree with that.

Paul, Wal-Mart is not the only place with low prices and Wal-Mart is not trying to help low income people, they are trying to make money.

Larry, I agree and have made that point before.  It isn’t just Wal-Mart vs. unions.

The way WM and their supporters talk, you would think that they are the Salvation Army helping the poor and disadvantaged.
Of course they are one of the many causes of the working poor we have in society today.

One thing Paul that you’re a little off on and that is I’m sure that the town of Hercules has elections to elect council members so if the population does not like the decisions of its representatives they can change them. After all there are many here waiting very impatiently for that day in November to have the opportunity to change their house or senate member which isn’t to say that their hopes or your hopes as far as the town of Hercules will turn out as you would like.

SO WHAT’S YOUR POINT, PAUL?

Apparently you did not check out the accompanying photo in the “PERSON OF THE WEEK: THE CITY COUNCIL OF HERCULES, CA” discussion thread.

Yeah...these 4 individuals all look like they run those “high priced stores did not want to compete with Walmart.”

I think you and many others need to come to grips with the fact that the opposition to Wal-Mart is more grassroots than you care to admit.

NO...Hercules DID NOT have a referendum on the Wal-Mart issue where 97% voted against Wal-Mart.  Can you name one community in the entire country THAT DID?  Why do you suppose that is?  Why would Wal-Mart be afraid to put it to a public vote in a community and let the community decide for itself? 

I have been to several of these City Council “open meetings.” They are a joke!  All too often Wal-Mart has laid all the ground work and met secretly with city council members and planning commisions.  The general public is the last to find out.  I’ve seen several of these meetings where there were so few Wal-Mart supporters present, you could pack them into a Kia.  The last such meeting I attended, the Anti-Wal-Mart people outnumbered the Pro-Wal-Mart people by at least 5-1.  How come these people who care so much for Wal-Mart rarely turn out at these “open” city meetings?

Screwed

My point is hypocracy.  There was no vote by the citizens.  The vote was by a very small group.

There is no “grass roots movement”.  Efforts by the SEIU and existing businesses cannot be considered “grass roots “.  Taking paid “activists” into a store and disrupting is not “grass roots”. You ask “How come these people who care so much for Wal-Mart rarely turn out at these “open” city meetings? “ The store owners attend chamber of commerce meetings.  At that time they learn that a subject such as Walmart is to be brought up by the city council.  There is no
such mechanism for Walmart shoppers.  Even the notices of a town council meeting are buried on page D-37 so is no effective way for them to find out.

You ask “Yeah...these 4 individuals all look like they run those “high priced stores did not want to compete with Walmart.” when talking about the “Person of the Week” thread.  I am sorry.  I can’t look at that picture and tell what those people do.  Apparently there is some dispute about the relavence of those people.

Larry

You know as well as I that it is not that easy to unseat an existing council meeting.  It takes money and no WM shopper is going to go out and spend their life savings to get a council member more sympathetic to their needs.

In other words “get real”.

TIME FOR YOU TO “GET REAL,” PAUL!

You say: “You know as well as I that it is not that easy to unseat an existing council meeting.  It takes money...”

Now who has more money to throw at city councils Paul, Wal-Mart or the average citizens regardless of which side they are on?  That’s right Paul, this is pretty much how our government functions on all levels.... “one dollar...one vote.”

Let’s just pretend you are a city council member who has been trying to find the money in the city budget for a new swimming pool or track at the public high school.  The money never seems to be there.  Then along comes Wal-Mart which tells you that if you vote for their store, they as “a good corporate citizen,” will contribute the money for that new swimming pool, and you’ll get the credit for making it happen.  Do you think you’d be inclined to be in favor of Wal-Mart?  You think these types of things don’t happen every day?  GET REAL!

Lillian-

“Hey Jane!  Guess what?  The Unions ARE doing thier “regular work” .. deal with it!”

I had always been under the impression that unions were under the obligation to help their members, not waste their dues on PR campaigns against companies whose workers they do not represent. Thank you for enlightening me.

Screwed-

“How come these people who care so much for Wal-Mart rarely turn out at these “open” city meetings?”

I don’t think most members of a community that would shop at Wal-Mart are up to speed with local politics. My experience has shown that they usually aren’t the brightest crayons in the box. However, I imagine that in many areas, the group that is ignorant or apathetic with regard to an incoming Wal-Mart is far larger than either group taking a stand. Most people fail to become masters of their own destinies and just go with the flow. It seems they lack either the intellect or the ambition to form ideals and judge Wal-Mart according to them. To echo Paul, “There is no ‘grass roots movement’.”

Yes Paul it is you that has to get ‘real’ for precisely the point that Screwed points out. WM like many another large corporate multi-national buys up politicians (who are supposed to be looking out for the best interest of the electorate) as a matter of course (or business practice
if you will).

By the way from today’s New York Times Page 18 under the heading “ In Chicago, New Pay Law is considered for big stores” 33 out of 50 of the city council members have signed onto a proposed ordinance requiring stores of at least 75,000 square feet with at least $1 billion in annual sales to pay their employees at least $10 per hour and also $3 an hour in benefits. Go Chicago.

Wal-Mart in my opinion is one of the poorest managed companies in the world. They don’t have the smarts to balance profits with public image.
That is why they are caught in a public relations fiasco from every direction.
Shareholders should demand a change of leadership.

NO “GRASSROOTS,” SOMEONE?

First of all, I give you a BIG AMEN on your assessment that “most members of a community that would shop at Wal-Mart...usually aren’t the brightest crayons in the box.” I believe you are also correct in stating: “In many areas, the group that is ignorant or apathetic with regard to an incoming Wal-Mart is far larger than either group taking a stand.” Maybe if more people got a little more informed, we’d see the numbers at Wal-Mart change.

As for there not being a grassroots movement...please explain what happened in places like Chandler, Arizona and Glendale, California?  There were churches involved, community organizations, even little kids were making hand-painted signs...sounds pretty grassroots to me!

looks like paul just wont open his eyes. another victim of wal mart strong new hire brain washing tactics. listen up Paul about your company ethics, wal mart Basic beliefe #1 Respect for the individual.... when I was HIRED as opperations coach I was instructed to tell the little ppl of whose heads we walk upon that I had been stock in Kentucky and worked my way up the ladder from there. What company sends you for a drug test before they give you the time of day and lies to you on a regular basis and claims their number 1 beliefe is respect for the individual??? I wish the company would go down I would lose my stock and my job. but if there is anything america has learned.... we know it pays cold hard cash when your the right kind of evil.

Reference Screws Comments: Sunday, May 28 at 10:18 AM

As usual, you side stepped my original statement. My point was that this is whole blog is hypocritical. There is no grass roots movement. Most towns, if left up to the voters, want a Walmart. Don’t pretend that just because the town council votes against Walmart, it is the will of the people.
As for as “Get Real”, my statement was in regards to the difficulty of electing someone for city council. If I had the over whelming desire to get a pro Walmart city council elected, it would be virtually impossible to vote in a new one. So don’t say just to “elect a new city council in November. Most of you have complained about this very same point. i.e. How difficult it is to get elected officials who truly look out for the elector’s interests or at actually your interests.
I thought this was one of your more interesting statements, misleading but interesting. “Let’s just pretend you are a city council member who has been trying to find the money in the city budget for a new swimming pool or track at the public high school. The money never seems to be there. Then along comes Wal-Mart which tells you that if you vote for their store, they as “a good corporate citizen,” will contribute the money for that new swimming pool, and you’ll get the credit for making it happen. Do you think you’d be inclined to be in favor of Wal-Mart? You think these types of things don’t happen every day? GET REAL!”
I would call that a win/win for the electorate. They get a Walmart plus a swimming pool. Regardless, Walmart is not bribing an electoral official by giving him gifts. They are making a business deal with the entire population. Now in addition, that offer of a new swimming pool is not just being made to one council member. It is made to the entire city council who represent the electorate. Also as a side note, if this is a condition for Walmart to build, it should be a condition for all new businesses with the size of the project in proportion to the size of the new business.
I suppose that you were actually looking at putting the council member, who opposes Walmart, in the position of making a tough decision. If he votes for Walmart, it goes against his nature. If he votes against Walmart, he faces the possibility that his electorate will vote against him because he turned down a swimming pool and a Walmart, which they probably wanted anyway. Life is tough. Sometimes you have to make a tough decision.
This is somewhat analogous to an offer to build a sports stadium or library, but it must bear the name of the donor. A lot of people may not want their sports stadium to named “Sam”, but on the other hand they have a sports stadium which they would not have had otherwise.
In other words, there is nothing wrong with this. I would only object if the conditions were that “If we give you a swimming pool, you must let us build, but you may not let anyone else build.”

Paul

Screwed Comments: Monday, May 29 at 10:32 AM
If there is such a “grass roots movement”, why is WMW necessary? It appears that Andy Sterne is wasting millions of his unions money for something which will happen anyway. Why did WMW waste millions making the movie?

I tried to go back and look at the info on Chandler, Arizona and Glendale, California. I could not find anything. I do remember the words “activists” being used. That is usually a synonym for paid advocate. At any rate little children using crayons do not qualify as grass roots. I can just see a child walking through a toy department at Walmart and then deciding he will go home to crayon poster to protest. There is no grass roots. There are probably isolated pockets who don’t want a Walmart for whatever reason. It is ironic that the locations you cited as grass roots are in the middle of a desert where there is little danger of the grass spreading.
I have no doubt that in time Walmart will go the way of Sears and Wards and some other company will rise to take their place. It will be a natural process and not be due to the disastrous move of being unionized. By that time the SEIU, Andy Sterne and Walmartwatch will be just a distant memory. Of course there is always the possibility of some other kind of “watch”.

Paul

ATTENTION ALL WALMART SHOPPERS AND EMPLOYEES

I quote Screwed “most members of a community that would shop at Wal-Mart...usually aren’t the brightest crayons in the box.” I believe you are also correct in stating: “In many areas, the group that is ignorant or apathetic with regard to an incoming Wal-Mart is far larger than either group taking a stand.”

Just remember these are the people who want you to join them in becoming unionized. They don’t respect you now and they won’t respect you then.

Just for the record, I have no way of judging the intellect of Walmart shoppers. I have noticed one thing however, I arrived at a Walmart just prior to opening and only employee cars were in the lot. The cars were representative of what most American drive. There were a few junkers, but there were also a few Saabs and BMWs. Then when the shoppers arrived there was the same cross section of cars which most Americans drive. They might not be the “Brightest Crayons in the Pack”, but they appear to be doing very well with what they have. I personally value common sense above either book learning or whatever Screwed uses to judge other people not agreeing with his particular set of values.

I stopped for gasoline and groceries at the Walmart in Neosho Missouri. It is a beautiful store. It is huge. The parking lot was full and there were at least twenty check out lanes going. The “grass roots” movement does not appear to have reached them yet. They also had a Murphy gas station. The gas was $2.399/gallon with the Walmart gift charge. I saved a bundle.

Anotherone.

Just about any organization I have ever heard of which administers drug tests do it no notice. The reason is that there are cleansing agents which can be used to rid the body of drugs or at least mask them. The value of such agents are questionable, but many of the druggies put a lot of stock in them. There are also ways to fake drug tests, but they require some preparation.

Well Now if you read the articles on this again you will see that this town had specific limits on the size of stores they wanted for their redevelopment project and these limits do not suit the decision maker(s) at WM. The idea may seem quaint to you but it takes all kinds. Perhaps those who want this project to go forward do not want to put a bunch of little fish in their aquarium with a full grown barracuda. I don’t know if that makes sense to you or not. Not everybody I suppose is all that jazzed with the coming global economic world order. In any case I don’t know how you can say that most communities want a WM without the evidence of a referendum to back it up--that does work both ways though.
Just canvassing your friends or people who work with or for you or people you agree with doesn’t cut it. And you would need evidence on each and every just the same as we would. Also as far as how much money the unions have sunk into this website I have no idea and have never been particularly interested--but maybe you could show us? As to Screwed’s comment on WM shoppers--generally I tend to agree with him but you’re lumping all anti-WM posters here to any comment one of them makes--and I’m sorry but that’s not fair. Keep in mind please that we are each a different individual as I try to keep in mind that each of the Pro-WM posters are. In any case no one has ever talked about unionizing WM shoppers which is what you seem to be suggesting.

LET’S GET THE FACTS STRAIGHT!

For those of you who actually read this blog, you KNOW that it was NOT I who originally made the comment about Wal-Mart shoppers “not being the brightest crayons...” This remark was made by the poster “Someone.” Someone is a customer service manager for Wal-Mart and is a frequent critic of this website as well as a supporter of “free trade” etc.  I was agreeing with him....but I NEVER would have used the term “not the brightest crayons in the box” to refer to Wal-Mart shoppers!  I would have described them as being a few french frys short of a Happy Meal!

Not remembering the thread so I don’t know what the context was. I imagine WM has its fair share of the intellectually challenged--however it is always best to keep away from complete generalizations. On the question of WM’s workforce and whether they should be unionized or not for the amount of profit the company makes and gives to its shareholders, or to the heirs or to expansion WM could do much better by its employees. There has been little to no effort in that direction for a long time. The question to me is can WM do well enough by its employees to where unionization is not even much of an issue? It would take some will and commitment on their part that they haven’t shown us in the past but yes I think they can do that but I don’t think they have any intention to. One looks at all the tricks they’ve pulled in the past on that subject. It’s amazing when some think that we’re not being fair to this company on this or that when WM itself has denied its employees something which is by law their legal right to organize.

Why can all the major car companies have a financial branch, but Wal-Mart cannot? Wal-Mart does not want to open corner banks with ATMs and savings accounts. They want to build a loan department just like GMAC, Ford and Chrysler. Let’s do a little fact-checking before going nuts on people.

You know Paul I don’t really think this union or not issue is such the deal that you would like us to believe. One looks at WM’s turnover in employees from year to year and one comes away with the impression that there is whole hell of a lot of people (not all) coming to the conclusion that they don’t like working for your favorite shopping place. Maybe unionized you’d hold on to a lot more of them and get better quality service out of them for it?

Larry......

Hmmm Unionizing Wal-Mart. What would that give us. The workers may make more money and who knows, the turnover may be less.

Lets look at the turnover. Do people wake up one day and tell themselves that they want to make a career out of pulling in shopping carts from a stores lot? No, they think I need to make some money, they get jobs and they try and better themselves. If they don’t get anywhere in the current job they move on looking for better jobs.  In High School I worked at a grocery store. Did I think that I was going to make a career out of it, No. Did I quit one grocery store to work at another to make 35 cents an hour more, Yes. When I graduated did I think I could do something more then work at a grocery store, Yes.

Wal-Mart is a place many people get a start at just like fast food restaurants. Many people go there needing to work. If they are good at what they do, they can get promotions or they can take that experience and get a job at a different place. Many people work at a place until they find something better or something they actually want to do.

Unions - Lets see, where in this country can you earn a great wage and be a horible worker with little worry about being fired. Oh yes, a union shop is the place. Where can you be paid so much and receive such great benefits that the place you are working has to layoff or to close down because they can’t afford to stay in business. Hmmm must be a union shop again. Where can you get rewarded for longevity instead of productivity even if you are the best worker in the whole company. Let me think, could it be a union shop?

Do not mix up a part time position getting carts with the full time positions of more resposibility within the store.

Non union......Lets see where in this country you can earn a poor wage and be a great worker, alway being in fear of asking for your fair share.

Sounds like WM to me.

JM,
Who is not getting their “fair share” and what is their fair share?

Do you think that it is fair share? Your own shareholders see the injustise. How will you vote in respect to the shareholders proposal aimed at “rolling back” the 1000% gap in pay scales between your executives and the store associates?
Or will you be still distracted by the Kelly Clarksons show?

Time to wake up Big T

Larry

This whole site is about unions. It is pure hypocrisy to deny it. Andy Sterne is spending millions of the SEIU’s money in his battle against Walmart. If he is not trying to unionize Walmart, how does he justify spending that much union money? I am reasonably sure that the SEIU would not approve of him spending that much money just to improve Walmart employee lives.

I have seen no evidence that unionizing will improve either the service or the plight of the Walmart workers. Most of what I see is that the unions are losing out.

Walmart hires many entry level workers who only stay long enough to get job experience and move onto a better job. I applaud both Walmart and the workers in this respect. Some move on into supervisory or management jobs. I applaud them also. No one is forcing anyone to work at Walmart. They are free to move on to these other stores that you and Screwed regard so favorably.
This link was advertised on CNN this morning : www.unionfacts.com/index.cfm. It would appear that the unions would be better off cleaning their own house rather than spending millions on Walmart.

The few Walmart employees I have talked to just want to be left alone by WMW and the unions.

Paul

Paul

Correction: ATTENTION WALMART SHOPPERS. No longer are employees included. However, if you do not shop at Walmart, it would indicate that your intelligence is sub-par because you are not taking advantage of the already low prices and your employee discount. However, if you do shop you are lumped in with the sub-par intelligence people as indicated by Screwed. Nevermind.

ATTENTION WALMART SHOPPERS AND EMPLOYEES

Screwed said “For those of you who actually read this blog, you KNOW that it was NOT I who originally made the comment about Wal-Mart shoppers “not being the brightest crayons...” This remark was made by the poster “Someone.” …… I was agreeing with him....but I NEVER would have used the term “not the brightest crayons in the box” to refer to Wal-Mart shoppers! I would have described them as being a few french frys short of a Happy Meal!”

Screwed tries to justify his remarks by saying he did not the person who “originally” said the comment. He was only agreeing. Then he denigrates Walmart shoppers again with another derogitory remark. Just remember employees, these are the people who want to unionize you. Do you really want to be associated with them.

Paul

In general Paul I don’t approve of very many stores at all especially if they’re chains or big box. Again I don’t know where the idea that the SEIU just because it ‘helps’ fund this website is sinking millions of dollars in it. Does it cost millions of dollars to set up a website such as this? I tend to doubt it. Are they busy campaigning in other ways? Sure they are 1) they are trying to increase their membership which is legal 2) it is also a legal right of workers to organize if they wish. And here is one rub that I have with WM in that it has been very underhanded in how it denies its workers that right of theirs mainly through intimidation. At the same time WM chooses to use its huge profits not to raise up the level of its workforce but to maintain that workforce (at least the larger part of it) at the lowest possible level of pay and benefits.

From Rosa we get the idea that seniority is a terrible thing. Perhaps I’m wrong but I read into her comment that those who cannot keep pace or fall by the wayside because of injury or illness or age should just be dumped the sooner the better--a more or less shoot the wounded scenario for the aim of maintaining corporate profit. We’ve had this argument many times before here whether we should have a society where each and every individual is pitted against everyone else or whether we should have one where all individuals will have a real place--to live, to work and maybe at least some of the time be happy. That is a dream world I suppose and one that many don’t want to see because it gets in the way of their own ambition and/or they like feeling a status over others. Whether they like it or not though it is a vision that I have and whether I’m in the minority or not I’m not giving it up.

For those who argue that Wal-Mart is only “entry level experience”, other than the few ‘management positions’, What are the occupations that the “gained experience” is supposed to lead to? Other entry “level for experience jobs”?

Give me a break.
People work for food, shelter and clothing also.
This is just a company excuse to pay cheap.

JM, How do you propose to close the gap?  Lower executive pay or raise pay for the rest of employees?  How much should be raised or lowered?  How much of the gap will it close?

Wal-Mart store level positions are mostly entry level.  A good way to measure that is what prior experience do you need to obtain the job.  Many of Wal-Marts store level employees are either high school or college kids.  You are correct to imply that the job experience does not offer many opportunities outside of the company.  Most of the store level positions require and teach very few job skills if any.  That is why their pay is where it is.

There you have it folks.
The gospel according to Big T

Need we say any more?

by the way, I just realized you do not understand the value of experience or the reason i used it.  the point I am trying to get you to understand is that these jobs require no job skills therefore despite not having any you can still work at Wal-Mart and get paid well above minimum wage.

higher paying jobs require prior experience to show you are capable of doing the job required and that you are the best candidate for the job.

JM, does that mean you agree with me???

I’ll be your mirror as you try to convince yourself.

ok

im glad you finaly see things my way.

Put the devils weed away. Your getting mixed up now.

JM, you are starting to agree with me because if you didnt then you would tell how you disagree.  You havent done that.  Honestly, I hoped you would because it would have been fun for me.
now back to my “devils weed”

Will you be “high” when you take your daughter to the Wal-Mart shareholders concert?

JM, If you are trying to get under my skin then I must let you know that it is not working.  I am getting a little bored though because you have stopped responding.

I dont think we are going to the concert because unless Kelly Clarkson is the suprise guest, it will only be Keri Underwood and Rascle Flats.  And No, I will not be high if we go to the concert.  I have not been high since college.  Thanks for your concern.

Big T, your contention is that Wal-Mart is just an “entry level” position to teach “job skills” so that people can move on to “bigger and better things”.  However, the flaw in your reasoning is that you also say that working at Wal-Mart is worthless and doesn’t teach anyone anything, and that if you really want to do anything in life, than you will leave Wal-Mart, because, well, you know, it’s worthless (unless you’re a manager, however, if you actually worked there, like I do, you would know that managers can have it worse than the rank and file “associates” do).  This is a glaring contradiction on your part and that’s because your real argument has nothing to do with what you are claiming it is.  I’ll let you in on a secret, Big T, and I’ve said this a million times before - not everyone can be a “white collar” worker or own their own business.  There will always be a NEED for “blue collar” workers and some people are limited in what they can do.

Larry

on 60 Minutes Stern said “Stern says he’s not trying to unionize Wal-Mart — at least not yet. He just wants the retailer to pay what he considers a fair share of its employees’ healthcare. So last year he spent millions in union money to push through legislation in Maryland that forced Wal-Mart to spend eight percent of its payroll on healthcare. Now he’s going after the company in 30 other states.”

So according to Stern’s own words he is not trying to unionize Walmart. He is just spending millions of the union’s money to force Walmart to pay for healthcare. Now he intends to spend even more in 30 other states. This does not include the cost of the movie, paid activists, operating the offices of WMW, lobbyists and the cost of the web site.
I can come to either one of two conclusions. He is lying and does intend to unionize WM or he is spending millions of dollars of union money which does not benefit the union in proportion to the amount of money. I would like to hear how you justify it.

I know that Walmart is not perfect. I have seen some actions I do not agree with, however I have worked for a number of good companies over the years and neither were they perfect. The accusations against WM are grossly out of proportion to these “bad” actions. Most of life’s decisions are compromises. No decision will be beneficial to all. Look at some of the compromises which have to be made.

Walmart could buy all of its goods from the US. The consequence of this is that they would probably go out of business because they would no longer be competitive.

They could insist that all of their suppliers pay higher wages. The consequence of this is that the competition would not pay these same wages and WM would lose business. In addition, we would be increasing our balance of payment deficit even further.

This list is endless and regardless of the decision which WM makes, they will be criticized by WMW for that decision because there is always another side to the argument.

People like JM are absolutely clueless. He has no understanding of how business or even the world operates and is unwilling to consider the possibility that there is another side to the question. One indication of this is his statement “By one count, over 80 percent of Wal-Mart’s worldwide suppliers are located in China”. This sounds bad, but is not relevant to anything. All it means is that China has small vendors in relation to the rest. A more relevant fact is that less than 10% (actually 7%) of WM’s goods come from China. This information is contained in the Frontline movie, but you have to do a few calculations. I think this information was for the year 2004 and has probably changed somewhat, but I have seen no more recent information. As far as the treatment of vendor employees, Walmart is keeping track of their vendors treatment of their employees and has terminated some vendors.

I hate the fact that the US is loosing our manufacturing race to the third world. The US must become more competitive and that will be painful. We have to learn to work for less pay and less benefits. We must work so that we are more productive. That means we must work harder and smarter for our employer. We have to beat them with brains not brawn. In almost every way, the union ethic is counter productive. They demand outrageous and ultimately unsupportable wages and benefits. Rather than an employee being able to take a minute to change his own light bulb, he has to get one of the maintenance people to come in and spend an hour doing it. Don’t say it doesn’t happen, because it does happen. Certainly the millions which Stern has spent have not added to our production one bit.

I look at our younger generation and I fear for America. I am generalizing, but many refuse to work hard or get a better education. Drugs, TV and video games are killing them. On the other hand, the Orientals value education. Guess who will lose that battle.

For more information on union activities see www.unionfacts.com/index.cfm. It is one of the links that just keep on expanding. It takes hours to review all of it. It even has a section dedicated to the SEIU.

Paul

Generic, I agree with you that not everyone can be white collar and that this world need both blue and white collar workers.  I stand by my argument that Wal-Mart (at store level) is mostly entry level positions that require no previous work history.  I also stand by the fact that working most of these jobs do NOT prepare you for bigger and better things (unless you plan on working your way up in Wal-Mart).  Because people will always be limmited in what they can do does not mean they deserve more money for doing it.  Wal-Mart is paying its employees based on the value they provide. 
Wal-Mart is not in business to pay people to work for them, they are in business to make money.  this provides opportunities for people at all levels to earn money by doing whatever work Wal-Mart needs done.  When people accept these jobs they agree on a payment and then do the task.  In the end, Wal-Mart makes a profit.

Well your changing the scope of the argument Paul to something outside this website. I have no idea what the cost again is for this website but do not believe that they’re are spending millions on it just to give me and you and avenue to vent our feelings on everything WM.

As for the Maryland bill---again where do you get these millions from? Are they 1-2-3-100-200 million? I mean try to be precise or say you don’t know but you suspect. At the same time there is an inference hidden that somehow WM is some sort of innocent victim--that they are not somehow running all over the country intruding into this area or that and spending money on candidates and legislation which are favorable to them. Whether either then (or both) are right or wrong this kind of thing has become part of parcel of what we can expect from our political process.

To be honest with you Paul--there is a note of hysteria in the way you express yourself sometimes. You certainly exaggerate with this millions for this and millions for that stuff. The SEIU is a large union which covers workers in both large and small businesses. Most SEIU members I would wager are not going to be moving into the mory tony area of your immediate neighborhood anytime soon. I seriously doubt that Mr. Stern has the wherewithal to throw vast sums of money into this campaign. He has certainly set some aside but there is more going on with them I can assure you than this battle with WM. They will have all kinds of daily employer/employee issues to deal with from a wide variety of the same all over the country. In any case it’s best not to demonize people--either Mr. Stern or Mr. Scott.

“....Wal-Mart ( at store level) is mostly entry level positions”

Entry level to what? That fact of the matter is that this is the rank and file. This argument is just an excuse to cheap out when it comes to paying the majority, while having no problem paying millions to those at the top.

Stop insulting the majority.

Hey Jane
Did you sweep up after the shareholders meeting?
We all need to include some physical work in our day.