Today: Wal-Mart Workers Holding Historic National Organizing Meeting

Wow - ‘nearly’ 100 workers. Considering WM employs over 1 million, I not really impressed and I doubt Congress will be either.

WM workers, if you want to see the what a union can do work you, just ask an unemployed UAW worker.

Tim-

What do you blame the non-UAW companies downturns on if they don’t have a union?

...I not really impressed...

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” ~ Margaret Mead

What’s good for Wal-Mart is BAD for America!

It is impressive that they were able to locate 100 unhappy WM workers to go to DC. I bet you could never find 100 unhappy Target employees, or union employees for that matter.

..able to locate 100 unhappy WM workers...

Not a problem, Joe. I’m sure you could find at least 100 unhappy Wal-Mart workers here:

http://www.walmart-blows.com/forum/

Now, finding 100 Wal-Mart associates with the wherewithall to travel to Washington D.C. is another story.

“Success isn’t measured by how much merchandise you sell. Real success is found in the development of, and opportunities you provide for, the people who are selling it.” ~ Barney Kroger

Joe
I bet I could find 60,000 thousand unhappy union workers at Chrysler. Rather than except wage concessions, they decided it was better to have no job at all and force the company into bankruptcy. Maybe they can work at WM!!

...or union employees for that matter.

Just go to a local Chrysler plant—I’m certain after today’s news, there’s not much to be happy about, there.

Tim,

The irony is should Chrysler emerge from bankruptcy, their new owners will be the UAW, Uncle Sam, and Fiat.

Ouch!

I still don’t understand why the UAW is responsible for incompetent management.

What’s good for Wal-Mart is BAD for America!

Unless UAW is a secured creditor, which they are not, UAW will not own anything in any new Chysler.

Is that what your foreman is telling you? Probably didnt go to business school and doesnt understand how bankruptcy works.

UAW will be a part owner of Chrysler since they were a debtor in the form of the pension and health funds.

I’ve never understood why more workers don’t offer to take over weak firms. My guess is that the needed financing (from banks) wouldn’t be forthcoming. No bank wants to see workers making a success of capitalism without the help of capitalists.

There have been a few prior cases of worker takeover, especially in the airline industry, but, like Chrysler, this only happened when the firm was already bankrupt.

There are worker-owned firms in the US, but they are usually structured as co-ops. Land O’Lakes and Ocean Spray are both of this type.

In Germany big firms have representatives from the union on the board of directors by law. In general labor relations are better than here, but not everything is friction free. The outsourcing and downsizing trend has spread to EU countries that are trying to copy the Reagan/Thatcher model.

This explains the strikes in France and elsewhere, the workers aren’t giving up without a fight. So far they are mostly holding their own.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.”

I totally agree.  It’s just ashame the media didn’t use the same reasoning when HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people showed up for the tea parties 2 week ago.  And guess what, no union paid their expenses to attend that event.  It was alot more “grass roots” than this exploitation stunt.

So does anyone want to put to rest just who paid travel expenses for these 100 unhappy Walmart workers?

...who paid travel expenses for these 100...(?)

I certainly hope the unions or someone helped pay the travel expenses. Wal-Mart employees barely scrape by as it is.

“There are a lot of issues here, but what they add up to is the end of the age of Wal-Mart,” contends Richard Hastings, a senior analyst for the retail rating agency Bernard Sands. “The glory days are over.”

P.S. What you have to realize, Mark, is Nearly 100 Walmart workers<i>...is a UFCW number while <i>HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people showed up... is from Fox News.

Who do you think is exaggerating?

Live Better In Cheap Underwear

Ken V,

“I still don’t understand why the UAW is responsible for incompetent management.

As the UAW will own 55% of Chrysler, we will soon see how well they do running the company and you will no longer be able to blame management!!

It was the unions that built the American automotive sector and there were no complaints when labor made GM the largest auto company in the world. Labor shared and investors made billions. Then management started to invest in and import from overseas foreign auto companies. At one point GM owned 25% of Toyota, Ford owned 33% of Mazda and currently all of the Volvo automotive division etc etc. Similarly they are invested now in the Chinese automakers and pull huge components from Mexico and Brazil to assemble in the U.S.

It was the Confederation of Japanese Auto Workers (Japanese unions) that made Toyota, Honda etc. and company management in Japan began the practice of building auto plants in non-union labor southern states primarily. 

A Republican named General Douglas MacArthur ordered the creation of unions in Japan.

Unions work very very well, until management gets the ‘love of money’ fever and becomes hostile to a good arrangement with union labor and betrays them for outsourcing from ‘cheaper’ labor cost. Then the sector economy starts to collapse, the good paying jobs have disappeared and much of what you have remaining are low wage, low benefit part time quasi jobs in the import WalMart economy of the United States.

Here is where the other part of your wages and benefits went over the past 20 years or so because WalMart did not have union representation for its workers…

Samuel Robson (Rob) Walton (born 1945, in Tulsa, Oklahoma) is the eldest son of Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer. According to Forbes, his net worth is $16.7 billion as of 2007.

John Thomas Walton (October 8, 1946 - June 27, 2005) was a son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
Just before his death, Walton was estimated to be worth US$18.2 billion by Forbes magazine, and he was tied with his brother Jim as the 4th richest person in the United States and 11th-richest person in the world.

Jim Carr Walton (born 1948) is the youngest son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.
With an estimated current net worth of around $16.8 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 23rd-richest person in world.

Alice Louise Walton (born October 7, 1949) is the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and Helen Walton, and sister of S. Robson Walton, John T. Walton (d.2005), and Jim Walton. She has an estimated net worth of about $16.6 billion.

Helen Robson Kemper Walton (December 3, 1919 - April 19, 2007) was the wife of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. She was the eleventh richest American and at one point the richest woman in the world. Helen died with an estimated net worth of $16.4 billion.

Working at WalMart is like working at the morgue. Your ‘living wage’ job was killed and the endless autopsy reads “died from Global Labor Arbitrage and low wage exploitation of labor”. WalMart crematorium slaves cash their meager paychecks as if they are death certificates signed by the Waltons and Mike Duke. WalMart is a poverty engine for America’s workforce operated by “low wage low benefit” economic undertakers in Bentonville.

WalMart/Waltons- A personal note of thanks from the Walton multi-billionaires to all you taxpayer suckers for the billions in public subsidies every year!

I have been around Wal-Mart my entire life. No company is perfect, and if they don’t act in their best interest they end up like GM and Chrysler.

I worked for Wal-Mart in the 70’s, beside Sam Walton himself. Yes, things have changed - but you cannot have anything this large and efficient without change. We have Meijer locally, and people I know there make less and are not as happy as I am. K-Mart is all but gone. Target - why don’t you go pick on them?

I have worked for the company since they entered Michigan. I have excellent benefits that are affordable, and my wage is above anyone I know - especially in retail. They entered Michigan as the auto industry was crashing big-time, and they hired many workers who had no hope for good jobs. When the auto plants called them back 8-10 years later, they stayed. Why? Great wages and benefits, stock, and the safety of knowing your job wasn’t going away. You all are a bunch of winey, spoiled anti-americans. Try working with your employer for change. But keep in mind, if they do bad - you do without. Thank you Walton family for starting this great company and all that you do to provide for my family. I have over 20 years in and have done better overall than my husband who is in the auto industry. In fact, we switched to my benefits when his costs got so high in 2003, as mine were better and cheaper.
God Bless America.......God Bless Wal-Mart!
(and I’m sure this post will never make it to the blog)

There is no ‘Misty in Michigan’ we just made her up for the play book Walmart public relations response. Each feature of the Walmart point by point lie is carefully covered. ‘Misty in Michigan’ is just perfect to show up and spit gold coins for Walmart. I’m sorry Walmart does this without knowing how stupid they look, but fucking over America is their main gig while trying to maintain the folksy Sam Walton facade and appeal to your sense of being a total fool.

mean living waged with affordable Health care like Sam’s Club mean Business

“No contact anywhere with an illegal alien!” conservative talk show host Michael Savage advised his U.S. listeners this week on how to avoid the swine flu. “And that starts in the restaurants” where he said, you “don’t know if they wipe their behinds with their hands!”

Boston talk radio host Jay Severin was suspended after calling Mexican immigrants “criminalians” during a discussion of swine flu and saying that emergency rooms had become “essentially condos for Mexicans.”

There is even talk of conspiracy. Savage speculated that terrorists are using Mexican immigrants as walking germ warfare weapons. “It would be easy,” he said, “to bring an altered virus into Mexico, put it in the general population, and have them march across the border.”

“I’ve blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration,” conservative columnist Michelle Malkin wrote on her Web site. “9/11 didn’t convince the open-borders zealots to put down their race cards and confront reality. Maybe the threat of their sons or daughters contracting a deadly virus spread from south of the border to their Manhattan prep schools will.” (The cluster of New York school students who first contracted H1N1 brought the virus back from Mexico. The school is in Queens.)

SDV,

“It was the unions that built the American automotive sector and there were no complaints when labor made GM the largest auto company in the world.”

As Ken V. would say, ‘That was then, now is NOW’!!

And, why is it that everytime someone who actually works at Wal-Mart posts that they enjoy working there, YOU pop-up with a PHONEY name post claiming their post was a lie?

Then, Big D. comes on and says he makes $35,000.00 a month (wages and benefits) and his word is accepted with NO challenge!!  Give me a break, anyone who makes almost a million a year in just wages ($5,000/wk. x 38 weeks), could care less about Wal-Mart employees!!  He is just a union shill, trying to promote the union, why else would he say that he is willing to go to jail, for Wal-Mart employees, to get them unionized!!

And.... so it starts

More right wing fear mongers heard from!

This “Swine Flu” IS THE FLU! that’s it. Plain and simple.

This case of the “swine flu” is nothing more that another strain of flu, the only difference is that it is from Mexico rather that China. It caught the world off guard because of the month that it hit, April and May are not generally considered “flu season”.

This flu is not much different than any other flu other than timing, and point of origin!

Almost all strains of flu start with people in China that pass a flu virus on to pigs that they live in close quarters with. The flu mutates and is passed back to humans in a mutated state that we have no immunities to. That’s it in a nut shell.

IT’S THE FLU!

There was a great documentary about how flu strains start on the Discovery channel.

”ESPN. The coverage is excellent, you’d be surprised at how much you can pick up. ...” ~ Cole Trickle

“He is just a union shill, trying to promote the union, why else would he say that he is willing to go to jail, for Wal-Mart employees, to get them unionized!!”

RDS in

I know that this is a concept that is very foreign and unfamiliar to your ilk, its called principal! The greater good, trying to help others, fighting for things that you believe in and taking a risk of your own safety in doing so!

Just because I make a good living doesn’t mean that I should turn my back on those less fortunate than I.

Then there is the fact that I know for a fact that if the UNIONS fail all good wage construction, manufacturing, and service jobs will be a thing of the past!

BTW I never said that I made those wages on every job.

”I make $32.00 to $45.00 per hour on the check. Then you have to add in my retirement 18 to 22% of gross wages over and above my scale, annuity; that’s 17 to 21% and Health and welfare (insurance) that is an additional $6.80. And that’s per hours PAID, not worked (that means over time and double time are paid 1 1/2 times and 2 times the afore mentioned amounts), these are all company paid and do not come out of my hourly wages! The point here is your best hourly pay was around $15.00 per hour that’s around $600.00 per week. On a really good week, I’ll make over $4500.00 before taxes on the check.”

Big D in
Friday, April 24 at 09:24 PM

I used my best weeks to make my point, but as you can clearly see my wages range from $32.00 to $45.00 per hour. But more often than not they are around the $34 or $36 range.

“Give me a break, anyone who makes almost a million a year in just wages ($5,000/wk. x 38 weeks), could care less about Wal-Mart employees!!”

Bob, your math skills need lots and lots of work!
5000 X 38 = $190,000 that’s a far cry from a MILLION! And as per usual you chose to use the highest weeks to try to exaggerate and skew your rant.

I have been around Wal-Mart my entire life. No company is perfect, and if they don’t act in their best interest they end up like GM and Chrysler.

I worked for Wal-Mart in the 70’s, beside Sam Walton himself. Yes, things have changed - but you cannot have anything this large and efficient without change. We have Meijer locally, and people I know there make less and are not as happy as I am. K-Mart is all but gone. Target - why don’t you go pick on them?

I have worked for the company since they entered Michigan.They acquired 16 Mohr-Value stores in 1977, the first Wal-Mart store didn’t go into Michigan until 1990 I have excellent benefits that are affordable, and my wage is above anyone I know I feel sorry for your doctor, kids teachers, police, fireman, mailman, et. al- especially in retail this might be true, after all you say you have over 20 years (although I doubt you are smart enough to make any upward movement since it has been over 30 years since the 1977 acquisition, YOU are the one who said you worked for them ever since they came into Michigan. They entered Michigan as the auto industry was crashing big-time, and they hired many workers who had no hope for good jobs. When the auto plants called them back 8-10 years laterwhat companies call back employees 8-10 years later?  The only way to be called back is to be a union member in good standing (dues paid up) who would pay 8-10 years in UAW dues to work for Wal-Mart?, they stayed. Why? BECAUSE YOU ARE LYING!Great wages and benefits, stock, and the safety of knowing your job wasn’t going away. You all are a bunch of winey, spoiled anti-americans. Try working with your employer for change. But keep in mind, if they do bad - you do without. Thank you Walton family for starting this great company and all that you do to provide for my family. I have over 20 (if you started in the ‘70’s don’t you mean 30?) years in and have done better overall than my husband who is in the auto industry. Thirty years at an average of $10/hr. would be $600,000 in total earnings.  It would take a UAW worker less than 10 years to earn that.  Your husband could have been unemployed 2/3’s of the time and made the same money.  You are SO FULL OF SHIT! In fact, we switched to my benefits when his costs got so high in 2003 (ANOTHER LIE, the UAW “Big 3” didn’t pay one penny of health care until 2005!), as mine were better and cheaper. Better and cheaper than FREE!
God Bless America.......God Bless Wal-Mart!
(and I’m sure this post will never make it to the blog)

Misty in Michigan LYING THROUGH MY TEETH
Friday, May 01 at 06:03 AM

I have excellent benefits that are affordable, and my wage is above anyone I know -

I’m willing to give ‘Misty’ the benefit of the doubt, but I wouldn’t get to comfortable if I were you. You are exactly the type of associate Wal-Mart would like to get rid of according to the Chamber’s Memo.

Given the impact of tenure on wages and benefits, the cost of an Associate with 7 years of tenure is almost 55 percent more than the cost of an Associate with 1 year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity (Exhibit 2).

Moreover, because we pay an Associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart.

It sure sounds like Susan Chambers is talking about you, Misty. After all, why would they want to keep you around when you cost them 55% more than a new hire and your productiviy hasn’t improved since your first year?

...claiming their post was a lie?

If you pro Wal-Marters wouldn’t poison the well by using multiple posting identities, perhaps the occasional pro Wal-Mart post would have more credibility.

quality fade: the deliberate and secret habit of widening profit margins through a reduction in the quality of materials.

Beware Misty!
Your name is probably on a list somewhere to give you the axe for just a minor infraction.

You are cutting into profits and the Beast wont have it!

They may forgive you, if, you take a cut in pay & benefits and keep quiet.

Big D,

“I used my best weeks to make my point.....And as per usual you chose to use the highest weeks to try to exaggerate and skew your rant.”

So, if you use the highest amount, it is to make a point, but if I use the same amount, it is to exaggerate and skew my rant!!

“Bob, your math skills need lots and lots of work!
5000 X 38 = $190,000 that’s a far cry from a MILLION”

Sorry, but I multiplied the amount by 4 by mistake and I was including your retirement and benefits in that million figure, that’s where I came up with the $35,000.00 a month ($7000.00 x 4 = $35,000.00), which would amount to $266,000.00/yr., wages and retirement!!  Boy, your union is sure good at extortion!!

“Sorry, but I multiplied the amount by 4 by mistake and I was including your retirement and benefits in that million figure, that’s where I came up with the $35,000.00 a month ($7000.00 x 4 = $35,000.00), which would amount to $266,000.00/yr., wages and retirement!!  Boy, your union is sure good at extortion!!

No Bob, I’m really GOOD at my job! Go anywhere and find out what a world class nuclear grade pressure vessel welder draws! It just EATS you alive, doesn’t it!!!!!!

Sorry Bob You still have the WORST math skills of any one I have ever heard of. Maybe the third time you will be able to get it right! (If you were my kid right now I’d send you to special ed.) Here, I’m going to help you because you will obviously NEVER be able to figure it out on your own, and frankly I can’t stand to see you embarrassed by this any more, so here it is DUMB ASS.......4 X 7000 = 28000 not 35000 Do you get it yet?

Now I’ll show again exactly what I originally said. No matter how much you try to SPIN it, my statement is right here for all to see. You just keep looking more and more the foolish old fart that we all know you to be!

”I make $32.00 to $45.00 per hour on the check. Then you have to add in my retirement 18 to 22% of gross wages over and above my scale, annuity; that’s 17 to 21% and Health and welfare (insurance) that is an additional $6.80. And that’s per hours PAID, not worked (that means over time and double time are paid 1 1/2 times and 2 times the afore mentioned amounts), these are all company paid and do not come out of my hourly wages! The point here is your best hourly pay was around $15.00 per hour that’s around $600.00 per week. <b >On a really good week</b>, I’ll make over $4500.00 before taxes on the check.”

Big D in
Friday, April 24 at 09:24 PM

You just might want to call it quits; (like a bear cub playing with his peter) it just keeps blowing up in your face!

oh zip you cocky arrogant big mouth ken and go tell your favorite expensive stores like target,k-mart,ufcw union grocery stores and etc to pay better wages and benefits.go bitch about them for once buster.

Statements like that, MATT, besides being amusing, give insight into your station in life. If you consider K-Mart an “expensive” store, what is Neiman-Marcus or Saks 5th Ave.?

There is scarcely anything in the world that some man cannot make a little worse, and sell a little more cheaply. The person who buys on price alone is this man’s lawful prey. ~ John Ruskin

your arrogant a hole attitude and full of shit remarks on here ken shoot down your credibility and prove you are a hypocrite.its true what i say ken.you have no problem with target k-mart and and all your favorite stores etc paying crap wages do you kenny boy?a company like walmart pays better wages and you bitch?explain that one.i have worked for k mart kenny have you?since you have not worked retail and been in the ufcw union ken i suggest you go work in retail and in ufcw union grocery then you will have a better idea what the hell really goes on in those industries.

Hey MATT
Do you talk like that on the street or do you just hide behind a keyboard and play wise guy? My guess is tht you are the keyboard person.

Walmart.....PROUD TO BE UNION

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

Don’t worry about MATT, Alex. He undergoes these ‘episodes’ every now and then when his $4 Wal-Mart prescription runs out.

“I supported this company. I’d bleed Wal-Mart blue for them, but come Thursday night, whenever I was terminated, I’ve lost all respect for Wal-Mart.” ~ Mark Neeley (12 yrs)

“Don’t worry about MATT, Alex. He undergoes these ‘episodes’ every now and then when his $4 Wal-Mart prescription runs out."~Ken V in Texas

Good one Ken! LOL

Walmart.....PROUD TO BE UNION

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse