Walking Contradiction
If you seek a five forces analysis of Wal-Mart, please try this page.
Wal-Mart has far more money in the bank than all its union-led detractors combined. Problem is, public relations campaigns require more than financial capital. Despite major scandals and links to organized crime, decades of watching out for the interests of the little guy, the working man and woman, preventing them from being exploited by unscrupulous employers has rightly earned labor unions a substantial reserve of moral capital. And they draw heavily upon this account in their campaign to "WakeUp" and "Watch" WalMart. However, if events like the one described in last summer's Las Vegas Weekly become the norm, rather than the exception, checks drawn on that account may soon be returned NSF
No, Mr. Greer, it doesn't make sense. And neither does this:
Wal-Mart has far more money in the bank than all its union-led detractors combined. Problem is, public relations campaigns require more than financial capital. Despite major scandals and links to organized crime, decades of watching out for the interests of the little guy, the working man and woman, preventing them from being exploited by unscrupulous employers has rightly earned labor unions a substantial reserve of moral capital. And they draw heavily upon this account in their campaign to "WakeUp" and "Watch" WalMart. However, if events like the one described in last summer's Las Vegas Weekly become the norm, rather than the exception, checks drawn on that account may soon be returned NSF
The shade from the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market sign is minimal around noon; still, six picketers squeeze their thermoses and Dasani bottles onto the dirt below, trying to keep their water cool. They're walking five-hour shifts on this corner at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive in Henderson—anti-Wal-Mart signs propped lazily on their shoulders, deep suntans on their faces and arms—with two 15-minute breaks to run across the street and use the washroom at a gas station.
They're not union members; they're temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the union—United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They're making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it's 104 F, and they're protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.
"It don't make no sense, does it?" says James Greer, the line foreman and the only one who pulls down $8 an hour, as he ambles down the sidewalk, picket sign on shoulder, sweaty hat over sweaty gray hair, spitting sunflower seeds. "We're sacrificing for the people who work in there, and they don't even know it."
No, Mr. Greer, it doesn't make sense. And neither does this:
"We had one gal out here in her 40s, and she had a heat stroke. I kept making her sit down, I noticed she was stepping (staggering), and I made her sit in the shade," Greer said. She went home sick after her shift and didn't ever return to work.
Another woman, Greer said, had huge blisters on her feet and he took her inside to the Wal-Mart pharmacy. The pharmacist recommended some balm, and Greer bought it for her. Since then, he said, other picketers have purchased the balm for their blisters inside the Wal-Mart they are protesting.
The group has no transportation to go elsewhere—they are dropped off by a union van and picked up later. On weekends, they have to find their own transportation, Greer said.
Meanwhile, to listen to this employee working inside the air-conditioned Wal-Mart it is no wonder why he and his co-workers aren't walking the picket line themselves:
"The average rate of pay for Nevada Wal-Mart workers is $10.17 an hour. We have a good insurance program, and every associate—even part-timers—are eligible for the 401k," says Mark Dyson. "There's actually different levels of insurance, dental and medical—I have a $500 deductible, but there's no cap on it. Some other companies' plans have a $1 million cap, but here there's no cap. For example, not long ago we had an associate whose husband needed a liver transplant, and that alone was $600,000; but they didn't have to worry about a cap."For the least comprehensive medical coverage, Wal-Mart workers pay from $17.50 for individual coverage and $70.50 for family coverage biweekly, according to the company website.
One more thing that doesn't make sense is the reply another one of the rent-a-picketers got when asking the union organizer the obvious question...
"I asked him (union organizer Hornbrook), I said, 'How come we're working here for $6 an hour? I need you to help us find a better job. I want information on the union,'" Rivera said.He was told, he says, to secure his own job with a grocery store, and then the union would help him to be sure the store paid him appropriate wages.
"This is an informational picket line only," Hornbrook said. "We're paying these people. They were out of work before (joining their picket lines). This is an in-between-jobs stop. Picketing isn't a career. But we did hire one of the picketers, she's now working for us for $11 an hour (as a driver) and we pay for gasoline."
And it all makes no sense because it flatly contradicts these words appearing on the United Food and Commerical Workers union website:
"Every person working hard for a living earns the right to a decent wage, affordable health care and a voice on the job. But Wal-Mart's greed provides other companies a license to chip away at the rights of working America, influencing everything from wages to working conditions."
Thus, the UFCW is perfectly willing to callously exploit non-union labor, to literally walk them in small circles until their feet are calloused, in order to get Wal-Mart to provide well-compensated, medically-covered union workers with even better benefits. You won't find me quoting Green Day on this blog very often, but today, no better words come to mind than these to describe the union's behavior:
I have no belief
But I believe
I'm a walking contradiction
And I ain't got no right
Greenday
No right and, soon, no moral capital left either.
UPDATE: Lest you think what happened in Las vegas is an isolated incident, think again:
Homeless picket for striking carpenters, Delaware Online
In Washington, Baltimore, Atlanta and elsewhere in the country, union organizers are scouring shelters and recruiting homeless people to man their picket lines, paying just above minimum wage and failing to provide health benefits.
The national carpenters' union, which broke from the AFL-CIO four years ago in a bitter dispute over organizing strategies and other issues, is hiring homeless people to stage noisy protests at nonunion construction sites.
"We're giving jobs to people who didn't have jobs, people who in some cases couldn't secure work," said George Eisner, head of the union's mid-Atlantic regional council in Baltimore.
The carpenters who belong to his union, Eisner explained, are already gainfully employed. With homes and offices being built or renovated and real estate still booming in many urban areas, he said, the union carpenters are too busy to join the picket lines.
"Work is good, and our members are working," Eisner said. "This is just the best thing for us to do at this point."
Local Unions Paying Homeless to Protest, Street Sense, Washington DC
It’s early morning on one of the hottest days of the summer, but there are already half a dozen homeless people crowding around Mike Zaner as they wait for breakfast at Zacchaeus Community Kitchen. Zaner is there to offer them jobs — as protesters.
Zaner works for the Mid-Atlantic Regional Council of Carpenters, which has been carrying out daily two-hour protests against Tricon Construction at 601 13th St., NW, an office building, located three blocks away from Zacchaeus, where Tricon is doing construction work on the ninth floor.
The union is objecting to what it says are the substandard wages Tricon is paying, but instead of having carpenters chant and protest everyday, they have hired homeless people to do so.
According to George Eisner, the union's organizing director, most of the protesters marching in front of the building carrying signs and reciting chants live in shelters. He cited Zacchaeus in particular as a source for new protesters.
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