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Walmart: The Big Labor White Whale
Townhall.com ^ | July 10, 2013 | Barbara Comstock

Posted on 07/10/2013 10:30:03 AM PDT by Kaslin

Imagine you’ve finished a long, trying day at work. You’ve picked up your two toddlers from childcare, and stop at your local Walmart store on the way home to pick up some groceries. After successfully managing your shopping cart and two squirming little ones you finally reach the checkout aisle, sighing with relief as you realize that your day is almost done. But once there, you find that Big Labor protesters, most of whom don’t even work at Walmart, have taken over the store. They are chanting loudly and yelling directly at cashiers because they are not currently union members – and your long day is getting longer.

This is how today’s desperate union bosses have taken to gaining membership – making life miserable for employers, customers and even employees who they repeatedly harass, just to get them to become dues paying members.

Today, with only a little more than seven percent of the private sector workforce belonging to a union, most hardworking taxpayers find that federal and state laws and regulations on wages, workplace safety and discrimination policies already provide them, by law, what unions used to provide in the past – but without the bite from their wallets.

So if workers aren’t demanding unions, what’s Big Labor to do? They now engage in bullying and intimidation campaigns against large un-unionized companies who haven’t surrendered to previous public relations attacks. The idea is to make it too expensive and inconvenient for customers and employees alike not to surrender to union bosses – regardless of what the employees might choose. Walmart is one of the most popular targets, because as the nation’s largest employer, their non-union status means that union bosses don’t have their cut of the salaries of 1.4 million workers.

Nearly every year for the last decade, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union has created a new effort to unionize the 1.4 million Walmart employees in the U.S. who are not paying into union coffers. In 2002, they created an effort called “The People’s Campaign.” In 2004 it was “Walmart Alliance for Reform Now” (WARN). Then it was the “Walmart Workers Association”. In 2005 it was “Wake Up Walmart”. In 2006 it was “Walmart Workers of America”. In 2008 it was “Walmart Workers for Change”. Today, it’s “OUR Walmart” and “Making Change at Walmart”.

No significant group of hardworking associates at Walmart have come together to request UFCW representation. Walmart workers are generally more satisfied with their employment situation than the average retail employee and they want to keep their money in their own pockets. Last year, Walmart conducted a confidential survey of nearly 20,000 employees and found that 86 percent of those polled either “strongly agree” or “agree” with the statement, “I really love my job.” But these content employees made UFCW bosses very unhappy.

So these union-created entities have periodically sprung up through the efforts of union-paid community organizers and members employed by competing stores. This past year they staged what they predicted would be mass demonstration in all 50 states as part of Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – the biggest shopping day of the year for retail stores.

The paid union organizers called it the “National Day of Action at Walmart Stores.” The media dutifully turned out in large numbers for the made for TV protests. So did the paid union representatives. But what about actual real life Walmart employees? Not so much of a turnout – just a handful of workers joined the Potemkin protests. Even with the agitation created by paid union organizers, real life employees are not inspired for the change that would mean more money out of their pockets. Turns out they just aren’t that into the union bosses.

Now just imagine instead of media reporting over and over again on these staged efforts, they actually provided context and pointed out that this 2012 Black Friday event was a repeat of a 2002 similar effort. Imagine if they actually highlighted many of these bullying tactics such as these – “They have screamed through bullhorns, paraded around with banners and signs on sticks, conducted in-store ‘flash mobs,’ and diverted management and local police from their normal job functions.” Unlike the “Our Walmart” Potemkin protests – those would be stories.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: biglabor; bullying; labor; unionbosses; unions; walmart
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1 posted on 07/10/2013 10:30:03 AM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Unions bullying working people. Shameful.


2 posted on 07/10/2013 10:35:34 AM PDT by txrefugee
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To: Kaslin

They are trespassing, harassing employees and other people in the store, they are not paying customers, they are making a nuisance of themselves, will not leave when asked by store management,

call the cops and have them removed, or get security and have them be removed by the security people.


3 posted on 07/10/2013 10:35:50 AM PDT by Secret Agent Man (Gone Galt; Not averse to Going Bronson.)
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To: txrefugee

This is what you get when a community organizer (read rabble planner) is placed in power over US and he appoints his thugs to positions of power ... like the treacherous Holder & co.


4 posted on 07/10/2013 10:38:21 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Being deceived can be cured.)
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To: Secret Agent Man
My thought as well. If I showed up to my local Wal-Mart to pass out fliers for a home business, pet political cause or whatever, I would be asked to leave in a New York minute.

Why are the union thugs immune?

5 posted on 07/10/2013 10:42:13 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Kaslin

They have just about accomplished their mission of destroying the domestic car manufacturing industry. Time to move on to green pastures.


6 posted on 07/10/2013 10:45:57 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who could have guessed that one day pro wrestling would be less fake than mainstream journalism?)
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To: MHGinTN

” This is what you get when a community organizer (read rabble planner) is placed in power over US and he appoints his thugs to positions of power ... like the treacherous Holder & co.”

And it will get worse, as we offer no opposition to his treason.


7 posted on 07/10/2013 10:46:36 AM PDT by stephenjohnbanker (K I L L T H E B I L L !!)
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To: Kaslin

A line of armed security guards should be arresting the disruptive persons. The store is private property. Arrest them. Trespass them. Bar them from entry to any Walmart store nationwide. If they trespass again, lock them up for 6 months.


8 posted on 07/10/2013 10:48:01 AM PDT by Myrddin
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To: Vigilanteman

Because there are a lot of them.


9 posted on 07/10/2013 10:48:58 AM PDT by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Secret Agent Man

They sure are and the police should remove them


10 posted on 07/10/2013 10:49:42 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Myrddin

They wouldn’t even be allowed in or outside of our local Wal Mart Superstores. The police have permanent dedicated parking spaces there and they would call for reinforcement if necessary


11 posted on 07/10/2013 10:56:32 AM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: txrefugee

They’re terrible here in Albuquerque. No matter what new business opens be it a store, a restaurant or a hotel, there are union workers standing out there with big vinyl signage attempting to stop people going into said new business.

When I see that even if I hadn’t planned to shop at that business I go purchase something and on my way in I tell the union workers YOU MADE ME spend money here because of your protesting! I tell them to go back and tell their union bosses that and I get some ugly looks and comments but I don’t care.

Unions are nothing but thugs now.


12 posted on 07/10/2013 10:58:02 AM PDT by leapfrog0202 ("the American presidency is not supposed to be a journey of personal discovery" Sarah Palin)
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To: Kaslin

“Get off my lawn.”


13 posted on 07/10/2013 11:01:26 AM PDT by onedoug
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To: Kaslin

If I needed to shop at Walmart I wouldn’t have two toddlers.


14 posted on 07/10/2013 11:01:43 AM PDT by kabumpo (Kabumpo)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
They have just about accomplished their mission of destroying the domestic car manufacturing industry.

This will come as a great surprise to Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, VW, BMW (Bubba Makes Wheels in SC) and a few others I probably missed.

15 posted on 07/10/2013 11:24:37 AM PDT by SpeakerToAnimals (I hope to earn a name in battle)
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To: SpeakerToAnimals

Which are not union shops.


16 posted on 07/10/2013 11:25:37 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who could have guessed that one day pro wrestling would be less fake than mainstream journalism?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
Correct, but they do pay tens of thousands of Americans to build cars where they sell them. That is the domestic car industry. As for the unions killing GM and Dodge, well that is just too bad. Lousy companies building lousy junk deserve to die.

Ford seems to be doing ok in spite of the unions. Building desirable stuff like the F-150 and the Mustang is the reason.

17 posted on 07/10/2013 11:32:24 AM PDT by SpeakerToAnimals (I hope to earn a name in battle)
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To: SpeakerToAnimals

My point was that unions destroy everything they touch.


18 posted on 07/10/2013 11:33:43 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Who could have guessed that one day pro wrestling would be less fake than mainstream journalism?)
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To: Secret Agent Man
call the cops and have them removed, or get security and have them be removed by the security people.

The problem with cops is that they're unionized. All law enforcement is selective and political.

19 posted on 07/10/2013 11:34:37 AM PDT by Spirochete (Does the FedGov have the attributes of a legitimate government?)
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
No argument from me. I agree. My pet peeve is calling Detroit the American auto industry. Detroit most assuredly is NOT the center of US auto Manufacturing. A Camry from Kentucky has the highest USA parts content we can buy. Detroit nuked itself from orbit, just to be sure.

Such a pity us taxpayers had to bail out the UAW pension plan.

20 posted on 07/10/2013 11:37:56 AM PDT by SpeakerToAnimals (I hope to earn a name in battle)
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