Posted on 12/05/2013 3:06:03 PM PST by Kaslin
As union membership continues to decline, Big Labor bosses have been desperately trying to force workers into collective bargaining units, recently going as far as organizing a series of high-profile protests against retail companies, focusing primarily on Walmart.
These protests were window dressed on Black Friday as a grass-roots worker movement to improve employee welfare when in fact very few of the “protesters” were Walmart employees. Instead, they were protesters paid by Big Labor to engage in disruptive activities in order to gain media attention and intimidate America’s largest employer so it may cave into union demands.
And now, the labor movement is using this same tactic against another target: fast-food chains.
According to recent media reports, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) is organizing a campaign to protest at fast-food chains across the country, including McDonalds and Wendy’s. On Thursday, the SEIU-backed movement will sponsor demonstrations in roughly 100 cities – if you believe the claims being made. Organized labor contends that these protests have as their goal to pressure fast-food chains to pay their employees a “living wage”, a minimum of $15 per hour. But doubling the wage in this highly competitive and narrow margin business when many of these jobs are entry level, seasonal, short-term or second incomes will simply hasten the companies move to automation and decrease employment. Against this reality, Big Labor’s statements are a red herring; the real goal is unionizing America’s largest companies so union bosses can benefit from increased dues.
Organized labor is trying to unionize these companies to remain relevant. Since the bankruptcy of General Motors and the fall of Detroit, more employees and employers than ever before are resisting Big Labor’s organizing efforts, and union membership continues to shrink, 400,000 in 2012 alone. As a result, the labor movement is in crisis and resorting to highly deceptive, albeit creative, street theater to get new dues paying members. Fast-food chains and large retail stores have the potential of providing the movement with what it needs, as they employ millions throughout the country.
One of the reasons for Big Labor’s cash crunch is that its pension funds that have been so grossly mismanaged many are close to failing. A number of the SEIU's pension funds are so under-funded that they are categorized by the Department of Labor as “critical” or “endangered.” These new and near desperate organizing drives are part and parcel to an effort feeding a self-destructive cycle whereby you add more dues-paying workers into a pool to prop the funds up, but continue the mismanagement and losses.
The truth has been a casualty of these misinformation campaigns, which attempt to portray many employees at these retail or fast-food chains as disgruntled and therefore protesting. But on Black Friday, as mentioned, few of the so-called protesters were actually Walmart employees and media outlets are already reporting that labor bosses are also planning to pay those who protest at the fast-food chains this week.
Big Labor’s effort, if successful, will result in many workers losing their entry-level jobs depriving them of the opportunity to prove themselves and move on to better-paying work and management experience.
The sad truth is that these union-organized protests, whether it is this week’s fast-food chain demonstrations or last week’s Black Friday activities, are about growing the labor membership base to collect more dues, not improving the well-being of workers.
notice, however, how very, very few fast food employees have opted to join these big unions
that pretty much says it all.
To me its especially irritating when they harass the small businessmen who own restaurant franchises. The whole damn thing is a lie with few if any actual employees protesting. There is zero altruistic sentiment behind it.
If I were in town I would have gone out and bought $50 worth of burgers and handed they out to homeless people and done some actual good.
Unions don’t give a damned about its members. All they care about is increasing the number of members so they can get more socialist Rats elected to finish the destruction of the US.
Maybe its time we left the blue states to ‘em...
Did anyone walk off the job today? I haven’t heard about a wave of downtrodden hamburger flippers walking out the door, arm in arm, singing “look for the union label” today, so I am guessing that the whole thing was a giant dud. But did anything happen anywhere?
And watch what happens once they get their way and they realize it means all of the prices go up. The liberal idiots never think things through to their full conclusion.
In fact, there are more unionized government employees in the U.S. today, than what exist in the private sector.
They are like cornered animals.
They aren't even thinking. With higher minimum wage and unionization, those entry-level jobs will dry up and blow away, leaving the unions in pretty much the same condition as before, but there will be millions fewer jobs.
Maybe it is time to secede.
I’d swear that this whole push to unionize fast food was foisted by the companies planning to automate the fast-food process. If these clowns think a company like McDonalds won’t do that, they’re smoking something.
There was a guy interviewed today who was complaining that he has a kid on the way and he doesn’t make enough money at McDonald’s. They want their salary based on how many kids they have. I wonder where they got that idea. Welfare?
...so I am guessing that the whole thing was a giant dud. But did anything happen anywhere?
notice, however, how very, very few fast food employees have opted to join these big unions
that pretty much says it all.
Maybe they are actually smart enough to figure out how much of any increase they got would be left with the union. NAHHHH!
Yes. Well, jobs exist at certain price/ wage scales and less jobs are viable or can exist at higher ones. Raising wages in a depressed economy with all time record unemployment like now is not rational. Nor really possible. Why are we all forced to deal with such economics ignoramussses ( ignoramasi? ) these days ? Another sign of failure by the education system.
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