Walmart War on Workers ?

January 13, 2003 6:45 PM

Walmart started a "War on Workers" ? Apparently so according to a new video released by the owners of the linked website. A Walmart workers' Union incoming ?
posted by elpapacito (10 comments total)

Eh? Apparently so? What's this "apparently" of which you speak?

Fact is, there's no doubt Walmart has a war on its (union-organizing) workers.
posted by five fresh fish at 10:16 PM on January 13, 2003

"Gretchen Adams, who quit Wal-Mart in December 2001, now works as an organizer with the UFCW. She's angry, not only about the way she was treated, but also about the plight of the hourly workers she supervised. "They were not paid enough to live on. There were a whole lot of single mothers," she says. "They would come in crying because they had hard decisions: whether to take their child to the doctor or pay their rent." Many hourly workers were on public assistance because their pay was so low, she recalls. .... Not a single Wal-Mart store is unionized yet"

Wall Mart - Bringing the 3rd World to you, in every way, and with a smile
posted by troutfishing at 11:41 PM on January 13, 2003 [1 favorite]

I predict no one cares. And I post this assuming people won't look, and no one will know I posted.

Great herds of things that would be great big news at any time in the recent past have become "whatever".

I predict this will become the downfall of something related to the US. Not the US itself, that will float into irrelevancy like Japan, but something about the US ideal itself will be subsumed by the apathy about basic elements of people's day-to-day lives.

Not that it matters that I posted this, because no one cares about certain issues. And that is the Achille's heel.

And the beneficiaries of business dominating the first world to the detriment of worker's quality of life? The EU, obviously, where workers have a better quality of life.

A radical opinion, but perfectly safe in this thread, because even on "ultra-liberal" MeFi, no one will read this post.

And if you are reading this, seriously investigate whether you have the right to reclaim citizenship in Europe, because it will give you the right to work in the EU as well as the US.
posted by dglynn at 11:45 PM on January 13, 2003

dglynn - globalization is gnawing away at worker benefits in the US and the EU alike. Choosing EU citizenship would buy you, perhaps, a decade (ahead of US trends).
posted by troutfishing at 12:44 AM on January 14, 2003

So do you derive any degree satisfaction from the fulfillment of your own prediction, dglynn?
posted by rhizome23 at 1:09 AM on January 14, 2003

"Ultra-liberal" Mefi

Heh. Gotta love the gaps between perception and reality, huh, dglynn?

Enough people care about the issue for both Si Kahn and Charlie King to record and perform "WalMart Union Gonna Rise Again." I saw King and Karen Brandow sing it last year, but can't find the lyrics online. Alas and alack.
posted by hippugeek at 1:20 AM on January 14, 2003

I really need to be able to buy a 2 pound tub of malt balls for $1.25 at 3am here in The Middle Of Nowhere, Florida.

UFCW, please don't fuck this up for me with your little insurrection. It's not my fault you didn't choose to go to college.
posted by dong_resin at 6:50 PM on January 14, 2003

That's cool how you know that much about the lives of folks who work at Walmart, dong.
posted by Slimemonster at 11:40 PM on January 14, 2003

globalization is gnawing away at worker benefits in the US and the EU alike. Choosing EU citizenship would buy you, perhaps, a decade (ahead of US trends).

Can you back this up at all? From the UK perspective, enactment of EU legislation on worker's rights has brought a number of benefits, though obviously this isn't to say that the overall trend isn't for the worse. There are different theories as to the impact of globalisation on standards, and on the powers of nation states and their continuance or otherwise.
posted by biffa at 4:38 AM on January 15, 2003

Dglynn, I read this post but have nothing to add. I can't even think of something witty to write, like dong_resin has.

I was however just grumbling to my wife a few days ago -- wondering if it was possible for fast food workers to join unions when their shops are run by individual franchisers. Crap jobs, crap service, crap product. I can't wait for the day when the US service sector is crippled by the rise of the hourly worker. /curmudgeonly babble
posted by Dick Paris at 7:13 AM on January 15, 2003