BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 23 Dec 12 - 01:00 PM

This came up this morning on AlterNet.

In Wake of Factory Fire, U.S. Labor Groups Attempt Blockade of Walmart Imports

Olivia Rosane
    YES! Magazine/News Report
Published: Sunday 23 December 2012
A fire that killed 112 workers in a factory that supplies goods to Walmart has inspired the next wave of actions demanding justice for workers along the company's supply chain.
The fight for justice at Walmart went another round on Tuesday morning, as around 75 protesters gathered in Port Newark, N.J., in an attempt to block the unloading of the container ship Maersk Carolina, whose cargo included Walmart-bound goods made in Bangladesh. While the blockade was not successful, the action demonstrated the strengthening alliance between Occupy-related groups and more labor-specific organizations.
The action came less than a month after 112 workers burned to death in the Tazreen Factory in Bangladesh, which supplies clothes to Walmart. Bloomberg reported that in 2011, the retail giant had refused to cover the costs of safety improvements to Bangladeshi factories such as Tazreen. Bangladeshi authorities who researched the case just announced findings of "unpardonable negligence."

The protesters, who included participants in Occupy Wall Street as well as labor and community groups, hoped to connect Walmart's actions abroad to its actions at home. Goods from Bangladesh are unloaded by the International Longshoreman's Alliance, then distributed to warehouses, and finally to Walmart's retail outlets. Labor unrest appears at every stage in this supply chain: the longshoremen are currently in contract negotiations, warehouse workers in California and Illinois went on strike this September over unsafe and unfair working conditions, and retail workers walked out on Black Friday over low wages and retaliatory tactics.

"The main purpose of this event was to highlight Walmart's abuses throughout the supply chain," said organizer and Occupy Wall Street member Isham Christie.

Organizers had also planned to disrupt that supply chain. Their original intent was to leaflet the employee entrance to the port and persuade the Longshoremen not to unload the Maersk Carolina.


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But port police and Homeland Security agents stepped in and escorted the busses of protesters to a stretch of highway out of sight of the worker entrance. While this outcome disappointed many of those in attendance, it also proved the activists' point.

"I think they realize the supply chain is vulnerable to economic disruption," Christie said.

Despite the failure of the blockade, Christie noted that protesters had received many honks of support from passing truckers, and hoped that picketing near the port would give the Longshoremen an edge in contract negotiations. This was the first East Coast port action organized by Occupy Wall Street, Christie said, and it will not be the last.

A deepening alliance

The port action also bore witness to an increasingly fruitful collaboration between Occupy Wall Street and labor and community groups along issues of workers' rights.

First, individuals within Occupy Wall Street researched the supply route from Bangladesh to the United States and put out the call to action. But that call was taken up by many organizations, including Occupy working groups like 99 Pickets as well as more established labor organizations such as ALIGN, Jobs With Justice, the Retail Action Project, the New Jersey State Industrial Union Council, and the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, which sponsored busses from New York City.

Maritza Silva-Farrell, Senior Organizer at ALIGN, has been working to keep Walmart stores out of New York City since 2011. She said the collaboration between Occupy and groups like hers was building momentum around workers' rights. "We want to build a movement, a real movement, and this is it," she said.

She praised 99 Pickets, an Occupy working group formed after May Day out of conversations between other labor-related groups such as Immigrant Worker Justice and the Labor Outreach Council. The group works to unite workers and struggles around New York City by organizing, publicizing, and attending picket lines.

Exactly a week before the port action, the two groups helped organize one such action outside a talk on corporate responsibility by Walmart CEO Mike Duke. According to Silva-Farrell, the protest succeeded in influencing some of the questions Duke received at the event.

99 Pickets member Michelle Flores said that worker justice has always been part of Occupy Wall Street's larger agenda. Many people, she said, had come to OWS from various labor struggles. "Occupy Wall Street built on that momentum and I think that momentum came out of it," she said.

From the workplace occupation of Hot and Crusty to the Black Friday strikes at Walmart, the fall of 2012 has seen an increased focus on labor militancy within Occupy. Tuesday's port action, however small, helped build that wave.

As for the Maersk Carolina, its role in the fight for justice at Walmart isn't over yet. Reports are already emerging that protesters will target the ship again when it docks on Thursday in Charleston, S.C.



Olivia Rosane wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas and practical actions. She is a writer and activist living in New York City. In addition to covering Occupy Wall Street for YES! last fall, she has written for Dissent's blog and The State. Follow her on Twitter @orosane.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 25 Nov 12 - 11:27 AM

They used to shoot them. Ford, I think.
=(:-( o)

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 25 Nov 12 - 11:24 AM

There were no arrests where I was. The police were cooperating with the store and photographing everyone in the demonstration. When I spoke with the officers, many of them said that they would rather be on our side of the demonstration.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 25 Nov 12 - 10:45 AM

They're kicking ass, folks!
Our Heroes

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 24 Nov 12 - 09:23 PM

Yes, Dani... We have become a "consumer nation" and that is another discussion onto itself...

Goes way back... Remember the Rolling Stones singing:

"When I'm watching my T.V.
And a man comes on to tell me
How white my shirts can be
But he can't be a man 'cause he doesn't smoke
The same cigarettes as me..."

Yeah, everyone trying to keep up with the Jones but everyone doing it with the same money they made back 30, 40 years ago???

Very messed up...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 24 Nov 12 - 08:29 PM

As mentioned above, I was there yesterday. Here's the report I shared with my union:

This afternoon, we spent the day with representatives from Occupy, various labor groups, the Rude Mechanical Band and about 1000 other people picketing the Secaucus WalMart store.

About 100 of us went into the store and did "mike checks," a cross between flash mobs and human amplification. Several of us were photographed by the Bergen County sheriff's office as we were invited to leave the store.

Judging by the car count, despite WalMart's claims store attendance was down in comparison to other stores in the same shopping complex.

One issue that I would have expected to be better handled was that the prepared shoutouts were too intellectual. My own was: WalMart workers cannot afford to shop where they work.
--------
I kept it simple and aimed the issue at the people in the store, not the intelligensia.

I hope we are watching the first steps of a union in formation.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 24 Nov 12 - 07:13 PM

I don't disagree that the minimum wage has to be raised, and that companies that deliberately manipulate hours to avoid paying for benefits should be put out to pasture, or worse. If Walmart workers are willing to step out and risk their jobs to get fair pay and fair treatment, I'll be with them.

But I also think we need a hard, hard look at the bigger picture. Who shops at Walmart, and for what!? 'Cause someone does, for them to be as big and town-sucking as they are.

A gross oversimplification to be sure, but I do believe the larger part of their customers are people who don't make much money, and have to stretch it, and so buy cheap shit at Walmart. Some of which is important stuff we all 'need', but an awful lot of what Walmart markets is cheap shit that tries to look like better shit, that many people feel like they need to have to keep up with the god-blessed, everloving Joneses and their more expensive shit. Same goes for Target.

I really do think the wide streak of stuff-wanting in our culture is a piece of this puzzle that has to be taken seriously.

I'll step aside and listen.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 22 Nov 12 - 08:46 AM

Big Pharma needs more than regulation... We need to fix the provisions in the Medicare prescription program that allows for price negotiations... We pay whatever price Big Pharma says... That is ridiculous... They are stealing from us big (pharma) time...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 22 Nov 12 - 12:04 AM

It's a mess. A complete mess. It makes me cry.
boo hoo

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:40 PM

Big Pharma needs to be regulated, also.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:18 PM

single payer health insurance is the most logical and cost effective method... but it also needs to combined with an effective & impartial review system that monitors the industry.

and that includes oversight of the damn ambulance chasing lawyers that grow fat with their legalized extortion that has made malpractice insurance so outrageous.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 09:56 PM

Pay is part of it, but there's more.

Excellent article at https://www.coach4u.net/coach_4_u_blog/top-5-job-satisfaction-factors.html

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 07:07 PM

Pay is where it starts, s-g...

Of course, once you get past that elephant in the room then that opens up the entire spectrum of how workers are valued, how workers share in success, respected, listened to, a participant, etc...

Yes, had you been around here for years you'd know how I have pushed for the most progressive positions including single payer health care...

Believe me... I am as left as left can be... I was brought up by my "commie mommy"... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 05:53 PM

Bobert... it's not just a matter of pay...

it's a combination of pay, inflation, a society based on waste... but mostly the accumulation of wealth & resources by a small group (corporations & greedy individuals) at the expense of everyone else.

the 1% is the new "aristocracy"... with all the perks & sense of entitlement that goes with such arrogance... the "little people" are those they need to keep up their sense of superiority.

national health care should be part of our national security... it hasn't escaped the notice of our armed forces that the young people that they hope to recruit are not all in the best of shape.

I think what we need is more respect for individuals... not this back biting, scapegoating crap we have now...

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 05:13 PM

Yo, sciencegeek...

My grand daddy was one of those tough guys who were involved in organizing unions... He had the scars to prove it... But he was tough... He worked on a lot of tall buildings in New York City... He's leave Trenton, where my dad was born, on Sunday night and come home Friday night... My dad got bounced around alot...

My mom was a tough pro-union lady and she loved Walther Ruther, the president of the United Auto Workers...

Ya' know, if my dad had come up today he wouldn't have had the opportunities that he had back then...

We need to be having a real discussion about just how poorly our working class is paid...

The minimum wage should be $13 an hour... Even at that most people would be living in poverty...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 01:57 PM

http://www.corporateactionnetwork.org/campaigns/black-friday

If you would like to join an action of Friday, follow the link above. See you on the line. EB

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 01:15 PM

Bobert... very close backgrounds... :)

dad's family were bricklayers & stone masons who left Italy for the US at the end of the 19th century.

the Veterans Bill let some of family attend college... but the union enabled "mere" laborers... no matter how skilled... to join the middle class and aspire for a better future for their kids.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 01:08 PM

Hell yea! Bastards!
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 01:01 PM

I am also a product of a union family... My dad (UAW) never finished high school because his mother died early in his life and his father, a stone mason, was away too much working so my dad had to get by by himself at age 13...

But he made a decent living with Ford and as a result of if we were a middle class family and I, as many other kids my age, was the first of either side of my family to go and graduate from college...

That's what unions are about... Not the usual mythology or the few bad apples... Unions = opportunity...

The lack of unions in America is the reason why of all the modern western nations Americans rank high on all the bad stuff and low on the good stuff...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 12:51 PM

"One of the problems with equating what seem like good wages (and $13/hour ain't bad for certain types of work) is that often it's the only issue people see and so they think the employee is complaining about that. Too often the real issue is lack of benefits ensured by allowing workers only sufficient hours NOT to qualify for decent benefits. "

too true... a neighbor once made a snide remark about my dad's union wage... her husband with the full time job that grossed more than my dad's annual pay. Funny how they forget that we'd like to eat every day or the monthly bills needed paying regardless of whether or not there was work available.... and the skill needed to build a solid structure that will stand for 75 years or longer is not to be sneered at either.

but we also need to consider the multi-billion dollar businesses - like Pappa Johns that would rather reduce hours of their workers to avoid spending a few million dollars for health care. They can keep their free pizzas... I'd boycott them... except I've never been a customer...

trickle down economics means the 1% pissing on the rest of us... "tinkle down" economics is what it really is...

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Greg F.
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 12:43 PM

Well, Becca, as I said - try unionizing your workplace. You'll be a lot better off. Most U.S. folks - and I'm not saying you, necessarily - seem to have forgotten the labor history of this country, to thair disadvantage.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: EBarnacle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 12:29 PM

I will be standing outside my local WalWart with a sign from my union stating my support for the workers.

By the way, they do not have a union to authorize a strike for them. What you are seeing is the first steps of authorizing one. In the past, WalMart has closed stores which have voted to organize.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 12:22 PM

We need to crush those ballbustin' bastards. Make them pay. Boycott them. Start an online petition.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:45 AM

It would be marvellous to see unions stand up to boss Hogg (and his apologist Krinklefule) in the USA. Hell, it would be nice in the UK too. I'm a member of UCU and still paying subscriptions despite a shift in my earning from lecturing to other sources last year. I don't scab.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:26 AM

One of the problems with equating what seem like good wages (and $13/hour ain't bad for certain types of work) is that often it's the only issue people see and so they think the employee is complaining about that. Too often the real issue is lack of benefits ensured by allowing workers only sufficient hours NOT to qualify for decent benefits.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:14 AM

Every year right after Christmas I would return every piece of crap I bought at Walmart. No receipt needed. So they got every piece of worthless, broken, used junk I could drag down there. Regardless of where it was purchased.
Merry Christmas!!
=(:-( D)

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 11:03 AM

"I spent a miserable year working as a cashier at Marshalls... treated like dirt by the corporate heads for pennies above minimum wage and their motto was "we'll close the doors before we"ll let in a union."

Actualy, the motto from Marshall Field was "the customer is always right".

that was their advertizing slogan... truth in advertizing?... the corporate heads' motto was as I stated before.

as for the customers... we even had one who brought in homemade clothes that she tried to get a "refund" for... there were plenty of honest, decent people who shopped for bargains... but there was also a number of wackos who made life miserable for anyone who had to deal with them... which never happened to be anyone from corporate headquarters.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:57 AM

Bingo, sciencegeek, and well said.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:51 AM

my dad was in a trade union... he and his brothers helped build many of the buildings in New York City- skyscrapers, hospitals, apartment buildings. They even went out of state & helped build parts of Perdue University when work was slim at home.

The union - we'll leave out some of the union bosses, as bad as many politicians- provided a safety net for dad & my family. And I can remember plenty of times that we lived on what was in the pantry & freezer that was stocked when the paychecks did come in.

I am a union member that works for a state... after 28 years, my pay is but a fraction of that of the political appointees - mostly patronage jobs given to folks who owe their their jobs to who they know, rather than what they know- jobs that used to be part of the civil service and based on merit, but removed by politicians. A newly elected state assemblyman earns more ... plus the perks of office.

But the unions are the parasites? No... we are scapegoats to distract voters from the real problem...

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: pdq
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:46 AM

"I spent a miserable year working as a cashier at Marshalls... treated like dirt by the corporate heads for pennies above minimum wage and their motto was "we'll close the doors before we"ll let in a union."

Actualy, the motto from Marshall Field was "the customer is always right".

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Becca72
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:07 AM

No, Greg, I do not.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:02 AM

Median, bobette. Median.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 10:00 AM

The medium income doubled between 1952 and 1972 when 30% of American workers were members of unions... Since then the real wages (after inflation) have flat-lined as unions have been busted one after another...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Greg F.
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 09:41 AM

Do you belong to a Union, Becca? That could be the problem.....

("middle management" is an oxymoron- been there, done that)

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: kendall
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 09:02 AM

Cross a picket line? Hell, I wouldn't cross a CHORUS Line!

I never shop at Wal Mart.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: sciencegeek
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 08:33 AM

to put a perspective on "robber barons"... the former Marshall Fields estate on Long Island's north shore - both a state park & Queen's Collage campus back when I was in grad school... was essentially a small feudal state.

It had a full time staff - though the owner was almost never in residence- with orchards, dairy, stable - you've seen the stable in Dudley Moore's movie, Arthur- the mansion had a hanging system to put the freshly ironed newspaper on so that

Marshall had a crisp newspaper to read that wouldn't stain his fingers with ink.

Cornelius Vanderbuilt built his own private highway out to his Long Island estate- one of many.

I spent a miserable year working as a cashier at Marshalls... treated like dirt by the corporate heads for pennies above minimum wage and their motto was "we'll close the doors before we"ll let in a union."

union are not perfect... but the alternative is economic slavery in a supposedly "free country".

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Becca72
Date: 21 Nov 12 - 08:23 AM

Based soley on the caliber of employee at my local WalMart, none of them have the skills I would associate with a $13/hr job...
I'm in middle management and don't make a whole hell of a lot more than that and my job is far more taxing.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 10:33 PM

Krinkx and thinkx ain't got much in common, folks, in case you hadn't noticed...

B;~)

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 10:22 PM

$13 is better than $5. Or $0.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 09:00 PM

And that is sad, Dani...

This country can afford to pay its working class well... Yes, people are happy (?) to have anything but that ain't like...

...happy...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,Dani
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:53 PM

We can talk all day about the evils of Walmart, and I'd be happy to.

But we need a reality check here. I know PLENTY of people making $13 an hour or less, who are glad to have it, and working hard for it, some with resumes much better than your average greeter or cashier at Walmart. Not saying it's right or wrong, just that it is.

Dani

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: ChanteyLass
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:47 PM

I'm thinking of going to my local WalMart Friday to see if anyone is picketing there. If so, I'll join them. If not, I'll go home. I won't shop there.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:37 PM

Great, Krinkx...

How you plan on doing that with the constant drivel that you post here??? Tell us what your plan is and what you are doing in your community to bring about equality???

Talk is cheap...

Drivel even cheaper...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:34 PM

We need to tear down their walls. Bring equality to everyone.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:30 PM

The Krinkx has just spouted Boss Hog's mantra...

Reality is that when I grew up everyone lived in the same moderate houses... CEOs, Congrssmen, managers, truck driver, bakers, bankers, salesmen, cops, etc... We didn't have mansions... We didn't have this massive income inequity... The last time this country saw this kind of income inequity was in the 1890s with the robber barons...

Boss Hog loves to cry, "We're broke"... No, we are not broke at all... If you take the GNP and spread it around equally there is enough for every man, woman and child to have an annual income of $80,000... Hey, who couldn't live on that... Man and wife = $160,000 a year... Man, wife and 1 child = $240,000...

No, we're not broke at all... We are rich... Well, not we... The upper 1% are dripping rich... I mean, chokin' on cash...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:19 PM

If they're unhappy they can quit. Go find $13 someplace. Don't be crybabies.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Nov 12 - 08:06 PM

One of the things that Walmart employees want is to be paid $13 an hour... $13 and hour??? Even if they were to be paid $13 an hour they would still be living poverty...

What does that say about what Walmart pays people???

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 11:11 PM

Although Walmart has resisted unions it should be noted that reports say that it's a union whose members are the organizers of the strike.

The reports I've seen indicate that the "issue" is about whether employees should be required to work odd shifts for the after Thanksgiving "Black Whatever?" farce. Walmart replies to the first complaints make the claim that employees (associates?) scheduled to work the off-normal hours were taken almost exclusively from those who volunteered to do so, that they had more willing volunteers than hours to assign, and that they had seen very few complaints from any assigned who didn't want the hours.

The unrecognized agenda that is suggested by the complaints is that this is essentially a "wildcat" strike, NOT AUTHORIZED BY THEIR OWN UNION, but organized by a few who think that "Thanksgiving should be kept sacred because it's an important Christian Holiday."

Thus far, I've seen no coherent explanation of what "grievance" the strikers have in mind, other than they want to go out and play with the other kiddies instead of going to work. Disrupted schedules for some can be a real hardship, so there might be some validity for some of the complainants; but they've failed to articulate their objections very clearly.

So far as has been reported, Walmart has accepted their right to stay home, but has taken reasonable legal steps to prevent them from abusing the customers who want to go play (with their own kiddie friends) at Walmart during the extra "sale event hours."

I don't see much of anything for anyone on either side of the union/nonunion debates to celebrate in this non-event; but of course it may all be a lot clearer when the media explains it to us. (yeah, sure, you believe it don't you?. ...)

John

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 10:40 PM

It would be nice if Canadian Tire employees followed suit. But then I dream lots.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,999
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 10:31 PM

I have never crossed a strike line in my life and I ain't about to start now.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Greg F.
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 10:12 PM

You bet, Dan. I'm with you!

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: GUEST,olddude
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 10:03 PM

I got a personal rule, if they picket I don't cross the line. I support anyone trying to eeek out a better living for their families from Boss Hog as Bobster says.

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 09:47 PM

You should take up their cause, bobette. You can be a modern day Norma Jean. Write a song about Sam Walton's grave. You have my support. And songwriting skills at your disposal.
=(:-( ))

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 09:42 PM

Yeah, I remember Sam Walton... Neat old guy... He would be behind the strikers...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 09:38 PM

And Sam Walton is turning over in his grave. Do you remeber the fine book about doing business named, "In Search of Excellence?" One of the great success stories was about Sam Walton and WalMart which back then was a far different ompany, one of which old Sam was vewry proud. It was a great place to work as that book documented. If Sam's customers were #1, then his Employee's were #1-B. Everyone had a title and a position. Sam would make themup. All of his people were called associates and they had profit sharing when very few had heard of it.

From a 1983 newspaper article:

Walton practices what he preaches. He makes regular "grass roots" visits to his salespeople; half of what the company saves in reducing shoplifting and errors is returned to associates—up to $200 apiece last year; Wal-Mart's profit-sharing plan is one of the best in the business. For its consumers, the chain gives each year a $1,000 college scholarship to a high school senior in every Wal-Mart community. Walton also loves to encourage old-time retail razzle-dazzle such as having paratroopers drop into the parking lot of a store celebrating an anniversary. Explains Jack Shewmaker, president of Wal-Mart, "People like to shop where something is happening."

Sam Walton's "hands-on" management style has earned him praise in the best-seller "In Search of Excellence: Lessons From America's Best-Run Companies." Most of his associates would be the first to agree. One night, for instance, Walton couldn't sleep. At 2:30 a.m. he got up, bought four dozen donuts at an all-night bakery and took them to one of his distribution centers, where he chatted with workers on the shipping docks. There he discovered that two more shower stalls were needed at the location and had them put in. Such involvement has paid human as well as financial dividends. Arkansas' Sen. David Pryor remarked amiably after the Walton Day celebration that the only thing Bentonville didn't do for Sam and Helen Walton was to rename the town after them. Maybe next year.

Sure doesn't sound like today at all does it? I think the WalMart story is one of the great American tragedies and one that affects us all. Once upon a time we learned some great lessons in management fro Sam Walton. I hope we learn something now as well because this sure as hell isn't what Old Sam ever dreamed would happen.


Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Henry Krinkle
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 09:06 PM

Yay!!!!!!!Walmart sucks!!!!!!!!!!
=(:-( ))

Subject: BS: Walmart Workers Strikes...
From: Bobert
Date: 19 Nov 12 - 09:01 PM

I love it...

Walmart has busted the crud outta any attempts of its employees to unionize... Walmart is all about low wages... Most of Walmart's employees live at or below the poverty line but...

...seems that Walmart's employees are standing up!!!

Support Walmart employees... Buy elsewhere...

B~