Wal-Mart is at it again. This time they are discouraging their employees from voting for Obama in November. This article discusses how over the past few weeks Wally World has been holding meetings with their managers and department heads to discuss how a Democratic presidency would be bad for the company. Wal-Mart believes that a Democratic presidency would allow for more unionization of their workers and this would be bad for the company. They have been telling their personnel that if unions are allowed it would mean, employes would have to pay really high union fees, would have to strike without pay and Wal-Mart may have to lay off workers as a union would increase their labor fees too high for them to be able to keep everyone. So the same old, same old scare tactics that have been used forever.
These threats are not new for Wal-Mart as I learned when I was a personal care assistant for a young man with Cerebral Palsy and who was in a wheelchair. As part of the vocational program at the school, a job had to be found for the kids so that they could have something to do when they left high school. The young man I was working with and had been working with for the past year before that was found a job at Wal-Mart. So since he was working at Wal-Mart I had to go along with him and listen to the bullshit training videos and such. Well, it seems that as part of the new employee orientation Wal-Mart has anti-Union propaganda videos for the new employees to watch. We were told the exact same thing that they are now repeating here, unions would mean really high union wages that would take all of their money and that they would be forced to strike with no wages. The new employees were also warned that union organizers were everywhere and were sneaky. They would try to trick employees into wanting unions when the employees didn't really want them. Wal-Mart says that they try to protect their employees against these nefarious unions, but since we have that pesky freedom of speech thing, Wal-Mart cannot stop these pesky people from talking to you about unions.
I knew Wal-Mart was anti-union when I had to endure this training, but that they would sink so low as to make anti-union propaganda as part of their training seemed out of bounds to me. It really took a lot for me to sit there and listen to this video. I am not a 100% proponent of unions, they do a lot of really good things and have made very positive changes in the American economy, but there are downsides at times to large unions such as lack of local decision making abilities. But the fact that Wal-Mart is so scared of unions and is brainwashing their employees the same way is wrong. They also apparently didn't tell their employees who to vote for, but the Democrats would be the wrong choice. I wonder how many people will lose their jobs at Wal-Mart if they vote the "wrong" way. Will you get fired if you show support for Obama?
Yet another reason that I hate Wal-Mart and try not to go there most of the time although I have begun to slip a bit on that lately, this new information will toughen my resolve though.
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4 comments:
Ok, I'm not trying to be a smart ass here, and I'm kinda stupid, but I thought unions were suppose to be a good thing??? And I agree that the fact that Wal-Mart is trying to influence their employees vote is totally out of bounds.
Angry - The average person now has a distorted view of unions. The rightwing media has been telling them for years that the reason all those American jobs have been outsourced to other, cheaper countries is because the Unions (and taxes) have made it too expensive to do business in the U.S. People don't realize that without unions, we wouldn't have work week hour limitations, vacations, health care, pensions and workplace safety codes. They just hear Rush, et al telling them that the unions are bad for business and, like zombies, they think unions are bad for America.
It's really a shame.
And, Boxer, sorry to hog your blog. I'm with you. I've been thinking as money is tight, we need to shop at WalMart to save, but I'd fucking rather do with less than give them my union-lovin' money.
Angry- What DCup said.
DCup- No problem thank you for explaining that. You didn't hog my blog, you just made it better.
Also, unions are good for the workers, but it does make the corporation have to do things they don't like to do such as maybe then Wal-Mart would actually have to have decent healthcare and pay overtime, two things they do not do.
I can hardly type as my jaw is on the table getting in the way. I don't even know how to express the rage I feel inside over this.
I hate Wal-mart and have made it my mission to avoid shopping there whenever possible, but this is the last straw. Never again.
Personally, I've always thought the unions might leave them alone, if they paid fair wages and provided decent benefits. I, for one, am glad they're changing their logo and color-scheme. It's time for them to quit using the red, white, and blue, as they're anything but American.
One story about Wal-mart. My aunt works there in Missouri. She works in the pharmacy counting out pills to give to people. She's not a pharmacist, but an assistant or whatever. Anyway, my aunt is crazier than a loon. She has attempted suicide more than once and each time by attempting to OD on her prescription pills, of which, there are many. She has a variety of medical issues and has zero insurance through Wal-mart. When she almost died a year or so ago after ODing on her prescription drugs (which although she's an employee of Wal-mart, she says she gets no employee discount on) and they were aware of her medical history and suicide attempts, they put her right back in the pharmacy counting out drugs. Makes me wonder just how safe those meds are.
I may just steal this idea and put this story on my blog and of course, give you credit. :) Look for it over the weekend.
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