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Friday, November 23, 2012

Retail Walmart Shrugged

Posted by Paul Constant on Fri, Nov 23, 2012 at 10:23 AM

As Walmart employees go on strike today, Slate explains why this is so important:

Part of why the recent actions are so remarkable is that Wal-Mart is one of the most notoriously anti-union companies in the country. Based in right-to-work Arkansas, the retailer has maintained an almost entirely union-free workforce for most of its existence, even once resorting to shutting down a store in Quebec shortly after a successful union drive there. The company has never before dealt with coordinated labor protest on this scale. “In the past, Wal-Mart would fire people, would threaten people … and that would be enough to stop people in their tracks,” said Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, another organization backed by the UFCW which works closely with [the Organization United for Respect at Wal-Mart]. “The difference now is workers are using Wal-Mart’s own tactics to challenge the company and not backing down. Really, for the first time in Wal-Mart’s history, the tools that are used to keep people silent and under control are now being used against them. That’s significant.”

ThinkProgress has some video of an anti-Walmart protest from Fox News if you're interested. Meanwhile, this PDF, which is an internal document that details how Walmart managers should respond to the protests, is making the rounds:

Click to enlarge.

But none of this is getting in the way of sweet, sweet commerce: Walmart is announcing that this is their biggest Black Friday ever, with 5,000 items sold every second.

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Comments (6) RSS

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Walmart won't change unless consumers change their habits of wanting cheap crap made in China. It's almost a hopeless cause until that factor changes.

That said I am not shopping for anything (including groceries) until late next week.

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on November 23, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Get a 3-day Bumbershoot pass discounted by 40%. Also avoid that exorbitant fee of $10.50 the Stranger charges on a 3-day pass:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=2b69…

Posted by Ya Sure Ya Betcha on November 23, 2012 at 10:38 AM

This is to be expected --- the typical Walmart and Sam's shopper is a diehard neocon halfwit, completely ignorant about both his and her immediate environment, society and country.

The penultimate douchebaggers.....

And about that "all volunteer" military:

http://www.stripes.com/news/navy/navy-fi…

The Navy on Monday dismissed two commanders amid allegations of misconduct, weeks before they were both scheduled to assume new commands.

Capt. Ted Williams was relieved as commander of the amphibious command ship USS Mount Whitney, and Cmdr. Ray Hartman was relieved as commander of the amphibious dock-landing ship USS Fort McHenry, said Cmdr. Marc Boyd, spokesman for U.S. Naval Forces Europe/Africa. The Navy would not describe the nature of the allegations. Both investigations center on personal conduct, Boyd said.

(Just 'cause the biographer who did Petraeus' bio was doing Petraeus at the same time, doesn't mean the rest of the military should follow his example.)

Posted by sgt_doom on November 23, 2012 at 10:47 AM

Realistically, change isn't going to come through guilting the people who shop there. These people are likely hurting economically as well, and relying on the deals to help make ends meet. Those showing solidarity with the brave strikers are doing an invaluable service, though. The Walmart employees are the ones who are directly suffering, and the most likely to force change because of it. Everyone should be giving them encouragement today.

Posted by Tent_Liberation_Army on November 23, 2012 at 10:57 AM