February 10, 2005

• "We've been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably." For god's sake, they are buying crap from China for pennies on the dollar. I have never seen such an glaring admission of imcompetence.
• We need details. What was the union demanding? Was it reasonable? What was Walmart offering? I suspect none of that matters, as this is a message to other stores that may be thinking of unionizing.
• Walmart is run by evil assholes. That is all.
• so, if i understand this... Walmart employees unionised and started a collective-bargaining process. The union takes the process to arbitration, as both they and Walmart have a right to do, and Walmart management has a hissy fit and closes the store rather than negotiate through arbitration? That smells funny. Like Walmart's conditions were not likely to make it through the arbitration process. Any more details?
• heh, either a unionized or closed wal-mart, sounds win-win to me.
• Unless you're gonna miss the rent payment on March 1, Coyote. Bastards. This is not what Adam Smith had in mind.
• Did you all catch the supremely ironic news a while back that one of the few places Walmart accepts unions is here in the worker's paradise of the People's Republic? I think an executive finally realised that there's a world of difference between the political label and the reality here.
• Like Walmart's conditions were not likely to make it through the arbitration process Hopefully we'll eventually get some concrete details from the union. While I'm no expert, I've kept my eye on labour arbitrations in Canada in the past, and they seem to be generally fair. Certainly past negotiations in the media show that the arbitrator seems to take operating costs into careful account, so that excuse seems particularly bogus.
• WalMart likely approached the union with the same technique it has used for suppliers: This is our one and only offer, take it or leave it, you need us more than we need you. Negotiation is not part of that corporate lexicon.
• Yet another reason to hate Wal-Mart (as if I didn't have enough already). There's a Wal-Mart near my house, and I set foot in it for the first time in several months yesterday (to pay the credit bill since my wife forgot to mail it in time). I'm thinking about burning the shoes that touched their floor.
• The threat of closure is *very* typical in labour negotiations. You practically can't have a discussion between management and a union without there being a claim that "we operate on so fine a profit margin as it is that were we to implement the demands as they stand, we would have to close down." The Labour Board (in Canada) is used to seeing through this for what it is and will check out the financial records pretty thoroughly to see if the claim has any merit. Now, granted, this location IS closing, but for a huge chain, how much does this cost them to make a point? (and one about unions, which could easily have spread to other locations and cost them much more)
• I just wonder if Wal-mart will open a new store nearby after the fuss settles. Keep the union out of the new store down the street.
• They sure are sending a message. What is not to love about unfettered capitalism?
• Hey, I think we almost got crispy creme too
• Good old walmart. Fuck 'em.
• Fuck Walmart It's run by ex-nazi's living in brazil I bet.
• *ring *ring Adolf: Eine minuten, eine minuten. (Car phone stops rings) Adolf: Ach! Das vagenphone ist eine...nuisance phone! Argentinian on a bike: Buenos noches, mein fuerher. Adolf: (dejectedly) Ja, ja.
• Sorry Loki, the ex-nazi lives right here in the good ol' US of A, f*ucks over his employees, and screws the rest of us by not paying a fair share of taxes.
• concreteforest, that was beautiful.
• Thanks for posting this, Nal. I read the CBC article earlier and was going to toss it up for discussion, but now I don't have to. Who wins here? All the employees who can now go get decent jobs with reasonable employers, everyone who realizes what assholes Walmart owners and management are, and everyone near the location of the soon to be closed store who can now shop elsewhere. Oh, and everyone everywhere who gets the message that no-one should ever work in or shop at Walmart, and hopefully drives these jackoffs out of business. An interesting paragraph from the CBC article: "Wal-Mart, which the UFCW calls "staunchly anti-union," is facing certification applications at about a dozen other locations in Quebec, Saskatchewan and British Columbia
• (I must have bumped my head harder than I thought) In defense of Wal-mart.... In the states they perform almost an essential service, some what like Canadian Tire does here in Canada. In some more rural areas they are the only conection to civilization. But as a Canadian, I feel as though we've been sold out by our prime ministers, in the past, and now are being localized by Mcdonalds, and beeping walmart. Next thing you know we'll be saluting Mrs. Mcdonald. I say fuck that, God save the queen And pay the new slaves some decent beepin' wages!
• And don't make me start about ma bell
• Wal-Mart ordered to pay $78 million
• Sad thing is, for as hard as this must be to prove, for every store whose employees have the guts to sue, go through the whole court thing, and actually do prove it, there are probably thousands of employees who just put up and shut up.