Despite concerns about pro-union protests hampering Black Friday sales, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) said Friday that fewer than 50 of its employees nationwide participated in the demonstrations while about 22 million customers flooded into its stores.
The protests, which were planned by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, appear to have been tamer than some had expected. The demonstrations that did occur included many non-Wal-Mart employees, such as union organizers and workers in other trades like teachers.
“Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates,” Bill Simon, CEO of Wal-Mart U.S., said in a statement.
Wal-Mart said it did not experience “the walk-offs that were promised by the UFCW” and less than 50 of its associates participated in the protest nationwide.
Oh yes, the lefty media TRIED to make it sound like "hundreds" of the 1.3 million Wal Mart employees protested:
According to organizers from the union-backed group OUR Walmart, hundreds of workers and thousands of supporters rallied across 100 cities, including Landover Hills, Md., Miami, Oakland, Calif., Chicago, Danville, Ky., Dallas and Kenosha, Wis.Wal-Mart pushed back, saying it knew of only a "few dozen" protests, and that most of the protesters were not its employees
In one of the biggest protests, nine people were arrested outside of a Paramount, Calif., Wal-Mart store for failing to disperse, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department statement. An OUR Walmart spokesman said three of those arrested were Wal-Mart workers. Those arrested were to be released without bail, unless they had previous arrest warrants.What is "OUR Walmart"? "OUR Walmart" is a front group for the UFCW's attempt to organize Wal Mart workers -- a group of utter malcontents who want everyone -- certainly all Wal Mart workers -- to be as miserable and pissed off as they are.
First of all it's Wal Mart not "OUR Wal Mart". Perhaps these protesters and the UFCW need a little lesson in capitalism. Wal Mart is not a collective owned by its employees or the community. It's not a group non-profit owned by a bunch of collectivist malcontents. It is a public corporation owed by its shareholders and it has as its primary goal to make money and grow its profits for its shareholders. As the corporation grows and prospers, employees and investors alike profit from their relationship with Wal Mart Corporation.
Secondly, this protest has nothing to do with low wages, long hours and poor working conditions. It has everything to do with a greedy big union attempting to greatly enrich itself at the expense of Wal Mart and its workers.
If the UFCW could organize every Wal Mart in the country, it could effectively double its membership which means doubling the dues it takes in that pay for the largess of the UFCW leadership. The average Wal Mart worker makes $14 an hour. No one could argue that this is an unfair wage for the relatively unskilled labor most entry-level Wal Mart workers bring to their positions. And while entry-level Wal Mart workers certainly don't start at $14 an hour, Wal Mart promotes from within so literally thousands and thousands of entry-level Wal Mart employees have moved up the ladder and made lucrative careers at Wal Mart by sticking with them, showing up for work everyday, doing a good job and proving their worth to the organization. As with any organization, being a malcontent and bitching about your low wages, "poor" (a relative term) benefits and working conditions, is not going to get you anywhere. Doing your best to prove your worth to the organization is what helps you move up the ladder at Wal Mart as it is at any large organization.
The UFCW doesn't care about proving your worth to your employer -- they think the employer OWES the workers. The UFCW doesn't really care about wages, working conditions and benefits; it cares about taking money from hard-working employees to pay the outrageous salaries of its top brass. Take a look at the UFCW International's LM2 -- their government tax filing -- on the U.S. Department of Labor web site and count the number of union bureaucrats making over $200,000 a year. THIS is the reason they want to organize Wal Mart -- more money for organizing activities and to pay bloated salaries to their overpaid bureaucrats. Money they take $20 or $30 or $40 a month from workers making $30,000 a year. And they claim employers like Wal Mart mistreat their employees.
Let's think about that for a second. How exactly DOES Wal Mart mistreat its employees? Poor wages? Consider what is asked of the average Wal Mart worker: They are checking out customers, staffing a store department, stocking shelves, greeting customers -- all jobs which are entry-level with the job training provided by Wal Mart, of course. They provide insurance benefits to full-time employees. Don't like the level of coverage? Find another job. This is a free country and any worker is free to vote with their feet. Most workers these days are just happy to have a job and benefits. And Wal Mart provides opportunities for advancement. Just talk to one of the tens of thousands of Wal Mart managers, department heads and higher who started at the bottom. How many of us who have been going to the same Wal Mart for years have seen someone start as a cashier and after a couple of years they are walking around the store carrying a clipboard and a radio? Don't want to move up? That's fine. I'm sure Wal Mart is more than happy to have good cashiers and other employees who are dependable and want to stick around. In fact, Wal Mart probably does more to keep seniors who have nothing else but a Social Security subsistence to look forward to in their homes and out of cardboard boxes under freeway overpasses than any government program. So it's pretty easy to see that the average Wal Mart worker is hardly mistreated.
Another thing Wal Mart does? It improves everyone's standard of living by selling merchandise at the lowest prices possible. Shop for groceries at your local Wal Mart Super Center for a few weeks THEN try to go back to your local (or even national) supermarket chain and check out the major sticker shock you experience. Average middle class American families across the income spectrum, including Wal Mart's employees, save literally hundreds of millions a year (collectively of course) by shopping at Wal Mart.
Now let's consider what the UFCW does for employees: It's easy: The UFCW doesn't produce or sell products and doesn't employ the workers it "represents". Therefore, it brings nothing to the table when bargaining with employers that the employer won't agree to first. The only leverage the UFCW has are these idiotic protests and strikes that bankrupt and destroy families. And employers like Wal Mart are increasingly standing up to the UFCW's thug-like tactics. Which means the UFCW can't do a whole hell of a lot for employees besides take their money and give them a whole bunch of empty promises in return. In fact there were a handful of employees out in front of Wal Marts yesterday who found out EXACTLY what the UFCW could get for them -- arrested -- because that is what they got for disrupting store operations. If I were Wal Mart management, they'd be fired as well. If you can't show up on time and put in a fair days' work but instead show up on the street in front of the employer that gives you a paycheck and benefits with a bunch of malcontents to complain about the company that provides your bread and butter, why would your employer want to keep you?
The UFCW Wal Mart protest was an utter failure -- in other words, it perfectly mirrors the state of union representation in the private sector in 2012. Even after four years of the most union-supporting presidential administration in history -- Barack Hussein Obama started his career as a community organizer" which is essentially a union organizer without a union -- and the leftist union thug radicals Barry has appointed to the National Labor Relations Board, they STILL aren't able to make any headway in their attempts to organize large companies like Wal Mart. Private sector union membership is dropping from record lows to even lower record lows.
Face it, UFCW -- your group and your front group "OUR Walmart" are a collective of malcontents and losers. As the failed Wal Mart protests prove, Wal Mart employees are just like the vast majority of employees working for companies large and small: Generally happy, hard-working and dedicated to their jobs. They understand that unions bring nothing to the table and the dues paid to them serve only to enrich union fact cats at the expense of the employees they purport to represent.
Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2012/11/23/wal-mart-just-50-workers-participated-in-protests/#ixzz2D9PB3ues
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