"You represent the cornerstone of our organization and we believe it is a privilege to have such an exceptional team."

Translation:



"You're fired."

As a union activist you can guess my position on this, so i won't rehearse it here. Carry on.

Dear Wal-Mart employees reading this thread:

1) If you don't like your pay, get a job somewhere else.
2) Wal-Mart sucks
3) Please clean the empty Milwaukee's Best cans out of the back of your truck; they make an awful racket when you hit the speed bumps in your trailer park.
4) Wal-Mart sucks

Canadians: fark you Walmart... we are going to unionize

Wal-Mart: WAAAAH! You're cheating, we are taking our ball and going home.

Ah, Unions, where you can be a complete waste of skin and still make far more money than you deserve...

What's the problem? If labor is too expensive the only option is to close the shop. Can't these people just open the Mom & Pop stores that Wal-Mart is destroying?

Bah. Unions have outlived their usefulness. Don't go to Walmart if you don't like it.

Damn never thought I would defend Wal-Mart but I don't blame them. That is a great way to keep unions away in the future. You close the damn stores that try it.

I guess my browser is fault. Millstone and necks do not show up in the article from what I can tell.

The function of a union is to keep employers honest. If any employer could use a swift kick in the pants about how to treat its workers fairly it is Walmart.

I absolutely refuse to shop at Wal-Mart-- and so should anyone else who biatches about them.

I hope all this poor publicity hurts their business.

Will N. Dowd:

3) Please clean the empty Milwaukee's Best cans out of the back of your truck; they make an awful racket when you hit the speed bumps in your trailer park.

Oh that's right, clearly anyone who works for minimum wage is white trash and benath you. You're pathetic.

Anyone first read that as un-ionized?

PPL_Wannabe

Yes!! That's why I came here to comment!

Ya know, just cuz you work at Wal Mart does not mean automatically you deserve $15.00 an hour and full benefits. I am sure that those who really apply themselves in that company (or any other successful company for that matter) WILL end up making decent money. Wal Mart, as big and as powerful as they are, can not set up an entitlement program for everyone they hire. Some people, once hired, really ARE useless.

So this means the store is ionized now?

If you don't like cashier's wages, get an education so you can get a better job.

OlafTheBent: The French finally got someone to surrender to them.


Wrong continent, jackass.

Can't the US just nationalize Walmart without compensation? If anyone deserves it, it's them, and it would go a long way towards paying off the national debt.

they shut down the place because it was leaning towards a union? i would see this as a moment to be captured if i were a walmart employee! a union in every walmart, they will not shut the doors, trust me.

Wow, I took the headline's "unionized" for like not ionized.

/I am such a moran.

Sorthum:

Ah, Unions, where you can be a complete waste of skin and still make far more money than you deserve...


Wait, I thought that was management...

Thank you Walmart for your low, low prices.

Love,
America

I can't stand Walmart. Ii hate them. They are monopolistic. They are destroying the grocery market in the U.S., but having said that... good for them.


I f*cking hate unions.

If you don't like the activities of a corporation, you have a moral duty to boycott.

FARK WAL-MART. i refuse to shop there. they treat their employees like shiat.wal-mart is bad for america. but i'm sure our right wing zealots will tell us how great sam walton was,how he had this vision,blah,blah,blah. if wal-marts is so great, why dont you farkers get a job there?

"Quebec isn't the Far West where the cowboy with the biggest revolver can do what he wants."

Somebody makes a Bush reference in 3, 2...

F42
Wait, I thought that was management...

Zzzzzing!

WalMart is one of the largest (if not the largest) employer in North America. I don't believe it is acceptable to spend around one third the national average on health care per employee. (saw this on cnbc somewhere)

People are quick to bash unions, but they have played a tremendous role in holding greedy profit driven corporations accountable for their employees health and well being.

Sure, there are situations where unions can get a little out of hand, demanding high pay raises, etc. But there are also plenty of frivolous lawsuits. Does that then justify not allowing lawsuits on the whole?

Union Yes!

The only think that keeps corporations from turning the population into slave labor is the organization of other work force.

Don't believe me? Go get a job making clothing in the eastern pacific rim countries.

Actually, the FTQ (one of the most powerful unions in Quebec) has decided to start putting up a file with all the labour code violations perpetrated by Wal-Mart stores throughout the province.

I think Wal-Mart will soon find out they barked up the wrong tree. Quebec society is very labour-friendly - if they want to do business here, they'll have to adapt. Nearly everyone I know around me has said that they would boycott Wal-Mart from this day one, with the sole exception of an anti-union guy I know.

\not unionized, but recognizes their usefulness despite some abuse
\\CEOs giving themselves raises for what amounts to very little work are a worse burden for the economy than unions

Wal Mart is a store just like any other. If you don't want to support pornography, don't go to the porno shop. If you don't want to support liquor, don't go to the liquor shop. If you disagree with Walmart's practices, be a responsible and ethical consumer and don't go to Walmart. I am sure that a majority of Walmart employees are happy to have a job, insurance and a steady paycheck. If not, they are more than welcome to look for a better position, to go back to school to make themselves more marketable or to draw welfare if they are not willing to work for a living. Walmart is a sucessful business. They play hardball when it comes to their business just as I would were I in their shoes. A company grows prosperous through hard work and good management. To lambast every company that becomes a "monopoly" is saying that the rules of the game only apply until someone wins, then they become the enemy.

Oh, and unions suck balls.

I'd like to note that we have another union Walmart that's still open. Analyze that as you want, just a fact. It's in Jonquiere, a God forsaken hellhole.

unions don't belong in a minimum wage job arena. if the employees want a union for a minimum wage job then it should come out of their pocket not the company

Walmart is afraid of competition.

Don't believe me? Go into one of their supercenters, into the grocery department. Take out a notebook and start jotting down product names and prices. Inside of 10 minutes someone will come up and ask you to leave.

My company president actually got arrested for refusing to leave when asked, Hilarity started to ensue, but charges were dropped to avoid bad publicity.

Hopefully, another thousand stores will vote to unionize, and Walmart will close them too.

blueknight:

FARK WAL-MART. i refuse to shop there. they treat their employees like shiat.wal-mart is bad for america. but i'm sure our right wing zealots will tell us how great sam walton was,how he had this vision,blah,blah,blah. if wal-marts is so great, why dont you farkers get a job there?


Sam Walton actually was a good guy. It's his kids that have made Wal-Mart such a piece-of-shiat company.

Code_Archeologist

"The function of a union is to keep employers honest."

Bullshiate - the function of a union is to secure benefits for it's members. Unfortunately they often overstep their bounds and end up destroying their members' jobs. Too farking bad.

all you union bashing gringos here better understand that unions have been replaced by the courts in your ass-backwards country.

so let's say you're a pretty lass with long legs and one day your boss decides to feel you up. in the US you sue the pants off of him, the company, the insurer, his mother and god knows what else.

bring in the unions and you don't need no damn courtroom, they'll deal with the prick and get you equitable pay.

i guess the main difference is scorched earth Vs. getting what is reasonable.

just because you like anal dosen't mean that using the pussy is passe you bunch of dumb farks.

Davenippon
If not, they are more than welcome to look for a better position, to go back to school to make themselves more marketable or to draw welfare if they are not willing to work for a living.

Or they can unionize. Why do you find the idea of workers uniting to bargain better working conditions repulsive?

If it wasn't for unions, 9-year olds would still be working in sweatshops.

not mine ..I stole it
props to whomever

The cornerstone of the company? More like stepping stones for Wal-Mart execs. It'll be a cold day in hell before "Wal-marde" gets any of my business... not that I've ever shopped there anyway.

Would have been nice if the staff actually had a say in voting for the union. The first staff vote in the store rejected the union plan.

Ya see, Quebec has a nifty, antiquated little labour law that automatically approves a union in a business if more than half of the staff can be persuaded to sign on to a membership roster (I'm not a lawyer -- just babbling back to the best of my memory what I read in The Globe and Mail this weekend).

So, even though the staff said 'no thanks' to the union in a secret ballot, the union reps were still allowed to wander the store with their gang of toughs and cajole employees until enough staff had signed on:

"Everyone else is signing on! Why aren't you?"

"I thought you were my friend!"

"If you don't sign on now, the union might not protect you from Management once it forms..."

etc.

Add in a lot of union peer pressure every day for months on end, and it's only a matter of time before that 50% mark is reached.

Good for Wal-mart for closing that store. A shame the employees got screwed in the process, but it was the union that did them in (by certifying itself despite its rejection by staff), not Wal-mart's managment.

/wouldn't shop at Wal-mart if supermodels manned the cash

Wal-Mart is the devil incarnate.

/corporations are technically people, according to law, so my statement is not wholly erroneous

Well, now all those who complain about WalMart being an unstoppable monolith have found the Achilles heel.

Fark Walmart, except for this really nice $9 jacket I got which is really worth at least $30 at other stores. Oh, and also except the fix-a-flat I really needed when I had a rental car to take 360 miles back to chicago before I was charged an additional day of car rental fees. Oh, and for those condoms that I needed at the last minute when Angelina Jolie came into town that night last week...

/Ok, the last part I fnorgbyed, but you get the general cut of my jib, arrrhhh?

Some fun facts about WalMart (from http://www.intellectualpoison.com/WalMartisPureEvil.html)

What every American needs to know. From James Hightower, "Thieves in High Places"

The owners of one of America's premiere retail corporations is comprised of five of the ten richest people in the world, all from the same family.

Their personal wealth eclipses $100 BILLION dollars. Last year the company's CEO was paid a cool $11.5 million, more than the annual salaries of 765 of his employees combined! The company's profits are over $7 BILLION annually.

In these difficult economic times how do they do it?

* This company runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy American". In 2001 they moved their worldwide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the US, purchasing over $10 BILLION of Chinese-made products annually. Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor hell-holes China is famous for.
* Their average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22 per hour!
* These employees gross under $11,000 a year.
* The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more as full time.
* There are no health care benefits unless you have worked for the company for two years.
* With a turnover rate averaging above 50% per year, only 38% of their 1.3 million employees have health care coverage. -In California alone it's estimated that the taxpayers pay over $20 million annually to subsidize health care benefits for these employees who get none from this behemoth corporation.
* According to a report by PBS's "Now" with Bill Moyer, their managers are trained in what government social programs are available for these"employees" to take advantage of so that the company can pass on those costs to you and me. It allows them to not only keep their $7 BILLION in annual profits, but to do so by substituting benefits they refuse to provide with benefits paid for with taxpayer dollars.
* This company holds the record for the most suits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from "Business Week" (not exactly the bastion for supporting Labor) said, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law." They had to pay $750,000.00 in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled! The judge was so incensed that he also order them to run commercials admitting their guilt.
* The National Labor Relations Board has issued over 40 formal complaints against the corporation in 25 different states in just the past five years. The NLRB's top lawyer believed that their labor violations, such as Illegal spying on employees, fraudulent record keeping, falsifying time cards to avoid paying overtime, threats, illegal firings for union organizing etc., were so widespread that he was looking into filing a very rare national complaint against the company. (The company contributed $2,159,330.00 to GW Bush and the GOP in 2000 and 2002. The NLRB attorney was replaced when President Bush took office.).
* Nearly 1 MILLION women are involved in the largest class-action suit every filed against a corporation. Although women make up over 65% of this corporations work force only 10% of them are managers. The women who have become store managers make $16,400 a year LESS then the men.
* The corporation took out nearly 350,000 life insurance policies on their employees. They did not tell the employees and then named the corporation as the beneficiary. They are now being sued by numerous employees, and although the corporation has stopped this practice of purchasing what is known as "Dead Peasant Policy's", a company spokesperson stated, "The company feels it acted properly and legally in doing this."
* They force employees to work after ordering them to punch out. In Texas alone this practice of "wage theft" is estimated to have cost employees $30 million per year. Wage theft or "off-the-clock" lawsuits are pending in 25 states. In New Mexico they paid $400,000.00 in one suit and in Colorado they had to pay $50 MILLION to settle one class-action case brought against them. In Oregon a jury found them guilty of locking employees in the building and of forcing unpaid overtime.
* With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing." They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up.
* Locally owned and operated businesses put virtually all of their money back into the community which helps keep the local economies vibrant. This corporation sucks the money out of the local community, decreases wages and benefits and ships the profits out of state.
* This company doesn't buy locally or bank locally. They replace three decent paying jobs in a community with two poorly paid "part-timers".
* In Kirksville, Missouri when this company came to town, four clothing stores, four grocery stores, a stationary store, a fabric store and a lawn-and-garden store all went under. Eleven businesses are now gone.

(The above information can be found in "Thieves in High Places", James
Hightower, The Penguin Group, New York, NY, 2003 p. 166 - 193.)

"Never let anyone or the Media tell you otherwise," the statement reads.

You know, you especially can't trust the Media when it starts with capital M. They think they're such hotshots, what with their capital M and all...

Hum Wal Mart, I worked for them for 5 years, they treated me very well. I was ill and they let me work when I wanted and where I wanted so I could keep my insurance going. Do I like shopping at Wal Mart? Not really but, it is my choice if I shop there or not. It is there choice to keep the store open or not. So, if you do not like shopping at Wal Mart go someplace else. Now, just because you do not like Wal Mart do not put down the people that work there. They are only trying to feed themselves and families. People that think just because someone works at what they think is a low class job that that person is stupid or ignorant make me sick. And it is only a low class job because you wont do it.

Hey Mo Hey Moron someone needs to do it