Walmart walkout: workers mount black Friday job action

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iloveangels said:
This is really true. A lot of employees of public services like power companies and hospitals work on holidays. You can’t shut everything down, and you wouldn’t want to. Walmart employees may think that the universe revolves around them, but it isn’t so. If they’re not careful, they’re going to find this out the hard way.
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Power companies and hospitals are equal to a retail store? You’re really equating people keeping the lights on and caring for the sick with someone selling you a flat screen TV at 8 pm on Thanksgiving night?
 
iloveangels said:
This is really true. A lot of employees of public services like power companies and hospitals work on holidays. You can’t shut everything down, and you wouldn’t want to. Walmart employees may think that the universe revolves around them, but it isn’t so. If they’re not careful, they’re going to find this out the hard way.
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So ya’ think the CEO and executives are working on Thanksgiving?
 
ringil said:
Then there are companies like Wegmans and Costco which are repotted to treat their employees well. Even Target treats their employees better than Wal-Mart.

I think it may be a problem of greed at t he corporate level.
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Corporate greed? I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with the concept. The Walton family is worth a mere $93 billion. Poor things.
 
rlg94086 said:
Do they need to?

I know one poster mentioned he has his own business and is working Thanksgiving…
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I guess only they can answer the question whether they “need” to.

That’s great that a business owner is worker. Some companies are better than others. Is Walmart a good company?

I don’t think so, in fact I think it’s a pretty freaking bad company.
 
ringil said:
I guess only they can answer the question whether they “need” to.

That’s great that a business owner is worker. Some companies are better than others. Is Walmart a good company?

I don’t think so, in fact I think it’s a pretty freaking bad company.
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What does this have to do with whether the CEO is working on Thanksgiving? 🤷
 
meltzerboy said:
Corporate greed? I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with the concept. The Walton family is worth a mere $93 billion. Poor things.
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As the six members of the billionaire Walton Family – heirs to the Walmart superchain – prepare to sit down to a sumptuous Thanksgiving dinner with their families, the holiday will be very different for the 1.4 million Walmart associates who work for them. For the second year, Walmart is planning to put profits before its workers by beginning its Black Friday sales at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day, and forcing its workers – many of whom are part-time – to abandon quality time with their own families during a cherished American holiday.
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This latest move by the biggest retail employer in our country is the most recent blow to Walmart associates, who are already struggling to survive on an average hourly wage of $8.81, and are punished or fired for sticking together to address the erratic work schedules that do not provide enough hours to support a family or qualify for benefits. The retail sector is the largest industry by employment in the United States, and Walmart’s sheer scale in size means that its practices have an enormous impact on our country’s labor, business, and employment climate. The retail giant’s drive to put profits ahead of its workers has influenced other retailers to do the same, and this low-wage business strategy has, in turn, led to depressed wages across the retail and manufacturing sectors and forced more and more workers to rely on public subsidies at tax payer expense.
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It doesn’t have to be this way. A recent study by Catherine Ruetschlin, a policy analyst at Demos, titled “Retails Hidden Potential: How Raising Wages Would Benefit Workers, the Industry and the Overall Economy,” shows that raising wages to $25,000 per year for full-time retail workers at the nation’s largest retail companies (or those employing at least 1,000 workers) would result in improving the lives of more than 1.5 million retail workers and their families who are currently living in or hovering above poverty. A higher wage increase would create more purchasing power for retail workers, which would generate $4 to $5 billion in additional annual sales for the industry, keep prices low for shoppers, and create more than 100,000 jobs.
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Walmart – which paid its top six executives $59 million in compensation in the last fiscal year – can afford to pay its workers more. But instead of investing in their workers, the Walton family – whose combined family fortune is estimated to be over $100 billion – has chosen to engage in elaborate stock buybacks that take earned corporate profits and put them back into the hands of shareholders. For Walmart, stock buybacks have been the reason the Walton family’s interest in the company has risen to 51 percent – shifting the control of a so-called public company into the hands of a private family.
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Oh my here is more of the poor, poor pitiful worker bees lot. Of course no one seems to forget Obama has a great economy on the move there is no need for these poor souls to suffer working for Wal Mart. They can skip over to Costco and do better right, or maybe Dillard’s. We seem to forget working is voluntary in this society if they don’t like there is the dole.

Oh another one of these greedy corporate executive comments yet no one wants to talk about wage disparity between Tom Brady and concession workers, or movie stars and the wages of the shmuck scooping up popcorn in the theaters.

Cry me a river.
 
stevegravy said:
Oh my here is more of the poor, poor pitiful worker bees lot. Of course no one seems to forget Obama has a great economy on the move there is no need for these poor souls to suffer working for Wal Mart. They can skip over to Costco and do better right, or maybe Dillard’s. We seem to forget working is voluntary in this society if they don’t like there is the dole.

Oh another one of these greedy corporate executive comments yet no one wants to talk about wage disparity between Tom Brady and concession workers, or movie stars and the wages of the shmuck scooping up popcorn in the theaters.

Cry me a river.
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We must consequently continue to study the situation of the worker. There is a need for solidarity movements among and with the workers. The church is firmly committed to this cause, in fidelity to Christ, and to be truly the “church of the poor.”
Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) #8 John Paul II, 1981
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and a few more:
In the first place, the worker must be paid a wage sufficient to support him and his family.
Quadragesimo Anno (The Fortieth Year ) #71 On Reconstruction of the Social Order
Pius XI, 1931
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We consider it our duty to reaffirm that the remuneration of work is not something that can be left to the laws of the marketplace; nor should it be a decision left to the will of the more powerful. It must be determined in accordance with justice and equity; which means that workers must be paid a wage which allows them to live a truly human life and to fulfill their family obligations in a worthy manner.
Mater et Magistra (Mother and Teacher) #71 Pope John XXIII, 1961
It is right to struggle against an unjust economic system that does not uphold the priority of the human being over capital and land.
Centesimus Annus (The Hundredth Year) #35 John Paul II, 1991
Yet the workers’ rights cannot be doomed to be the mere result of economic systems aimed at maximum profits. The thing that must shape the whole economy is respect for the workers’ rights within each country and all through the world’s economy.
Laborem Exercens (On Human Work) #17 John Paul II, 1981
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Seeker1961 said:
and the Popes…but I guess that’s hyperbole too.
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You have many nice quotes setting axioms to consider but do nothing to decide the incremental value of the labors contribution to the price of the good or service offered especially in respect to the willingness of the purchaser to buy the good or service offered. Nor does it account for the disparity that may occur in market share if company A doesn’t match company B in offering similar goods and services.
 
Really behind the hand wringing and crocodile tears for the Wal mart worker bees is the lament that there is no such thing as a Holiday in America.

Some essential services are necessary on holidays, some process industries cannot shutdown anytime except for maintenance and inspections, example power plants and refineries. To work in these industries and services you accept the fact you will not be off on popular holidays and there are family things you will miss. Of course, holiday pay usually double time and a half to three times base rate is offered on such days. (Personally speaking it was the only day I thought I was getting paid what I was worth, but that is a different story.)

However, TV. Radio, entertainment, sports et cetera are not necessary but wait for the revolt if you take away the peoples bread and circus.

You are upset the marketers have figured out Americans don’t want or need downtime with family and loved ones as much as they need the trill of thinking they are getting something at a deep, deep discount on a limited holiday special that is available on a first come first serve door busting opportunity. This frenzy that is getting pushed ever so far back as to make the holiday unrecognizable from a hedonistic shopping lust bonanza. Thanksgiving is morphing into a shop till you drop orgy weekend. To bad for the country but that is what the people want let them have it. It is just like elections it will have consequences so what!

Ain’t that America something to see…
 
scipio337 said:
I hope you too can walk out on your cold, heartless employer, whose only concern is obscene profits!

No…wait…
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Heh, he’s a slave-driver alright, but its OK, I understand he has four kids to feed.

Edit: I was in the Army…Thanksgiving in the military is actually a really nice day. Yes you’re “on duty” (as always), but they do make it a lil’ bit special.
 
stevegravy said:
Oh my here is more of the poor, poor pitiful worker bees lot. Of course no one seems to forget Obama has a great economy on the move there is no need for these poor souls to suffer working for Wal Mart. They can skip over to Costco and do better right, or maybe Dillard’s. We seem to forget working is voluntary in this society if they don’t like there is the dole.

Oh another one of these greedy corporate executive comments yet no one wants to talk about wage disparity between Tom Brady and concession workers, or movie stars and the wages of the shmuck scooping up popcorn in the theaters.

Cry me a river.
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2434 A just wage is the legitimate fruit of work. To refuse or withhold it can be a grave injustice.221 In determining fair pay both the needs and the contributions of each person must be taken into account. “Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural, and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each, the state of the business, and the common good.”222 Agreement between the parties is not sufficient to justify morally the amount to be received in wages.
 
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