Walmart walkout: workers mount black Friday job action

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iloveangels said:
Correct. People who work in hospitals, power plants, paper mills, restaurants and all kinds of other lines of work also work on holidays. So what’s the deal with Walmart? Who do they think they are?
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Do you really see no difference between a worker in a hospital caring for the sick and someone stocking shelves so you can buy your big screen TV on Friday at 5 am?

FTR-I’m working a double shift on Thanksgiving. I do this nearly every year and on Christmas as well so that people with families can have the day off. I’m not averse to work on holidays at all.

What I am a little sick of is the glorification of greed and the “anything goes as long as you make money” attitude.
 
As usual, the for-profit unions are behind this subversive action. Maybe, like Hostess, they can put Wal-Mart into chapter 11. That will certainly stimulate the economy.

No one seems to look at the big picture these days.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
I somehow question whether its prudent for people who can easily be replaced to engage in this kind of activity, but even Walmart agrees that it is their choice. Walmart may be a bad place to work, but I worked at several bad places when I was young and poor. It always gave me an incentive to stay in school and get myself to a situation where I have more bargaining power. The best way to stick it to a bad employer is with a better job elsewhere IMO.
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It scares me that so few Americans understand this.

My father had only one year of high school and was a union member in a building trade for many years. When they went on strike one too many times and he had four children and another on the way, he went into business for himself and was never without work. He even hired some of his friends when they were layed off from union jobs.

When I felt underappreciated in my first job (other than working for my father while I was in school), I accepted one of the many offers I had from a competitor. I also helped bring 6 of my co-workers to the new company. Within 6 months the general manager of the old company was fired, and within two years the old plant closed permanently. You can only do that if you have something to offer another employer.

Becoming a community organizer to take from others rather than serving others to provide a product or service worth buying does not work nearly as well.
 
estesbob said:
If that is true wouldn’t they walk out on Thursday?
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Because everyone else will be home with their families on Thursday and their protest would not be noticed or affect shoppers.

Although it seems here that preparation for the Greed-o-Rama is so vitally important that those workers don’t count when we talk about how important the family is.
 
Seeker1961 said:
Because everyone else will be home with their families on Thursday and their protest would not be noticed or affect shoppers.

Although it seems here that preparation for the Greed-o-Rama is so vitally important that those workers don’t count when we talk about how important the family is.
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The only greed on display is from unions. Anything else is dust in the wind.
 
K-McD said:
The only greed on display is from unions. Anything else is dust in the wind.
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Guess you’ve never worked in retail on Black Friday, there’s a whole lot of greed going on.
 
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.
 
Morwenna said:
We (shoppers) have a very large role to play in all this.

If we don’t shop on holidays, then stores (not just WalMart) will find it unprofitable to open on those days.

Let’s do our shopping before or after a holiday, not on the holiday itself, so that more people will be able to spend the holidays with their families.

.
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Yes! And please don’t shop on Easter and Christmas Eve either!
 
It would be nice if all businesses closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and on Sundays.

Kansas used to have a law which prohibited most businesses from being open on Sundays. My brother worked retail and he loved it. The law got repealed; now everyone is open all the time.
 
Seeker1961 said:
Guess you’ve never worked in retail on Black Friday, there’s a whole lot of greed going on.
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No I’ve never shopped on black Friday. I’m either working or hunting. However, the only greed I see on TV is from the people shopping. Greed is not from the store owners. If people had a sense of Divinity they would just stay home. Not to screw the store owners, but because of who HE is. It’s all about your heart. What’s in your heart?
 
JimG said:
It would be nice if all businesses closed on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and on Sundays.

Kansas used to have a law which prohibited most businesses from being open on Sundays. My brother worked retail and he loved it. The law got repealed; now everyone is open all the time.
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Thank you!

I would love to see more people be able to have time with their families. There will always be those of us who have to work those days, but there really are some things we simply don’t NEED. Nobody NEEDS to stampede a Walmart at 4 or 5 am on Black Friday to buy electronics and toys.
 
stinkcat_14 said:
I somehow question whether its prudent for people who can easily be replaced to engage in this kind of activity, but even Walmart agrees that it is their choice. Walmart may be a bad place to work, but I worked at several bad places when I was young and poor. It always gave me an incentive to stay in school and get myself to a situation where I have more bargaining power. The best way to stick it to a bad employer is with a better job elsewhere IMO.
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Trader said:
It scares me that so few Americans understand this.

My father had only one year of high school and was a union member in a building trade for many years. When they went on strike one too many times and he had four children and another on the way, he went into business for himself and was never without work. He even hired some of his friends when they were layed off from union jobs.

When I felt underappreciated in my first job (other than working for my father while I was in school), I accepted one of the many offers I had from a competitor. I also helped bring 6 of my co-workers to the new company. Within 6 months the general manager of the old company was fired, and within two years the old plant closed permanently. You can only do that if you have something to offer another employer.

Becoming a community organizer to take from others rather than serving others to provide a product or service worth buying does not work nearly as well.
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Today, it seems that union greed seeks to replace corporate greed. It is still greed. My dad, a union steward at Boeing for years, was finally fed up when he was freezing without pay on the picket line while the union bosses’ pay continued.

With millions out of work, do these arrogant, self-righteous unions think that those who walk out will not be immediately replaced by those whose applications are stacked up in the Wal-Mart HR offices?

This is a brazen power ploy.
 
I’m gonna say I applaud these workers! :clapping:

Look I hate unions. I think they do nothing but kill businesses, keep many out of work, and grovel around doing nothing. When I was working with a union, I didn’t like that I was forced to take a break.

However what I hate and despise even more is the worshiping of Mammon in this nation. I really get the feeling Americans all over (Christian or not) hate God when they stoop to forcing people to be away from their families and loved ones, so they can get up and get their 60" TV plasma screens.

Holidays were meant for people to have the day off and be with their families. Forcing someone to work on a holiday so you can feed your greed and covetousness…or having an inconsiderate attitude of “well I hope they get fired” is down right despicable.

And we wonder WHY the pews are empty come Sunday? We wonder WHY it’s becoming more difficult to talk openly about God in this country? We wonder WHY this nation is turning into Sodom and Gomorrah? :rolleyes:

I can’t believe this, I’m agreeing with the Liberals on here! :eek:
 
Morwenna said:
We (shoppers) have a very large role to play in all this.

If we don’t shop on holidays, then stores (not just WalMart) will find it unprofitable to open on those days.

Let’s do our shopping before or after a holiday, not on the holiday itself, so that more people will be able to spend the holidays with their families.

.
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Seeker1961 said:
đź‘Ť

I wold have thought this would be the dominant perspective here. There will always be some jobs that truly REQUIRE people to work on holidays, but retail is not a requirement. We don’t NEED to shop on Thanksgiving, we could sacrifice that one day so that others could be with their families.
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I assume you also support these stores being closed on Sundays, the Assumption, and other Holy Days? The word holiday comes from holy day so it perplexes me that people hold up a couple hours on a secular day of celebration as important, but they don’t encourage people to not shop on true Holy Days/holidays.

Don’t get me wrong. I loath Walmart and have not stepped foot into one for a decade or longer. That being said if you don’t like their policies, then don’t shop there period. Don’t support their workers for a one day occurrence and then continue to go there to buy cheap garbage the rest of the year.
 
Seeker1961 said:
Guess you’ve never worked in retail on Black Friday, there’s a whole lot of greed going on.
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I know plenty of college students who work in retail who can’t go home for Thanksgiving because they have to be back at work by midnight Thursday night to get ready for the greed fest on Friday.
We have 2 widows in their 60’s at my store who are worried sick about cooking for family all day and then trying to get up in the middle of the night to get to work… and to reply to one poster- yes- this was the best job that they could get.
As for greed, Iast year I personally witnessed customers punching each other in the face over shop vacs and pulling each other 's hair over who got the last crock pot…and I’ve heard the crowd at Wall mart is the most unruly in retail.
 
2428 In work, the person exercises and fulfills in part the potential inscribed in his nature. The primordial value of labor stems from man himself, its author and its beneficiary. Work is for man, not man for work
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2430 Economic life brings into play different interests, often opposed to one another. This explains why the conflicts that characterize it arise.216 Efforts should be made to reduce these conflicts by negotiation that respects the rights and duties of each social partner: those responsible for business enterprises, representatives of wage-earners (for example, trade unions), and public authorities when appropriate.
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2435 Recourse to a strike is morally legitimate when it cannot be avoided, or at least when it is necessary to obtain a proportionate benefit. It becomes morally unacceptable when accompanied by violence, or when objectives are included that are not directly linked to working conditions or are contrary to the common good.
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Usige said:
I assume you also support these stores being closed on Sundays, the Assumption, and other Holy Days? The word holiday comes from holy day so it perplexes me that people hold up a couple hours on a secular day of celebration as important, but they don’t encourage people to not shop on true Holy Days/holidays.

Don’t get me wrong. I loath Walmart and have not stepped foot into one for a decade or longer. That being said if you don’t like their policies, then don’t shop there period. Don’t support their workers for a one day occurrence and then continue to go there to buy cheap garbage the rest of the year.
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Actually I would love that! stores closed on Christian holidays…as it was in the past. 👍
 
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