Wal-Mart unit rejects union representation

AP via MSNBC ^ | 2-25-2005

[Cagey]

Colo. workers vote 17-1; labor group wants results thrown outThe Associated Press

LOVELAND, Colo. - Workers at a Wal-Mart Tire & Lube Express voted 17-1 against union representation Friday, rejecting efforts to establish what would have been the first union United Food and Commercial Workers spokesman Dave Minshall said the group will ask the National Labor Relations Board to throw the results out, saying no union member was allowed to observe the election and Wal-Mart added employees to the unit to dilute the strength of the union supporters.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. spokeswoman Christi Gallagher said the union was offered an opportunity to provide a substitute observer but could not find one. She said any workers added to the operation were a response to business needs and not part of an anti-union effort.

Minshall said workers had been subjected to intimidation and harassment before the vote. Josh Noble, a tire shop worker who said he voted in favor of the UFCW, said he had been harassed by other Wal-Mart employees and that managers “kind of blew it off” when he reported one incident.

“It’s fear that won this election for Wal-Mart,” Minshall said.

Gallagher said she could not comment on incidents reported by employees or the way in which they were handled, but she said the company does not tolerate harassment or discrimination.

>snip<

Wal-Mart had objected to even holding the vote, saying the Tire & Lube Express was not a stand-alone operation but only a department of the larger store.

[goldstategop]

Wal-mart will eventually be organized. But its going to be done by locals who care about the workers and want to represent their interests. Its not going to happen because the national union honchos want it. And it took decades to organize the auto industry. If workers want and deserve an independent voice in the workplace, there will be a demand for it. Part of that demand will be a change in the way unions do business - and that means looking after their members' job security, working conditions and health and pension benefits. Like they used to do - bread and butter stuff.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[bfree]

Only on Fantasy Island.
there are NO unions like you describe.

[bfree]

Only on Fantasy Island. There are NO unions like you describe.

[goldstategop]

The problem is public employee unions that have a parasitical relationship with the state. Private sector unions fought to create a middle class and provide Americans with the best standard of living in the world. It didn't come from the goodness of Corporate America's heart. The decline of private sector unions means today's unions could care less about the health of the overall economy. As long as tax revenues are increased and and government employees get cared for - its not like they care about the burden on the rest of the public. That's helped to change the Little Guy image of unions.

(Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News.")

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Unions are a business.

Unions are Communist criminal enterprises.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

There was a short time when the concept was decent and aimed at protecting abuses to workers.

I used to believe that myself. The first union in this country was founded by a Communist. The Communist look for an aggrieved group to recommend, a wrong they can pretend to right. Although they take up the cause and use the rhetoric to seem as if they are sincere, once they are successful the "cause" becomes just a front, as it really was all along. While they are trying to gain control they cater to the aggrieved group for political benefit. If they ever gain complete power they immediately cast off the group, sometimes even killing some of them, and move along merrily on their way. They no longer need a cause except to keep the masses in line.

Unions quickly became a top heavy enterprise, just like the mafia or the Communist Party. The workers are just cannon fodder. They take their money, divided among themselves through various ruses, and use the members simply for political leverage. If some members object they send in the goons.

They do the same with countries. They ally themselves with the poor peasants to gain legitimacy. Once they gain power the peasants change from free peasants to enslaved peasants, sometimes dead peasants.

[philetus]

I am not crazy about Wal Mart putting competitors out of business using subversive tactics"

Why shouldn't Walmart fight fire with fire?

[F105-D ThunderChief]

(WWTLD)

What Would Trial Lawyers Do If democRats Discovered There Was An Alternative To Entitlement?

[squirt-gun]

Re # 81...Wal-mart will eventually be organized. But its going to be done by locals who care about the workers and want to represent their interests. Its not going to happen because the national union honchos want it. And it took decades to organize the auto industry.

Can't agree with this one at all....

In the first place, unions, local or otherwise, are made up of the same kind of parasites as the AFL-CIO etc.

And as far as the auto unions, they were organized because the companies treated the workers as literal slaves, Henry Ford's $5 per day notwithstanding.

As long as Wal-Mart treats their workers with respect and fairness, the unions haven't a chance because the unions cost the workers money in dues and who wants to pay for such misery as strikes, lost wages, and lost jobs.

[Alter Kaker]

Walmart is the ultimate example of free market and success in America. To attack Walmart is like attacking our country's history.

Maybe once that was the case, but at this point, Walmart's success is antithetical to the concept of free markets. It leverages monopolistic control over its suppliers and to a lesser extent its employees -- in a free market, there are no monopolies and prices are set according to supply and demand. You don't have to be pro-labor to understand that.

[Moby Grape]

No...unions do not abide by a "no" vote...they don't CARE what the people want...they just keep coming back...I don't know what happened over time, since I have not seen the HR manager who told me about it in many years.

[Moby Grape]

Your story of the RI Railroad is so like hundreds of "union" stories in this country...You would think that "if" the liberal media REALLY cared about working people, they would report what DAMAGE has been done to American jobs by them....Anywhere you look, unions have killed American industries....and now the NEA is killing education.