Read a few sources on this story. Bottom line is profits. The idea of unions is fine, BUT when they become self absorbed, company vs employee mentality, they hurt themselves, the community and many times, the business itself.

Wal-Mart is no selfless enterprise - many might categorize it as ruthless. It provides jobs, albeit low paying ones, but jobs, nevertheless.

How do employees get a fair shake without a union?

Get an education, a trade that will provide you with a DECENT living wage.

Posted from United States

They don’t get a fair shake without a union. Wallmart is the most profitable business not in US, but in the whole entire world. I don’t think bumping employee up .50 cents, or giving them adequate representation, is going to kill their margins or their business any time soon.

The problem for Wall Mart is, just like colonialism, when one country starts to want automony, the rest will follow. Then, in theory, it could hurt their business, but I highly doubt it. They could pay Microsoft wages to their checkers and still make money - that’s the funny part.

Posted from United States

Hmmm - Styx/Donovan - I think I disagree with you. Wal-mart is not the most profitable business in the world for sure…there profit-margins are around 3% - Check out there Income Statement vs. MSFT.

Wal-Mart Income Statement

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=WMT&annual

Microsoft Income Statement

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=MSFT&annual

Microsoft has much greater profit margin…they had 8 billion left over after 36 Billion in revenue versus Walmart had 9 billion left over after 258 billion in sales. - a much smaller margin. Opening up there business to Unions could very well be the beginning of the end for them. Yes - 9 billion is a lot of cash to have left over…but they sell a lot more shit that most every other company to have the same net-profit.

As for not getting a fair shake w/o the union…maybe you are right, and maybe you are wrong….what is your definition of fair? Is the world fair? I would say the world is not fair by a long shot….that may be a different discussion all together though.

All of it very interesting.

Posted from United States

Here’s some information from today’s Montreal Gazette for the general idea of the article.

Wal-Mart Canada is entirely within its legal rights under Quebec’s Labour Code to shut down its Jonquiere outlet, experts said yesterday.

The image of the company takes a hit in public opinion, but it is something Wal-Mart can do.

In the case of Jonquiere, Wal-Mart claimed its decision was strictly business-related - the store was not profitable and it could not come to an agreement with the union - but given the multinational’s policy of not tolerating unions, few observers were buying that line.

A warning shot to other workers in the chain’s vast empire who are thinking of unionizing.

Put all the pieces together: This is logical behaviour, given their anti-union approach.

Observers of the Wal-Mart empire said the move matches the firm’s philosophy, recently described in an article in The Nation magazine that quotes the Wal-Mart handbook for managers.

“Staying union-free is a full-time commitment,” it states. “The commitment to stay union-free must exist at all levels of management - from the chairperson of the board down to the front-line manager. The time involved is … 365 days per year.”

Only one group of Wal-Mart employees in the United States has successfully organized, the magazine states. In February 2000, 10 meat cutters in Jacksonville, Tex., voted 7-3 to unionize their bargaining unit.

Within two weeks, Wal-Mart eliminated their jobs by switching to prepackaged meats and assigning the butchers to other departments. In June 2003, after more than three years of proceedings, a U.S. federal court ruled the move illegal and ordered Wal-Mart to restore the department. Wal-Mart has appealed the decision.

Wal-Mart does not hesitate to break the law to stay union free or pay fines if it is caught violating labour laws, the article states. The firm considers it part of the cost of doing business.

But not everyone agrees Wal-Mart is within its rights in Jonquiere. Bob Hebdon, a McGill University labour relations professor, said freedom of association is a fundamental right guaranteed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and a fundamental human right as established by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations.

“Wal-Mart is flagrantly in violation of both of these laws,” he said. “No business in Quebec, Canadian or international law can close a plant or store simply because its employees want to form a union. It has made little or no attempt to arrive at a contract with its employees.”

Posted from United States

And here’s an editorial from the same paper, today.

There is an unfortunate air of unreality about much of the criticism Quebec unions and their friends have heaped upon Wal-Mart, after the world’s biggest retailer announced plans to close its store in Jonquiere. But then, there’s also a distinctly surreal note to the company’s claim the closing has nothing to do with the store’s workforce having chosen to unionize.

Let’s let a little reality into this: Wal-Mart’s celebrated low prices are the Siamese twin of its low labour costs. Ruthless attention to cost control - including labour costs - is the elegantly simple formula that has made the retailer such a boon to budget-conscious shoppers. If the wages and benefits Wal-Mart pays are going to climb, assuming profits stay constant, then prices will have to climb, too.

Unions are nipping at Wal-Mart’s heels at other stores in Quebec, and elsewhere. This is a normal process as an industry or a company matures.

Eventually, no doubt, most Wal-Mart workers will be unionized. There’ll be strikes, raises, better benefits. Prices will rise. Consumers will become less loyal. Then somebody else will start a cheerful, aggressive little chain with more flexible labour policies - and lower prices.

Posted from United States

Thanks ma - the last Paragraph of the previous comment sounds about right.

Posted from United States

According to Fast Company.

“Wal-Mart is not just the world’s largest retailer. It’s the world’s largest company–bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined.”

I think they are ruthless and uncontroled, but some people think they are god. I guess its both the monster and the beauty of a free market economy, depending upon who you ask.

Posted from United States