Andy Stern is president of the Service Employees International Union. It's the fastest growing union in North America. Andy is also a founder of Wake Up Walmart:
I'd like to know how long she'd hafta work just to make the amount equal to Mr. CEO's tax cuts under Bush. You'd better believe Andy has done that math, too. Turns out Walmart owners the Walton family will get a $32 billion tax break just from the repeal of the estate tax. That's billion with a B.
Andy Stern is not trying to organize Walmart. He thinks that's a fool's errand, and he's right. But he's going after Walmart big time to point out that a new model is needed for worker rights and worker representation. As he said in January 22nd's WSJ:
The question is do they [Wal-Mart] want partners or do they want to be held accountable in a much more public fashion?
Heh.
Unions, sad to say, are dying throughout the country.
ReplyDeleteTheir rights have been whittled away to absolutely nothing. I've noticed that with the union I was involved with in my Cingular days.
I welcome anyone willing to fight the system and certainly WalMart needs to be held accountable, but in truth, lots of reforms and good people need to reform unions as a whole.
Unions began to lose their clout in the 1970s as the United States shifted from an industrial to an information based economy.
It remains to be seen whether they will regain it or slowly burn out.
Darn, Evil Spock thought Evil Spock would make your list.
ReplyDeleteoh man, don't get me started on unions!! without them, you know we wouldn't have the 40-hr. work week, the WEEKEND, vacation pay, health benefits, etc., etc. So many people don't realize what unions have done for NON-union workers. (yeah, i belong to a union and i also work for a union.)
ReplyDeletei think the waltons just want MORE BILLIONS. with a B.
The Challenge the Organization faces is extending unions in regions where opposition to unions has historically been high.
ReplyDeleteThe South, for instance, is fiercely anti-union and has little teeth.
The North, however, is solidly unionized and you can see that around the red state/blue state divide.
But being that most growth is in the southeast in general, it will take a new model other than the AFL-CIO model.
The proposed Bush budget and it's attempt to repeal the estate tax is obscene. Equally obscene is the lack of media coverage of the document.
ReplyDeleteAlways nice to meet another blue gal, and rare to meet one that also possesses the rare and rapier-like ability to spout invective like Mark Twain...and whose bio matches mine - from who finds me sext to never mind I'm married-24-years and raised three kids type myself.
ReplyDeleteGlad to make your acquaintance, via our mutual friend exMI (I'm haveing no luck with links this week so I imposed a moratorium for a few days).
The National Organization for Women has been working on the Walmart issue since 2002, http://www.now.org/press/06-02/06-22.html, and finally with some results http://www.now.org/issues/wfw/020707walmart.html.
ReplyDelete"...a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeal for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a trial judge's decision to certify the massive class action lawsuit against Wal-Mart for pervasive sex discrimination. The case will head to trial unless Wal-Mart asks for another hearing before the entire Ninth Circuit, or appeals to the Supreme Court, further delaying justice for over a million women."
If the case does go to the US Supreme Court, we need to hope that it gets there before Bush has a chance to put another religious right hack on the court.
BAC
Aargh. I just read my previous comment. Preview is my friend...Preview is my friend...
ReplyDeleteIn the future I shall attempt to use grammar and sentence structure that do not lead one to assume I was raised by wolves.
You know, from everything I've read, Sam Walton would be turning in his grave if he saw how the kids have been running the place.
ReplyDeleteYet another reason to spend the kid's inheritance before they get it.
Nobody who cares about public education in this country should shop at Wal-Mart or Walgreens or any Walton-owned business. the Walton family is funneling thousands of dollars to so-called "grassroots" organizations throughout the country - including here in New Jersey - whose sole purpose is to push through "voucher" programs (aka taxpayer subsidies to private schools).
ReplyDeleteUnions are dying because of Reagan's union busting as well. And because people are buying into the myth that they are corrupt and/or arachiac. Nope. Only if you let it happen.
Sign that union card, brother/sister.