According to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart's store managers and department supervisors are forcing their employees into mandatory meetings where they "warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart." This is then followed by a friendly soliloquy about union dues, forced strikes, and the jobs Wal-Mart would have to cut if anyone so much as dared breathe the letters "UFCW." As one worker who attended the meetings reported, "The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union.'"That is, of course, untrue. But it's surprising how afraid Wal-Mart is: The odds that Democrats would pass card check -- which would make it so workers would have a vote on whether they want a union, as opposed to the current situation where they can't even get an election called before they're fired -- always struck me as remote. Even so, it's easy to understand Wal-Mart's fears. They've had a sweet deal till now. "On June 30," reports the WSJ, "the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Wal-Mart illegally fired an employee in Kingman, Ariz., who supported the UFCW and illegally threatened to freeze merit-pay increases if employees voted for union representation. The decision came eight years after the organizing campaign failed, and four years after the case was originally heard." Elsewhere we learn that Wal-Mart has "labor-relations rapid-response teams" that they fly out to any location where union activity is detected. And if a union does get a foothold, the response is severe: "The United Food and Commercial Workers was successful in organizing only one group of Wal-Mart workers -- a small number of butchers in East Texas in early 2000. Several weeks later, the company phased out butchers in all of its stores and began stocking prepackaged meat. When a store in Canada voted to unionize several years ago, the company closed the store, saying it had been unprofitable for years."It's impossible to organize under circumstances where labor-friendly workers are fired, stores are closed to serve as an example to others, and where companies pay trivial fines eight years after the fact. Card check, by contrast, makes it possible to organize. And Wal-Mart is, predictably, terrified. But not because their workers wouldn't "have a vote." Rather, they're afraid because, finally, they would. WAL-MART FEARS THE VOTE.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart's store managers and department supervisors are forcing their employees into mandatory meetings where they "warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart." This is then followed by a friendly soliloquy about union dues, forced strikes, and the jobs Wal-Mart would have to cut if anyone so much as dared breathe the letters "UFCW." As one worker who attended the meetings reported, "The meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union.'"That is, of course, untrue. But it's surprising how afraid Wal-Mart is: The odds that Democrats would pass card check -- which would make it so workers would have a vote on whether they want a union, as opposed to the current situation where they can't even get an election called before they're fired -- always struck me as remote. Even so, it's easy to understand Wal-Mart's fears. They've had a sweet deal till now. "On June 30," reports the WSJ, "the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Wal-Mart illegally fired an employee in Kingman, Ariz., who supported the UFCW and illegally threatened to freeze merit-pay increases if employees voted for union representation. The decision came eight years after the organizing campaign failed, and four years after the case was originally heard." Elsewhere we learn that Wal-Mart has "labor-relations rapid-response teams" that they fly out to any location where union activity is detected. And if a union does get a foothold, the response is severe: "The United Food and Commercial Workers was successful in organizing only one group of Wal-Mart workers -- a small number of butchers in East Texas in early 2000. Several weeks later, the company phased out butchers in all of its stores and began stocking prepackaged meat. When a store in Canada voted to unionize several years ago, the company closed the store, saying it had been unprofitable for years."It's impossible to organize under circumstances where labor-friendly workers are fired, stores are closed to serve as an example to others, and where companies pay trivial fines eight years after the fact. Card check, by contrast, makes it possible to organize. And Wal-Mart is, predictably, terrified. But not because their workers wouldn't "have a vote." Rather, they're afraid because, finally, they would. 
