December 4, 2013

Wal*Mart Holiday Mindfuck

THIS is how Wal-Mart's PR firm is portraying the strikers who are demanding the dignity of a minimal living wage, decent work hours, and healthcare.



Yeah, the mostly unfunded worker's centers are getting highly unpaid volunteers to protest for better working conditions! What do THEY know about work anyways?

Well... (source: TheHill.com)

Unions did not create worker centers, and most worker centers receive little or no funding from unions. Often operating on miniscule budgets, many probably wish they were union funded. Some worker centers receive limited financial and non-financial support from unions, which is unsurprising given that they share the goal of improving job protections for all workers. But the goal of worker centers is not to unionize workers. They do not engage in collective bargaining or negotiate legally binding agreements. Unlike unions, most worker centers have tiny full-time staffs and external advisory boards, not elected officers. They help vulnerable workers retrieve stolen wages, improve dangerous and unhealthy conditions, and educate workers about federal and state labor and employment laws.

Worker centers have won back stolen wages and enhanced safety in construction and other industries. In Texas, which has one of the nation’s highest rates of job-related fatalities in the construction sector, they have provide vulnerable workers with training and education, protective equipment, and guidance with compensation claims. In the process, worker centers have retrieved over $1 million in unlawfully withheld wages and have advocated for more effective protections for undocumented workers. Without worker centers, those vulnerable immigrants would be entirely on their own and without an advocate.

(Emphasis added by me.)

So when volunteers, or EVEN WAL*MART EMPLOYEES THEMSELVES, tell you about how fucked up Wal*Mart treats their employees, just slough it off. You don't need to care. Your only job is to buy our cheap shit!

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