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Walmart workers demand better wages

yeah.....No. They were there yesterday.
I went to Wall-Mart today and the people greeters were there.

I have noticed employees in a different uniform starting to take their place, though. They wear a white polo and black cargo pants. I think their shirt says 'loss prevention' or some such. Also, there's now a greeter placed in the liquor section.
 
Not really. There are a few really big dogs out there like Haliburton and Schlumberger but most of the business is done by support companies. It's not like the well site is all done by one company, tools used come from one company division, subsidiary, or independent. Services on the well like staffing, service, and maintenance come from other companies, engineering, exploration, everything is done by a specialty company or division.

To be a cartel it would require that there is a cornered market done by a small group of companies, couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, we just had an Irish company start it's first division in the U.S. here in Louisiana. If it were a true cartel there wouldn't be outsiders coming in and contracting.

I understand that, but for quite a while, there were the "7 sisters" who had significant control of the oil market.
Obviously now, things have changed quite a bit.

That's why I added the "sort of" though.
The power of the 7 sisters has been greatly diminished now, with trust busting, clamp downs on anti competitive behavior and governments not being complicit with their abuses (like polution).
 
Hmm. I had to bite the bullet and go to Walmart for something, there was a little old guy in the greeter uniform. Maybe a reciept checker?

Really, cool, I haven't seen a greeter at a walmart since at least june. I ask about it and was told that Walmart no longer has them. If a few stores have kept them, cool. But then again, I rarely go to a Walmart on my own, usually I'm with my parents. For me personally, the cost saving of going to the nearest Walmart is less than what I would spend in gas to get there. I just don't buy enough at one time.

I do like to occasionally go and check out the $5 movie bins, they sometimes get some that I like. But that is usually if I have to run into Lowes, so I don't count the gas cost on those trips.
 
Didn't read thread. Too lazy for 925 posts.

But, if this is the same thing I heard about on the radio news recently, someone was saying that 9.50/hr was too little.

My first thought was "damn I don't even make that much", followed by "****, wal-mart pays better than my job?"


Or something to that effect.
 
Wall-Mart registers record the cashier's Items Per Hour. So, why don't they pay a base wage, and offer weekly/monthly bonuses based on the cashier's IPH? Wall-Mart already pays their Order Pickers this way.

Target already has a system in place for tracking how many pieces per-hour it's "logistics team members" move; both stocking shelves and processing a truck.

IMO that places more control directly in the hands of the individual worker. No need to beg a manager, protest or strike, if you want a raise, work harder and you will see the rais on your very next check.
 
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I understand that, but for quite a while, there were the "7 sisters" who had significant control of the oil market.
Obviously now, things have changed quite a bit.

That's why I added the "sort of" though.
The power of the 7 sisters has been greatly diminished now, with trust busting, clamp downs on anti competitive behavior and governments not being complicit with their abuses (like polution).
It was never a non-competitive market, there was just a bigger pie for those companies. For it to be a cartel situation there would have to be hostile cornering of the market, agreements to shove others out. Really what it boiled down to was the bigger companies were more known.
 
There's only one oil company in the world?

Do you know what a cartel is? I'll give you a clue. It's formed by more than 1 entity.
 
When I worked for Wall-Mart I "only" made $6.50, and my parents would tell me how lucky I was because minimum wage was around $2 when they were my age.

$10-13 pr/hr is entry level skilled labor. There's no way unskilled labor should be making that.

I say it depends on what they're doing. In the oilfield an unskilled laborer can easily make 50 g's a year. The business that I'm a member of of, now, has roustabouts/grunts/unskilled laborers that are making 45-50 grand, working 6 months out of the year because they work a 14 day on/14 day off schedual. A majority of these guys are ex-cons/ex-junkies/both, with no high school paper, much less college.

However, they well earn every nickel and the ones that can't cut the mustard are sent packin'; 2nd chances are frequent, but 3rd chances are nearly non-existant.
 
It was never a non-competitive market, there was just a bigger pie for those companies. For it to be a cartel situation there would have to be hostile cornering of the market, agreements to shove others out. Really what it boiled down to was the bigger companies were more known.

Come on now, standard oil is one of the prime examples of how business and government, working together, creates market cartels and monopolies.
Even though Standard Oil, wasn't a complete monopoly, they at one time, controlled over 85% of the oil market.

They used to railroads (a government granted monopoly) to harm competitors.
It's completely in line, with how unions use noncompetitive behavior to restrict outside labor from competing with them.
 
Come on now, standard oil is one of the prime examples of how business and government, working together, creates market cartels and monopolies.
Even though Standard Oil, wasn't a complete monopoly, they at one time, controlled over 85% of the oil market.

They used to railroads (a government granted monopoly) to harm competitors.
It's completely in line, with how unions use noncompetitive behavior to restrict outside labor from competing with them.
They weren't squeezing anyone out of the market, it's just they were big enough to control a large portion of it. After government interference my city almost collapsed, it wasn't because Standard was a huge problem but because so many independents got shut down because the big dogs got hurt and couldn't do as much gulf work. apsdt can tell you all about those days.
 
I sure do, but obviously...you don't! :rofl

If you know what it means, how do you, in your usual ignorance, gather that my comment means there is only one oil company? Never mind, I said "usual" ignorance. Just one more case when you don't understand what it is you're reading.
 
I say it depends on what they're doing. In the oilfield an unskilled laborer can easily make 50 g's a year. The business that I'm a member of of, now, has roustabouts/grunts/unskilled laborers that are making 45-50 grand, working 6 months out of the year because they work a 14 day on/14 day off schedual. A majority of these guys are ex-cons/ex-junkies/both, with no high school paper, much less college.

However, they well earn every nickel and the ones that can't cut the mustard are sent packin'; 2nd chances are frequent, but 3rd chances are nearly non-existant.
Absolutely. There are physical demands and known risks and dangers on an oil rig that a Wall-Mart cashier will never face.
 
They weren't squeezing anyone out of the market, it's just they were big enough to control a large portion of it. After government interference my city almost collapsed, it wasn't because Standard was a huge problem but because so many independents got shut down because the big dogs got hurt and couldn't do as much gulf work. apsdt can tell you all about those days.

Standard Oil pressured the railroads, to prevent competitors from building pipelines, through their lands.
I'm all about free market and free enterprise, but also recognize the failure of government, when it comes to their direct involvement of creating market monopolies.

Businesses can be bad guys, when it comes to this stuff.
 
Standard Oil pressured the railroads, to prevent competitors from building pipelines, through their lands.
I'm all about free market and free enterprise, but also recognize the failure of government, when it comes to their direct involvement of creating market monopolies.

Businesses can be bad guys, when it comes to this stuff.
Yeah and what did the CEO of Standard Oil do when the railroads started charging him market rates?

He built a ****in pipeline :lol:
 
They can demand better wages, but they aren't entitled to them.
 
Wall-Mart registers record the cashier's Items Per Hour. So, why don't they pay a base wage, and offer weekly/monthly bonuses based on the cashier's IPH? Wall-Mart already pays their Order Pickers this way.

Target already has a system in place for tracking how many pieces per-hour it's "logistics team members" move; both stocking shelves and processing a truck.

IMO that places more control directly in the hands of the individual worker. No need to beg a manager, protest or strike, if you want a raise, work harder and you will see the rais on your very next check.

Right off the top of my head, the problem I see with that, is that a cashier has zero control over how many people/items are checked out through her register. It would be based on luck more that performance and performance bonuses can't work that way.

I guess you could turn the cashier line into a carneval midway: "fastest checkout in town, folks! Right here! Fast check out! Ready to check out, ma'am? Roll right on in and get out quick!" Entertaining, but unrealistic.

What if a cashier draws 20 out of 30 hours during the slowest times of the day and they do that 3 weeks in a row and get rooked out of their bonus?

A performance bonus based on scanned items is totally unrealistic.
 
Yeah and what did the CEO of Standard Oil do when the railroads started charging him market rates?

He built a ****in pipeline :lol:

Well, standard oil did loose market share, before all the trust busting started to happen.
But, it doesn't take away from the point that, government shouldn't give implicit or explicit "special" benefits to any business, whether it be a union or oil company.
 
Standard Oil pressured the railroads, to prevent competitors from building pipelines, through their lands.
I'm all about free market and free enterprise, but also recognize the failure of government, when it comes to their direct involvement of creating market monopolies.

Businesses can be bad guys, when it comes to this stuff.
They shut out direct competitors, they did not corner the entire market. Like I said, for it to be a cartel there would have to be more than just gaming the railroads, they would have to leverage the refineries, and sew up other sectors of the market, etc.
 
Some folks would disagree that they're not entitled to them.
That's when it's time to tell those folks to go ahead and pay the difference.
 
A union could do that, without the legal monopoly.
With the legal monopoly, it's just a rent seeking relationship.

There is more than one union, thus no monopoly. For many, the union employees take all the risks so others can benefit. No one I know of has ever turned down a raise earned by the union, or better benefits. Can't balme union members for wanting equal sharing of the burden.
 
Didn't read thread. Too lazy for 925 posts.

But, if this is the same thing I heard about on the radio news recently, someone was saying that 9.50/hr was too little.

My first thought was "damn I don't even make that much", followed by "****, wal-mart pays better than my job?"


Or something to that effect.

Not to mention that they actually do a decent job of promoting up if you show a bit of capability and gumption to actually work.

My nieces ex-boyfriend went to work there stocking at night last year, less than 3 months he got moved to full-time with benefits, still not great pay, but survivable. But then, he was also conscientious about his job, went in when asked, did the work asked of him and didn't bitch about it.

Amazing what a decent attitude and a willingness to work will get you vs standing around bitching about how bad it is.
 
There is more than one union, thus no monopoly. For many, the union employees take all the risks so others can benefit. No one I know of has ever turned down a raise earned by the union, or better benefits. Can't balme union members for wanting equal sharing of the burden.

So when a union has a monopoly on labor for 1 employer, I'm supposed to coo with happiness?
It is a monopoly.

Sure, if someone handed me a $100 bill, for no reason, I'd take it to.
 
Right off the top of my head, the problem I see with that, is that a cashier has zero control over how many people/items are checked out through her register.
Wall-Mart's Order Picker's speed is only judged at the beginning of an order, not during staging or brakes or lunch. Likewise, the register only records your speed during a transaction. The register does not record in real-time. A cashier with a steady line all day can have a much lower IPH then a cashier who has a couple rushes and then down time.

When I was at Wall-Mart, a buddy and I hated cashiering, but everyone had to do a week of it every quarter. "Extreme" reality shows were in vogue at the time, so naturally we invented "extreme cashiering", where we competed for the highest IPH. We learned some tricks to it, and we had the fastest registers the store had ever seen. A typical cashier would have an IPH between 150-200. Cashiers with an IPH above 250 were rewarded with a special name tag (a big deal among the cashiering circles).

After a couple days, my IPH was 510. My buddy's IPH was just under 600. We showed the other cashiers our tricks, and it's not that we were exploiting the system, it's that we were actually faster. A 'trick' might be letting the customer put all their stuff on the counter, and then I would line up all the bar-codes before starting the transaction, this way you can just fly the items across the laser. Another 'trick' was memorizing UPCs to more common large items, such as various dog/cat food/litter. This way I could just type the UPC into the register without having to walk around with the scanner or wait for the customer to find the removable tag. Another 'trick' is grouping like items on the counter, something most customers do anyway. If I was working the tobacco register, I would ask if they wanted tobacco before starting the transaction. And of course the customer needs to be in a good mood in order to pay faster, so I would, for example, always card the elderly buying alcohol.
 
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