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Walmart workers demand better wages

jamesrage said:
Especially seeing how Wal-mart practically destroyed the mom and pop shops competitions that would have otherwise employed people with full time work at a decent wage.
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Right. Those mom-and-pop shops paid even less than WalMart. My aunt worked for a mom-and-pop dimestore for ten years. She never made more than minimum wage. No sick days. No vacations. No insurance. No raises. No nothing. Then WalMart came to town. Those greedy little mom-and-pop stores went out of business; and she finally got a job that had benefits.
 
If Walmart who grosses 400 billion and nets 15 billion raised employee salaries by 5 billion what would that do to Walmart in a negative fashion?
 
The Man said:
I'm not a Wal mart fan by any means. I actually try to avoid the place as much as possible, unless I'm in the mood to go look at some mutants. But, I don't see what Wal mart does that is any different than any other retailer, restaurant, etc., in regards to employee treatment?
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OMG!!! Finally!!! I get to meet "The Man" !! ;)
 
grip said:
If Walmart who grosses 400 billion and nets 15 billion raised employee salaries by 5 billion what would that do to Walmart in a negative fashion?
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WalMart made a profit of $15.4 billion for FY ending 1/31/11. If they unionize, that profit is gone. Unionization increases a business cost by 25-35%. Their gross profit margin is 24%. Walmart - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
MaggieD said:
Right. Those mom-and-pop shops paid even less than WalMart. My aunt worked for a mom-and-pop dimestore for ten years. She never made more than minimum wage. No sick days. No vacations. No insurance. No raises. No nothing. Then WalMart came to town. Those greedy little mom-and-pop stores went out of business; and she finally got a job that had benefits.
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I too, worked for a small business, in a skill trade.
I started at minimum wage, no benefits.

Flash forward a few months later, I became very proficient at my job, so much that it suprised my boss and his brother.
The only problem was that, I was doing $15 an hour work for $8 an hour, still, no benefits and that boss was a holy terror.

Walked into the temp office of a publicly traded manufacturer, started at more than the previous job, 3 months later I had medical, dental, 401k, profit sharing, ESPP, paid holidays, etc.
Those evil, evil corporations could pay me more than the local "mom and pop" small business could dream of.
 
grip said:
If Walmart who grosses 400 billion and nets 15 billion raised employee salaries by 5 billion what would that do to Walmart in a negative fashion?
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Well, one thing it would do is increase prices immediately. Companies like walmart have responsibilities to their shareholders to return gains. So, increases like this that are avoidable, would be passed along to customers.
 
grip said:
If Walmart who grosses 400 billion and nets 15 billion raised employee salaries by 5 billion what would that do to Walmart in a negative fashion?
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It would mean less money for the shareholders, which shares are held by almost every fund you can think of. Including union pension funds. These shareholders rely on the dividends and hopefully a rise of the stock price to support their risk in their investment.
 
My first job, back in 1994, was washing dishes at a local upscale restaurant. It paid $5/hour. There wasn't even air conditioning in the kitchen, it sucked. But, it served its purpose. It provided me with my own spending money. By 1998, until I got my first real job after college, I was making $7.50/hour cooking in another unairconditioned restaurant kitchen. Hell, my first real, college grad job only paid $10/hour in 1998.

Wal mart employees actually have it pretty good for the work that they do.
 
j-mac said:
Well, one thing it would do is increase prices immediately. Companies like walmart have responsibilities to their shareholders to return gains. So, increases like this that are avoidable, would be passed along to customers.
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Born Free said:
It would mean less money for the shareholders, which shares are held by almost every fund you can think of. Including union pension funds. These shareholders rely on the dividends and hopefully a rise of the stock price to support their risk in their investment.
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Why can't they take a little less profit and not increase prices, which would make them less competitive and cost them more profits.

Just seems too me a little less could add to more eventually.
 
grip said:
But if the 5 billion increase staved off unionization wouldn't that save their profits?
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Unionization of WalMart is a dead issue. The UFCW is blustering, trying to force them to unionize, however, the demonstrations you saw the past week are staged. Very few if any actual WalMart workers participated. Unions are very Hamas like in their propaganda.
 
j-mac said:
Well, one thing it would do is increase prices immediately. Companies like walmart have responsibilities to their shareholders to return gains. So, increases like this that are avoidable, would be passed along to customers.
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Plus we would only pay so much for cheap imported crap.
 
Harry Guerrilla said:
If there are alternatives, labor has choices and attempts at exploitation are limited.
Unionizing Walmart employees is just an attempt at them, creating a monopoly on labor.

Something that would otherwise be illegal, as it is purposefully anti competitive.
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A monopoly on labor? That is silly. The labor at Wal mart is NOT what customers shop there for. What does walmart sell that you cannot get elsewhere?
 
grip said:
But if the 5 billion increase staved off unionization wouldn't that save their profits?
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Well, honestly? (I said this earlier or on another thread....) If I were WalMart? I wouldn't raise salaries one iota over market demand right now. As long as the union has a bulls eye on WalMart, management would be foolish to pay one dime more than market forces demand...since unionization will undoubtedly result in significant increases in pay. Pay and other costs associated with unionization. I'd say they're between a rock and a hard place right now.
 
grip said:
Why can't they take a little less profit and not increase prices, which would make them less competitive and cost them more profits.

Just seems too me a little less could add to more eventually.
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It's called a fiduciary responsibility....You need to learn how a publicly held company is operated.
 
grip said:
Why can't they take a little less profit and not increase prices, which would make them less competitive and cost them more profits.

Just seems too me a little less could add to more eventually.
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If they take less profit, fund managers buy other stock.
 
MaggieD said:
Well, honestly? (I said this earlier or on another thread....) If I were WalMart? I wouldn't raise salaries one iota over market demand right now. As long as the union has a bulls eye on WalMart, management would be foolish to pay one dime more than market forces demand...since unionization will undoubtedly result in significant increases in pay. Pay and other costs associated with unionization. I'd say they're between a rock and a hard place right now.
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nah, There is no rock.....Unions are at their lowest participation in history in the US. They are irrelevant.
 
haymarket said:
A monopoly on labor? That is silly. The labor at Wal mart is NOT what customers shop there for. What does walmart sell that you cannot get elsewhere?
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Groceries up 40%, Gas up 110%, Durable goods up 40%......etc...How much expendable income do you have?
 
MaggieD said:
Well, honestly? (I said this earlier or on another thread....) If I were WalMart? I wouldn't raise salaries one iota over market demand right now. As long as the union has a bulls eye on WalMart, management would be foolish to pay one dime more than market forces demand...since unionization will undoubtedly result in significant increases in pay. Pay and other costs associated with unionization. I'd say they're between a rock and a hard place right now.
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You know what happen to the greedy boy who took all the cookies out of the jar? He got sick.
 
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