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Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

they should have organized their labor nationally years ago. the best way to prevent unions is to not treat your workers like ****.
 
Yeah, maybe it's how corporate greed bullwhips people tro get off their backside and begrudgingly spend all their money.... people are forced to participate..

Thom Paine

I'm not saying that anyone is forcing people to participate, but the mere fact that people used to respond en masse to the early morning Friday sales should tell you that it isn't the public that is demanding the change. They are simply responding to the corporation desires to shift the sales to Thanksgiving.
 
Not at all. You are conveniently refusing to accept the fact that the corporation can decide to have the sales Mon, Tues, Wed, Fri....and the public will come. It is the corporation that has chosen Thanksgiving to have their sales. Show me anywhere the public demanded corporations to open their doors on Thanksgiving.

And you are refusing to accept people can decide not to go on Thanksgiving thus forcing the store to do it later.

As for showing you the demand, one only has to look at the people lining up to see the demand. Even when the sales were at 4am the day after Thanksgiving, people were lining up at 1 and 2 am to get to the sales.
 
And you are refusing to accept people can decide not to go on Thanksgiving thus forcing the store to do it later.

As for showing you the demand, one only has to look at the people lining up to see the demand. Even when the sales were at 4am the day after Thanksgiving, people were lining up at 2 and 3 am to get to the sales.

There is obviously a demand for the sale...but you are confusing that with a demand that the sale be on Thanksgiving. The same people lined up outside the doors on Thanksgiving are the same people that were lined up outside the doors on Black Friday. The demand didn't cause the shift to an earlier opening. THAT is what you are conveniently refusing to address.
 
I need to get in touch with that charity because I feel this pull to go shopping tomorrow and Friday when I know it's not a good idea. I hate crowds of people and I hate lines but lord help me I have trouble resisting good deals. I guess I could feel better about myself and get back my self respect if I blame Walmart for my lack of self control. :2razz:

Come down to Georgia and shop with me. I'll even buy you a salted caramel machiatto at Starbucks when we hit Target. :)

I have no problem shopping on Thanksgiving, or Black Friday. Most places don't start their sales until later in the day, so it's not like the workers didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with their families.
 
they are replaceable for sure. EVERYONE is replaceable (one of the many truths i've learned in my career). how immediately replaceable they are remains to be seen. it depends on how many people decide to strike and in what locations. for instance in a more rural area, a walmart might have a much more difficult time finding replacement workers if 2/3 of the store decides not to show up.

Well, how immediately you are replaceable depends on how much education and training is necessary to perform the job. If you are a Walmart stock clerk odds are your training is measured in hours, not years.
 
It is of my opinion that, upon being offered employment, when they are told that they have to work holidays, they can't back out of it. It doesn't work that way. Every single one of these people are told, from the beginning, that they absolutely have to work on holidays. They have no choice. None. I used to be in retail management, and on every application, there are boxes that the applicant has to check, to say which holidays they will work. If all boxes weren't checked, I wouldn't even call them in for an interview.

When they took the job, they knew they had to work on holidays. This is just an excuse for attention, and nothing more.

I hope if they strike, they get fired.

they're not allowed to change their minds? you think they should be physically forced to work since they already agree to do so? when you say "they can't back out of it" it sounds like you believe they should be physically forced to work.

if they strike (which is their right in a free market), yes they can be fired (which is the employer's right in a free market). why do you hate the free market?
 
When it is purposely at the expense of others for an item, yes it is. Now if you support that, be my guest that is your choice.

At the expense of who, again? Because unless the Walmart employee is working for free it's certainly not at their expense.
 
they're not allowed to change their minds? you think they should be physically forced to work since they already agree to do so? when you say "they can't back out of it" it sounds like you believe they should be physically forced to work.

if they strike (which is their right in a free market), yes they can be fired (which is the employer's right in a free market). why do you hate the free market?

Not to derail, but should law enforcement, firefighters, emergency responders, public works, etc. also have a right to change their minds and not work on Thanksgiving.

If consumers would not shop on bird day, stores would not be open.
 
At the expense of who, again? Because unless the Walmart employee is working for free it's certainly not at their expense.

If that makes you sleep better at night excusing your greed, whatever dude.
 
they're not allowed to change their minds? you think they should be physically forced to work since they already agree to do so? when you say "they can't back out of it" it sounds like you believe they should be physically forced to work.

if they strike (which is their right in a free market), yes they can be fired (which is the employer's right in a free market). why do you hate the free market?

Now where on Earth did she say let alone imply that she hates the free market in that post? Hint...nowhere.
 
they should have organized their labor nationally years ago. the best way to prevent unions is to not treat your workers like ****.

and this is precisely why unions are on the decline. most employers know that the best way to keep the union out is to keep workers from every wanting one in the first place. since the unions and labor movement in general were able to achieve so many successes in the 20th century, workers now do not usually see the need for them.

that said, the only thing that could lead us back to the exploitation of the early industrial revolution would be if everyone began to believe we didn't need unions anymore, and that they should be outlawed. the THREAT of a union is just as powerful as powerful as a union itself, and if the threat goes away, then all of the rights workers enjoy in this country (such as overtime pay and other protections) would be in danger.
 
Come down to Georgia and shop with me. I'll even buy you a salted caramel machiatto at Starbucks when we hit Target. :)

I have no problem shopping on Thanksgiving, or Black Friday. Most places don't start their sales until later in the day, so it's not like the workers didn't get to spend Thanksgiving with their families.

I hate shopping anyway. I'm not a normal girl. :mrgreen: I'll admit I'd rather chew out my left eyeball than fight crowds of shoppers, but I support the right of consenting adults to do whatever the hell they choose to do.

By the way, I do a lot of my Christmas shopping after Christmas when everything is on sale. It's wrapped in January and waiting for the next Christmas. I don't buy anything that will potentially be out of style or whatever, but I do get a lot of good things. My husband thinks I'm a loon.:(
 
Well, how immediately you are replaceable depends on how much education and training is necessary to perform the job. If you are a Walmart stock clerk odds are your training is measured in hours, not years.

truth, but education and training are not the only factors that determine replaceability (not sure that's a word) such as in my example you quoted. hypothetically, a doctor may be more replaceable than a cashier if he/she happens to reside in an area where there are more people willing and qualified to work as a doctor than there are folks willing and qualified to work as a cashier.
 
they're not allowed to change their minds?

:lol: Are you serious? Hell NO they can't change their minds. When you were hired at your job, did you agree to come to work everyday? Clean-shaven, and wearing clean clothes? Were you told you would have to do "blah blah blah" for your job, and would be expected to do this to the best of your ability? Of course you were. Now what would happen to you if you just decided you didn't want to follow your company's rules anymore?

you think they should be physically forced to work since they already agree to do so?

Physically? No. You can't put your hands on somebody, or kick them in the nuts if they refuse to do their job. You just fire them. It's not that difficult a concept to understand.

when you say "they can't back out of it" it sounds like you believe they should be physically forced to work.

Again, you are hung up on this "physically" thing -- has nothing to do with being physical. I don't know why you keep bringing that up.

if they strike (which is their right in a free market), yes they can be fired (which is the employer's right in a free market). why do you hate the free market?

You are not making any sense. I am all for someone's right to strike if they choose to. I am also for the employer's right to fire said employee if they agree to do a job, that they then back out of doing.
 
Not to derail, but should law enforcement, firefighters, emergency responders, public works, etc. also have a right to change their minds and not work on Thanksgiving.

If consumers would not shop on bird day, stores would not be open.

that is a really interesting question isn't it? should the public be allowed to tell its emergency workers that they have to come to work?

i'm not a labor lawyer but i do know there have been many famous cases throughout history that have explored this question. i know that with the air traffic controllers strike a few decades ago, reagan set the precedent that they were NOT allowed to strike because it put the public safety in jeopardy.

that is an entirely different question though, since walmart employees showing up to work does not have an effect on public safety.
 
and this is precisely why unions are on the decline. most employers know that the best way to keep the union out is to keep workers from every wanting one in the first place. since the unions and labor movement in general were able to achieve so many successes in the 20th century, workers now do not usually see the need for them.

that said, the only thing that could lead us back to the exploitation of the early industrial revolution would be if everyone began to believe we didn't need unions anymore, and that they should be outlawed. the THREAT of a union is just as powerful as powerful as a union itself, and if the threat goes away, then all of the rights workers enjoy in this country (such as overtime pay and other protections) would be in danger.

i'd argue that this is largely the case now. not to mention that some states have passed anti-labor laws which gut unions. it's kind of sad.

most of the people who are anti-organized labor have good jobs themselves, so they don't really care. what they don't think about is that their kids and grandkids are going to be cast out into a labor market in which the worker is completely expendable. they'll be working "independent contract" jobs in which you work full time as a professional but your job has a definite end date, lower tier jobs in which you have no control over your schedule and are barely paid enough to stay off of public assistance, and a complete lack of job security. i don't want my kids to have to work in a labor market like that.
 
Now where on Earth did she say let alone imply that she hates the free market in that post? Hint...nowhere.

they she said "they can't back out of it." the word "can't" implies to me that they should should not be allowed to back out of it.

if we FORCE workers to show up, then we're not really living in a free country are we? by saying they should be forced to work, she essentially is expressing her displeasure with the free market.

that may not have been what she intended to say but it's the message that was delivered.
 
A couple of things here

1st those striking on black friday are stupid. Overtime + holiday pay + 25% discount, thats a good $300-400 extra bucks for even the lower wages.

2nd black friday means sales but very little profit lots of things with negative or little profit and not enough non blitz sales to make up for it. It has become so competitive that its not worth it for the businesses anymore I could see it self imploding if people keep going crazy over it. If you want black friday to end the answer is to come to the store and buy all the negative margin items you can get your paws on, make the company really feel it and maybe they will stop.

3rd the average walmart salary is so high is there are some many people that have been there 20+ years and have all their high benefits locked in from the good old days. I made significantly less than the average when I was an hourly overnight manager in charge of the entire store, lucky for them I had morals but thats just a big mistake waiting to happen.
 
:lol: Are you serious? Hell NO they can't change their minds. When you were hired at your job, did you agree to come to work everyday? Clean-shaven, and wearing clean clothes? Were you told you would have to do "blah blah blah" for your job, and would be expected to do this to the best of your ability? Of course you were. Now what would happen to you if you just decided you didn't want to follow your company's rules anymore?



Physically? No. You can't put your hands on somebody, or kick them in the nuts if they refuse to do their job. You just fire them. It's not that difficult a concept to understand.



Again, you are hung up on this "physically" thing -- has nothing to do with being physical. I don't know why you keep bringing that up.



You are not making any sense. I am all for someone's right to strike if they choose to. I am also for the employer's right to fire said employee if they agree to do a job, that they then back out of doing.

then we agree wholeheartedly! i, however, do not choose to make any judgments on the employees who are simply just trying to get the best deal they can, which is what everyone does in a free market.

from your post, it certainly sounded like you were NOT in favor of someone's right to strike by saying "they can't back out of it."
 
they she said "they can't back out of it." the word "can't" implies to me that they should should not be allowed to back out of it.

if we FORCE workers to show up, then we're not really living in a free country are we? by saying they should be forced to work, she essentially is expressing her displeasure with the free market.

that may not have been what she intended to say but it's the message that was delivered.

that may not have been what she intended to say but it's the message that was delivered

Only to you.
 
I hate shopping anyway. I'm not a normal girl. :mrgreen: I'll admit I'd rather chew out my left eyeball than fight crowds of shoppers, but I support the right of consenting adults to do whatever the hell they choose to do.

By the way, I do a lot of my Christmas shopping after Christmas when everything is on sale. It's wrapped in January and waiting for the next Christmas. I don't buy anything that will potentially be out of style or whatever, but I do get a lot of good things. My husband thinks I'm a loon.:(

I normally hate crowds, too, but I deal with it on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I live in a pretty small town, so it's not like there will be 50,000 people at the mall. :lol: I don't usually shop for doorbusters, anyway, and that's what draws in the crowd. I have learned to come in about an hour after the doorbusters go on sale. Then I stagger my shopping that way, all night. Doorbusters are 5 at Target? 6 and 8 at Walmart? I head to Walmart about 9, shop for a while, then head to Target, then Dicks, Michaels, etc etc etc. As long as I stagger my time to visit the stores after the doorbusters are finished, I usually have no problem. It's about as busy as a normal Friday or Saturday night.
 
I normally hate crowds, too, but I deal with it on Thanksgiving and Black Friday. I live in a pretty small town, so it's not like there will be 50,000 people at the mall. :lol: I don't usually shop for doorbusters, anyway, and that's what draws in the crowd. I have learned to come in about an hour after the doorbusters go on sale. Then I stagger my shopping that way, all night. Doorbusters are 5 at Target? 6 and 8 at Walmart? I head to Walmart about 9, shop for a while, then head to Target, then Dicks, Michaels, etc etc etc. As long as I stagger my time to visit the stores after the doorbusters are finished, I usually have no problem. It's about as busy as a normal Friday or Saturday night.

That doesn't sound too bad. I could handle that...maybe. If Sean Connery was shopping with me, I'd be good to go.
 
https://hbr.org/2012/11/why-gray-thursday-is-a-bad-ide

Here's good article. Why working on holidays... is bad!

Who actually benefits from this craziness?

Retailers get a temporary sales lift from offering deep discounts. But opening stores on a holiday often means they pay employees time and a half. And it’s unlikely that opening stores earlier makes people spend more for holiday shopping; they just spend more that day and less on other days.
 
I ask because I truly do not know... If he doesn't show up for his shifts.. Can he be fired? It makes sense that he should/could be fired, but who knows anymore.

Of course he can be fired and should be.
 
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