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Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

disneydude said:
I agree with you to a point....except that the PEOPLES GREED will drive them to the store on ANY day the corporations decide to have the sale. It is still the CORPORATION that has decided that they have to destroy Thanksgiving to increase their sales.
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The corporation doesn't force people to act on their greed. People decide that.

The reason you are flat out wrong is because both you and I don't go to those sales. If we can deal without an item to save our family tradition, so can other people.

Plain and simple, it is the people's greed that is doing this. If it wasn't, you and I would be out there shopping on Thanksgiving with them.
 
TheNextEra said:
Yes and when they do it against company policy, they can be fired. If they are willing to lose their jobs over it, than I won't be sad if that happens. It's THEIR choice and all.
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yayyy you get it you finally get it! they can certainly be fired! that's the free market! if they can get away with it and keep their jobs, even better for them! god i want to just hug the free market right now.
 
buck said:
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.
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Of course he can be fired. If a dozen or so workers participate in the strike, they could all be fired and WalMart would go on without a hitch. If, on the other hand, all or most of their employees strike, they'll have to close that day and will lose out on millions of dollars of sales. Replacing all of their employees at once would be a nightmare.

So, were you the CEO of WalMart, would you throw the employees a bone, or simply wait it out and hope that the strikers don't get enough support?
 
bg85 said:
yayyy you get it you finally get it! they can certainly be fired! that's the free market! if they can get away with it and keep their jobs, even better for them! god i want to just hug the free market right now.
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So the good news is they won't complain when WalMart fires them right in time for Christmas.
 
jmotivator said:
Maybe the two of you can eventually come to the realization that people don't follow you into a boycott because they don't care about the stupid cause, not because of a lack of willpower.

The vast majority of people will shop at Walmart because they can save a few bucks on something they want to buy.
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I don't care what other people do. That is their choice. I am just not going to go blame the corporations because of people's greed.
 
TheNextEra said:
I don't care what other people do. That is their choice. I am just not going to go blame the corporations because of people's greed.
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Saving money is now greed?
 
tres borrachos said:
So the good news is they won't complain when WalMart fires them right in time for Christmas.
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well we don't know if they'll complain or not, but i would argue that if they do get fired, they should have known the potential consequences of not showing up to work. i will not feel sorry for them if they are fired.
 
TheNextEra said:
So the people are being FORCED to go on Thanksgiving? You just said people want to go to TAKE ADVANTAGE of the sales. So people's greed is forcing them to destroy American Tradition. You keep proving my point over and over.
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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.
 
bg85 said:
well we don't know if they'll complain or not, but i would argue that if they do get fired, they should have known the potential consequences of not showing up to work. i will not feel sorry for them if they are fired.
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I won't feel sorry for them either. As TNE said, they knew when they took the jobs. This didn't just sneak up on everyone the day before yesterday.

Strike, get fired, and own it. Fine by me.
 
CanadaJohn said:
Actually, you're wrong. Many of these stores had significantly long line-ups of customers throughout the night and into the wee hours of the morning prior to Black Friday opening in the morning and then had stampedes into the stores when they opened. They also had to provide security and crowd control throughout the night to avoid vandalism and fighting. As a result, they decided to open the stores earlier and earlier. It was consumer demand.
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Actually....no.....you are wrong. The lines outside the stores have moved along with the opening times. There are now lines outside the stores on Wed. But again....it isn't the public demanding the stores have their sales on Thanksgiving. They are responding to the corporations desires.
 
bg85 said:
well we don't know if they'll complain or not, but i would argue that if they do get fired, they should have known the potential consequences of not showing up to work. i will not feel sorry for them if they are fired.
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Yeah, it's not like these employees are doing high skilled labor. They are immediately replaceable.
 
TheDemSocialist said:
Read more @: Walmart Workers Launch Black Friday Strike

:applaud:applaudIn solidarity! [/FONT][/COLOR]
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Wah wah waaaaah......

They yammer about this every year. They threaten to strike every year. If you don't want to work on the holidays, don't work in jobs where you have to work on the holidays. Easy, peasy.

But before you start whining, "But it's not faaaaiiirrr!!!!" think about all the other people who don't have a choice but to work on the holidays -- cops, doctors, nurses, EMTs, firemen, etc. Many, many more.
 
disneydude said:
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.
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simply by showing up to shop, the public is showing their desire for the store to be open. i feel like this might have already been said but i really think that should end the discussion right there. if there wasn't a demand for the store to be open, there wouldn't be a supply of stores that are open.

remember that from Keynesian economics? Obama and other liberal folks' favorite economic school of thought? the demand comes first, THEN the supply. you kinda sound like a reaganomics guy arguing from the supply side.
 
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disneydude said:
Actually....no.....you are wrong. The lines outside the stores have moved along with the opening times. There are now lines outside the stores on Wed. But again....it isn't the public demanding the stores have their sales on Thanksgiving. They are responding to the corporations desires.
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It must be brutal living in your world where you have zero willpower or control over your own actions. There should be a charity to assist those in such dire need of supports. Better yet, perhaps a government department with loads of civil servants and regulations to protect these feeble beings.
 
Superfly said:
Wah wah waaaaah......

They yammer about this every year. They threaten to strike every year. If you don't want to work on the holidays, don't work in jobs where you have to work on the holidays. Easy, peasy.

But before you start whining, "But it's not faaaaiiirrr!!!!" think about all the other people who don't have a choice but to work on the holidays -- cops, doctors, nurses, EMTs, firemen, etc. Many, many more.
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is it your opinion that the workers should not be allowed to strike, or that they are bad people for wanting to do so?
 
bg85 said:
okay let's slow down for just a minute here. please note that i am pro-free market, and whatever wage you earn is probably a "fair" wage. that said, the report you've quote above is misleading. to only look at the wages of full-time workers means you're either ignorant about walmart's business practices or you're trying to pull one over on everybody.

i'll start with a few questions: do you happen to know what percentage of walmart workers are full-time, and what percentage are part-time? how many hours per week does the average part-time worker get to work?

are the full-time employees mostly supervisory and management employees, or do they also encompass a significant portion of line-level employees who make up the majority of the company's workers?
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I'm in general agreement.

The article excerpt is an example, as you pointed out, of incomplete comparable information issued by all concerned... Union attack upon Walmart...and the just as hap-hazzard response concerning Kroger and corresponding incomplete info.

It was my hope to spur someone on to investigate further before applauding actions.

Thanks for the civil response

Have a great day bg

Thom Paine
 
jmotivator said:
Yeah, it's not like these employees are doing high skilled labor. They are immediately replaceable.
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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.
 
bg85 said:
simply by showing up to shop, the public is showing their desire for the store to be open. i feel like this might have already been said but i really think that should end the discussion right there. if there wasn't a demand for the store to be open, there wouldn't be a supply of stores that are open?

remember that from Keynesian economics? Obama and other liberal folks' favorite economic school of thought? the demand comes first, THEN the supply. you kinda sound like a reaganomics guy arguing from the supply side.
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It isn't as simple as you want to make it. The public is going to respond to whatever the corporation desires. If the stores opened on Thanksgiving without the black friday sales, hardly anyone would show up, if at all....they would wait until the traditional black friday sales on friday.
 
disneydude said:
Actually you are wrong. The consuming public was happy to get up early on black friday to do their shopping. They weren't demanding stores open on Thanksgiving. They are showing up now because corporate greed has pushed black friday to thursday. The public didn't demand stores to do this.
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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
 
bg85 said:
is it your opinion that the workers should not be allowed to strike, or that they are bad people for wanting to do so?
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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.
 
CanadaJohn said:
It must be brutal living in your world where you have zero willpower or control over your own actions. There should be a charity to assist those in such dire need of supports. Better yet, perhaps a government department with loads of civil servants and regulations to protect these feeble beings.
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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:
 
tres borrachos said:
I won't feel sorry for them either. As TNE said, they knew when they took the jobs. This didn't just sneak up on everyone the day before yesterday.

Strike, get fired, and own it. Fine by me.
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awesome. i think the far more interesting question is not whether or not this is "fair" to the employees or the company (nothing is or "fair"), but rather whether a significant percentage of the workers will decide not to show up, and what the company's response will be.
 
CanadaJohn said:
It must be brutal living in your world where you have zero willpower or control over your own actions. There should be a charity to assist those in such dire need of supports. Better yet, perhaps a government department with loads of civil servants and regulations to protect these feeble beings.
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and it must be brutal having a major lack of reading comprehension....because if you had it you would know that I said just a few posts ago that I do not shop any of these sales. Try reading before responding.
 
jmotivator said:
Saving money is now greed?
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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.
 
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