Daniel Griswold writes:
Wal-Mart and other price-conscious discount retailers are really a working family’s best friend. They operate in the marketplace as representatives for millions of consumers, ensuring that they get the best and lowest prices possible from wholesalers and producers. Tens of millions of American shoppers vote with their feet every week by visiting their local Wal-Mart.
If Wal-Mart offers wages and benefits that are below the national average, it is not because of company policy but because of the realities of the marketplace. Retail jobs in general offer below-average compensation because the jobs tend to be lower-skilled and less productive than most other jobs. Even so, Wal-Mart’s wages within the retail sector are competitive. A worker at Wal-Mart is more likely to have health insurance and be paid more than a worker with similar skills at a small, “mom and pop” retailer.
The denunciation of Wal-Mart is largely driven by politics. Labor unions, a key Democratic Party constituency, see non-unionized Wal-Mart stores as a threat to their efforts to organize retail workers, especially those in the grocery sector.
Democrats will need to decide who they want to represent: Tens of millions of cost-conscious, lower- and middle-income shoppers, or noisy but far less numerous union members who do not like competition.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The full post can be found here.
I don’t think it is about not liking competition but more about liking the ability to organize. Any business that prevents employees from organizing is a threat to workers rights.
But that is the problem, Wal-Mart doesn’t prevent employees to organize as much as employees themselves don’t want to organize.
I guess having some corrupt organization that reduces employment, enriches only itself, and takes money out of your paychecks is no longer as enticing to employees as it once used to be.
HP … you’re always so full of shit. But that’s why we all love you. That and the fact that you’re a secret in the closet bleeding heart liberal. I just know you are.
Now your just being mean!
No, I am not referring to you calling me ‘full of shit’, I am referring to you calling me a ’secret in the closet bleeding heart liberal’, those are fighting words, Mr!
Hmm - interesting point. Would a classical liberal (in the literal, etymological sense) be for a system in which an employee is FORCED to join a labor union, as a condition of employment?
But that is the problem, Wal-Mart doesn’t prevent employees to organize as much as employees themselves don’t want to organize.
Any facts on this? I have only seen evidence of the contrary.
I guess having some corrupt organization that reduces employment, enriches only itself, and takes money out of your paychecks is no longer as enticing to employees as it once used to be.
You love to generalize, don’t you?
That is precisely why it is so easy for me to not take conservative rhetoric seriously.
Well, for one, it’s illegal. Wal-Mart could only do so much in preventing employees from unionizing, but if the employees really wanted to, they have the right to.
Oh and, I am not overgeneralizing, it’s been a trend for years now, see here:
More satisfied with job security is right, after all, look at all industries that are having serious problems in the United States, whether that is the auto industry, the airline industry, or the supermarket industry, and you will see unions not too far away.
Are you implying that unions are to blame for the problems those industries are facing? Are unions by default a threat to any industry? All of those industries did quite well for decades under union influence. Many of those industries do quite well out of the local context and with union influence. I don’t think it is rational to blame an entire industry on a union. I think their continued existence points out issues that still need to be addressed (i.e., healthcare.)
Union contracts tend to institutionalize restrictive work practices (”That’s not my job”) which introduces great inefficiency. Having worked similar jobs in both union and nonunion shops, domestic and overseas, I feel well qualified to point this out.
Couple this with unrealistic wage rates, and it’s no wonder the rustbelt suffers by comparison.
Sure am. I am saying exactly that. Just to give one example, read Where Would General Motors Be Without the United Automobile Workers Union here.