What is everyones take on the Unions forcing Walmart into becoming a Union company?

I have personally known some really happy Walmart employees. They are greatful they have a job at Walmart.

Maybe it would be better to reset the regulations on descriptions of what is actually a fulltime employee. There are so many more large businesses out there that are using this same hourly ploy to bypass paying employee benifits. Why pick on Walmart?

More businesses like Walmart could offer their employees medical care insurance. If less people in the insurance and medical industry were stuffing their pockets. So the question goes to what can be done so everyone in the nation may have medical care. We need a national medical plan. Then Wally world would not be such an issue that we are currently hearing about in the news.

Walmart is reorganizing many of their department stores. They are taking out certain departments in order to defer the cost of what is coming down the pike. I discovered this a week ago chatting with an employee at one of the stores.

I've never liked Wal-Mart (I don't even shop there anymore) for a few reasons, but one of the biggest is unionization.

The issue of whether workers are happy with their job or not isn't as black & white as many people say it is. It's heavily dependent on store management rather than the upper echelons of management in Bentonville. The problem with unionization is that in areas that need workers to be unified and fight the abuse they get, they can't because corporate is supportive of measures to stop it.

Some companies consider employees working over 30 hours a week full-time, some 35. It may vary state to state as well.

I have a hard time forcing anybody to join a union. Which is what some are trying to do in forcing Walmart to go union. Employees should be given a choice if they wish to belong to a Union or not, in any business. Mugging one corporation does not solve the overall abuse of employees throughout by forcing union status for just all of Walmart employees into a national union such as the Teamsters. If I were the Walmart exec's I would beat the union guys claiming to only be wanting to "protect those poor mistreated people" to the punch and get a program started for the employees of Walmart.

If the Walmart employees want a union. They should be allowed to create their own seperate union. These store employees should be given their own new union with a charter of it's own. I would not be for Walmart employees being forced into unions that are already established and that are bullies by nature. Many unions have already forced to many jobs out of the country.

When you put together any group of people such as many of the unions have. Ones that are already established you are going to create another place where politics, bias, discrimination and prejuduce play a large part in who gets hired and who doesn't. Who gets to work this week and pay their bills. There is already to much of that going on out here.

Many people that are hired at Walmart's throughout the nation that could not get a job anywhere else. I do not know how it is for your state but here the employees at Walmart are women, multi-national, disabled and people in the retirement age group. That is here in the Midwest, that in itself say alot. In Florida I saw the same thing when I was in Walmart some years back. People who need to supplement their SS income, disabled people and people of all national origins work at Walmart. Women have come a long way but we are not all the way their yet. At least Walmart gives women work, not all companies will if they are not teachers, lawyers or accountants...etc. I have not seen any other giant corporate companies out there that have such a diversified staff of employees in their stores or businesses.

My son is not union. He is a specialty construction worker. When he goes on a job site where union workers are they treat him terrible. Some of these guys have gotten right into his face and demanded to see his union card. He is not very polite when they do that. He tells them to back off. The only reason they do is because he is big enough and strong enough to back up the "Back off" statement. trying to force someone into a union takes away the basic freedoms that Americans prize, "Freedom of choice".

It is not that anyone should be mistreated on a job anywhere in America. Personally I cannot agree with the course of many of the unions at the moment. In certain circles and segments they have become some of the worst abusers and users in our society.

Laying the blame on those who provide the insurance and the medical care demonstrates a bit of confusion on your part. There are several reasons for high cost of medical plans. Government is doing such a pitiful job of everything else, including education, why on earth would you want more interference from them in your health care?

1. high utilization of plans for petty things
2. government mandated coverages that cost lots but only serve a small minority of those needing those services
3. insurance plans being billed exhorbitant fees because of those who don't pay at all
4. lawyers who will sue a dirty sock if there's a buck in it for them
5. high cost of malpractice insurance
6. health services being provided top dollar in emergency rooms to illegals that are passed on to paying insureds through their insurance plans

I'm not saying there isn't room for improvement, or that some reforms aren't needed, but I just KNOW counting on government to fix it would create a greater disaster than you know.

Have you any idea how screwed up the FBI is? Read Triple Cross...they are supposed to be keeping us safe! LOL
If they are that bad, think of how competent Health and Human Services is...or the UDSA, or Commerce, or DOT, or Homeland Security! Do you know they still don't even have a computer system that connects the country that will allow for proper emails and pictures of suspects???? Geez. If you are feeling secure, don't. If you think government can do a good job of fixing health care in this country, forget about it.

All they do well is CYA, and cover up.

Unions have entirely too much power in this Country. In order for a Union to establish itself in a company, first they must have the employees vote on the Union. IF 50% +1 of the employees vote yes on the Union, the Union can now represent the employees. That part of unionization I have no problem with. The problem I have is that once a company becomes a union company, all employees must join the union. That to me is a problem. People complain about the free-rider, those who enjoy what the union provides to employees with pay and benefits but do not join the union. However, what if an employee was better able to negotiate his/her own contract for employment? Why should that individual join the union?

Secondly, once a company becomes unionized, the union no longer needs to have that vote of 50% + 1 to remain in the company. So if the union is not performing to the liking of the employees it represents, they can not get rid of it, only 30% have to vote in favor of it any subsequent time. So, now we have people paying union dues to a union that they don't want.

Finally, unions inflate prices. By demanding higher pays, better benefits and have the power of other unions joining in on strikes, a union can shut down a business. Unions have negotiate with the government so that anytime that a government does a project, it must pay union wages. What if I am contractor and I have people that work for me that are not unionized, if I bid on a government contract, rather than doing it at the price I bid, my bid is immediately inflated to match the union wages. In other words, the government is sanctioning me to rip off the tax payer. Why do you think that so many construction jobs are governmental. There is no money to be made in the private sector, because a private company will hold you liable for the bid, and like it or not, you must come in at that cost or risk paying the difference out of your own pocket.

Unions have been voted on before in WalMarts, yet everytime they have the employees have voted no. Now the Unions want to force Walmart to have them.........

Like it or not, Walmart is able to provide low cost products to people by its sheer size. It can reduce the price it will pay for an item from a manufacturer because it buys the item in such large quantities. Walmart passes those savings on to the consumer. A union would destroy this, demanding of Walmart higher wages, more benefits, etc....

dmk

Vharlow, Business insurance cost is one of the major reasons I walked away from one business 20 years ago that made forty people a paycheck every two weeks. Insurance companies are right up there with lawyers sucking blood from everyone.

If the cost of medical care was not so out of hand a lot of people would pay at the very least a portion of their medical bills.

Pharmecutical companys, seed and chemical companies go hand in hand. One searches for the cures to fix many of the ailments that the other one causes. Look at who owns the stock in these companies. Birds of a feather flock together.

In some states workers employee insurance is available through state operated workers comp programs. Employers have a choice. State worker comp or private worker comp. The private insurance worker comp cost 20% more than the state operated work comp policies. If a state can run a program at a 20% plus savings like their work comp program why can't everyone have medical insurance too! Federal government and state governments are willing to support precious pork programs that benefit a select few because theyhave money to lobby for these changes. Congress should be willing to take care of people with a medical program that everyone could benefit from.

I totally agree with you 97% of lawyers are scum bags who look for stinky socks and those who wear them. I have met 3% that actually would like to defend the people from the scams that plague us.

Yes, malpractice suits sent the insurance cost skyrocketing. Again though look at those companies profit margins that sell this insurance.

Illegals are hired by someone or they would not be here. Find the culprits who are hiring them and make them foot the bills that are forced on everyone else. (true story recently) If a company has several hundred employees and 75% of them are illegal's who is paying the price to keep that company afloat? Did not we all pay to have those illegals captured? I think we did in taxes. Capturing a 130 plus illegals to send back over the border is pretty pricey don't you think? Everyone foot the bill, it should be put back on the company that retained these illegal workers.

There is a solution to everything out there but forcing people to join unions is not it.