Explain something to me about Walmart and unions

[former-republican]

Please correct me if I'm wrong but by federal law a union can ask
employees of Walmart to vote for a union or not.

Why haven't they done this years ago ?

[teddy51]

1. My take on it is, employee's have been intimidated and are frightened. They have been

threatened with store closure if they join a union.

[Deep13]

2. They have.

Bosses use fear tactics, intimidation, and the practical fact of union dues to prevent it. Others will probably know better, but I believe there are specific procedures to follow and thresholds to achieve in order to take a vote. A union rep. cannot just walk into the store and say "let's vote."

[former-republican]

4. I know , I think they first need 30% to sign off in order to have a vote

If they try to fire an employee that tries to organize this Walmart would face stiff Federal fines.
And a hell of a lawsuit they would lose.

[Deep13]

8. Well, Federal fines if they can prove their case before the NLRB.

Lawsuits are expensive and their results are uncertain. Walmart may consider them worth the risk to keep the unions out.

[Saving Hawaii]

16. Stiff Federal Fines? It's pocket money.

Companies do this and get nailed with the fines all the time. Wal-Mart is hardly an exception. Sad thing to say, but the NLRB is very much a paper tiger. There are rules that companies break all the time during union campaigns and they get little slaps on the wrist for it because that's all that can be done.

[prairierose]

3. Walmart threatens to fire any worker who says the word "union" out loud...

they force them to watch anti-union films and other anti-union "educational" materials.

[former-republican]

5. Highly illegal

Has a lawsuit ever been filed from an employee that has been fired for that?

[Saving Hawaii]

17. From Wal-Mart? I dunno.

Elsewhere? Sure.

Highly illegal don't matter much if the union organizers have been intimidated into silence, the union has been squashed, and the fines and back-pay are a pittance when it all finally gets worked out in court months later. That's part of the problem.

[Booster]

6. Don't know it for a fact, but I've read in the past that Walmart never owns the buildings they're in

just because if there's a threat of a union coming in they just move the entire store to someplace else & start up again. The employees know also that if they start talking about forming a union they will be automatically fired.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Walmart has so many fines against it from the NLBR

For preventing this, it is legend.

No, seriously, they have lost case after case and have been fined. Those are just the cost of doing business.

[former-republican]

9. So what do they do with the employee that has been fired ? settle out of court

[nadinbrzezinski]

10. The cases take so long...that some of those employees

Drop cases and move on.

Part of the problem is that the NLBR has become a toothless enforcer. On the bright side, Wally World filed an emergency injunction to stop the Black Friday story ( they have presented a me worry face to the media...same statement everybody else got is in my hd, read it and read the quotes in the NYT same deal) that the NLBR will not get to it until after Back Friday. They might get to it by next week, if at all.

[Major Nikon]

11. There are remedies available under that process

...which can include reinstatement and back pay.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. By the way, very good question

Most folks don't even bother asking such a basic question.

[former-republican]

13. Does anyone know if this bill is still viable?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/12/obamas-remarks-on-employe_n_166345.html

I remember this a few years ago but since then I haven't heard much about it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. EFCA, that is the reason a lot in labor

While not officially, are pissed. Walmart, not surprisingly, led the fight to stop it. In the current Congress it is not viable, not with Republicans in charge.

Now, if things go not as Walmart expects, that might change the politics of unions all of a sudden. That be optimistic. What I think we are seeing is the emergence of a new labor movement, and we are in for the long slog. Walmart is the brass ring since they do set the pace, due to size.

[JaneyVee]

14. Before you start working there they subject you to anti-Union video's & propaganda