Wal-Mart Worker’s Death Seen As Reason to Embrace the Union Agenda

[Omaha Steve]

Source: CNS News

By Susan Jones, Senior Editor

(CNSNews.com) – A pro-union group is suggesting that the death of a temporary worker at a Long Island Wal-Mart on Black Friday stems partly from the fact that Wal-Mart workers are not unionized.

Wal-Mart Watch, a group that includes a union leader on its board of directors, issued a press release on Tuesday responding to the death of the worker who was trampled when the store opened and the crowd surged in.

While Jdimytai Damour’s death was a “tragic accident,” it also reflects Wal-Mart’s “blatant disregard for the concern and safety of its workers and customers,” said David Nassar, executive director of Wal-Mart Watch.

Wal-Mart Watch describes itself as a “public education campaign” aimed at changing Wal-Mart so it embraces its “moral responsibility.”

Read more: http://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=40216

[fascisthunter]

1. There Would Be No Union if it weren't Necessary

if corporate greed had it's way, we'd all work like slaves....

...actually that did happen here before, and now is happening due to "free-trade" in poor countries. Just the tink about this: free-market promoters actually believe this is a good thing. How sick is that?

[HockeyMom]

2. Was he Security?

My daughter is an LP. She has worked retail and supermarkets. Although the supermarket was union, she was not union because she was considered management and was part of the corporate office. I believe retail, the few that even have unions, LP/Security is still considered part of corporate. That is what she has seen in searching for jobs since she moved here to Florida.

[merwin]

3. He was a temporary employee who was chosen because of his size.

Probably one of the seasonal hires.

[wryter2000]

4. "Union agenda"

I was about to blast this article for its use of "union agenda," when the agenda is simple...getting decent jobs for people. Then, I recognized the source. Terry Jeffry's outfit, run by Brent Bozelle. No big surprise there.

[Omaha Steve]

5. Farther down in the article about secret ballot vote

“The Democrats’ move to end secret ballot elections in the workplace is not going unnoticed – or unopposed,” he said. “The USA Today editorial board is just the latest to rise in opposition to the Democratic Majority’s decidedly undemocratic plan to strip workers of this time-honored right…”

Under the current system, union elections are decided by a secret ballot vote and monitored by the National Labor Relations Board. Boehner has pledged that he and his House Republican colleagues will “do everything we can to stop” the Employee Free Choice Act from becoming law.

My response: EFCA does not end secret ballot elections. It lets the worker choose on the card secret ballot election or card check. It can be mailed to the NLRB so nobody but the NLRB knows how an employee wants to proceed. Some people in this argument don't realize if you don't want a union, you don't sign or send in a card. Simple

[defendandprotect]

6. What Democrats are pushing that--??? We need to increase unions ...

not make it harder --!!!

[defendandprotect]

7. oh ... that's kinda different -- everone should understand that part --

I was worried -- and there's not much recourse these days, it seems --!!

[silverojo]

8. Oh, so if this man were a union member, he'd be invincible?

Hate to tell you, but a crowd of rotten, selfish, greedy bastards could just as easily kill a union worker as they could a temporary worker.

Wal-Mart should've called 911 when they saw this crowd was getting so horribly unruly. This isn't about unions, it's about the need for police intervention to break up a herd of hooligans.

[Judi Lynn]

9. Union people would not be treated as if they were dispensable. You should do a bit of reading

on the history of unions in this country, for christ's sake.

There was a reason why unions have been formed, just as a couple of DU'ers discussed upthread. Try to grasp what they were discussing by informing yourself about the reasons Democrats have ALWAYS been the party supporting unions.
No time like the present to get even a trace of of a long, torturous history of hideous abuse American workers, and how unions paid, in lives and suffering to raise the safety standards, and reduce unforgivable excesses by brutal, exploitive business owners.

If you have no inclination to exert yourself reading, just watch tv and movies, as there are so MANY, MANY factual accounts of hired thugs, killers used to intimidate union workers starting during the early days of industry, coal mining, silver mining, farm labor, etc., etc., ETC..

Edited, for moderation.

[No Elephants]

10. Yes, but Wal-Mart did not call 911. That's the point. You don't leave it up to the

employer to look out for the employee's safety, nor do you make the employee risk his or her job to look out for themselves. This is like JD Rockefeller and the coal miners. People were highly dispensable to him; and the police were in his pocket, along with his money.

[No Elephants]

11. There were very good reasons for

this.