MnIndy video: Union members rally at St. Paul Wal-Mart

By Paul Demko, Minnesota Independent
June 07, 2009
Wal-Mart is the most notoriously anti-union corporation in the world. In the last two decades, the company has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep organized labor out of its stores. Most recently it shuttered a store in Canada after workers voted to organize. Wal-Mart’s anti-union tactics have been so successful that for roughly five years United Food and Commercial Workers — the country’s largest union representing retail workers — didn’t even bother with a concerted organizing campaign.

But galavanized by a more labor-friendly administration in Washington, the UFCW is once again looking to bring the company’s 1.4 million U.S. workers into the fold. The union is focusing on roughly 100 Wal-Mart stores in 17 states, including Minnesota. Thursday UFCW Local 789 held a rally at the Wal-Mart store in St. Paul’s Midway neighborhood:


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©2009 Minnesota Independent

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    Union Power

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 06/08/2009 - 3:32am.
    Yep, that is what we need, more unions to spread the wealth around. Worked really well for GM. Walmart does more good by keeping prices down for the poor consumer than any union will do for anyone. The union will drive prices higher at your local Walmart and hurt everyone. Leverage your income by getting more education and skills, not by extorting more money out of your employer. Do what Sam Walton did.....start with no money, work your tail of for decades and get the best deal for the consumer. Unions are blood suckers.

    Wal-Mart and the Union

    Submitted by Arthur R Vinson (not verified) on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 5:46am.
    The man or woman above needs to be corrected about a few things. The Union did hot destroy GM poor management did that is clearly stated in all reports. I do not like many things the Union has done but when it comes to Wal-Mart they are what Unions were created for. I worked for Wal-Mart for a year and a half and all the things you are hearing here are true and even worse. The blood sucker here is Wal-Mart and I hope you get a $0.50 cent pay raise for your remarks. I worked for Wal-Mart as a retirement job never late never missed a day and worked hard and they still tried to Coach me for being to slow and I have been in union shops and I can tell you that unions are not the best but they are much much better than Wal-Mart. PS: I do not have to hide. ARV

    First Time You Were in the Wrong Job?

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 06/19/2009 - 1:10am.
    C'mon, Art. If it did not work out at Wal-Mart, get a job somewhere else. Everyone goes through this kind of thing. It is a free marketplace to offer your services to anyone who will hire you. If you have been falsely terminated, go to EEOC and have them investigate. Is there a chance they are right and you are wrong. You know, that just might be a possibility.

    First Time You Were in the Wrong Job?

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sun, 06/21/2009 - 2:07am.
    I worked for Walmart almost a year. In this economy, the last thing you want to do is give up ANY kind of employment. Jobs don't grow on trees you know. Walmart can certainly test you in many ways, the lack of respect, the lack of a decent wage, the lack of employees store wide and this making it a rough day at work nearly every day on the job for any Walmart Associate. Then, when you need medical attention, you are reminded again that you don't even make enough to keep yourself healthy??? This was NOT Sam Waltons dream. But like many other Americans, we too believe in a dream. We want to believe that the job will work out, that the job will improve. You would think that the largest retailer in the WORLD could atleast make sure we have something worth keeping and something to show for everything we have done for this company. Then realizing that everything that I have heard about Walmart is true, so very true! I guess like Art, you just want to keep trying to make things better. But we can't do it unless we stand up for what is right. There is something about working for Walmart it makes you want to make a difference in the fact that there have been way to many people with the best intentions just taken advantage of. It is time to bring the Union to Walmart.

    Then Don't Work at Wal-Mart

    Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 06/23/2009 - 11:44pm.
    If you don't like the working conditions at Wal-Mart, then don't work there. Go somewhere else where they appreciate the work you do. The people I talk to who work at Wal-Mart say they enjoy it and when I occasionally go to a Wal-Mart, the employees do not look unhappy with their employer. Sure, this is work with a retailer, and the pay and benefits are not great. Wal-Mart has saved consumers huge sums of money. Wal-Mart is big, therefore some hate it. Government is many many times the size of Wal-Mart and many on here seem to want the government to get bigger and bigger and do more. A mystery. Are you against big government and big Wal-Mart?

    unions

    Submitted by worker (not verified) on Thu, 09/03/2009 - 2:19pm.

    at walmart in st. pual midway their taking all their ass managers out of that store a sending them to other stores and bring in new managers.  is it because lots of workers signed the unuion  card? or what?

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