Wal-Mart Strikes Ripe for Union Picking?

Wal-Mart workers nationwide are planning to walk-out on the largest shopping day of the year – Black Friday.  Reasons for the strike are unclear, but CNN Money reports, “Wal-Mart workers have been battling with management over pay, benefits and their ability to speak up, experts say.” 

“A Wal-Mart spokeswoman said the number of workers who are raising concerns is very small and don’t represent the views of the vast majority of its workforce of 1.3 million,” reports CNN.  But even if a few thousand workers decide to strike next week, it’s likely to cause disruptions.

Talk of disgruntled workers unfairly oppressed by unresponsive management reeks of Big Labor. As expected, the usual suspects have jumped on the Wal-Mart strike bandwagon.

Occupy Wall Street supports the strike and is requesting donations to feed the hungry strikers. I suppose standing outside a retail establishment, holding a picket sign for one whole day works up quite an appetite. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union has also expressed their support of the strike and even runs a website called ‘Making Change at Wal-Mart.’ Their goal is, “challenging Walmart [sic] to help rebuild our economy, starting with America’s families.” It’s not clear why they believe Wal-Mart, a corporation, has a responsibility to America’s families, but that is their aim nonetheless. And not surprisingly, they push the class warfare message, accusing Wal-Mart of, “widening the  gap between the very rich and everyone else.”

The SEIU directs interested supporters to the Warehouse Workers United site, a site seemingly devoted to Wal-Mart strikers. The Corporate Action Network has three causes, the third is of course, “Justice at Wal-Mart” and implores interested parties to support the Black Friday walk-out.  The AFL-CIO and Jobs With Justice have also thrown their support behind this “viral” strike. 

Interestingly enough, most of the abovementioned sites share the same photos of Wal-Mart workers and articulate issues uniformly. Typical of leftist movements, it certainly appears as though this is another orchestrated effort by Big Labor and its cohorts to manufacture unrest. The result? An opportunity to unionize the largest retail establishment in the country.  It’s still unclear how many Wal-Mart employees plan to participate in the Black-Friday strike. Given the parties involved in promoting the walk-out, one thing is certain — it’s hard to imagine anything good coming out of this Astroturf demonstration.