The Ideal Workplace of the New American Century

[richardf8]

According to The New York Times(free registration required), Walmart has been locking its overnight workers in, with no way of getting out, and admonishing them never to use the fire exit unless there is an actual fire.

This has resulted in workers who have had workplace injuries, had heartattacks at work, and become sick at work, failing to get medical attention in a timely fashion. In short, this is precisely the kind of work environment American Workers sacrificed life and limb to eliminate in the first half of the 20th Century.

As this nation is now taking steps to dismantle the very regulations that are designed to protect American workers, and to create a new class of workers "to fill jobs that Amercan workers will not fill," it is time to seriously consider if we want America to continue to be a first world nation, or if we want to join the third world, where hoardes of underpaid, cruelly treated workers support a small elite of wealthy criminals. On significant issues like Health Care and Higher Education we are significantly behind countries like Canada and England. Moreover, much of that slippage has happened since 2001.

It is no coincidence that Bush's new immigration proposal followed close on the heels of Wal-Mart getting busted for using illegals as cleaning staff. This is what happens when Big Business owns the political process; you get oligarchic totalitarianism, which is every bit as inimical to the libertarian spirit as, say, communist totalitarianism.

I recently picked up some copier paper and an inkjet cartridge at a 24-hour Wal-Mart around here. Thankfully a 24 hour store can't lock its workers in, but I don't think I'll be going back, anyway.

"Falling Prices" depend, it seems, on:
Falling Wages,
Falling Healthcare, and
Falling Working Conditions

The price of "falling prices" is just too high.

Comments

[morgan1.livejournal.com]

I am stunned. This is almost precisely the working conditions faced by workers at the turn of the last century. The parallels between this and the Triangle situation are chilling. In 1911 the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in NYC caught fire, and 148 women, many of them immigrants died. There was only one usable fire exit in the building, and it was quickly made inaccessible by the flames. The other exit door was locked during the day to prevent employee theft. At the end of their shift, workers would line up at this door and have their purses searched before being allowed to leave. The factory was on the upper floors of a nine or ten story building, and firefighters didn't have ladders long enough to reach the upper floors. Many of the dead jumped out the windows to escape the flames. No one was ever really held responsible for the deaths or the conditions that lead to them, but the incident spurred calls both for new building codes and better workplace safety protections.

I simply cannot believe that we've come back around to where we were almost a century ago.

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

I must admit that I shop at Wal-Mart all the time. Its just too cheap and convenient. However...

It is a measure of just how well the Manufacture of Consent in this country has progressed that strong unions are considered a sign of encroaching comunist totalitarism and the kind of business - government alliance against working people is not considered totalitarian.

But I have to ask: Where are the unions now? My sense is that never in post WWII history is the perception so common that common people are getting the shaft and yet the unions are absolutely silent, at least around here. There should be a 24-hour picket outside every Wal-Mart in America demanding unionization and collective bargaining rights for Wal-Mart workers - and every other low-skill low-wage shop as well.

The fact that there isn't is a sign that the big unions are part of the unholy alliance. Without representation and collectiive bargaining the Wal-Mart workers will continue to be screwed. This country neeeds a good serious debate about worker's rights. If any such debate is going on now, it is so far outside the mainstream that even Pacifica can't detect it.

[richardf8]

Perhaps Thomas can refresh my memory on this, but wasn't there a grocery strike in CA that had as one of its concerns the effect that an incoming Walmart would have on wages?

I also believe I recall hearing that attempts to organize Wal-Mart workers have failed because Wal-Mart ensures that such attempts meet with, er, repercussions for those who attempt it.

Ah, here's a link for you -- happened right in your backyard too. This site is very illuminating if you go through some ot the other stuff on it.

http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Issues/Walmart_s_Opinon_of_Union_Memb/More_Walmart_Stories/more_walmart_stories.html

So don't imagine the unions aren't working at this, but it's a huge enemy to fight, and the current political climate is not one in which Unions can reasonable expect to gain much ground.

[morgan1.livejournal.com]

And from the same site (this took a bit of hunting to get to, so I thought an outright link might be in order):

http://www.ksworkbeat.org/Issues/Walmart_s_Opinon_of_Union_Memb/walmart_s_opinon_of_union_memb.html

[lordrunningclam.livejournal.com]

My point is that I think the political climate is fairly conducive to it right now. Resentment of GW and his corporate commandoes is extremely widespread, even here in the South.

Actually, I think that article is encouraging. I will look into unionization and Wal-Mart a little more, when I get a chance.