27 Feb 2008, 6:23 am
Fuzzy wrote:
alex wrote:
never thought i'd see someone arguing that the unions are the greedy ones... 
Apparently so. There have been a few situations related to that here in Canada, and one court case for sure.
The one involved a small town that did a petition to have walmart come there. Walmart did, though the small businesses didnt want it and suffered. Most went out of business. The town thrived because of walmart though.
As you probably know, there is a push to unionize walmart. Well, the union organizers chose that little town to make a beach head. The people there, particularly the walmart staff would be greatly pressured to unionize.
Walmart, of course, said that if it happened they would close that store. It isn't unexpected that they would protect their interests. Not exactly nice of them.. but the union isnt exactly innocent either.
Neither side is overly concerned with the fate of that little town. The pressure the union organizers are putting on that town could be called greedy. They chose tactical advantage over the people that they wish to sign up for their union. If they do win(have won?) then the store will close and the town will die. The union wont stick around any longer than walmart. It isn't unexpected that they would protect their interests either.
From there, regardless of the outcome, the battle will be repeated in the next small town with a walmart.
Both sides are greedy.
http://www.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/ ... fb1fc98089 tells it better than I could.
Explain to me how Wal-Mart was being greedy by paying fair market wages and not giving into extortion by the union. If I owned the Wal-Mart, I would have closed the store too because I think it is immoral to give into union demands.
I think economics should be a required course in high school. Most people don't realize that companies don't determine the wages they pay their employees. Wal-Mart, like all other companies, are forced to pay wages determined by the free market based on supply and demand for each position. That's why almost every company pays more than the minimum wage. They are forced to pay fair wages or they won't have enough employees to run the business. The union came in and demanded higher than fair wages and Wal-Mart did the right thing by shutting down. A free capitalist market allows us to have a good economy. Unions harm the economy by interfering with the free market and everyone else suffers as a result.
27 Feb 2008, 9:46 am
02 Mar 2008, 6:57 am
