How Walmart avoids unions by cracking down on baby shower committees

We all know the rough outlines of how lousy Walmart is to its workers and to local economies. Biggest private employer in the United States, average annual salary of $15,500, viciously anti-union. Of course Walmart fires workers who show an interest in unionizing, and eliminates departments or closes stores that do so, but the constantly running campaign to squelch not just unions but any worker activity or organizing is much more sophisticated and pervasive. At Labor Notes, Adrian Campbell Montgomery details just how pervasive it was when she was trained as a Walmart assistant manager four years ago.

Rather than the course in computer systems, policies and scheduling she expected to receive, instead, the training consisted overwhelmingly of how to spot workers who were or might become disaffected:

We had a week-long schedule of anti-union sessions. They didn?t call them that, but essentially it was how to spot uprising employees.

We had an entire day devoted to word phrasing, looking at how employees use words and what key words to look for. A computer test consisted of a "what?s wrong with this picture?" game. You were shown the area near a time clock, and different handmade and computer-made signs. One sign said "Baby shower committee meeting Jan. 26, 8 pm." Another said "Potluck Wednesday all day in break room." Which one of those signs should raise alarms with management?

"Baby shower committee." Because of the word "committee," a manager would have to find the person who made the sign, find out why they used that word, then determine if the action got a warning or a write-up. If it was the store manager who found the sign, a write-up was almost guaranteed. They called it unlawful Walmart language, unbecoming a Walmart employee?words like "committee," "organize," "meeting." Even "volunteer" was an iffy word, and they would raise an eyebrow at "group."

Let's try that one on for size: "A spectre is haunting Walmart?the spectre of baby shower committees." Or, "Baby shower committee members of the world, unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains." (I admit it, that's not just a Walmartized but also a popularized version of the closing of Marx's Communist Manifesto.)

Of course, by the time an anti-union system has gotten around to getting worked up about baby shower committees, it's covered a whole lot of ground?as Montgomery's post relates, she was trained in or reprimanded about who she could and couldn't socialize with and what clothing could be in her locker while she worked. After all, a retail giant doesn't treat its workers this badly and still avoid unions by just sitting there.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/gw6evOfYfTg/-How-Walmart-avoids-unions-by-cracking-down-on-baby-shower-committees

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44365147/ns/politics-more_politics/

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Rick Perry defends seeking a 'bi-national health insurance' plan with Mexico

(Brian Snyder/Reuters)
 

Rick Perry, speaking at a U.S.-Mexico border summit ten years ago:

There are other challenges that require a unified approach, especially in the area of health care. [...] I urged legislators to pass a telemedicine pilot program that will enable, through technology, a sick border resident of limited financial means to receive care from a specialist hundreds of miles away.

But the effort to combat disease and illness requires greater cooperative efforts between our two nations. It is a simple truth that disease knows no boundaries. [...] We have much to gain if we work together to expand preventative care, and treat maladies unique to this region.

Legislation authored by border legislators Pat Haggerty and Eddie Lucio establishes an important study that will look at the feasibility of bi-national health insurance. This study recognizes that the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region. That?s why I am also excited that Texas Secretary of State Henry Cuellar is working on an initiative that could extend the benefits of telemedicine to individuals living on the Mexican side of the border.

Perry's campaign, which almost certainly understands the political toxicity of those words to the GOP's tea party base, is doing it's best to deflect attention from the speech.

Perry campaign spokeswoman Katherine Cesinger downplayed the reference to bi-national health insurance.

"A bill was passed by the Legislature that authorized a study to look into this issue, which ultimately concluded there were numerous barriers to accomplishing that idea, and the Legislature took no further action on this concept," she said.

But that's just a simple restatement of the facts. When he discussed the study, Perry said it was "important" because "the Mexican and U.S. sides of the border compose one region, and we must address health care problems throughout that region." So even if the study led to a dead end, that's not what Perry was hoping for when he signed it into law. Now he's trying to hide behind it's failure, but that doesn't change the fact that he wanted it to succeed.

Source: http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/peet9mpMP44/-Rick-Perry-defends-seeking-a-bi-national-health-insurance-plan-with-Mexico

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Don't Blame The Chinese

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