China is determined to introduce trade unions in all local Wal-Mart stores, despite the retail giant’s opposition to unions among its workers, a Chinese labor official said in state media on Wednesday.
Wal-Mart has rebuffed the federation’s efforts to expand into its stores, and since the Saturday announcement company executives have said they were unaware of the latest move.
But an official union organizer told the Beijing Daily that China would press forward with an effort to unionize all Wal-Mart stores.
“Establishing this trade union in Wal-Mart was just the beginning,” said Guo Wencai, director of the grassroots organization department of the Federation of Trade Unions. “Our goal is to cover every store with a trade union organization.”
Will Wal-Mart give up and leave like it did in Germany? (NSFW)
The only good thing a union ever did was attempt to ensure fair and just treatment of workers by management and leverage the power of collective bargaining to try to provide fair living wages to union members.
I can fully understand why Wal-Mart and all other retailers are so against unions.
Jimmy Hoffa couldn’t have said it better…
Does it matter who said it if it is true?
My maternal grandfather was a Teamster his entire working life, 18 to 65, and often mentioned that the Union was a great thing to have on your side when your boss/manager/employer was trying to screw you…
But “…leverage the power of collective bargaining…” could also work against you when idiots at a large union meeting [he worked in Los Angleles – with auditorium-filling meetings] could fire-up the crowd and win support for ridiculous demands – which might then lead to a strike.
I do not oppose unions, but they are as imperfect as any organized human activity. [And you can replace “unions” with “Walmart” in that sentence.]
I am a freelance photographer.
Unions are good, unless you are self employed / freelance and locked out of ‘union only’ locations. And Union wages can be so high that many of the small companies that I work with can’t afford to pay a union worker, so they go without the service at all. Everyone get’s screwed: the union worker is ocked out because he can’t charge less than union scale, the freelancer can’t work because the union won’t allow it, and the client can get the service at all.
That’s why ‘right to work’ laws are so important.
Chineese Unions are the MEANEST thing you want to see.
I agree with Awake.
I never said unions are perfect, or that every profession needs unionization. Just that the purpose of a union is good and in many industries, a union is a great thing to have indeed.
What Awake is talking about is true too, and that’s why we see many films being made outside Hollywood in places like North Carolina and Canada.
Having a union in a retail shop, like a Best Buy or a Wal Mart seems to me, on the surface, to be a great idea. After all, these are businesses where it is almost company policy to screw employees as hard as possible and they need bargaining power. But what would happen if Wal mart started having to pay $15 an hour instead of $6? I can see where new issues would arise.
Of course I’m talking about America. Frankly, I’m not too worried about China. I’m still mad about Tiennemin Square. It is democracy and governmental transparency and free speech rights that China needs. Capitalism may be part of a path to those ends, as gloriously imperfect a system as it is, but I doubt Wal Mart will set the Chinese free.
I’ll just sit back now and wait to be called a commie or accused of blaming America for something. 🙂
#7, Hey Commie, great piece.
Being called names from the blind and bigoted is the price to pay for having a soul and conscience.
Ida know, this sound kinda funny. Trade unions in the west are supposed to basically support human rights. A Chinese trade union sounds like an oxymoron. Or is this a backhanded way of biting the hand that feeds it? Any way you slice it, this is funny.
Serves WalMart Right for selling all this CRAP made in Commie China! Those damn Hayseeds should have promoted Made In America as the founder Sam Walton hade begun with!
Hopefully the same thing will happen to that Commie Pinko lover Stevie Gods, err Jobs, with all his Made In Commie China Apple LABELED crap!
It never made any sense to me why Capitalism and Democracy are always linked with each other. Capitalism and how it is supossed to function (ideally anyway) is the antithesis of the goals of a Democracy (ideally). Capitalism rewards the best business (again, ideally) and punishes the weakest while Democracy seeks to flatten the political landscape to allow anyone to contribute to there own lives on an equal basis with others. Capitalism functions under the most ridge of hierarchies while Democracy fuctions as a leveler of the playing field, a remover of hierarchy. This is why labor and business have been at each others’ throats since the founding of this country and business has always dominated that battle.
Can Walmart really function in China? I mean they make money by selling cheap Chincese goods. But that’s what everyone does over there. The only way they get an advantage is by cutting special deals with the government for cheap labor.
But what would happen if Wal mart started having to pay $15 an hour instead of $6? I can see where new issues would arise.
Yeah, but why stop with Walmart? What if Target & Kmart & Walgreens & etc… all had to start paying $15-an-hour?
I’m interested in people being able to earn a living wage – I’ll need one when I get laid-off from my current job … [grin]
Well Mike, I only stopped at Wal mart since Wal Mart was the topic I guess…
I’m almost always in your boat. It’s hard to believe how much money I made just 10 years ago and how much i make now… I’m going in the wrong direction. 🙁