Friday, November 23, 2012

Union Fail: Walmart Reports Record Sales

Union Fail: Walmart Reports Record Sales

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by BEN SHAPIRO 23 Nov 2012, 10:10 AM PDT 241POST A COMMENT

Despite union efforts to target retailers like Walmart, businesses are reporting record Black Friday traffic – the biggest sign yet that the unions are out of touch with the American people. Starting at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, Walmart put its products on Black Friday sale, sparking a run to the stores and earning the stores record sales.

They’ve already sold nearly 2 million towels, 1.3 million televisions, and 250,000 bicycles. According to Walmart Chief Executive Bill Simon, over 1.3 million Walmart staffers are on duty. There have been picket lines around the country, but the movement has been far less effective than expected.

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Showing 80 of 243 comments

  • NANELIZA
    Sounds like a few people learned from the Twinkie fiasco.
  • FHALKYN
    No, the unions are staying out of the way of the Black Friday shoppers.
  • DANIEL MARTIN GRAY, AMERICAN CITIZEN, EX-PROGRESSIVE, CONSTITUTIONAL CONSERVATIVE. JEW.
    Though no fan of Walmart, I love Unions even LESS.
    It all comes down to what they DO FOR the PEOPLE.
    When children were mangled and died in the mines and mills of Robber Barons, the Unions led the way to SAFETY, SECURITY and SANITY.
    That FIGHT was NEEDED because plutocrats are like the rest of US, easily CORRUPTED and SELFISH.
    But UNIONS are "led" by people, too, no LESS sinful.
    NOW they offer naught but a PUSH to MARCH FORWARD to the dystopia of Socialist Injustice and TYRANNY. They fight not for JUSTICE, but for POWER.
    I recently WON MY FREEDOM from SEIU.
    FORCED to PAY for their "Progressive" POLITICS, I SUED them in Federal Court, and with the EXCELLENT assistance of the National Right to Work Foundation, BEAT THEM!
    They CAVED. They SETTLED.
    They let me RESIGN my membership, and PAID BACK all the dues.
    NOW I am waiting for their "Hudson" notice. They must provide me with an independent AUDIT of expenditures, to PROVE that what I will pay NEXT year is NO MORE than is required for Contract negotiation and maintenance.
    OR I SUE AGAIN. And THIS TIME, NO SETTLEMENT...
  • MARCO DENOLA
    Congratulations or your big  win, Daniel. More people need to find the courage to stand up to them.
  • REVEREND KEN
     The union propaganda that they were needed way back when is just that PROPAGANDA, read and learn about Ford and a few others. Google can help you with that.
  • FRAMIS
     How about that, someone with an actual set of balls!
  • JHOGER
    The problem here is you don't understand how Washington works. Congressmen are power brokers for special interest groups. If you aren't making the big campaign contributions and paying for issue ads, etc. then your voice in Washington is going to be diminished compared to others who spend more.
    That's just the way it is. If you tell unions to only spend money on contract negotiations, you're taking away one of the most important "special interest" voices: workers.
    I can see you are angry about "progressive politics" but boo hoo... they are advocating in YOUR interest that's what you pay those dues for whether you understand our political system or not.
  • CITIZEN60
    Love the National Right to Work Legal Foundation, Mark Mix is a voice in the wilderness. If you don't know about this non-profit...look it up and join the fight against union violence and harassment.
  • DOOWLEB
    "I can see you are angry about "progressive politics" but boo hoo... they are advocating in YOUR interest"
    Are you on crack?
  • LIBSRNTPATS
    good for you, anyone who thinks Unions are advocating in your interest are ignorant.  The Unions may get you good benefits and other goodies but in the end the company decides if they want to play or not.  Unions do get dues...if you had any ability as a union worker you wouldn't want to be heaped in with the thousands of deadbeat do nothing whiners that want  more than they are worth for  a service they pretend to provide.  Unions can go to hell, I have made way more money marketing my own abilities than their stifling across the board mediocre negotiations could have ever produced for me.  Only the mediocre workers gain as negotiating only levels the playing field and causes the true producers to carry the do nothing takers.
  • DOCTORCRIME
    Unions are no longer needed. They are the cause of companies moving production to where there are no unions. To stay competitive in the market place you have to minimize costs. Employee wages + benefits are a constant drain on profits. Yes...profits..that is why they invest THEIR money.
  • EMILIE HANDSCHYN
    Bravo, good luck to you.
  • MICHAEL LEWIS
     It's FUN to capitalize random WORDS as if that SOMEHOW makes it easier for PEOPLE to understand the point I'm TRYING to make.  I also like HOW it takes LONGER to type a sentence BECAUSE I have nothing BETTER to do than FIND new WAYS to be annoying.
  • ND2FIXYOURBRAIN
     JHOGER, Your thesis fails.
     When the role of government is reduced to it's constitutional role then neither the unions nor the banksters have any incentive to try and buy the politicians because they would no longer have anything for sale.  What you advocate is trying to outbid Wall Street Bankers on a workingman's paycheck.
    I have been in several unions and I can tell you from first hand experience that union leadership doesn't give a rat's a$$ about the workers.  Their concern is all about themselves.
  • JOHN
     Congratulations to the Democrats and Young People! You now own it and you can't blame Bush.
    The next terrorist attack you own it.
    Can't get a job after graduation, you own it.
    Sky rocketing energy prices due to Obama's EPA shutting down the energy producing states, you own it.
    A nuclear Iran, you own it.
    Bowing to Russia, you own it.
    Another severe recession, you own it.
    A volatile border with Mexico, you own it.
    Trouble getting good health care, you own it.
    Higher health insurance costs and health care costs, you own it.
    No budget, you own it.
    Our allies mistrust, you own it.
    Another trillion of debt, you own it.
    More Benghazi situations, you own it.
    No one willing to join the military, you own it.
    Trouble getting a loan to buy a home, you own it.
    More dependency on food stamps, you
    own it.
    Trouble finding good employment, you own it.
    Several part time jobs instead of a good job, you own it.
    A World Government, you own it.
    The UN governing the United States instead of ourselves, you own it.
    A Senate that will not bring any legislation to the table even if it is "Dead on Arrival", you own it.
    China controlling our world trade trampling all over us, you own it.
    Loss of our freedoms as we have known it in the past, you own it.
    A dictatorship instead of a democracy that follows the Constitution, you own it.
    Less take home pay and higher living costs, you own it.
    Driving a car that looks like a toy, you own it.
    More government corruption and lies, you own it.
    More toleration of extreme and fanatical Islamists, you own it.
    Terrorist attacks called work place incidents, you own it.
    Your revenge instead of love of country, you own it.
    President
    George Bush is out of it now, and
    there is not another good man for you to vilify and lie about. In a way
    I am relieved that another good man will not be blamed when it was
    impossible to clean up this mess you voted for. Have a good day. God
    bless the United States! God is our hope now.
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    CHIK-FIL-A THE UNION DAY!!!!!!!!!
  • CWMS2005
    Maybe you can lend the GOP some of your cajones.
  • MICHAEL
    good for you, when we are all making chinese slave wages will you be pro union?
  • SHERRY SHIPMAN-ACKERMAN
    I work for SEIU too. From about September thru the voting day (11-6-2012) they called on the phone, e-mailed, and sent paper to my mail-box every week. I suspect that they spent about $100 on me to get me to vote how they wanted. They take about 3 hours pay per month from my check. My previous job took 1 hr pay for union dues.
  • CARL6352
    glad you won. but the seiu union started in the 60's by johnson should never have been allowed. every president before stated goverment unions should not exist because they work for the voters not for a private sector entity. when it got signed it was the second nail in the coffin of america welfare was the first then medicaid. every year since 1972 when nixon had to take us off the gold standard because we had spent its value. we entered into the ponzi scheme we see today. the only difference between madoff and the goverment we can print paper till the paper runs out. but when that happens all those trolls sitting around waiting for the monthly allowance and food stamps stops. america will become a episode of the walking dead!
  • PAMELA THOMAS HICKEY
    You are my hero.  Be sure to continue the post and let us know what happens with the Hudson notice.
  • EV332
    This is old hat.The Beck ruling has been around since 1988.
  • KAY
    ARE you CAPABLE of COMPOSING even A single SENTENCE without DOING this ?  WE get IT, Grey.  DON'T write LIKE a CHILD.
  • CARL M
    I second the CONGRATULATION,and back that up by last night going to my FIRST BLACK FRIDAY @ WALMART. So I could sent in my $400.00 bill I PAID with a "F UCK THE  UNION" to the "UAW-dumb @ ss OBAMA IEW"
  • VOXTROTTER
    To Michael Lewis (below):
    The CAPITALIZED WORDS are for emphasis, since BOLD FACING is not always AVAILABLE. If you don't like it, don't read posts that utilize this METHOD. :-)
    P.S.  It is actually FASTER for a skilled typist to TYPE IN CAPS than to keep shifting between upper and lower cases.
    P.P.S.  The people who post IN ALL CAPS (whose posts invariably reap a "STOP SHOUTING" response) oftentimes are doing so for physical reasons such as motor-impairment or visual problems. People need to LIGHTEN UP; there are more important things to get upset about in these "Days of Depravity."
  • D CLARK
     Good for you. I just wish business was organized such that you could work for whatever company you do AND not have representation. let them give you mininum wage and screw you!
  • GLENNINVIRGINIA
     They don't want to get trampled!  ;-)
  • JOHN WHITWORTH
    too bad it would have made a nice headline: union thugs trampled by shoppers
  • OTAY
    None of these Walmart employees are skilled labor, so they have no leverage.
  • GREG SHIVER
    http://reclaimdemocracy.org/wo...

    but if that link is true walmart does suck if they did have a policy like that in place
     
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    Why?  You  don't understand the Wal-Mart business model and the business model does not and cannot include unions. 
     I was talking one day with a professor (15 years after I had graduated) and  we were discussing Wal-Mart and he said that Wal-Mart has made many a millionaire on six and seven dollars an hour. 
      Wal-Mart has an AGGRESSIVE Employee Stock Ownership Program. If  Wal-Mart goes union it hurts their stock - and that means it hurts the employees.  It is not only the managers job to run the company for the corporation, it is also the manager's job to run the company in the best way to serve the employees, and the employees do not benefit if the company stock that they own themselves takes a hit. 
  • LAURATANOR
     Unions are garbage and every state should be right-to-work, anti-union.
  • JEKYLLISLE
    Really a link to manifesto on NO letter head that was supposedly written by the heads of Wal-Mart.
    As people who have been educated at the highest level of our schools and who have run a company that has made billions is just dumb enough to even create something like that or let it go viral.
    You are a dolt for even posting something so ridiculous and if you even for one SECOND believe that it is true you need to be neutered on the spot 
  • RON ERNIE
     Really?  I thought they wanted disruption.  Looks like they got disruption alright.  Theirs!
  • TERRY D
    Why are they staying out of the way? Because the unions know they are worthless
  • JOHN POWERS
     The union demonstrators cannot be on WalMart property so they really had no impact. private unions are on the downward trend losing their clout and trying to force the issue which is back firing......
  • JWALES
    smart to do, those BF shopping zombies are dangerous and most union punks are pussies unless they have far superior numbers, and they won't have that on BF
  • FRAMIS
     WUNDERBAR,  The union held fast! 18,500 more on Obama free money for 99 weeks.  Ain't they GREAT!
  • ND2FIXYOURBRAIN
     Phones too!
  • MATTHEW BELLEHUMEUR
    At least this shows that the economy is improving!
  • EV332
    The Hostess fat cats and bankers raked in mllions.You and I will pick up the tab for the damage they done.
  • KNIGHTTEMPLAR01
    I think you have it exactly right, trumpka's arrogance put 18.5k out of work in a sinking economy. Unions are becoming less popular by the day! The good news is he crossed the teamsters, so using actuarial mortality tables (hoffa) he's  a walking dead man.
  • DANHESKETT
    Trumpka's organization, the Teamsters, recommended against the strike and accepted to liquidate pension obligations in return for partial union ownership of the company.  
    I think that Trumpka and his Teamsters, are essentially, reasonable within the bounds of the structure of unions.  The auditors from the Teamsters who saw the books told all union members that the liquidation threat was no empty promise.
    Union membership, on the other hand, especially from the Bakers side, went against management which is fairly rare.
  • CLYDE
    Trumka does NOT run the Teamsters,nor the guilty union,the Bakers. The Teamsters had already came to terms. Trumka is head of the AFL-CIO.Formerly ran the United Mine Workers. Never been a teamster,as,unfortunately,I was. Fixed it for you.
  • KNIGHTTEMPLAR01
    Trumpka as you said is afl-cio, I grew up in a jimmy hoffa (teamster) household, he might not head the bakers union but he was pushing buttons on them non-the-same. And I'll stand by my prediction, he has screwed with the teamsters once too often, and the head of the bakers union is sushi, soon to be an appetizer at wall-mart. 13000 because of trumpkas pie hole and an intractable union, the idiots will inherit this country.
  • DOOWLEB
    You're probably right. Walmart used to be an anti union free market stalwart company. Now that they've decided to support Obama and the Marxist campaigns for power, I really don't give a damn if the unions force them to close up.
  • KEVIN PEARSON
      Uh you don't know too much do you? 
      Wal-Mart is headquartered in one of THE MOST Republican Congressional Districts in the country, outside of Utah - and Wal-Mart is one of the reasons why.  Even Bill Clinton couldn't get elected to Congress in the middle of WaterGate from that district. That is one of the reason that Democrats hate Wal-Mart so much because Wal-Mart turned a Yellow Dog state into a solid Red State. Sometimes.
      Corporations always donate on both sides of the aisle, so that no matter who wins they are CYA, but it doesn't take a rocket surgeon to know which side they are rooting for.   I'll give you a hint.  Which party prefers to run the government along the same lines as Wal-Mart's business strategy, that is, lower prices = more customers = more profits?
  • GREY_GHOST1
    Well said, Kevin!
  • DAVE-O
    Is Bentonville really THAT Republican?
    Surprises me after the Walton kids gave so much to Dem causes, IIRC. Not trying to start anything, just remembering what I read in the recent past.
    (disclaimer: I'm probably more Conservative than many on this board)
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    @Dave-O
    If you were really conservative, you would get your facts straight before you comment.  You don't get brownie points for comments that are poorly reasoned regardless what the "conclusion" is.  That is what liberals do. 
      Every corporation and every corporate head gives to both sides. There is a difference between contributing as a booster and paying protection money.  If you were really conservative, you would know that, so I don't buy your conservative claim.
    Yes. Bentonville really is THAT Republican.
  • GARDENSTATEED
    It's been reported that the people organizing the protests weren't even WalMart employees.  They're hired thugs trying to block commerce.  The UFCW just wants to stir trouble for others.
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    Of course not.   90% of Wal-Mart employees know that they have a good thing going and they know that they will be hurt by having a union.  Wal-Mart takes good care of its employees, even if a few bad apples don't think so 
  • OAKLEY
    I've read the same thing.  Outsiders "aggitatin'"  just like Obama used to.
  • CHRISTY FREY NICKLE
    Right!  Unions have no shame in destroying anything Americans love.  First Twinkies and now Walmart.  My daughter and I shopped at Walmart today, not because of sales or Black Friday - rather to show support to a great American institution.  I hope people will "flood" Walmart, Chic-Filet (sp) Papa John's Pizza and any other business the unions or Liberals try to shut down.  America is better than what we are seeing from the White House, the unions and the Liberal media!
  • CKA REDSTATE AMERICA
     Sorry, but you can't reach that conclusion. All we know is that the union's efforts appear to have failed today.
    Which is reassuring.
    But, if so many people ignored the union protest at Wal-Mart, how could approximately 52 percent of them -- assuming that at each store, the shoppers' presidential vote matched national statistics -- have voted for the anti-free-enterprise, anti-workers, anti-family, anti-America, anti-Americans Obama?
  • BOB STUBBS
     A friend of mine's brother just lost his job after 27 years. Driving for Hostess. He's a ObAmA voter. I can't stop laughing!!!
  • JOEB
    As happened in Wisconsin, the union bosses overstepped their mission and lost big. 
  • FRAMIS
     Your not saying someone got it right are you?
  • MATTHEW BELLEHUMEUR
    At least we can all agree that Obama is improving the econonomy.
  • GREY_GHOST1
    Where?
  • DAVE-O
    Got any empirical data to prove your case? And no, BF sales do not count.
    There are still:
    * fewer Americans working than when he took office
    * more people on foodstamps than when he took office
    * more people in poverty than when he took office
    * more Americans worried about their own finances and employment than when he took office.
    Whatcha got to refute that, Matt?
  • JOEB
    When union members realize that union bosses are stealing their dues, there will be a backlash.
  • JOE BARINAS
    The last 5 jobs I had in my life (I  am now retired) were shut down by unreasonable union demands. The union bosses all keep their jobs with nice salaries and benefits while their members wind up in the street.
  • MARK CALDWELL
    They watched the news about Hostess. They backed down and started appreciating what they have. 
  • FRAMIS
    YUUUP!    You got it point on!
  • JHOGER
    Yeah I'm sure that's what management told you.
  • JESS
    You're funny, Jhoger.  No really, keep up the progressive agenda comrade.  форвардить, товарищ!
  • LIBSRNTPATS
    your job is next taker.
  • LIBSRNTPATS
    My very first job at Tom's Foods was closed when a bunch of takers wanted to make 10 bucks an hour for putting bags of chips in box.  That was 1982...I was making 9 bucks an hour as a machine operator with all benefits and 2 weeks vacation right out of high school.  The packers invited the unions in and 2 weeks later we were dismantling the plant.  Bye the way, 9 bucks an hour back then was a damn good wage and I willingly worked about 20 hours of overtime per week...my brand new car only cost me 150 a month.  my rent for my apt was 40 bucks a week...I saved a lot of money until those fools came along.
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    Unions are scum.  Just plain scum.   They appeal to the scummiest and lowest  - and least educated - element of society
  • DANHESKETT
    Think about what you just wrote.
    Wal-Mart has hundreds of thousands of people making less money today hourly, than you were in 1982.
    Let that sink in for a few minutes.  You were happy to have a $9 a hour job in 1982, but today, there at the majority of people who work there on the front lines that are still making the same $9 - and often less - 30 years later.
    I support Wal-Mart to the extent that they pay people a wage that doesn't mean they qualify for food stamps and free government healthcare.  As long as they meet that threshold, the market should decide.
  • GREY_GHOST1
    This is really in reply to Danheskett: plenty of people are working for less than 9 dollars/hr in many parts of the country. I don't know where you live but there's people in metro areas who work for that. Why? Because they need a job! And it's more than unemployment pays and they have pride! Many people are glad to have any job. And many work more than one job. Think of this: how does one who makes $10/hr afford a car made by one who makes $40/hr? One doesn't. But you do what you can to get by. That doesn't mean you covet the higher salary someone else gets. And on and on. But why work for the union bosses to have steak and champagne? No reason whatsoever!
  • FRAMIS
     Do you really think they DON'T know.  Even union members are not that stupid.  Well maybe they are!
  • EMILIE HANDSCHYN
    They may not be stupid but they lack courage to speak up.  Unions are outdated and should be abolished.  Start with the public employee unions, they are the worst. 
  • BILL SMETTS
     Permit me to disagree. Unions have their place in protecting workplace safety. I'm no union lover, but they do have their place. Their place is NOT in promoting non-productive work rules, or engaging in partisan politics.
    How did a rule preventing Twinkies from being delivered on the same truck as Wonder Bread promote the company's interests, or for that matter, the long term interests of of Hostess' employees?
    SEIU? Vultures, plain and simple!
  • DAVE-O
    Replying to Bill, Unions have NO place in protecting workplace safety. That is OSHA's job.
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    Safety itself is good business.
    Insurance companies would be a better arbiter of workplace safety than unions because it is the insurance company have as much of a vested interest in the safety conditions. 
      The last thing an employee wants to have happen is to be short handed. If there is a workplace accident, and an employee is incapacitated it isn't good for business.  No one needs a union to tell them that.  
      Well, maybe a Democrat would.
  • CRUZERDOG
    Union members  are that stupid.  They are herds of cattle. The slaughter will be your Job. 
    The plantation Union boss always wins....
    (Edited by author 6 hours ago)
  • KEVIN PEARSON
    I would say that a third of them are not that stupid, but they have to be members to have a job.
  • WHYDOYOUMAKEITSODIFFICULT
    They're not stupid, you don't understand how the system works. In a closed shop, if you don't sign the checkoff card. "You ain't working here." Do you think I'm going to pass on a good job with benefits because I have to pay a few bucks in dues? You have to pay if you want to play and that's the long and short of it. Welcome to Plant Reality.
 
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