A new organizing drive to form a
union has begun at a Wal-Mart in Greely, Colorado.
So far Wal-Mart has shot down every effort at unionization whenever and wherever there have been such attempts. The fight begins anew with this action.
If you don't think this long-term fight has reprocussions for the Democrats, our country, and even the entire world economy, then read on my friend.
I hope to write a series of stories about this topic because I believe that a strong labor movement is key to a progressive and just society. For this entry, I'll just give a quick and dirty overview of some facts and figures as to why this organizing drive is important and what are the potential political consequences of a unionized Wal-Mart for progressives and Democrats.
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The Current Effort
According to the Rocky Mountain News, this organizing drive is being led by 21 year old Jared West and 14 other store employees. They began collecting signatures from other employees this week to force a vote on union representation by the United Food and Commercial Workers (30% of the employees must provide signatures before a vote can occur or about 90 employees, 50% plus one employees must vote for union representation for the union to be ratified).
Past Efforts
To my knowledge the number of attempts to organize Wal-Marts in North America can be counted on one hand. The number of successful attempts cannot be counted because there aren't any (maybe one or two).
Here's the run-down. Please let me know of any others that I have left out.
- 2000. Meatcutters in Texas successfully vote for union representation. Wal-Mart fixes the problem by closing down ALL meat-cutting departments at every store.
- 2004. Workers in Jonquiere, Quebec vote for union representation. Wal-Mart announces that it will close down the store because of "falling profits" at the store.
- 2005. Workers at the Wal-Mart tire center in Loveland, Co gain the right for a union vote. This fight had looked the most promising at first. There were only 18 workers in the tire center, so the amount of convincing needed was not great (of course that works both ways). In addition the workers all seemed to be friends and stuck up for each other and were generally separate from most of management. However, after a month or so of intense pressure and intimidation, the workers voted down the union 17-1. A very disheartening development.
The greatest hope besides the store in Greely are the Wal-Mart stores in Canada. Labor has a stronger tradition in Canada, especially in Quebec where UFCW has applications approved or pending to represent workers at 13 Wal-Mart locations.
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Why Unions Matter: Union Votes in the 2004 election
I'll let the exit polls speak for themselves.
Votes in the 2004 Presidential Election
Bush Kerry
All Voters 51% 48%
Males 55% 51%
White Males 62% 37%
union members 38% 61%
union households 40% 59%
I would love to see an exit poll on how Wal-Mart workers voted. But being a union member tends to dramatically change the way you look at the world politically. White male union members voted for Kerry by a 21-point margin. That is an astonishing 46 point swing from national trends.
Unions not only provide benefits and bargaining power for their members. (Ideally) They also bring their members into a larger progressive cause and provide a political education. This education isn't given through millions of dollars of ineffectual and impersonal TV ads (like the DNC). It's from the workers themselves. Adding a million new union members would be a serious blow to the Republican Party and to the neo-liberal model of low-wages and no benefits that seems to be all the rage today.
Look at the election results. The more union members in this country, the more Democrats and progressives win.
It appears the tide might be turning in Quebec and Wal-Mart will either have to accept unionization or leave the province altogether. Let's hope the people in Greely have the strength and the will to stick it out against Wal-Mart.
The country will be better off for it.