The War Against Workers

Posted August 5th, 2008 by Elisa Batista

Cross-posted at MotherTalkers.com.

Traveling across the country this summer, I have come across people who say they will not vote for Sen. Barack Obama for all kinds of bizarre reasons, including the false premise that he is a Muslim.

But I paused when a dear family member, who is a manager at Walmart, said he has warned his employees that if they vote for Obama, who will “force” them to join a union, they will be out of a job. Apparently, Walmart has urged all its managers to issue this dire warning to their employees.

I went ahead and e-mailed my loved one this piece by blogger Kevin Drum along with my comments:

“I just thought of our conversation about Walmart and the union because there was a news report about it in CBS:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/…

I didn’t know this, but ONLY 10 percent of Walmart’s total costs is labor, which makes the Walton family’s loathing of unions that much more reprehensible. They have plenty of cash — thanks to their employees– to pay for janitors, overtime pay, and much more than that. And they are going to lash out at unions? Please.

This is clearly a bias against working people. Just mis dos centavos, Elisa”

Feel free to pass on to everyone you know who works at Walmart.

This morning I spoke with a friend who works for SEIU. He was scratching his head. Apparently, only 8 percent of the American workforce belongs to a union, yet voters are up in arms about this. Sounds like the joke is on the working people of this country.