The Picketing of Walmart Is All About Power

Today, the United Food and Commercial Workers' union and affiliated groups will be picketing and protesting outside Walmart stores across the country.  The union management would have you believe that it's all about the low wages being paid at our nation's largest retailer.  But, if it truly was about pay, they would be picketing other retail chains, instead.  That's because others, such as Target, actually pay wages that are, in some cases, lower than Wal-Mart; with Wal-Mart being more generous to its longer-term employees. Only at management levels does Target consistently pay more; but, management isn't going to be unionized.

The real reason for the picketing is power.  Walmart has 1.3 million union-eligible workers in the U.S.  If the United Food and Commercial Workers' could finally convince Wal-Mart workers to unionize, it would mean a doubling of the size of this union.  More importantly, each of those newly unionized workers would cough up about $456 a year in dues; meaning that the union would collect nearly $600 million a year in new revenues.   That's millions of dollars they could use to "buy" the elections of desired candidates; from local to federal. Then, anyone who shops at Walmart -- assuming unionization -- will actually be paying for the elections of political candidates that you may or may not want in office.

Lastly, don't be surprised if union management rewards themselves with raises if Walmart is flipped;  and make no mistake about it, no one that is currently a member of the union and who was picketing on this day will see a penny of increase in their own salaries if Walmart is unionized.

References:

--- PayScale.com: Target vs. Walmart:  http://blogs.payscale.com/content/2011/05/target-vs-walmart.html

--- United Food and Commercial Workers' Union: Local 881: Membership & Dues Facts: http://www.unionfacts.com/lu/515066/UFCW/881/

--- Wikipedia: United Food and Commercial Workers: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Food_and_Commercial_Workers