Unions Fail to Stop Walmart on Black Friday

The unions’ takeover of the United States under Barack Obama and his fellow Marxists associates is hitting a stone wall with the nation’s largest employer, Walmart. Unions such as the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), which organized Black Friday protests at Walmarts around the country, failed at enlisting employees of the retail giant to join them.

Of course, the unions appeared to fabricate claims of the number of employees who participated; the UFCW asserted that “hundreds and hundreds” of employees joined them, which is amusing because even if true, that is a miniscule percentage of the 1.4 million employees of Walmart. Dan Schlademan, director of Making Change at Walmart, told the website Raw Story “hundreds and hundreds” of workers took part. Not to be left behind, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Mary Kay Henry claimed in a press release that “thousands” of Walmart employees had walked off the job, saying:

Today’s protests at Walmart stores across the country are a reminder of the enormous power of working people uniting to demand a better future with a living wage, affordable healthcare and respect on the job.  From this day on, ‘Black Friday’ should be remembered as a pivotal day for working people at Walmart and everywhere.

Walmart quietly stated that only 50 associates (Walmart’s term for employees) nationwide had left. CEO Bill Simon said:

Only 26 protests occurred at stores last night and many of them did not include any Walmart associates. We estimate that less than 50 associates participated in the protest nationwide. In fact, this year, roughly the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year.

There were good reasons why Walmart associates were loyal; they receive a 10 percent discount on general merchandise they buy at Walmart stores all year long; this year Walmart gave associates a special holiday discount of 10 percent off most food items from November 9 to January 1; and associates who worked on Black Friday got an additional 10 percent discount on an entire basket of goods as well as holiday pay.

The unions have hated Walmart for years, trying to destroy it with groups called Wake-Up Walmart (now defunct) and others called OUR Walmart and Making Change at Walmart. But Walmart has been fighting back; they filed an unfair practices claim against UFCW with the National Labor Relations Board.

One Walmart associate in Philadelphia characterized the unions’ efforts most succinctly:

Everything they’re saying is wrong, wrong, absolutely wrong. They give us benefits, they give us extras, they give us parties, we get bonuses, this is all wrong.

And here’s the real punch line to the story: Wal-Mart said it had made at least 10 million transactions since its stores opened late Thursday, its best Black Friday ever.