Over fifty union activists were arrested by outside a new Walmart in Chinatown in Los Angeles on Thursday evening during a protest for higher wages against “the unequal distribution of wealth.”
Similar protests have been taking place around the nation–almost certainly timed to coincide with the Democratic Party’s push for raising the federal minimum wage to $10 per hour, which President Barack Obama endorsed on Thursday.
In the past, conservatives would have lined up to support the large retailer. It brings jobs to poor communities and lower prices to consumers. Democrats have fought bitterly to keep Walmart out of cities, not just out of concern for local competitors but primarily because Walmart does not embrace labor unions. In Washington, D.C., Walmart has canceled plans for several stores because of Democrats’ opposition.
Yet Walmart is running out of conservative friends.
That is because it supported Obamacare, perhaps hoping to appease Democrats by backing President Obama’s “signature” initiative. It ignored criticism of the law, such as that it would make health insurance more expensive for consumers and force many to lose their plans. After the law was enacted, Walmart began moving employees to part-time, shifting costs to taxpayers.
The unions that are bringing anarchy to Walmart’s doors are doing what they always do: waging war against the poor, the unemployed, the consumer, and ultimately their own members.
But Walmart has done what a responsible corporate citizen should not. It has sought to evade political pressure by appeasing the federal Leviathan, regardless of the cost to entrepreneurs, consumers, and taxpayers.
Increasingly, it is on its own.