Re: WGA Strike 90%+ vote to strike


"Josh Hill" <usereplyto@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:gfskh39lal1sco0c1976ejm6a7np7d6531@xxxxxxxxxx
On Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:03:00 -0700, Jon Schild <jjs@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

Josh Hill wrote:

It was certainly true before there were unions: in some cases,
employees were literally worked to death. And non-union companies like
Wal-Mart pay their people miserable salaries. In some states, Wal-Mart
employees have signed up for Medicaid because they don't get medical
insurance.

I keep hearing this, but people I know personally who work at Wal-Mart
are all happy with it. They report NONE of the supposed abuses that
activists are always talking about. I think unions are just spreading
lies about how horrible it is to work without having union dues forced
out of your pocket. They see how much power they could get by bringing
down a company that large, and they want it.

According to a web site I found:

In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on
average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. The 2001 poverty
line for a family of three was $14,630. ["Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?",
Business Week, 10/6/03, US Dept of Health and Human Services 2001
Poverty Guidelines, 2001]

A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common
job, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week. This
brings in annual wages of only $11,948. ["Statistical Analysis of
Gender Patterns in Wal-Mart's Workforce", Dr. Richard Drogin 2003]
Wal-Mart Associates don't earn enough to support a family

The average two-person family (one parent and one child) needed
$27,948 to meet basic needs in 2005, well above what Wal-Mart reports
that its average full-time associate earns. Wal-Mart claimed that its
average associate earned $9.68 an hour in 2005. That would make the
average associate's annual wages $17,114. ["Basic Family Budget
Calculator" online at www.epinet.org]

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/facts/

It seems they're paying poverty-level wages.

Those figures could be very misleading. How many of those workers are high
school students and not people trying to live on those wages?

The people that scream about minimum wages often misreport statistics as
though every high school student working at McDonalds for minimum wage was
trying to live off of $11,000 annually. They aren't, nor are they doing
without health care. Trying to claim them as working poor is disingenuous
at best.

Low end jobs are supposed to be stepping stones... you do them to get the
money (and sometimes experience) that you need to move on to something
better.





.

Relevant Pages

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    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: WGA Strike 90%+ vote to strike
    ... In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on ... average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. ... Poverty Guidelines, 2001] ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)
  • Re: Greatest Hits (Wal-Mart Exclusive) - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band
    ... are forced to work for Wal-Mart at $7.50/hour. ... makes the argument that progressives should be supporting Walmart, ... wages and higher benefits for everyone. ... some expansion of health benefits to placate one of Wal-Mart?s most ...
    (rec.music.artists.springsteen)
  • Re: WGA Strike 90%+ vote to strike
    ... In 2001, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on ... average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. ... school students, who are a tiny percentage of the workforce and don't ...
    (rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated)
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