08/04/08 Pushing Politcs

It appears that Wal-Mart has now taken to telling their employees how to vote in the upcoming Presidential election, stating that if the Democrats win employees won't have a vote on whether to unionize. They are doing it under the guise of labor-relations meetings with their employees; meetings that are also inundated with antiunion rhetoric. Wal-Mart appears to be walking a very thin line indeed for a company whose employee relations reputation has not been reported as late to be stellar. Numerous lawsuits filed on behalf of Wal-Mart workers are clogging the nation's courtrooms. Wal-Mart has long been known for quickly removing any employees or stores that show any interest in or intent to unionize. In 2000 when a small group of butchers in one of their East Texas stores went union Wal-Mart quickly and succinctly phased out butchers in all of their stores and started stocking only prepackaged meat. And when a Canadian store voted to unionize it was promptly closed; the reason was touted as being that the store had been unprofitable for years. Wal-Mart is certainly turning that bright yellow smile upside down.