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WTW: Hanging on the Union Cross

September 14th, 2005 at 12:58 pm by Preston Taylor Holmes

It’s that day again. That day when we celebrate/mourn the seamy underbelly of our lily-white race. And for today’s confessional, we visit the Wal-Mart picketers of Henderson, Nevada.

Why are they picketing Wal-Mart? Was Wal-Mart somehow unkind to them when they worked there? Did a Wal-Mart greeter not greet them with the required amount of enthusiasm? Was one of them hit by one of those dangerous falling prices?

Why, no. They’re just picketers-for-hire, temp workers who are getting paid $6/hour marching in front of Wal-Mart – protesting the working conditions of the Wal-Mart employees inside as they stand around like morons in 104 degree heat.

Periodically one of them will sit down in a slightly larger slice of shade under a giant electricity pole in the intersection. Four lanes of traffic rush by, some drivers honk in support, more than once someone has yelled, “assholes!” but mostly, they’re ignored.

They’re not union members; they’re temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the unionâ€”United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They’re making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it’s 104 F, and they’re protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.

So, they’re not technically union members, but they’re being hired by a union through a temp agency. Has anyone pointed out to them that they’re using non-union labor? Surely that’s a scandal in-and-of itself.

Now, does this demonstration make any sense? “No it don’t,” says their fearless – and apparently witless – leader.

“It don’t make no sense, does it?” says James Greer, the line foreman and the only one who pulls down $8 an hour, as he ambles down the sidewalk, picket sign on shoulder, sweaty hat over sweaty gray hair, spitting sunflower seeds. “We’re sacrificing for the people who work in there, and they don’t even know it.”

Translation: CAN’T THEY SEE US UP ON THE CROSS OUT HERE? WE ARE SACRIFICING FOR THEIR SINS!

Maybe it’s because the people inside didn’t ask you to show up and make asses of yourselves, you slack-jawed cretin. With all due respect, of course. Sal Rivera (yeah, I know it sounds made up), the only picketer that had actually worked for Wal-Mart, had this to say about his time there:

But standing with a union-supplied sign on his shoulder that reads, Don’t Shop WalMart: Below Area Standards, picketer and former Wal-Mart employee Sal Rivera says about the notorious working conditions of his former big-box employer: “I can’t complain. It wasn’t bad. They started paying me at $6.75, and after three months I was already getting $7, then I got Employee of the Month, and by the time I left (in less than one year), I was making $8.63 an hour.” Rivera worked in maintenance and quit four years ago for personal reasons, he says. He would consider reapplying.

Rivera is one of few picketers here who have ever worked for Wal-Martâ€”it’s strictly coincidental that he was once in their employ. Most of the picketers were just looking for work through the temp agency.

While Rivera’s words for Wal-Mart seem less than harsh, he does add, “I did not want to get insurance from them because it was too expensive.”

A scathing rebuke, to be sure. And if you think they’re exaggerating when they talk about their brutal sacrifice for the unknowing Wal-Mart workers inside the air-conditioned building, think again.

“We’re just trying to help the women that get discriminated against in Wal-Mart,” says Greer. “We’re out here suffering a lot for these people.” He pauses, moves his sign so that it blocks the scorching sun on his leathery face, and considers the working conditions of his colleagues out here working for the union.

“We had one gal out here in her 40s, and she had a heat stroke. I kept making her sit down, I noticed she was stepping (staggering), and I made her sit in the shade,” Greer said. She went home sick after her shift and didn’t ever return to work.

Another woman, Greer said, had huge blisters on her feet and he took her inside to the Wal-Mart pharmacy. The pharmacist recommended some balm, and Greer bought it for her. Since then, he said, other picketers have purchased the balm for their blisters inside the Wal-Mart they are protesting.

Oh, gloom, despair and agony on them!

H/T Johnny Walker Red

Here are your White Trash Wednesday bloggers….

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 at 12:58 pm and is filed under White Trash Wednesdays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

One Response to “WTW: Hanging on the Union Cross”

The Chip Mathis Experience Says:
September 15th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
Unions Claim Victory

Did somebody say ‘union?’