No more Target for me.

Ditto

No more Target for me either. Nor Michaels- altho that one’s gonna hurt!

The war on the middle class continues! If there is a need to point out hypocrisy in a situation which is just a naked class war, it really is hypocritical of the country’s plutocracy to fight the rights of working people to form organized political action groups to defend our interests, while the richest members of society form organized political action groups to lobby, influence, and coerce government and officials, spread PR in mass media, etc.

Again, though, pointing out hypocrisy in an case of overt class war is like pointing out the hypocrisy in the US torturing captives while claiming to bring democracy and civil institutions to countries the US has invaded. Of course, the hypocrisy is there, and everyone knows it, but people capable of creating such a situation aren’t given much to ethics or morals or even just consistency, to say the least.

Not to worry. Obama has said in the past that he supports EFCA. Just like he said he supported a public option, FISA, habaeus corpus, oh never mind.

don’t forget immigration reform.

Eventually the U.S. will collapse under the weight of it’s own contradictions, hypocrisy and corruption.

That was next on the list when I realized that we’ve been punk’d.

Target? You’ve got to be kidding me? The place where they force on their employees “We Are A Team! Rah, rah, rah!”
Obviously that’s not the case at all.

That bloomberg link above does not work, I found the article with teh google.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aWEQS_CInpY0

You guys remind me (in a good way) that I’m not crazy after all….

I’m beginning to think Obama is trying to outdo cousin Cheney’s approval numbers.

From Jackson Lewis “right to work.”

I’m a proud Union member and we call right to work by its more accurate description…”right to work for less.”

But it is OK for a CEO to make 400 times that of the average worker. American has its priorities ass backwards.

And by the way, thanks for nothing Obama. Where is EFCA?

ive wracked my brain for many hours pondering why these corporate entities would work so hard to cut their throats and ultimately destroy their cash cows by growing the legion of poor, and enriching theselves at the expense of their own customers, the people who buy all the chinese manufactured junk at places like target. I have decided that 1. they really arent highly informed, imaginative, culturally and historiclly aware types. Its all about getting more and getting ahead with the corporate drone types and like people who habitually drive drunk, they are in denial about anything bad ever happening to them. with some of them I think it is the religious like faith they have in “markets” and they just assume that, magically, some “market force” will prevent the whole shamefull enterprise from collaspsing in some in future year.

There is not an employer in the US who encourages union activity. The only surprise is that these companies are scared enough of reform to start upping their anti-union propaganda.

So what is happening with Kroger? Is management following the same strategy there?

If I tried to boycott every firm that engaged in some bad practices, I would buy nothing at all — ever.

.

I take great comfort in a mere few decades these big boxes and strip malls will disintegrate into nothing.

You don’t say? /s

Dang! Just bought 2 IKEA book shelf pieces for the folks 3 weeks ago. I would have made another choice if I knew about this.

For Seymour Friendly at 4

I’d say these folks are working class, not middle class. Takes a pretty well paid worker to be middle class. These folks would be lucky to make a living wage. Just above minimum is more like it.

Too quick on the trigger. See 20. *g*

thats why there has to be some mechanism to bring wages up. left to they’re own devices target and wal mart would pay nothing, or they would charge for the privellege of working for them. i think the times are great for a revival of unions. no one belives the “market” sets the value of labor bullshit. the market dosent set the value of ceo pay, or massive corporate tax breaks, or govt subsidies to produce in china. the market dosent determine the value of your corporate bailout.

Let’s see … Target … hmmm … Target® Visa® Credit Card, Target Credit CardSM and Target Check Card.SM (https://redcard.target.com/redcard/rc_main.jsp) … Target Bank in Salt Lake City, Utah (UT) … Address: 299 South Main Street, 20th Floor, Salt Lake City, UT 84111 (http://www.faqs.org/banks/Target-Bank-57769-Salt-Lake-City-Utah.html#top) … Note to self: stop all transactions on credit cards, review accounts or just close them.

Apply, scrub, rinse, repeat … Ahhhhhhh!

wedge issues regional, religious and racial antagonism allow them to sell the “right to work” bullshit to american workers. it is so depressing to see once proud american workers made into dogs who are happy to get the leash. they happily put it around their own necks

As long as there are so many unemployed and not anywhere near the jobs needed to re-employ them the bosses control the price of labour. With such a huge labour reserve workers are forced to compete amongst themselves for even the lowest paying jobs. Now even the financial service sector is beginning to outsource more and more jobs. At this pace there’ll be more people employed in India than here.

Boycott the lowlife corporate turds.

Oh yea … Move The Money as local to you as possible but to a credible bank or credit union (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/30/move-your-money-tell-us-a_n_407297.html). This is a decent how-to: http://solari.com/archive/bank_locally/find_local_banks .

You know those eminent domain cases where homes are taken from the owners whole neighborhoods at a time and given to developers because they might pay more taxes? Well, take these fucking companies from their boards and give them to the employees to run as cooperatives for the overall good of the communities and society as a whole.

uh anyone remember EFCA? Suppose Obama could get that on the front burner again?

Or not. Guess we won’t be seeing that bill for decades.

Kudos to Trumka for standing up for workers in San
Fran.

100%, while I think Ron Paul has his moments, he is 100% right on TRMS tonight that if people start to really think that both parties are not interested in doing what needs to be done, a revolt will happen.

The problem; is that before or after we’re hit with some incredible natural disaster brought on by climate change?

I have a serious problem with waiting to find out. I’m going to take a leap of faith in myself because to be honest it will be violent before it gets better and I don’t wanna be a party to that.

It has nothing to do with Obama growing a pair, that’s nonsense. It has to do with the Institution of the Washington Consensus being dismantled.

This topic is well-picked and applies around here and in Chain Store Anytown, USA, but the discussion is not yet full-blown. Thank you, anyway, Michael Whitney, for opening this up.

Most companies discuss unions with their employees and there is nothing wrong with it. Unions are declining because they do not offer what workers need or are not already getting. They can not win elections which is why they are trying to change the process with EFCA to bypass the secret ballot (talk about unamerican). Not mention unions long history of corruption and forcing employees to pay dues (how is that free choice btw?).

And spare me the retort that corporations pressure and harass employees to not join because unions and their members to the same damn thing to get employees to join.

Note to self: shop at Target this week.

I spy a shill from Planet Corpse …

No, it’s a team, just one where the majority of the employees don’t get the benefits of membership.

Not shopping at these places is a little difficult for some of us: we don’t have that many alternatives, even in urban areas. My area pretty much is limited to two non-membership discount stores and two drug chains.

As opposed to corporations which are known to fire people who even talk about joining unions?
And corporations never are corrupt? What do you think donating to politicians is about?

Oh btw, to the author M. Whitney – your boss, Andy Stern, visited Obama more than any other person. Now that sounds like a special interest and a lobbyist to me and I am curious if anyone else sees a problem with that? Probably not, but I suspect if it was someone from corporate america there would be some serious teeth gnashing going on over here.

“fire people who even talk about joining unions?” Documentation please (and no union sources).

But I’m curious – how about union members who physically harm and have even killed replacement workers. That okay with you?

Yep. No Target, Michael’s or IKEA.

Of course none of these establishments has a store on Maui, so in that sense it’s not really an issue.

However, when i go to the Mainland, I usually DO visit Target & Michael’s and bring back their stuff in my suitcase. [IKEA, no can do.}

So that little shopping trip is now off.

If you ever get the chance ask Richard Trumka about Eddie York. Union violence and a death on his watch. Yep.

So, are there any pro-union retailers? Costco, maybe. Any others? I mean where do we shop?

Clothes? Flea markets or thrift and consignment shops.

Food? Tough one but if one cuts down the amount of take out or eating out local whole/natural food stores are affordable and better for ya.

Cleaning stuff? Whole/natural food stores usually carry environmentally friendly stuff. Most of it is non-toxic for animals. Pay a little more and waste less.

Impulse buying/just gotta buy something? Put the money in a savings account, college fund, Christmas plan, etc.

American Rights at Work keeps a list of companies that respect their workers. Here’s the full directory:

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/labor-day-list/

@40

Kroger’s is unionized…they are the second largest grocer in U.S.

Michael Whitney did a thread here earlier today about Trumka getting arrested for civil disobedience involving a Hilton Hotel in San Francisco.

I pointed out who owns the Hilton Chain,namely the Blackstone Group, an equity firm founded by Pete Peterson.

Now, I would like to point out that Michaels is ALSO half owned by the SAME Peterson equity firm, Blackstone Group-with another half held by Mitt Romney’s Group, Bain Capital.

In 2006, two private equity groups, Bain Capital and the Blackstone Group, purchased the company for $6 billion.[2] The two own equal shares.[3]Wiki

@44
Re: Pete Peterson

Conservative Mogul Buying Up Reporters to Promote His Regressive …15 posts – 6 authors – Last post: 20 hours ago
Pete Peterson, the Wall Street billionaire who wants to loot Social Security, has created a.
http://www.alternet.org/…/conservative_mogul_buying_up_reporters_to_promote_his_regressive_agenda – 20 hours ago

You are taking a big picture view of things, but it is not the job of corporations to optimize the big picture, only the personal picture. The first corporation to aggressively cut wages gains an advantage over its slower-moving competitors. Its CEO is not paid by boards of directors looking back at 25 year performance. Its CEO is only paid by what advantage he (yeah, I know) gained over competitors this quarter or year.

This is only a marketplace example of the phenomenon that unenlightened short-term self interest can give a short-term gain, while contributing to a decline of the individual’s enlightened long-term self interest. When an individual uses antibiotics aggressively, that individual may get well quickly, but when everyone does the same thing, we collectively end up breeding drug-resistant germs.

Same thing with tax cheating. A single person doing it benefits the person; everyone doing it hurts everyone, while bringing that same person down to the common level.

The ideological reason (i.e. not humanitarian) we have minimum wages is to prevent the “wage race to the bottom” that inevitably happens without such regulation. Its purpose is to save corporations from their unenlightened short-term self-interest impulses by enlightened regulation that coincidentally enhances their long-term well being by making sure the consumers in their “free market” have the incomes to be making buying decisions on something more than a zero sum basis.

To make that a little more explicit, if a family is saving money at all, it has the capability to make optional buying decisions. If not, that family is operating on a zero-sum basis.

Zero-sum buying means anything bought implies some other essential is not bought. I know EW has a great way to make this concrete, but my simple-minded approach tells me in a simple way whether a zero-sum buyer can “afford” a health insurance mandate.

Same thing with population segments. If the median income family is not saving anything, then all the families below that income level are also operating at a zero-sum buying level.

The “free market”, i.e. the unregulated market, inevitably falls into a whole series of such personal decisions, which advantage individual (persons, businesses, CEOs) players, while having disastrous consequences for the market as a whole. Conservatives instinctively favor the “let the individual seek personal advantage” approach, while progressives tend to favor using regulation to keep the counterproductive impulses under control.

Buy from your local community retailer whenever possible. His goods probably come from China and Taiwan too, because where else can he find competitive merchandise, but at least he isn’t some huge oppressive enity.

Workers of the world…well, you know the drill.

I look forward to a day that America can overcome it’s addiction to consumption and phase out the need for mega-retail. With it’s end, a lot of our nations underlying cultural and economic problems will solve themselves naturally. Even at only 20 years old, I’m sure I won’t be alive when that day comes. None-the-less, my grand-children will be most thankful.