Web Letters: Wal-Mart: Political Bully

Who's the bully? The Employee Free Choice Act should more aptly be named the Union Coercion Act. By definition (to persuade [an unwilling person] to do something by using force or threats: they were coerced into silence. ). This is a more accurate description of this bill. Wal-Mart is only able to educate its employees as to the consequences of this bill. Since they, unlike the union, are unable to see how one votes, there can be no consequences threatened. The union, on the other hand can individually intimidate, threaten, and cause injury to those employees that don't cooperate. (There is a strong history of this.) The ballot must be secret to stop the intimidation from both sides. Both sides may educate and expose the benefits on a fair playing field. That is, unless the union can only compete when it can intimidate. There are far more instances of unions taking advantage of members than employers abusing employees. Unions have failed to organize Wal-Mart primarily because employees are happy with their situations. They hire many people that would have trouble being hired elsewhere, i.e., special needs, minorities and the elderly. Higher wages for these people can be earned through advancement thru Wal-Mart's strong "promote from with-in" policies. The employees would be better served wage-wise and benefit-wise if the hiring market was more competitive. Lax immigration policies have done nothing but flood our employment markets with low-wage earners that have kept wages down for so long. High corporate rate laws have chased our manufacturing overseas, and have left many of us in service industry jobs as a last resort. At this level we compete with illegals. Wake up! It is an employee's job to make as much money as he or she can, much as it is the responsibility of the company to make profits so it can grow and provide upward mobility to its employees. This is a delicate balance that only gets worse when the government gets in the way. This bill is nothing more than a return to the abusive power of unions. Unions have ruined the auto industry and the education system. They exist through intimidation and corruption. By supporting this bill you are only supporting the same within the Democratic Party. By chance, I read this article from Thomas Sowell on the same day I read about Wal-Mart. He may explain it more clearly than I.

Bob Higgins

Vero Beach, FL