Watch: Louisiana Walmart worker quits job over PA system

and if three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people … They may think it’s an organization.

I hope I foresee a movement.

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Everyone she mentioned, and everyone those people associate with, are going to get fired. By giving a shout-out to her friends, she probably cost them their jobs at Walmart.

They’re petty, they’re cheap, they’re evil and will do everything they can to avoid treating workers fairly.

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They are complaining about labor shortages, they are not going to fire half the store all at once.

And especially not after this has already made the news.

They are evil and petty but they still have to function unless they were already planning to shut down this store, in which case it would have happened anyway.

If you are already disposable, you can’t live in constant fear, because your individual actions don’t affect whether or not you get randomly fired anyway.

You have much more to gain from collective action than inaction in the face of abuse.

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Seems like she’s taking a page out of the Steven Slater playbook here for epic job rage quit. Good on her.

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As awesome as her stance was, unless consulted, the shout-out to the friends/ admired staff members would have to have been very awkward… especially just before the big ‘fuck you’ to their bosses. Worse still is to have yourself put on peoples radar as a ‘cohort’, bought to the attention of employers and employees ‘climbing the ladder’ alike.

It is not uncommon for companies to shed the friends of disgruntled ex-staff no matter how they left as they see them as future problems waiting to happen… no matter what the employment market.

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Surely the entire work force.

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Legend.

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Probably, and there are certainly better and more constructive ways to deal with grievances at work but … I guess she is a human and not a vulcan, she reacted in a human way to stress and abuse in a way that was more emotional than a thought out strategic action.

Relatable, understable, courageous… those are not always smart :slight_smile:

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I was listening to a programme the other day that stated that Walmarts (and a large number of other corporations) now use the route of settlement of grievance with cash, routinely accompanied by a non-disclosure agreement which puts the individual in such a restrictive position that they cannot disclose anything to friends, relatives, even therapists. This was a Canadian lawyer talking but I assume it covers other regions too.

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Climbing the ladder at WalMart…

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Right. Better to keep one’s head down and NOT call our labor abuse at low paying shitty jobs… That’s the way to change things… I mean, that’s how we got the 40 hour week after all, workers being meek and doing whatever they were told, no matter what abuse they were subject to… /s

Norma Rae Strike GIF by Industrial Workers of the World

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Yeah I wish more Walmart employees would quit like this. Hell, I wish I’d quit Walmart like this. I just clocked out end of shift one day and never went back. I worked at Walmart from late 2009 to early 2011. From her speech, I see nothing has changed. Well, my manager was just an idiot, not a pervert, but everything else is right on. Also, they aren’t going to fire the friends she called out. Not right away at least. But they might find themselves getting “coached” for every stupid little thing so management has some cover for firing them in six months. Still, I would advise anyone working for Walmart to quit if they have options, and to start trying to find options if they don’t. It’s a shitty company and a shitty job.

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this

@Mindysan33
Political action needs effective tools to achieve change. Expressions of anger is understandable and powerful in the moment but a discussion of the strategies needs more of a positive critical response that embraces a diversity of ways of seeing things.
Unions can happen outside of corrupt unions I feel.

Some of the most radical changes came from radical action, before unions got so corporate. Since unions went corporate, it’s been downhill.

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It’s a fine line but the moment a Union concerns itself with justifying its own existence and power it’s over. Unions should be closer to co-ops, not for profit and looking to integrate itself with the local community its serving.

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Not all unions. Any and all work improvements came about because workers organized and agitated for change, sometimes in radical ways. Every single positive movement in labor relations was fought for, often tooth and nail. It was never freely given, as we can see since the more corporate unions have taken over and come to dominate the labor movement since the 1950s.

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I agree in the sense that, when they’re more invested in justifying their existence than fulfilling their initial role, it’s over. Same with the political parties, and even individual politicians.
There always has to be a good answer to the question, “to what end?” Like, you want to be a senator? To what end? What’s the bigger purpose?
If the unions get too top heavy, they seem to capsize.

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I agree, but that’s only true in an ideal sense. Unions are under constant attack from multiple fronts. They can’t act like the local food coop, or even limit themselves to local scope. They need the reach to lobby on the federal level and recruit against inside threats.

A passive, local-only union won’t last long.

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