How can I help Walmart go Union?

Unions are leeches on companies and are just interested in stuffing their own pockets. Their time has come and gone. Recently, there was a threatened strike with the clerical workers who work with the longshoremen. A clerk gets paid $37.50 per hour, has completely company paid health insurance (no premiums, no co-pays), 20 paid holidays per year, several weeks of paid vacation, full company paid pension, and can't be fired. They wanted something like a 9% pay raise. This is outrageous. Quite frankly, a clerk position isn't worth that kind of money. Most of us have to make do with a 3-5% annual raise.

No small business would survive if they had to pay that kind of cash and benefits for a low skilled clerk position. Big companies may have deeper pockets but that does not mean that they should have to pay people more than a job is worth. More skills = more pay. Punching a cash register or stocking shelves are low skilled positions and do not command a pay rate much higher than minimum. If you want to make more money, get an education or trade skills. If you have no skills and don't bother to get an education, you can't expect a company to pay you a high salary. You will be paid what the market determines your labor is worth.

Unions are often smoke and mirrors as well. There was a UPS strike several years ago. The union claimed it was trying to get more part time jobs converted to full time jobs. (UPS already offered full benefits to part time employees and the ratio part time to full time jobs was set by a union approved contract several years earlier. Loading trucks for 8 hours per day is physically impossible so they do use part time positions to avoid injuries and prevent burnout.)
The REAL story was that the UPS Teamster pension was well funded. The Teamster pensions from other companies were way underfunded. The Teamsters union wanted full control of the UPS pension funds to use them to prop up the other companies' pensions. UPS did not want the money they faithfully set aside for their employees to be used for the failing pension plans of their competitors. Thus....the strike.

I'm all for making decent money but not a free ride at the expense of the employer. Everyone should have to contribute something towards their benefits. Maybe not a lot but the days of completely employer paid health insurance are over. A small premium and a copay is reasonable.

One last point on unions: promotions and pay raises are done on a chart at predetermined intervals. That means that the best worker will not be rewarded for extra effort and the worst worker will not be punished. They will both receive the same rate of pay and the same annual increase. Promotions are based on who worked for the company the longest, not who is best suited for the position. This type of environment drives out the top employees. Merit based promotions and raises drive performance. If you eliminate them, there is no more motivation and subpar performance becomes the norm. Customer service suffers, customers stop shopping there, the company is forced to cut back, and all these newly unionized employees are unemployed.

Just my two cents. I think Walmart would close stores before they let a union in.