Chance favors the prepared mind - Louis Pasteur

Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Michael Moore once expressed his love of unions.

If you want to make more money, “union” is the way to go. According to the US department of labour, union workers make an average of $717 a week. Non-union workers like you make an average of $573 a week. Being a conservative is about you and you making as much money as you can. So why stay non-union?

To which I replied:

Because unions add to the cost of doing business, resulting in the loss of jobs to overseas labor. ...  I’d rather have a non-union job that paid me $573 a week than a union job that used to pay me $717 a week before I was laid off when the factory closed down.

As so often happens when dealing with Michael Moore’s idiocy, I am proven right by the real world.

Wal-Mart Canada announced today that it will close a Quebec store whose unionized employees were involved in negotiations to obtain their first labour contract.

“Despite nine days of meetings over three months, we’ve been unable to reach an agreement with the union that in our view will allow the store to operate efficiently and profitably,” company spokesman Andrew Pelletier said in a statement.

The store, which will close in May, is located in Saguenay, about 250 kilometres north of Quebec City. Nearly 200 employees received union accreditation last summer, making it the chain’s only unionized outlet at the time.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union was not available for immediate comment but Claudia Tremblay, a cashier at the store, said many employees burst into tears when managers told them about the news this morning.

“Many people cried, including myself,” Tremblay, 29, said in an interview.

“I’m a mother of two children and I’m separated from my husband. It’s very difficult.”

Gee, that eeeeeevil kkkapitalist Wal-Mart job is looking pretty good now, isn’t it?  Good thing you live in Canada, where you can suckle at the government teat while you look for another evil capitalist corporate hegemonist to work for. 

You can bet your ass that the leaders of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union are all still drawing a paycheck.  So is Michael Moore.