The Employee Free Choice Act Could Become An Option

Wal-Mart, the biggest employer of the United States, has received much criticism for its poor employee relations. The Greatest Recession has amplified those allegations, and even brought numerous lawsuits into the bigger picture.

But Wal-Mart isn’t the only company breaking hourly wage laws. If you invest a couple of minutes on a search engine, you will quickly find out that a great number of employers are getting sued over unfair treatment of employees.

Wage and hour lawsuits are rising in a big way. As desperate workers more and more face destitution, they are more and more seeking restitution. According to Kiplinger, the lawsuits are literally costing employers millions of dollars. This type of lawsuit is causing more damage than any other.

According to Kiplinger, last year alone, the 10 largest private wage and hour settlements totaled nearly $364 million, 44% more than the 10 biggest settlements in 2008. The states witnessing the most litigation: California, Florida, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington.

If you look at Wal-Mart Wage & Hour Employment Practices Litigation, you see millions of dollars litigation as the result. These are not rare isolated events, either. In fact, the Obama administration is sending more troops out in the field to investigate and prosecute violations of workers.

If you examine the blogosphere, you’ll quickly discover lawsuits against Wal-Mart in states such as Minnesota, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, etc. The list seems endless.

What you have now is a major issue, of catastrophic proportions, a public relations problem for Wal-Mart. As Wal-Mart is forced to pay millions of dollars of restitution to employees, it will try to make a defense that the company no longer provides that kind of an atmosphere.

Over the past few decades, America has shifted from a manufacturing culture to a service culture. Huge corporations have profited tremendously from the service culture. It seems that Americans overnight have become, not only aware of this new paradigm shift, but are retaliating against years of corporate abuse. Employees are seeking revenge because of the post modern culture of antebellum slavery. This culture is unsustainable.

Employees are wanting to turn the tides against this antebellum culture. Lawyers are supporting the middle class because of the opportunity that it provides them in return. The wage wars have begun!

Wal-Mart is getting a brunt of the criticism because of its size, and also because of its historically strong stance against unions. Wal-Mart claims it is not anti-union, but protesters argue that Wal-Mart has done everything in its powers to prevent the average employee from earning a decent wage and getting a fair chance.

And this takes us to Jonquière, Quebec, in the year of 2005. Wal-Mart operated a store in Quebec, and it completely shut down because it’s store had gone union. In Quebec the laws allow unions to start with very little resistance from companies, even those big as Wal-Mart. But the store can choose to close permanently, and that’s just what Wal-Mart chose to do in this case. No union please!

Wal-Mart has yet another potential problem on the horizon. What happened in Quebec could theoretically happen all across the United States. It probably won’t pass in its current state, but the Employee Free Choice Act could pose a real threat for the retail giant. Any bill that removes obstacles for unions represents a threat.

Lastly, there are the Flagler Video Archives,  a video collection of over 15,000 reels of video tape, covering over 20 years, revealing the true culture of Wal-Mart.