WALMART: The Store You Love to Hate

Reuters carries a story about Wal-Mart Warning Managers of Labor Bill by Nicole Maestri and Ted Kerr. Seems that as part of Wal-Mart's opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act--legislation that would once again allow workers to have a secret ballot for or against a union shop--the company has been holding meetings with U.S. store managers warning them about the danger of a Democratic victory in the coming election. Why? Because the Dem's would support the pro-union legislation. Wal-Mart has so far successfully resisted efforts by trade unions to organize. The Reuter's story quotes a release from the Company and more information from an article in the The Wall Street Journal.:

"We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time," Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said. "We feel educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do. ... snip ... "If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval," Tovar said.

They report Journal coverage based on reports from employees in seven different states who reported that they were not only told that if the union came in they would have to pay high union dues and suffer layoffs because of higher labor costs to Wal-Mart but advised not to vote Democratic in the upcoming election.

The Journal report said Wal-Mart human-resources managers who run the meetings do not specifically tell attendees how to vote in November's presidential election, but they make it clear that voting for Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama would be tantamount to inviting unions in