They're going to back Obamacare.  Their letter was signed by the head of the SEIU.  Malkin says it's a desperate ploy to get the unions off of their backs, maybe, but there's something deeper happening that people aren't seeing.

One thing I think people need to realize is that the big retail stores and chain restaurants are under a lot of pressure right now, and I don't think most folks are aware of it.  You may have noticed a slight increase in prices when you go shopping or buying food out.  Part of that is the shitty economy, but it also represents inflation.  But not all of the inflation.  Retailers and food chains are hiding the true level of inflation and increased costs of goods from their consumers, because the last thing any retailer or fast food joint wants to do is raise prices on their customers, and they'll do damn near anything to keep it from happening.

Well, where's that money coming from?  They're cutting costs and scaling back projects where they can and trying to be innovative and efficient, but where many of them are making up the bulk of this shortfall is by squeezing every penny they can out of their employees' wages and salaries.

Some of the retail chains and restaurants have gutted their stores' staffing and available work hours so that they have just enough of a skeleton crew working there to keep the store from completely going to hell.  Some are also cutting benefits (what little there usually is in retail), and cutting full time people to part time (at least on the books, if not on actual hours), so that the company doesn't have to pay for the benefits full time employees get. 

And you're thinking, so fucking what, deal with it, service monkies, now go get me my burger/TV!  That works, to a point, except you have millions and millions of employees who already have miserable, thankless jobs that pay for shit during the good times, who are now trying to do the work of 1^1/2-3 people now because of the cutbacks in staffing and hours, and on top of this are doing all this while their benefits and sometimes their hours and pay are getting gutted by the corporation, so that you can keep buying stuff at dirt cheap prices. 

Again, you're thinking, so what?  Go back to the top of the post, and read it again.  What are they trying to do?  Get the unions off their backs?  To an extent.  But what is really happening is that these big food service and retail stores are growing more and more afraid that their huge workforce is going to grow tired of being worked more while getting squeezed on their benefits, hours and pay, and go union.

Can you imagine what kind of disaster it would be, not only for retail and restaurant, but for America at large if the bulk of retail and/or chain restaurant employees flipped to union?  You think your service sucks now?  Just wait till union work ethic becomes part of retail and fast food work culture.  You think your vente cappucino from Starbucks and your iPod from Target are too fucking expensive now?  Wait till you're paying union wages on top of that.  You're going to learn about expensive.  And don't think the unionization would stop there.  Retail and fast food are where people start their work life, don't think they won't bring the unions with them as they move to different fields. 

It would be a complete revival of the unions in America, and a huge coup for the left.  I know for a fact that companies are panicked about this, because I know many of them are sitting employees down and making them watch corporate training videos, warning them about unions and the Employee Free Choice Act.  They're seriously afraid of it happening, and they should be.  So should you.  You can only hide the inflation that's happening for so long.  At some point corporations are going to have to be up front with the public about what is going on with the economy. 

As you can see, the left is in a very "Heads, we win, tails, you lose" position here.  From the chain retailer/restaurant's view, Obamacare is the lesser of two evils.  Particularly for Wal-Mart, given that they're the biggest of the lot, and probably because they have pharmacies and have some limited medical type operations (like basic optometry facilities), they may be able to cut some deals for themselves, and be in a better position to lobby their way out of some of the more painful provisions. 

Posted by: doubleplusundead at 10:31 AM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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