If the price is right, do you care if a store's politics might be Right as well? Wal-Mart has taken a break from rolling back prices, to roll out a campaign among their store managers nationwide to warn that if Democrats take power in November, a law change easing the way for workers to unionize, won't be far behind.
In the past few weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart managers have been called to mandatory meetings where, according to about a dozen workers who've attended the meetings, the corporate representatives are making it clear that a vote for Obama in November will be equal to letting unions in — sparking higher payroll and health costs.
One employee attending such a meeting said, "the meeting leader said, 'I am not telling you how to vote, but if the Democrats win, this bill will pass and you won't have a vote on whether you want a union. I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote."
A Wal-Mart spokesman said, "if anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval." Adding that the meetings were designed to educate workers about the Employee Free Choice Act, which they think is a bad bill.
Is your shopping cart getting involved in the election too? To see other business that with possible ties to party politics, read more.
Stores and companies thought to have ties to the Republican party (for you to support or not, depending on your own proclivities) include:
Wendy's Hamburgers, Dominos Pizza, Olive Garden, Dell Computers, Curves Gym, UPS, Coors, Disney, Chevron, American Airlines and Outback Steakhouse.
I don't know about you, but the news makes me want a Bloomin' Onion now, 2,275 calories or not. To find out where corporate money goes, OpenSecrets lets you search by donor name, organization name, industry and more, so you can see where their money goes before you give them yours.
Do you think about the political affiliation of a company before you buy? Does Wal-Mart's information campaign just make for good business sense for them — or is it unfair pressure on employees to vote Republican?
Cath Kidston
So, where can I shop to support the dems...?
Honestly, isn't in the best interest of most large corporations to support the republicans? I thought that was the conventional wisdom.
1This site is ramping up to answer that very question. There's a survey there, and a bunch of links to help navigate the blue company waters.
2Good point, Torg.
The head dogs at Enron and UBS loved Republicans too, even when their companies failed and took with them people's jobs and investments. Extreme republican ideology isn't good for business in general, it is good for the senior execs who can ruin a company and still get hundreds of millions of dollars for it. Bankruptcy leaves many victims.
I think that even a meeting where they are telling their employees about an Act that they disagree with is still political pressuring. This would appear to violate so many labor laws!
3Which ones? It's not illegal to tell employees about a law, or even to express how it would effect the company.
4Is it illegal for a boss to promote voting for a candidate or measure? If so, is there a difference between promoting and pressuring? Just curious. I wouldn't want to get in trouble by waxing poetic about Obama at work.
5My husband use to work for CSX. They "encourage" their employees to vote Democrat. I don't see what the big deal is unless they are following you into the voters box and making you push the button of their choice.
6shock me shock me shock me shock me with that deviant behavior...
7Having a union at Wal-Mart would be counter productive and destructive to their business. The only people who would win with a union at Wal-Mart would be the Union reps, who would get a nice office and no work, all at the expense of the other employees.
8I personally don't think the workplace is an appropriate place to talk about religion or politics. Both subjects are so polarizing and aren't conducive to people of differing opinions working together.
9Oooo I knew I LOVED Olive Garden, Dell computers and Outback Steakhouse for a good reason!
10"The only people who would win with a union at Wal-Mart would be the Union reps"
I honestly can't tell if this is sarcastic or sincere.
11"I personally don't think the workplace is an appropriate place to talk about religion or politics. Both subjects are so polarizing and aren't conducive to people of differing opinions working together."
I agree generally, but it sort of depends. If you're really friendly with coworkers and can keep it civil, I think there's no harm. I try not to bring it up but will answer if asked. But, I try to be deferential and throw in a lot of, "that's just my opinion."
Or I try to make a joke, like if someone asks me who I'm voting for for president, I say "Well, I'm young, well-educated, and I live in an urban area, so I have to vote for Obama"
12That is sincere. I worked at a distribution center for Wal-Mart, and their open door policy is incredible. The "head honcho" scheduled time to meet with each and every employee to talk and discuss any changes/problems. This isn't something that was just unique to the DC I worked at, it was standard.
13Did the meetings result in changes? It's great that there's a good system of communication in place, but I'm not sure individual meetings would be effective for, say, negotiating benefits for all employees.
14Of course it depends on the situation...but it's easy to feel pressured at work and I don't think it's the place for it. Just in my opinion of course....
15Sure. And there's a big difference, of course, between discussing with coworkers vs. your boss.
16I used to agree, HF, but now that I work in politics, it's pretty much a requirement to discuss it in the workplace! We discuss religion on a superficial level; I went to mass on Ash Wednesday so I had the ashes on my forehead and a few of us who are all Catholic and not from the area have discussed which parishes we like, but we don't get critical of religion here. (Actually, someone did last night and I am still offended by it.)
17
Well that makes sense lil...if it's part of your job. Like I'm sure citizen and
liberty talk politics all the time. It's funny I have these images in my head of what the sugar office must be like. It's a mix between a big slumber party and an ongoing class election.
18I think politics depends on the situation, but I try not to talk about religion because I always end up offending people. People are still quite uncomfortable with atheism. (I saw a survey recently indicating more Americans would vote for a gay president than an atheist.)
19I think I just blew my daily emoticon budget in one swoop
Oops! Another one!
20Unless the company is projecting its political leanings beyond a controbution to it's favorite candidate I can care less who their for. What I care about in Wal-Marts case is the sub standard treatment of their employees in the way of benefits which is why I do not shop there. I do believe Wal-Mart when they say that "the meetings were designed to educate workers about the Employee Free Choice Act", but I do not believe for one minute that that was the only reason. Give me a break.
21I knew it Citizen!
22Actually, those meetings brought about many changes. And since this guy wasn't directly involved with your performance reviews, he could be seen as an advocate for you, and not an adversary. He also gave HUGE bonuses to anyone who brought a good idea that was implemented. So ideas were rewarded, which we a good incentive.
23The problem with buyblue.org and other sites like it is that it's generally based on donation, not corporate policies. So if one employee donates $1 million to a certain candidate or party, your company leans overwhelmingly in that direction, even if he/she's the only one with that political affiliation. (That example's probably not legal but you see where I'm going with this.)
The head of Domino's, for example, is heavily involved with pro-life causes; so a lot of his personal donations would make him look red. His company isn't necessarily political; it's just that he is.
And as for Wal-Mart, I think those meetings were totally inappropriate. That's a big jump to go from an Obama victory directly to unionization and higher healthcare costs. The union story is just an excuse.
24I agree with HF about not talking politics or religion at work...just too much potential for uneasiness, IMO. Plus, I don't need any more reasons to dislike some of the people I work with. (Kidding!
)
I'm wondering how Target leans. I also wonder if it's coincidence that I don't like Domino's, Outback, or Olive Garden.
25This isn't stopping me from going to Outback. I like their steaks.
26That's an interesting point, ValancyJane. Does this analysis include employee donations or just donations from the company's PAC? Or does it just include political leanings, like people kind of know that Dave Thomas was conservative. And obviously Pete Coors is a Republican, since he ran for the Senate as one.
It could be time-consuming, but if anyone is curious about a specific company, you could look up their PAC on the FEC website. It's fec.gov, then you go into Campaign Finance Reports and Data on the left hand side, then to Search the Disclosure Database, then to Committee Search. When the committee comes up, choose the right one, then click on Committees and Candidates Suppoted/Opposed. It can get a little tricky because you have to make sure you choose the right PAC name. Target's PAC is called TargetCitizens Political Forum. And sorry, Em, it looks like they support quite a few Republicans.
27Yeah, okay, no more Domino's will ever come to my house. Not EVER. I'm not paying money to support that sh*t.
Now, what to do about UPS?
28I know bailaoragaditana some of the drivers are FIIINE!
29You know, lilkimbo, I have to confess I hadn't visited buyblue in a while - so I went to check them out and they are "revamping" in preparation for the election. They're running out of time! Anyway, it looks like they track individual and PAC donations. They also mention some other resources that *seem* to be able to connect the dots between donations, lobbying and corporate actions. So eventually you might be able to get a better idea of what a company actually stands for, not just how its employees donate.
I have a vague memory of some site that ranked companies on specific issues - labor practices, environmental stewardship, etc. I don't remember the name, though - wish I did, because that seems like good information to have when you're making decisions about which company to support. And socially responsible practices aren't the domain of just one party, though both of them would have you think that.
30ValancyJane, I remember seeing a book a while ago that tracked a ton of major companies and I can't for the life of me remember what it was called; I keep going back to Borders to try to find it, but I never have any luck; isn't that so frustrating!
31I becomes harder still if you try to shop small, local stores. Are you supposed to call each business owner individually and request a short dissertation on her political views?
32This isn't anything new. Teachers' unions are notorious for their ways in which they promote the Democratic Party.
33Sorry, that should read "It becomes harder," not "I becomes harder."
But truly it's harder to know the leanings of small business owners, and they have much more of a direct impact. The owner of Dominos throwing a fundraiser for McCain has little impact on my life, but the local mogul who buys my favorite dive bar and turns it into a cafe or sells it to starbucks, that's what really bugs me.
34"This isn't anything new. Teachers' unions are notorious for their ways in which they promote the Democratic Party."
But the union isn't your actual employer. Unions are. by nature, political entities.
35Most school districts require that teacher join. Thus, it mixes with your job.
36*teachers
37So, as long as it's a coworker trying to tell you how to vote, it's OK?
38Personally I don't think it's okay UD. BUT I have military training and you leave that kind of thing at the door when you show up to work...but of course that's just my experience.
39But isn't the point of a union to organize a group of people to advocate for its own benefits? It makes sense for them to endorse candidates then and to encourage members to vote in the way they think will best benefit the union.
There seems to me to be a fundamental difference between political advocating/coercion/whatever from my boss vs from my union.
40I agree with HF that you shouldn't discuss politics or religion at work. I know I'd feel really uncomfortable if I felt pressured by a boss to vote a certain way. Obviously they can't follow you into the booth but it shouldn't be an issue. I'm not saying this is the case w/ WalMart, just in general.
The irony here is the ostensibly higher wages and better health care would benefit the WalMart employees, just not the company itself. So they are kind of convincing the workers to vote against their own interests.
I'm not a huge union fan for the most part myself though.
41But the union has just as much control over your job as your "boss" does. If you don't do your job the "union" way, the unions steward could have you removed. In some cases, that's good. in many it's not. Here's an example:
42After HS, a friend of mine worked in a factory. The first day, he was given a box of parts to assemble, and told that was his quota for the day. He finished it by lunch, and asked for a second box. After lunch the union steward called him up to his office, and almost politely told him to never do more than the quota again, if he wanted to keep his job. My friend lasted a month, before leaving to find a job that kept him busy.
This goes back to the steel workers being pressured into voting for the "right" people who would keep unions out of the mills. The bosses would just hold meetings to "talk" about the issues of the candidates and how it would affect the company. As with the mills bosses and the Wal Mart higher ups, the concern is not the average employee of the company. Keeping unions out does not benefit the cashier, stock person, or greeter. It benefits the shareholders and CEOs. And talking about politics with your co-worker is not the same as corporate headquarters calling mandatory meetings for store managers to "discuss" a bill that they feel would negatively impact the company. It is wrong.
43Obviously, our views of unions differ. Are you in one Torgelson?
44If you've ever worked at a Wal-Mart you'd think differently.
45No, I am not in a Union.
(But I do not subscribe to the theory that I need to have a full immersion experience to speak about something. I know you didn't say that, but I'm having that conversation in the Obama hecklers thread.)
46I just have to repeat what Roarman said because it is so spot-on:
"Keeping unions out does not benefit the cashier, stock person, or greeter. It benefits the shareholders and CEOs."
Me again, and this is probably going to stir up a firestorm but what the heck, it's Friday: When a company is as vehemently anti-union as Wal-Mart seems to be, I have to think they have something to hide.
47I'll repeat what I said earlier. Go and work at a Wal-Mart, and see what the atmosphere is before you condem it. It's actually a great place to work.
48I think Wal Mart does get a bad rap. I don't think they're perfect, and I do think they do shady things, but I'm not sure how they became the poster child for scary, evil corporate America.
49Okay, UnDave, maybe it's great for you. But too many women (particularly women of color) have spoken up and said they were harassed, degraded, attacked, locked in the store overnight, denied breaks, denied promotions, denied raises, and on and on, for me to ignore.
And to expand on my point from earlier ... if it's so great, why not let the employees decide whether to unionize? If it's just peachy as you say it is, there won't be a need.
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