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The mega-retailer faces its largest labor protest to date as union groups and frustrated current employees vow to organize a nationwide walkout at Walmart stores on the day after Thanksgiving. So-called “Black Friday” is the most important day of the year for American retailers, with big box stores like Walmart racking up a large portion of their yearly profits in just a few hours of frenetic shopping. That is exactly why labor activists and groups of Walmart employees have planned a strike for this Friday, seeking to attract attention from would-be shoppers and force company executives to agree to changes in labor practices. The fight is an uphill struggle, as Walmart has asked for government help in putting down the potential strike and Wall Street investors determine that not enough workers will participate to make the protest anything more than a “non-event.”
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(NBC News)
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This is the situation facing Israel in its conflict with Hamas as presented by a parade of Western leaders, most notably President Barack Obama. The American president and other Israeli allies insist that the specter of “missiles raining down” allows Israel full justification for whatever amount of force they deem necessary to neutralize this “threat.” But Seumas Milne in The Guardian accepts a contrasting view of the latest crisis in the Middle East, exacerbated by late word that the Israeli government has rejected a truce deal. Palestinians face an occupying army with a history of reckless military action consistently backed at all costs by powerful Western allies.
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(The Guardian)
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A bill that was originally crafted as a means to protect Americans’ privacy and strengthen laws keeping much of your digital life off limits to the government has been transformed into an unprecedented power grab by federal agencies, according to internet privacy advocates. Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has proposed rewritten internet surveillance legislation that is a response to complaints from law enforcement and Homeland Security that privacy protections would hamper their ability to investigate crimes. First hailed as a landmark step to put significant privacy protections in place for a modern digital age, Leahy’s proposal now gives virtually unlimited and sweeping authority to 22 federal agencies to search everything from email accounts to Twitter messages without a warrant. Awareness of email privacy has been heightened by the details of the David Petraeus scandal, where FBI agents potentially skirted existing laws in hacking into private emails accounts of the former CIA director, his alleged mistress an another woman.
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(CNET)
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Far from a secondary amusement meant to enhance the academic experience of higher education, college football has become one of the nation’s most popular — and most financially lucrative — sports. At the pinnacle of the college football world are head coaches at schools eligible for the “Bowl Championship Series,” a relatively small fraternity of men who are enjoying the fastest rise in compensation of any industry in the country. College football coaches and their assistants have become the highest paid employees of most state governments, part of a frantic arms race by schools to lure and retain iconic figures like Nick Saban of Alabama or Mack Brown at Texas. The demand for high-profile coaches has led to an astonishing spike in their salaries. 42 college coaches are currently making at least $2 million a year, their compensation increasing at a pace even faster than CEO’s. The fiscal rewards lavished on football programs stands in contrast to the shrinking budgets and mandated cuts imposed on public and private colleges and universities, setting up internal rivalries between academic faculty and coaches.
(USA Today)
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It sounds like Walmart needs to do some rethinking about how they treat their employees.
I have heard many stories out of the Walmart populous.. most of them former employees of course, but the vast majority of them were negative. However… without defending Walmarts behavior > we must realize that they are making these decisions based on what WE THE PEOPLE apparently want or desire. If they didn’t believe that millions of people WANT this and would come, they certainly wouldn’t put themselves in this position.
So again, WE THE PEOPLE have acted in a way that causes others to change their behavior in a way that WE THE PEOPLE end up displeased with. But sadly, WE THE PEOPLE haven’t demonstrated that WE are going to change our own behaviors as a part of the solution to the problem.
The consumers have a lot of power… but they just don’t use it.
I worked at Wal-mart for a few years while I was in school and my only thought about this is “I can’t believe it took them this long to strike”. Thankfully, I have been out of that pit for many years now and have a really good job in utilities. Still, to this day, I avoid Wal-mart like the plague, knowing what a horrible corporation it is.