The shade from the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market sign is minimal around noon; still, six picketers squeeze their thermoses and Dasani bottles onto the dirt below, trying to keep their water cool. They’re walking five-hour shifts on this corner at Stephanie Street and American Pacific Drive in Henderson—anti-Wal-Mart signs propped lazily on their shoulders, deep suntans on their faces and arms—with two 15-minute breaks to run across the street and use the washroom at a gas station.

Periodically one of them will sit down in a slightly larger slice of shade under a giant electricity pole in the intersection. Four lanes of traffic rush by, some drivers honk in support, more than once someone has yelled, “assholes!” but mostly, they’re ignored.

They’re not union members; they’re temp workers employed through Allied Forces/Labor Express by the union—United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). They’re making $6 an hour, with no benefits; it’s 104 F, and they’re protesting the working conditions inside the new Wal-Mart grocery store.

“It don’t make no sense, does it?” says James Greer, the line foreman and the only one who pulls down $8 an hour, as he ambles down the sidewalk, picket sign on shoulder, sweaty hat over sweaty gray hair, spitting sunflower seeds. “We’re sacrificing for the people who work in there, and they don’t even know it.”

No you aren’t, dude. You’re sacrificing for the union.

This is the problem with unions. Unions are absolutely in the business of perpetuating themselves and lobbying politicians. That’s it. Consider the irony here. People are walking around outside a Wal-Mart, who have never even worked there, protesting for people who aren’t protesting, representing a union that’s paying them chump change to stand out in oppressive heat in the Nevada desert.

I guess it’s okay when the union underpays and overworks its people. Think about that the next time some assbag from a union tells you about the horrible conditions at Wal-Mart and how much people suffer under their employ.

I’ll leave you with this stroke of genius from the UFCW website:

The UFCW’s website concludes, “Every person working hard for a living earns the right to a decent wage, affordable health care and a voice on the job. But Wal-Mart’s greed provides other companies a license to chip away at the rights of working America, influencing everything from wages to working conditions.”

Wages?

Working conditions?

Glass house meet stone…

Source: Las Vegas Weekly