[lbo-talk] Re: RE: Re: RE: WMT goes orgo

[Jim Straub]

About the 80% figure--- one director's off the cuff estimate for his region,
and just supermarkets.  Someone mentioned national stats from a unionstats
page that listed 20%, which still seems a little low to me but makes sense
nationwide considering the whole south and southwest density probably about
0.  But it's a little ironic to even debate whether supermarkets are highly
unionized, especially in the context of anti-intellectualism; because since
I've been working on this article, I've been talking to a lot of people in
my spare time about supermarket jobs, and people who've worked in the
service industry don't generally debate you on whether supermarkets are
highly unionized, because it's just common knowledge.  Anyone (self
included) who's worked in one knows supermarkets offer slightly better
health benefits than a highschool dropout is likely to find elsewhere in the
world of mcjobs.  This brings up interesting questions about the different
types of knowledge available to different types of folks, and sheds light on
my own instinctive distrust (but by no means blanket disdain) of lefty
academics.

BTW, I'm pretty sure the most highly unionized industries in the US are
airlines and casinos (and the two different stories of how the unions in
those respective industries are using their power is a very, very
instructive tale on the merits of consolidated industrial unionism).


> [WS:] Perhaps.  But I find it hard to believe the 80% figure.  The
> corresponding figure for the public sector, definitely the most unionized
> sector in this country, is about 36%.  That would make US food retailers
> the
> most unionized industry in the US, and probably in the world.
>
> [WS:] No doubt, but so is most of the US industry.  So why singling out
> Whole Foods, which suspiciously coincides with the blue collar vitriol
> against environmentalism and urban liberalism?  My point is not that
> anti-union image is unfair for Whole Foods, but that singling it out is -
> and smacks of culture wars.  It is akin to attacking capitalism by
> singling
> out Jews - it makes one think that anti-capitalism is really a veneer for
> a
> kulturkampf.

Holy shit!  Hating on Whole Paycheck is seriously akin to
anti-semitism?!?!?!?  Are you joking man?!?!  I do not mean to be dismissive
but I seriously find this assertion to be the funniest thing I've ever read
on here (a considerable thing).

There's a good article on whole foods' busting of a union in wisconsin by
one of the busted union members, debbie rasmussen, reposted at
http://djwilson.livejournal.com/130643.html.

But I'm just putting this out there; I shop mostly at union stores, but not
entirely, and I even shop of that bastion of (cheap) vegan elitism trader
joes (three dollar wine man!).
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