Bitcoin Forum

In America, worker unions are diminishing. I'm not debating the morality of unions, but organizing them has become almost impossible in the current corporate culture. There are professional union busting firms that are very effective at eliminating union organization at early stages. Privacy is more important nowadays. I would like ideas in how to use the crypto-currency technology to help support unionization.

What exactly is making organizing unions almost impossible?

Extreme example is Wall Mart using cameras in stores and parking lots to keep an eye on employees meeting, and at the first threat of possible unionization, laying off all workers and closing the store.

So what?  Corporations and businesses are completely within their rights to not employ people who want to unionize.

That's not really true. That's why Walmart closes an entire store. They can't just outright fire the union organizer. There is a whole industry built around union busting. All I'm looking for is a way to use crypto-currency technology to support union organizers without getting into the cross-hairs of professional corporate terrorists. They are too smart to get caught by police. Until there is a special division of law enforcement to protect people from corporate espionage, there have to be legal ways to organize unions outside the purview of corporate elitists that feel they are above the law.

Corporate elitists are the law. Corporations are a creation of law. There's nothing illegal occurring, I assure you. All the oppression that is occurring is only due to a poor legal system.

I used to believe this kind of propoganda, coming from my union, but after my wife got a job there (in part, out of spite) I came to understand that WalMart isn't union mostly because those who work there don't want to be.  WalMart's benefits package, although sparse in certain areas that families might consider crucial, are incredible in other areas.  I've written about this particular topic repeatedly on this forum.  On example is that WalMart has a legal aid department, that will help "associates" to uncover and apply for government programs targeted towards their situations.  This is the primary reason that there happen to be almost twice as many WalMart employees on government assistance (per capita?) in the US than Walmart's primary competitors such as Target.  They also function, to an extent, the same way that a city supported legal aid department is supposed to work, helping employees to understand how to plea down traffic violations, file motions, etc in their own legal issues.  But they don't provide a lawyer, as far as I know.

So Walmart helps their underpaid employees apply for welfare, how magnanimous. In Mexico they are attempting to pay their employees in Walmart gift cards. It won't be long before they pay their employees in canned food and stale bread.

Yeah, um, the idea that Wal Mart is able to exist and pay so little to employees only because we are all supporting Wal Mart and their employees with our tax dollars makes me extremely uncomfortable.

Then change the laws, but as it stands, these people are already eligible for these programs.  The legal aid simply increases awareness of these programs, to the benefit of their employees and their dependents, and helps them with the processes.  Target's employee base is likely just as eligible, they just aren't aware of them.

They have done that for a long time.  There are many advantages to this, as Walmart is a large enough company with a large enough retail product base to provide a large portion of their own employees' needs.  Rarely did my wife ever leave with a paycheck, as when she worked there, an employee could pick up their check and cash it right there, then she would go shopping.  It closes the loop on a great many things, removing some taxation from the benefit in the same way that other major corporations can offer an employee discount, such as Ford's A plan.  Bitcoin would be a huge boon for Wal-Mart, if they were willing to accept it against the wishes of states; but would be a bigger boon for Bitcoin.  The amount of money that crosses from the US into Mexico due to families sending money to other family members is huge, and quite a source of funds for Wal-Mart as it is.  If they started accepting bitcoin in exchange for store credit, as well as selling bitcoin at the money services desk, they could completely cut the banks out of the loop.

The bankers won't be happy, though.

Well damn. I always thought Target paid more than WalMart, but apparently that's not the case...

That is, in fact, not the case.  My wife also applied to Target, and their offer was lower.

Was not an uninformed opinion on my part

http://blogs.payscale.com/content/2011/05/target-vs-walmart.html

Although an interesting read, that article was far from conclusive on the topic of wages.  Seems pretty comparable to me.