Walmart bullies UFCW

The United Food and Commercial Workers, the Occupy coalition, and others have helped conduct labor actions against Walmart in recent months - but Walmart continues to flex its ill-gained might.

Now the retail giant has forced the UFCW to agree not to picket again for 60 days. If the UFCW complies, the National Labor Relations Board will drop a ridiculous charge of unfair labor practices filed against the UFCW by Walmart.

Central to Walmart's plen-T-plaint is that there seems to be a little-known law that says you can't picket for union recognition for longer than 30 days. Oh??? This issue isn't just one regarding the constitutional right to unionize, but also the constitutional right to enjoy free speech. The First Amendment says picketing can't be limited to just 30 days. That's free speech, plain and simple.

So fuck you, Walmart.

Walmart has almost bottomless power to buy ad time and media stories touting its side of the issue. So the unions should have the same ability to have their side heard. Fair is fair.

Now guess what? A couple weeks ago, a right-wing activist court ruled that President Obama's recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board are unconstitutional - even though Bush did the exact same thing, and they didn't rule it unconstitutional when he did it. These recess appointments are necessary just for the NLRB to function, since it can't reach quorum without them. Therefore, the NLRB is now powerless.

Oops. I bet now the right-wingers are sorry for making this ruling. Since the NLRB can't reach quorum, Walmart can't gripe to them! So the UFCW can picket all they want! Ha-ha!

Also, because Occupy isn't a union, the 30-day picketing limit doesn't apply to Occupy. I so fucking dare Walmart to file a complaint against Occupy!

(Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/01/business/labor-union-agrees-to-stop-picketing-walmart.htm)