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California Wal-Mart protest produces 23 arrests

November 14, 2014

wal-martOfficers arrested 23 protesters at a Southern California demonstration against Wal-Mart Thursday evening. [Los Angeles Times]

The protest occurred outside a Wal-Mart in the Los Angeles County city of Pico Rivera, where it began in the store’s parking lot, but moved into the intersection of two boulevards. Demonstrators marched and sat in the street, holding signs and lighting candles.

Police arrested 11 men and 12 women after they moved into the intersection. Officers cited them for unlawful assembly and failure to disperse.

Both charges are misdemeanors and punishable by jail time, but police released the suspects after citing them.

A union-supported employee group called OUR Wal-Mart organized the protest as part of a push for $15 an hour wages and more full-time positions. The demonstrators say they make about $12.50 an hour and are threatening more protests on Black Friday if their demands are not met.

 


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The China Syndrom, Wal Mart, should not be an example for labor here. Buy “Made in USA”, pay more and buy less. If we just bought what we needed we’d spend allot less but the marketeers want you to buy all of that crap you don’t really need. Yes there would be less jobs, therefore less importing of people too. Wake up America.


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Raising the minimum wage really does seem economically inefficient, but I do wonder what’s to come? The demand for labor in the west is decreasing at an exponential rate. Business is becoming so technologically efficient that you just don’t need many people to produce goods and services anymore. 1 person can do what it took 5 to do 20 years ago and 15 50 years ago. Imagine how bad things are going to be 10+ years from now if this trend continues. Many of us are fortunate enough to have been grandfathered with a job that allows for a decent standard of living, but there is no doubt that our children and grandchildren are going to face very serious challenges. I suppose we could turn americia into china and adapt to a 3rd world standard of living. That could bring jobs back for a little while at least. In the end the result will be the same, though. No economy in the history of the world has survived an increase in unemployment above 30 to 35%. Denial and blame doesn’t seem to be a long-term solution. This is a problem that will impact every one of us or our loved ones soon enough.


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jcody,


you make a point. i had a really nice pal that moved back to her home state. she had a work ethic and could do a “whole day’s work” in three hours. that’s why they hated her. She was told to slow down and not be a curve breaker. so much for excellance.


excel; remember that?


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No one deserves $15 an hour to work at Wal-Mart.


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1. Minimum wage goes up. 2.All prices in restaurants/stores/suppliers go up to cover new minimum wage increase. 3. Since all prices are higher employees who get new min wage increase have no more buying power than they did before the raise. 4. Who benefits???? Government now makes more money because revenue from payroll taxes are higher. 5. Win win win for politicians because they get more taxes to spend; they do not need to provide anything in return for that increased tax revenue; they get more votes from the labor pool because people believe they actually benefit from the raised minimum wage.


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who is the government? for the win.


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If the min. wage goes up, employers will cut hours and lay people off.


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Shocked: Do you have any supporting evidence to support your assertions? How about a link to a credible news source or government agency that reports on wages and business to see if your assertions have any bases in facts? Every time the minimum wage has gone up, the doomsday scenario you and others have tried to paint NEVER happens. In the very short term, there may be some adjustments, but for the most part, our economy actually grows when the minimum wage is increased. Link here to the Fiscal Policy Institute, in the form of a PDF explaining how states that have a “higher than federal minimum wage” actually have more business growth that the states that stick with the federal minimum wage. Another link, this one to the Houston, Texas Chronicle, repeating the effects of a higher minimum wage.


You may “feel” that raising the minimum wage is going to hurt most small businesses, but the research does not back up your “feelings”. Try some research before you make a point that is completely at odds with the reality of the situation; who knows, you might uncover some research that completely refutes what most economists already know about a higher wage leading to an increase in productivity, worker retention, and continued business growth. Your turn.


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Bob the answer is simple. Inflation. You are paid more than thirty years ago aren’t you? Do you pay more for gas, bread, shoes etc. than thirty years ago? Answer is all around you without having to look it up. Shocked in MB is right.


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“.. the answer is simple. Inflation. ”


If inflation were to affect all things equally, the minimum wage would be around $20 an hour. Am I paid more than I was thirty years ago? No, I no longer am employed like I was thirty years ago, I am self employed and have a small pension. Do I pay more for all the things you mentioned? Of course, we all do. The answer isn’t as simple as you would like it to be, that is why research is necessary. Did you bother to read either of the links I posted? I am of the opinion that reading actual research gives on better information to base an assertion on, better than say relying on a simple ” (the) answer is all around you …”.


Want to try again?


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Well then Bob seeing as you are self employed like myself, do you have to buy supplies for work? Have they gone up? How about labor? Do you employ anyone? More money than ten years ago? Well I do to both. That is called REAL WORLD numbers Bob. I don’t live by charts that someone else tells me how to think and yes I read the charts that showed minimal change on average of 1-2% in an economy in 04 that was also increasing in………..costs for goods to at the same time!


Bob if you do hire anyone and feel bad about it, then pay them more. No one is stopping you, same as the minimum wage worker. I, like most worked minimum wage and said……….hey this is TEMPORARY!! There are ton’s of blue collar jobs out there right now but to many lazy asses that don’t want to sweat to earn a living. That is some real numbers for you. Oh and how do I know, just read a good article with Mike Rowe about it but I don’t do links.


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Do I buy supplies for work? No, I buy merchandise at wholesale and resell it at retail. Have those prices gone up? Sure, not as much as a lot of things have, but to a degree, yes. Labor; I ran a small retail store in downtown SLO for fifteen years and over that time period had around ten different employees, and I paid them more than minimum wage, even though it was very part time work.


Those are not REAL WORLD numbers, they are what you personally have experienced. Some industries have seen costs go up sky high, others have been more fortunate; the point here is that for all of your blustering on about your experiences, you have not even attempted to point to something to back up your assertions.


What I have seen time and time again is people who think that minimum wage jobs are either only temporary, or they are for losers who cannot work hard enough to get a “real” job. In my opinion, most of the time there seems to be a real dislike, almost a hatred of those who struggle in low paying jobs and cannot get ahead, so it must be their fault.


I just read some of what is attributed to Mike Rowe, and I do agree with him on a lot of what he said; none of that seems connected to a discussion about raising the minimum wage. He points out that not everyone needs a college degree; I agree. His main concern was about college graduates not being able to find a job that their degree would help with, and to have $80,000 to $150,000 in student loan debt. Like I said, none of that seems to be connected to those working minimum wage jobs asking for a raise.


I have furnished evidence that paying a higher minimum wage does not adversely affect most small businesses, and that the economy usually improves after the minimum wage has been raised; no one has presented evidence to the contrary; from that, I have to conclude that there is no actual evidence to support the suggestion that raising the minimum wage adversely affects our economy.


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When we think of labor as a product, discarding abstract and meaningless notions of what is a “fair” wage, it becomes quite easy to see why high minimum wages do not benefit the poor. The price of labor rises, and so people buy less of it. Unemployment rises, and people with jobs find themselves either laid off or forced to work fewer hours in order to reduce costs. Since there will be fewer jobs available at the new minimum wage, production will decrease across the entire economy. Lower production levels mean that consumers must compete more aggressively for available goods by bidding up prices. So even though the workers lucky enough to keep their jobs may see an increase in pay, their dollars will not stretch as far as before.


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“a credible news source or government agency” find one.


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Did you bother to read one of the links I posted? Again, the assertion that raising the minimum wage is going to cause a rise in unemployment has not been proven, even if you go back and look at each time the minimum wage was raised.


The people commenting here who firmly believe that they “know” that raising the minimum wage is going to cause a rise in unemployment, a “hurt” to small businesses, that we are going to somehow see a general hit to our economy are not basing those beliefs on the reality of historical evidence.


Do your own research if you won’t bother to click my links; it is pretty simple- using the search engine of your choice (google, ask, Ixquick, whatever) type in what you are looking for. If you want to prove me wrong about my assertion that raising the minimum wage is an overall boost to our economy, type in something like “raising the minimum wage hurts small businesses” or “raising the minimum wage causes unemployment to rise”. I am confident that will either find bogus results from someone’s blog, someone’s “opinion”, or perhaps a think tank whose main purpose is to help big business to keep screwing over the lowest paid workers. Most likely you will see that your point cannot be proven by researching actual scientific studies that have studied the cause and effect of a higher minimum wage. Real research is usually “published” by notable media outlets, government agencies or economists who prefer to have actual facts backing up their assertions.


To simply keep stating that “the answer is all around you” is lazy, to say the least.


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Haha, 50% of people downvoted reality, I LOVE it! In other news, physics is also well-hated by half the moronic public…:)


For all the people revving up their double-digit IQs, please tell the rest of us, what IS money? HOW is it created? When you can answer these very basic questions, then you are qualified to examine the employment rates for black teenagers in the 50s and 60s compared to now, i.e. the effect of price-fixing for labor.


So sorry comrade, socialism is still a fail.


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