Better Red Than Union—Communists Infiltrate Wal-Mart!

by Mike Hall, Dec 20, 2006

It’s just such a delicious thought. If only ol’ Sam Walton—the patriarch of the Wal-Mart empire—was still alive.

Picture this as some flunky Wal-Mart VP enters Walton’s office:

“Sir, do you want the good news or bad news first?”

“Hit me with the bad news!”

“We’ve been forced to recognize unions in some of our stores.”

“Ohmygawd! That’s awful. Tell me the good news.”

“We’ve given the Communist Party permission to set up chapters in some of those stores.”

To quote humor columnist Dave Barry, “I’m not making this up.”

The Associated Press reports there are six Communist Party chapters at Wal-Mart operations in China, including the latest established at the company’s Chinese headquarters in Shenzhen. In addition, the company with 68 stores in China (and many more on the drawing board) in August agreed to allow its 36,000 employees in that nation to join a union.

Sure, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is blessed by the state and Communist Party and is considered a paper tiger when it comes to protecting workplace rights and workers, but it’s a union nonetheless.

The matter-of-fact explanation of Wal-Mart’s acceptance of the Communist Party chapters is priceless when—compared to the vicious tactics and end-of-the-world rhetoric used against its U.S. workers seeking to win a voice at work with a union.

Wal-Mart spokesman Jonathan Dong tells the AP:

Quite a few of our associates [workers] are party members already, so they have
a right to establish branch organizations.

Translation: Communist Party membership OK. Membership in unions with real rights and freedom—forbidden!