target talk

  there's never enough target talk ...



here's some uncaged  beauties 


===================================

" Wal-Mart Stores

The largest private-sector employer 
in the country with 1.3
million employees,


Unions have won the right
 to hold organizing votes
 at only a
few Wal-Mart locations.

 The only time 
that a union won 
a vote
was in 2000 -- 
10 butchers signed on
 for representation at a
Jacksonville, Texas store.

 Two weeks later,
 Wal-Mart got rid
of all its butcher operations 

Most recently, in February,
 Wal-Marttire and lube shop
employees in Loveland, Colo.,
 and New Castle, Pa.,
 voted
against representation.

At this point,
 the union efforts at Wal-Mart
 are focused on
building community pressure
 rather than getting employees
 to
sign union cards,
lead union
 the United
Food and Commercial Workers union,
 one of the CTW insurgents



"There is no way WE can put a time line
 on when this or that
will happen," 


Wal-Mart says 
 its nationwide average hourly
 pay for
full-time employees 
is $9.68 

 The United Food and
Commercial Workers union
 argues the rate averages 
only $8.23

( estimates 
    SUGGEST 
 the average
hourly wage 
for all 
non-supervisory retail employees
nationwide is AROUND
                 $12.50)
------------------------------------

" FedEx

FedEx is essentially 
a non-union company, 
with
only its pilots 
represented by a union.

Its competitors are mostly unionized
 United Parcel Service
 and old-line trucking companies 
such as Yellow
Corp. 
 both represented 
by the Teamsters union, 

of course
  U.S. Postal Service
       is fully unionized.

The unions have an extra hurdle
 in attempting to organize
FedEx, 
 express carriers operate 
under
different labor law 
than most companies.

Under that law, 
a union must  win a vote
 of all FedEx
employees
 in certain job classification
 such as delivery
driver 
or package sorter
 rather than trying to win a series
of votes at specific facilities


FedEx Express
 its core overnight operation
 has about
139,000 employees
 the overwhelming majority 
in the United
States."

--------------------
" Verizon Wireless

Unions have very good representation
 within the traditional
land-line phone companies
. But they have been 
much slower
making inroads among providers 
of wireless communications.

One success story for the unions 
is Cingular Wireless
the nation's largest wireless
provider.


 Out of 63,300
U.S. employees, 
Cingular has almost 22,000 workers
represented by 
the Communications Workers of America.

Unions have not had 
 much luck at Verizon Wireless
which has nearly 50,000 employees."

------------------------------------

Toyota, Honda or
Nissan

Today, Japanese automakers 
have 25 plants in North America,
employing about 56,000 employees,
 and more are planned.

Korean and European automakers 
also are opening U.S. plants,
and production from all plants 
operated by non-U.S. companies
account for almost as much output
 as General Motors
 and more than either 
Ford Motor Co 
 or
Chrysler Group 

But most of those plants are non-union.

With the Big Three 
looking to shrink capacity 
and trim staff,
it is essential 
for the United Auto Workers 
to make a
breakthrough 
with these so-called 
"transplants" assembly
plants.

So far it has come up empty, 
losing a vote at a Nissan plant
in Smyrna, Tenn. in October 2001."

--------------------------

"Comcast 

Comcast 
 the nation's largest cable operator 
is
primarily non-union. 
But the Communications Workers 
of
America 
is making a concerted effort
 at a number of Comcast
locations around the nation.

The company has about 59,000 employees 
in its cable and
Internet operations.

Comcast says that unions represent
 about 1,500 of those
employees, 
down from 3,600
 when the company completed its
purchase of AT&T Cable in 2002.

While the union has been holding 
organizing elections,
Comcast has been pushing for
 union decertification elections
during the same period."

---------------------------

"IBM

The CWA also has an effort at IBM 
 that got its
start when the computer maker
 announced plans 
to change its
pension plans 
in 1999 from a traditional plan
 that paid a fix
amount per month 
as long as a retiree lived
 to one thatpaid
        a lump sum.

But after IBM made some changes 
to answer criticisms 
of that
shift, 
some of the union efforts 
there calmed down,"