CostCo, Starbucks And Whole Foods Offer Fake EFCA Compromise

The fight over the Employee Free Choice Act has been a tough one, with pro-union forces looking for more freedom to start unions and corporations wanting to stifle worker collectivity. For decades corporations have largely been winning, evidenced by a long-term decline in union membership. With a majority of people supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, some companies are trying to pull a fast one on union supporters by offering a fake compromise.

From ThinkProgress:

The Wall Street Journal reports today that Costco Wholesale Corp., Starbucks Corp. and Whole Foods Market Inc. are seeking to compromise with union groups to support a modified version of the Employee Free Choice Act. The compromise would allow a union to be formed if 70 percent — instead of the current bill’s 50 percent proposal — sign a card favoring unionization. However, the anti-union lobby refuses to back the deal:

“These huge companies are apparently willing to sell out hundreds of thousands of small ones under the guise of making some phony and misguided compromise with Big Labor,” Mix said in a statement. “We believe we have this draconian bill defeated outright, so these actions may well lead to the bill’s passage.”

The Workforce Fairness Institute’s (WFI) Danny Diaz slammed the proposal in his morning e-mail, Politico reports, calling it a “non-starter” and “even worse” for workers. WFI’s executive director Katie Packer said, “Calling a proposal which exposes 70% of employees to intimidation instead of 50% a ‘compromise’ is beyond absurd.”

Basically this is a last-ditch effort by corporate America, who are using the names of somewhat progressive companies to tout a "compromise" that is anything but. I wonder what group of PR flacks hatched this convoluted plan? Trying to trick us is simply a waste of everyone's time. Now imagine if all the money that goes into subverting the working class from getting better represenation at the companies they work for were used for helping employees. Now that would be a novel idea.

Costco CEO On The Minimum Wage Debate

One of my favorite CEO's and Democratic contributor, Jim Sinegal founded Costco and continues to run a progressively minded company. With the recent passage of the minimum wage increase in Congress, many people in the corporate world have come out against it, spreading the illogical fear that it will hurt the economy despite reports that show it helps.

He recently sat down with the Washington Post to discuss the issue:

Jim Sinegal, a maverick entrepreneur who founded Costco in 1983 and has resisted Wall Street pressure to cut wages and benefits for his 130,000 employees, said he signed onto the effort because he thinks a higher minimum wage would be good for the nation's economy as well as its workers.

"The more people make, the better lives they're going to have and the better consumers they're going to be," Sinegal said in an interview. "It's going to provide better jobs and better wages."

It really is that simple, the more you pay people the more they will spend. That applies to people who make the minimum wage even more because it is them who have trouble buying essential goods and services that they need so desperately.

Big business as a whole will continually try to say that employers are forced to cut jobs due to rising minimum wages. The truth of the matter is that employers can cut jobs whenever they damned well feel like it. This is just another excuse to keep profits and salaries high at the top, and low at the bottom.