from the NY TImes
Wal-Mart has successfully resisted unionization of its employees. New York State’s largest grocery union, Local 1500 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, called the death of Mr. Damour “avoidable†and demanded investigations.
“Where were the safety barriers?†said Bruce Both, the union president. “Where was security? How did store management not see dangerous numbers of customers barreling down on the store in such an unsafe manner? This is not just tragic; it rises to a level of blatant irresponsibility by Wal-Mart.â€
These quotes bring up an interesting point. Since Wal Mart is one of the most notrious and infamous anti-union corporations in the world, just who is in the corporation that lobbies for the safety interests of its workers? When the local police were called to the store at between 3 and 3:30 am and had to use a bullhorn for crowd control, why was the management of the store not concerned that a potential powderkeg was in danger of erupting?
Who spoke for the Wal Mart employees assigned to be at the front of those doors and allowed them to be in the line of the stampede?
A union can and does lobby for the legitimate safety interests of its members. I remember an incident at the high school I taught at some years ago where we had a bomb threat which emptied the entire school of 1,500 students and all its staff. The principal informed me that the staff would be asked to return back into the building and we were going to help search to make sure the place was safe. As the schools duly elected Union Representative I made a quick call downtown to the union headquarters and they said in no uncertain terms that we should not honor that order. I told the principal and we waited outside for a couple of more hours while two policemen with a dog did the job in special protective outfits.
I have no idea if a union would have helped this situation in Long Island or not. But it sure would be nice to have somebody advocating for the workers safety as such a dangerous situation was allowed to build and fester and eventually take an innocent mans life.