People Want to Work at Wal-Mart

Who would want to work at Wal-Mart? That’s the question at the bottom of the
left-wing campaign to unionize the world’s biggest retailer. Critics make a big
deal out of the fact that Wal-Mart doesn’t offer good benefits to its employees, and therefore
they need a union to get the benefits they deserve.

Here are some facts about Wal-Mart for you, courtesy of the London
Economist.

Wal-Mart retorts that it offers “good, affordable coverage” of benefits
to staff willing to pay $70.50 per fortnight per family. Anyway, with Wal-Mart’ tax
bill of about $5 billion a year, American taxpayers come out well ahead. Whatever
shortcomings Wal-Mart may have as an employer, it can hardly be accused of paying
less than the market rate, at least in America. Last week it said that over 11,000 people
had applied for 400 jobs at a new store in Oakland, California.

Oh really. So 11,000 people signed up for 400 jobs at Wal-Mart in Oakland. So just what is it
about Wal-Mart that makes it such a pariah in the eyes of the union movement and so
desirable in the eyes of eager job-seekers in Oakland?

Of course in New York City they’ve changed the law to make the city unwelcome as
a business location for Wal-Mart. So the chances
are that we will never know how many people in Gotham would like to work for Wal-Mart. But
we do know how many would like to work for Wal-Mart in Oakland, California. 11,000. That’s
quite a lot.