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Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

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Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#141

Post by brendonjohn »

moron4hire wrote: post #126
bunderbunder wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires." - Steinbeck

Ronald Wright, not Steinbeck.

Do you know what the connection between the two writers is? Seems to me that the quote is neither here nor there, but I haven't found anything solid to confirm who said what.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Steinbeck#Disputed

> "John Steinbeck once said that socialism never took root in America because the poor see themselves not as an exploited proletariat but as temporarily embarrassed millionaires", Wright, Ronald (2004). A Short History of Progress. Toronto: Anansi Press. pp. 124.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#142

Post by ethanhunt_ »

mannykannot wrote: post #100
Animats wrote: post #11

It's an illegal labor practice in the US for an employer to do that. It's interference with the right to bargain collectively. But WalMart probably doesn't have much to fear from the Labor Department. Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. It's really tough to organize a union today, even though the law as written is pro-union.

> Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the u…

> One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the unions and labor law, especially at the state level.

They failed because the majority of people are hard workers who loathe being yoked to a lazy or incompetent person, and unions have proven to be exceptionally good at maintaining employment of people who are terrible at their jobs.

Some people are absolutely baffled by the software industry not having unions. It's because people getting hired and fired within 12 months at my job is what ensures that I only work with the best.

Unions suffer from what most of the progressive movement does: everything bad that happens to them is the fault of the big, bad republicans and capitalists. If they'd bother to introspect for even a second, maybe they could fix their shortcomings and start to do some good.

The environmentalist initiative that went on the ballot in Seattle this month was lead by a guy who is working within the Republican party for climate reform because he's said it's not possible to work with the left anymore because of their dysfunction. The left's response to this? Tried to torpedo his climate bill. The head of the left is so far up its own ass that I think it's getting close to terminal. Progressivism in America will have to die and be reborn as a functioning body for political change.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#143

Post by hkmurakami »

mannykannot wrote: post #100
Animats wrote: post #11

It's an illegal labor practice in the US for an employer to do that. It's interference with the right to bargain collectively. But WalMart probably doesn't have much to fear from the Labor Department. Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. It's really tough to organize a union today, even though the law as written is pro-union.

> Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the u…

>One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the unions and labor law, especially at the state level.

Honestly, neither of the two major parties have looked out for their interests in decades.

Hence the revolt against both the major parties this year.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#144

Post by mirimir »

randomdata wrote: post #64
darpa_escapee wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the same company that shows employees videos that are equivalent to "Unions = bad, yuck, gross, not even once" during training. They have every incentive to prevent unionization. If workers have room to negotiate, that means they could negotiate for fair compensation. Reminder that our country's labor history is rife with straight up mass murder of workers because they demanded fair pay, safe working conditio…

> they could negotiate for fair compensation. What, exactly, is unfair about the current compensation? Walmart pays exactly what they and the employee agreed to at the onset of the employment agreement. Those who couldn't reach an agreement have do not provide work for Walmart at all. I really don't know how you can get any more fair than that? Everyone equally has the ability to decide what works for them and are fr…

You make a good argument. But "fairness" is a loaded term. There would be no need for unions if no employer had more than a few employees. In that case, employers and employees would have similar market power. But when employers have numerous employees, there is an imbalance in market power. Through collective bargaining, unions restore employees' market power.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#145

Post by eropple »

chrissnell wrote: post #52
adamnemecek wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> re: pro-worker laws against multi-national importers of Chinese made stuff. The pro-worker stuff was just to attract that demographic, I'm pretty sure.

I think that people should give the Trump administration a chance. The GOP knows that blue collar whites were the force behind his election. He's going to have to deliver for these laborers if he wants to have a chance in 2020.

Trump's chances:

- appointed as Vice President a guy who wants to electrocute gay kids to turn them straight

- appointed as his senior strategist a literal-not-figurative white supremacist and anti-Semite who thinks Darth Vader is a role model (ain't making that up, either)

- nominating as Attorney General a guy so profoundly tied to his white hoods that he couldn't get confirmed as a justice

- claiming that he'll extend libel laws because his feelings are hurt

That's four--and if you want to throw in the whole "bragging about sexual assault" thing, five through about thirty or so!--more than he'd deserved. Why should he continue to be spotted more?

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#146

Post by mannykannot »

ethanhunt_ wrote: post #142
mannykannot wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the u…

> One of the more interesting features of the American political environment, over at least the last three and a half decades, is the extent to which the demographic that is (or was) nominally represented by unions has voted for politicians who have made no bones about their intent to weaken the unions and labor law, especially at the state level. They failed because the majority of people are hard workers who loathe…

You appear to be a model employee.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#147

Post by wdr1 »

tomcam wrote: post #95
Animats wrote: post #11

It's an illegal labor practice in the US for an employer to do that. It's interference with the right to bargain collectively. But WalMart probably doesn't have much to fear from the Labor Department. Even under the current administration, enforcement is weak, and it will probably be weaker under the next administration. It's really tough to organize a union today, even though the law as written is pro-union.

Is Wal-Mart actually doing anything illegal? They are not preventing their employees from downloading anything. They are simply telling the employees that the app collects personal information and that it may be used in nefarious ways. I see no evidence at all that Walmart is stopping the employees from any kind of download of the app.

Agreed. The headline is misleading & I'm sure OP read the article.

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#148

Post by asddddd »

GFK_of_xmaspast wrote: post #39
jimmywanger wrote: post #3

Just to play devil's advocate here, this is from the article: > The app, called WorkIt, invites users to register by providing a name, email, telephone number and ZIP Code. Users can also s hare (sic) their job title and Wal-Mart store number.... That is a bunch of personally identifying information. You can easily steal somebody's identity with those bits of information, or at least have a good idea of who they are.…

Name + telephone number + address is exactly the kind of information that you used to be able to get out of a phone book and can probably still buy from the DMV.

Voter records are another good source for names + addresses (and phone/email depending on jurisdiction).

Re: Wal-Mart Tells Workers: Don’t Download Labor Group’s Chat App

#149

Post by byuu »

jimmywanger wrote: post #42
btown wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Locked down racks" is complete FUD. It's not like there's HIPAA or PCI compliance issues here. Incompetently managed bare metal servers are just as hackable, perhaps more so, than incompetently used cloud IaaS. Workers should be careful, but storage has absolutely nothing to do with this.

> "Locked down racks" is complete FUD. That was my point. I'd much rather have them Amazon boys or Google boys take care of my data than my own sysadmin team - the Amazon/Google sysadmins are sharp, they apply all patches, and they have procedures in place to make sure they don't do anything incredibly stupid. The fact they don't mention how they store any of this information that could have potential career altering…

> the Amazon/Google sysadmins are sharp, they apply all patches, and they have procedures in place to make sure they don't do anything incredibly stupid.

I shared that viewpoint when I was hosting my forum on InMotion Hosting. Until they first applied an update that resulted in Apache returning all PHP files as plaintext files, revealing my SQL login credentials from the phpBB config file (thankfully I had remote DB login disabled.) And then a few weeks later, badly corrupting my entire SQL database and not being able to restore it after.

I doubt Amazon/Google could be as incompetent as InMotion was, but all the same, don't trust that just because it's a company that specializes in something that you're safe from abject stupidity.

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