Walmart Workers Threaten to Strike on Black Friday

[Ideologue]

Why have statutory holidays midweek?  In the UK that may be the day but (excepting Christmas) the holiday moves to the nearest Monday or Friday (and Tuesday/Thursday in some cases) so you have a long weekend.

What's the difference? Are you under some sort of bizarre impression that America closes on Friday afternoon?

[Ideologue]

Wrong.  I've worked in plenty of shift work environments that played it all sorts of ways, and they still suck.

You're right in this. It does suck, and it would be great if the economy was strong enough to force companies to treat their employees better via attrition of their best people.

A strong labor market is a temporary solution to a permanent problem.

[garbon]

Why have statutory holidays midweek?  In the UK that may be the day but (excepting Christmas) the holiday moves to the nearest Monday or Friday (and Tuesday/Thursday in some cases) so you have a long weekend.

What's the difference? Are you under some sort of bizarre impression that America closes on Friday afternoon?

Calm down, Chuck. Such would actually work out for the majority of Americans.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/atus.nr0.htm

Many more persons worked on weekdays than on weekend days: 82 percent
     of employed persons worked on an average weekday, compared with 35
     percent on an average weekend day. These estimates include individuals
     who worked on days they were not normally scheduled to work. For example,
     the 35 percent of workers who worked on a weekend day includes those
     whose jobs are typically scheduled on weekends, as well as those who
     usually work on weekdays but spent time working on the weekend.

[Ideologue]

I dunno.  I don't think it would help the service industry types much.  You and I are off on Thanksgiving and Friday, and for my part the whole weekend (whether we want that or not, I don't because I'm having to frontload my week like mad, but your mileage may vary), but some guy at Wal-Mart is just as likely to be scheduled Thanksgiving whether it be a Thursday or Friday, and may be even more likely to be scheduled so (I believe a lot of retail outlets staff their weekends heavier, because of the Monday-Friday people that their business serves).

[garbon]

But that's not what I needed to show to refute your attack on Sheilbh. I simply had to point out that the majority of people don't work on the average weekend.

[Ideologue]

But that's not what I needed to show to refute your attack on Sheilbh. I simply had to point out that the majority of people don't work on the average weekend.

I guess it's not your job to worry about 35% of Americans.  Well, at least you're getting better.

[garbon]

It's not my job to worry about any of them unless they make a product complaint. Then I have to fill out some paperwork.

[Count]

when I worked in a call center taking incoming calls for hospitals -a job anyone who can speak english and type can do, with a turnover rate suggesting that a majority of the world has worked there at some point- we got time and a half if we worked on a holiday. The call center had much less volume on holidays, though, as opposed to retail. I'm generally against blue laws but I'm going with the thread consensus in favor of one here.

[Syt]

USA! USA! USA!

[Richard Hakluyt]

Amazon UK has been getting into the Black Friday nonsense 

I got an email today about their special black friday deals for wednesday 

Fucking idiots.

[dps]

I'm generally against blue laws but I'm going with the thread consensus in favor of one here.

It's not like it would really hurt sales if there were laws that said that retail stores had to be closed on Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc., and not open back up till, say, 6AM the next morning.  People would just wait and make the same purchases that next day.  Oh, you'd lose the occasional sale to the person who forgot to buy the whipped topping for their Thanksgiving pies beforehand, or to the person who forgot to buy the charcoal for their Labor Day cookout, but those wouldn't add up to much.

[Martinus]

Which is why I am continually amazed when I hear about stuff like this.

Don't know why, there's absolutely nothing in the United States Constitution guaranteeing holiday pay.

Which is why you need to pass law to guarantee that, I think, is the point here.

If something was constitutionally guaranteed, then no such law would have been needed.

[merithyn]

Which is why I am continually amazed when I hear about stuff like this.

Don't know why, there's absolutely nothing in the United States Constitution guaranteeing holiday pay.

Which is why you need to pass law to guarantee that, I think, is the point here.

If something was constitutionally guaranteed, then no such law would have been needed.

He doesn't really feel that way. 

[DontSayBanana]

It's not like it would really hurt sales if there were laws that said that retail stores had to be closed on Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, 4th of July, etc., and not open back up till, say, 6AM the next morning.  People would just wait and make the same purchases that next day.  Oh, you'd lose the occasional sale to the person who forgot to buy the whipped topping for their Thanksgiving pies beforehand, or to the person who forgot to buy the charcoal for their Labor Day cookout, but those wouldn't add up to much.

Nope.  And actually, if you put the doorbusters on Thursday, you're going to find Black Friday doesn't count for as much, accounting-wise.  It kinda defeats the purpose.

The heaviest purchasers are going to be the ones waiting for the doorbusters- the first two hours are what's going to make most of your sales for the day (at least in retail).  Say my store has a planned goal of $6,000 in sales.  If we were to move the doorbusters to 8PM on Thursday, they'd have to be accounted for as Thursday's sales, so Friday's sales could easily drop to $3-4 thousand.

[Martinus]

We have a somewhat middle-of-the-ground legislation in Poland when it comes to working on state holidays (which are about 10-15 in a year):

- emergency and "needed" public utility (e.g. hospitals and oil stations but not libraries) employees may be required to work,
- restaurant and cinema employees may be required to work,
- all other businesses may be open, however only the owner/the owner's family may work.

Funnily enough the legislation was not pushed through the parliament by social democrats, but by the religious right.

Sundays, on the other hand, are free for all, provided employees are given another day off during a week. This means 90% of retail and service industry (more in big cities, less in small towns etc.) is open on Sundays.