Just Cause just published an interesting read authored by a gentleman named Alec Monnie, who writes:

I worked in a Walmart Deli for three years. It made me understand why Labor Unions in America are more popular now than they’ve been in generations. I’d heard horror stories about what it’d be like to work at Walmart. The customers would be rude. The treatment from higher-ups would be bad. The day-to-day would grind you down. I tried to wave away these warnings. I’d already worked some not-so-glamorous jobs, from sweeping floors as a Janitor to manning a foot-long hot dog shack (the hot dogs were a foot long - not the shack). Surely Walmart wouldn’t be so awful. I was wrong. And frankly, I was unprepared for how soul-crushing it would be. Though it was just a Deli inside a Walmart and not some big-shouldered Butcher Shop, the job was more physically demanding than you’d expect. Slicing meat and serving customers was only part of the role. Other frequent tasks: spending hours in a subzero freezer unloading clumsily stacked pallets of 50-pound boxes of food; leaning into 400-degree ovens to cook rotisserie chickens that sprayed scalding grease onto your arms; and emptying discarded scraps of meat into an enormous garbage can that smelled of death. Those trimmings, incidentally, were eventually turned into either dog food or makeup, depending on who you asked. The list of “job duties” went on. Sadly, the compensation was just as painful as the labor. I started in 2018, when Walmart generated $512 billion in revenue. I made $11.90 an hour or about $25,000 a year. As for benefits, I was unaware of any. I think once during my orientation, right after I was lectured on why I should never join a Union, I heard that Walmart sponsored a Health Insurance Plan, but management had a cute way of scheduling people just short of the hours they’d need to qualify for coverage. And retirement benefits? Non-existent. Let alone any protection from being an At-Will Employee.

Monnie finishes his piece as such: As employers rake in higher profits than any time in American History - while still offering Workers scraps - it’s no mystery why Unions are more popular now than they’ve been in decades. History shows that when greed goes unchecked, Workers band together. As companies like Republic Services, Amazon and Walmart prioritize that bottom line over the health and prosperity of Working People, there’s likely no end in sight to our Nation’s resurgent support of a labor force that’s fighting back, demanding respect and getting organized.

To Read This Piece In Its Entirety, Go To: Working at a Walmart Deli Showed Me Why America Loves Unions Again