Depends on how loose your definition of "help" is...
Target doesn't get a "pass," either- at least not from me.
And let's also not forget that the Target workers weren't looking for "easy" jobs (whatever the f**k those are). The initial reason they decided to organize is because they wanted *more* hours. They were tired of getting 10-20 hours a week, and instead of seeing their hours increase, they watched as Target continued to hire more and more people at the same low hours.
...Which of course sounds very similar to a large Atlanta, Ga. based airline...
Buy local.
If they take home a paycheck in any shape or form, they are getting help. I believe Target and Wal-Mart provides some level of employee discount which means their employees do obtain some tangible help w/ living.
No job will ever pay as much as we think it should, but there are plenty of people willing to work for the wages that mass retailers and fast food pay. Same as with that certain airline that also offers travel benefits which a whole lot of people think is one step short of winning the lottery. Let’s see…. 5% off of groceries or the opportunity to take a couple trips thru Europe or Asia (even if you realize later you can’t afford it and don’t really have the time to do it….)
If the economy didn’t have double digit unemployment levels under multiple administrations, it would be a whole lot easier to justify pay raises and an increase in the minimum wage.
You can shop at local stores if you want, but practically all large merchants use large numbers of minimum wage workers. It is practically impossible to buy everything a typical American household NEEDS, let alone wants, w/o using super-sized retailers. If you can figure out how to avoid it, post a log of your shopping activity and let us know how it is done.
An “easy” job – whatever you want to call it – would be one where you were hired w/ the expectation of lifelong employment, continuous raises, a largely if not entirely company funded benefits package, and no threat of layoffs or moves.
There might have been a relatively few jobs where that existed at one time, but that isn’t the case any more in practically any modern economy. Continuing to hold out hope that will exist is a guaranteed recipe for being defeated….
Target will spend all kinds of money fighting it's own workers, and use union people to do so. Ironic.
OTOH, AFTRA is also home to such "friends of labor" as Limbaugh, Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly, so maybe it's the wrong question to be asking...
As much as you and others don’t want to admit it, no company is going to welcome unionization and is going to do everything in its power to reduce the influence of labor and the more competitive the industry, the more the focus will be on limiting labor’s influence.
The reason why the airline industry has been the focus of business’ efforts to is because it is THE remaining industry that is so heavily unionized while at the same time is also so heavily unionized. Government and utilities have equal or higher levels of unionization but both have structural protections, even if some of those are falling.
You can make the discussion political if you want, but the decision is economic…. Business drives the economy, not government. Businesses will protect their ability to make money and do not like the risk that labor unions present to their ability to adapt to very fast-changing and very uncertain economic realities of the world we live in.
Labor might not want to hear it but part of the reason why the cuts at AA are so deep is because AA and its creditors don’t want to run the risk they will have to go down the road of fighting for labor cost cuts again…. We’ve seen the same thing over and over in the airline industry after prolonged attempts by the company (right or wrong) to reduce employee costs.
