Union vs. Wal-Mart: A scuffle during a protest

In the ongoing war between Wal-Mart and the Unions, things are heating up:

Deputies arrest two in Wal-Mart protest

The head of a South Florida labor-rights group was arrested on assault charges Thursday after about 20 protesters clashed with a Wal-Mart manager outside the retail giant's store in North Lauderdale.

Alyce E. Gowdy (pictured left), 30, who runs South Florida Jobs with Justice, and Jean A. Janvier (pictured right), 41, were arrested during a protest against Wal-Mart's labor practices. Some of the demonstrators were dressed as Santa and his elves.

Someone called 911 after one of the protesters pushed the store manager, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office. Deputies arrived at 3:24 p.m. at the store at 7300 W. McNab Rd. and took Gowdy and Janvier into custody.

Now the interesting thing about this incident isn't the scuffle. It's the diversity of the two sides' stories shilled to the press. Here's WakeUpWalMart's story:

Contrary to the myths put out by Bob McAdam, a former Tobacco spokesman, what actually occurred, based on over 10 witnesses in and out of the store, was that four of our supporters, one of whom was a 13 year-old child dressed in an elf costume, entered the Wal-Mart to make the manager aware of Wal-Mart's terrible health care record.

Note that they went inside the store - a union protesting no-no.

According to all who entered the Wal-Mart store, at no time did a single customer react negatively to our group, nor did any child cry. Wal-Mart statements to the contrary are false and manufactured lies. At all times, our supporters were respectful and polite to all. In fact, the truth is that many customers were shocked to learn about Wal-Mart's poor health care record.

"According to all who entered the Wal-Mart store..." it appears that they're referring only to the four protesters. Why no independant witnesses? And the reference to customers being "shocked". When you enter a business and start discouraging customers, you're inhibiting the operation of that business. A no-no for anyone. And I would have to say that "shocked" is indeed a negative reaction.

The manager then said he did not care about our health care concerns and asked the group to leave. The group said to the manager they would leave immediately - and did.

As the four supporters exited the Wal-Mart, the manager and his security personnel became hostile to the outside group and then pushed two of our supporters. In fact, contrary to misstatements by Wal-Mart's Bob McAdam, our supporters were peaceful and respectful inside and outside the store. In contrast, the Wal-Mart manager and security personnel not only unfairly targeted two of the group, but the manager became hostile, aggressive, and Wal-Mart personnel actually were the ones to push and shove the two African-American supporters.

Again, all who witnessed the event, including a Reverend and professor, state the event and actions by our supporters were peaceful - both inside and outside the store.

"including a Reverend and professor" - The Reverend is Reverend Dr. Lucy Hitchcock Seck of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Miami (pictured left). Here's a sample of her work:

"The whole Iraq mess is scary not only because we, the people, the Congress, the United Nations, the Brits, were duped into going to war unnecessarily, but because our elected officials will still not become transparent, but issue statements that are crazy-making. We live in a Halloween house of spooks and mirrors. What wraith will jump out at us next? And each wraith is re-imaged, and distorted and impossible to catch as it bounces from one teller or observer to the next. In the Nike case before the courts, it is being determined if false advertising can be legitimated as free speech. That is, which is the higher value before the law honesty or the free speech that allows false advertising? On NPR this week, I heard some earnest government spokeswoman's cover-up of our President's subterfuge regarding what he knew before going to war and wondered if she knew the truth herself or if she had just bought so much party line, had been fed so much propaganda, that the truth was lost forever."

Sounds more like BDS than religion. Here's another sample:

"I am thankful for Kurt Vonnegut whose real religious practice, as I see it, is to speak out against injustice and foma or lies. He helps us to overcome despair with a cat's cradle, “a pulling of the strings of our life back together” again and again. Perhaps there is “no damned cat, no damned cradle,” no God, no Heaven, but he reminds us there are “Houses of Hope and Mercy in the Jungle.” There are Albert Schweitzers. "

Somehow I don't picture her flock muttering "amen" and "praise the Lord" or even something in Latin or Arabic very much.

Anyway, her statement starts with "A group of us were taking part in WakeUpWalMart.com's 'All I Want for Christmas is Health Care for Mommy' campaign." Anyway, she's a player, and definitely has a dog in the fight. Not the first choice for a credible witness. Even the religious credentials are somewhat shaky - the Unitarian Universalist Association looks more like a magnet for left-wing political activism than a religion.

How about the professor? That would be Bruce Nissen (pictured left), whose statement starts with "We were peacefully handing out literature to customers." Oops. Another player. And the credentials don't help here, either. And a side note for anyone putting together professor bios on college web sites - Avoid using the word "scholarly" repeatedly, as in "He has published seven scholarly books", and "Dr. Nissen is also the author of 20 scholarly articles in books and in journals". It's redundant, and gives the appearance that you're trying to convince someone - and will likely have the opposite effect.

So if the witnesses are not credible, what do they have left? Well, there's the language of the "witness" statements. Each has two common themes - the first is best done by showing examples:

That they can't separate their political message from their statements about the alleged assault speaks volumes. Also, doesn't this kind of sound a little like Eddie Haskell from Leave It To Beaver and other characters from the 50's and 60s, answering charges of wrong-doing by starting out, "well, I was on my way to help out the sick and elderly when suddenly..."

The second theme is more odious. Here's a few quotes:

"target two African-Americans for arrest"

"unfairly targeted two African Americans"

"they targeted two African Americans"

And here's a sentence from Lucy Hitchcock Seck to tie it all together:

I can only hope Wal-Mart will acknowledge its profound mistake and explain why two citizens were apparently racially profiled by Wal-Mart.

I think the direction taken here is obvious. And to cap it off, the press release includes an ad hominem attack on a Wal-Mart employee:

"Contrary to the myths put out by Bob McAdam, a former Tobacco spokesman..."

"...instead of thinking about new ways to use a former Tobacco spokesman who only specializes in misleading the American people."

Okay - in one corner, we have the union bunch from United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (that's the WakeUpWalMart bunch above). In the other corner, we have Wal-Mart, with a statement on their web site:

“Unfortunately, this union leader campaign stunt went too far,” said Bob McAdam, vice president for corporate communications at Wal-Mart (pictured right). “Union demonstrators dressed as Santa and his elves entered a Wal-Mart and began presenting some of the children in the store with wrapped boxes. The children became excited and started saying things like, ‘Let me have the big one.’ But when the children opened the boxes, they found that the boxes were empty. Needless to say, the children were upset and some began crying.

“When asked to leave, the demonstrators became argumentative. They claimed that they had permission from the Wal-Mart home office to demonstrate, but, in fact, they did not. Soon the demonstrators began pushing and shoving Wal-Mart associates. The Broward County Sheriff’s office was alerted and deputies arrested two demonstrators for battery and gave fifteen other demonstrators trespassing warnings."

You probably think I'm gonna go easy on Bob, but I'm not. First, bringing the "children crying" meme adds nothing to the overall story, and is included just to elicit emotion.

"Pushing and shoving Wal-Mart associates" is somewhat of a stretch compared to the news account ("Someone called 911 after one of the protesters pushed the store manager").

And this last paragraph is noteworthy enough to quote in its entirety:

“The Washington, D.C.-union leader campaign is failing. With sales up 4.3% last month and 10 million people visiting our stores in just the first six hours of Black Friday, the union leadership is resorting to desperate and divisive attacks. The American people are becoming increasingly incensed by the nature of this campaign and are still wondering why the union leadership is obsessed with attacking a company that creates jobs and provides affordable health insurance to working families.”

If Bob really wants the protesters to go away, taunting them isn't going to help. And in a statement about an alleged assault, it's definitely out of place.

It's curious that Wal-Mart, famous for the number of video cameras in and around their stores, hasn't released any security video of the incident. Or perhaps the police took the tapes for evidence. Still, if I were that manager, I would be pressing to get the tape on the six o'clock news. Wouldn't you?

So who's telling the truth here? I think, even with the posturing by Mr. McAdam, Wal-Mart probably has the upper hand for believability. One would have to presume that the Broward County Sherriff's Deputies would ask a few uninterested bystanders what happened, and probably review any relevant security tapes.

In the end, we may never find out the truth. My prediction is that Wal-Mart will drop the charges to spare itself the accompanying publicity. But as the union's war against Wal-Mart gets increasingly emotional, I expect this won't be the last incident.

By the way, if you want more analysis of the politics of the union vs. Wal-Mart soap opera, Starling Hunter at The Business of America is Business has a number of very good posts. Try here, here, and here for a start, but check out the rest of his blog as well - some good stuff there.

Update 12/19/05 7:19 PM: Commenter Amy asks: "Did they, or did they not, hand out empty presents to children?" Well, you ask, we deliver. According to the Ft Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel:

Kali Zervos, membership director of South Florida Jobs with Justice and a Thursday afternoon protester, said four people went into the store and handed out the gift-wrapped boxes: Santa, an elf and two activists. The boxes were given to employees and the manager, not children, she said.

As I said before, why no uninterested witnesses? The two stories are sooo far apart.... And again, I still have to award higher believability to Wal-Mart overall. If these union stooges gave empty presents to my kids, I'd have a lawyer already.