ASTROTURF: PAID ACTIVISTS HARASS SHOPPERS

Black Friday is here and you know what that means: minions of Big Labor, left-wing activist groups and yes, maybe even a handful of actual Walmart employees, will be out picketing the nation's largest retailer in various locales across the country.  Big Labor propagandists and left-wing activists are trying to convince people that this is the year when their predictions of "widespread, massive strikes and protests for Black Friday" will actually come true.  This, in turn, will signify a heroic new era of workers uniting against the evil empire of capitalism…or something.

In reality, these "strikes" are not the culmination of an organic movement of oppressed and unhappy employees. Instead, they are nothing more than the kind of Potemkin village protests - comprised of few or no actual Walmart employees - that are organized by Big Labor to smear the nation’s biggest retailer.  It's the usual shakedown.

But you won't see those national labor unions on the front lines. Instead you'll see an organization called OUR Walmart, which represents the unions’ latest gimmick: "worker center" front groups (the lefties prefer the term "alt-labor").

Worker centers look like unions, throw money around like unions and protest like unions. But since they don't actually negotiate with company management on behalf of workers, these  so-called "worker centers" aren't required to register as unions under federal labor laws. They are typically registered as nonprofit organizations - the same designation as churches, charities and schools.

This allows them to avoid many of the reporting requirements of labor unions, as well as the necessity of holding democratic leadership elections.  There's nothing left-wingers abhor more than public accountability and honest elections.  Thus the rise of astroturf outfits like OUR Walmart.
 
The loophole in labor laws that OUR Walmart and other worker centers are exploiting is central to their existence. Without it, after 30 days, they would be forced to do one of two things: either call for an election - an election they'd undoubtedly lose - or call off their protests.

Even MSNBC recognizes that the so-called "strikes" are more left-wing agitation than legitimate labor action.  In an article on MSNBC.com, Ned Resnikoff acknowledged that OUR Walmart hasn't predicted large scale employee turnout. Instead, they're suggesting that the agitators will be just more liberal activists:

But a protest - which doesn't even necessarily include current Walmart employees - isn't the same thing as a strike. Indeed, the organization has been downplaying the number of strikers, and instead emphasizing the support it enjoys from organizations like Color of Change and MoveOn.org.

Depending on which union leader you talk to, OUR Walmart is either a subsidiary of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, or a recently spun-off independent organization that's merely funded by the union. The UFCW has devoted substantial resources to this week's street theater by printing and distributing protest materials including posters, handbills, etc., and is even providing social media operational support through paid consultants. 

What they can't provide is an authentic employee protest.

OUR Walmart's 2012 Black Friday protest featured thousands of demonstrators, but less than 50 actual associates, according to the company. Labor watchdogs expect more of the same this year, especially because the worker center keeps focusing on the number of protests, rather than the number of employee dissidents.

"They're not the type of grassroots worker-driven efforts that media portrays them to be," Ryan Williams of Worker Center Watch said. "They're protests held by professional protesters - oftentimes paid and given training - to cause a scene for publicity."

J. Justin Wilson, managing director of the Center for Union Facts, said that UFCW members, political allies, and paid protestors dominate such rallies, in order to give off the appearance of strength.

"OUR Walmart has nowhere near the support they need to unionize Walmart; if they did, they would do it," he said.

There are some indications that even the non-employee activists are unreliable:

Wilson's organization sent observers to labor union meetings designed to plan and promote the Black Friday walkouts in Chicago, Pittsburgh and Raleigh. Although touted by union leaders as crucial to the strike’s success, according to Wilson nearly no one attended the events.

Only two union activists - not Wal-Mart employees - showed up to the Chicago meeting on Nov. 12. Just four managed to make it to Pittsburgh's strike planning committee this Wednesday. And an expected meeting in Raleigh earlier this month was canceled, apparently due to a complete lack of interest.

"At the Chicago one, instead of having a meeting talking about the strike they had people making phone calls, trying to get people to turn out for the strikes," Wilson claimed. "And even after making a fair number of calls, no one actually even wanted to come."

Strikes against Wal-Mart were similarly exaggerated in the run-up to Black Friday in 2012.

However many activists show up for the latest protests, there is no doubt that this activity is intended to do nothing but make life difficult for Walmart by fabricating a public relations disaster.  It's the threat that always accompanies an extortion racket.