Black Friday Indeed - Walmart Worker Dies in Shopper Stampede

Hey, don't knock consumption. According to all financial experts, it's our only hope.

Question is, will Wal-mart admit any wrong doing in this case?

MUST...GET....TO BARGAINS!!!

Pathetic.

So here's what people killed over:

Items on sale at the Wal-Mart store included a $798 Samsung 50-inch Plasma HDTV, a Bissel Compact Upright Vacuum for $28, a Samsung 10.2 megapixel digital camera for $69 and DVDs such as "The Incredible Hulk" for $9.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Shop-Til-You-Drop----Literally-Chaos-at-the-Mall-.html

There's also been a shooting at a toy store.

Palm Desert Councillor Jim Ferguson said police told him two men with handguns shot and killed each other. Ferguson said he asked police whether the incident was a dispute over a toy or whether it was gang-related. He said police told him they were not going to release further details until the victims' relatives were notified.

"I think the obvious question everyone has is who takes loaded weapons into a Toys "R" Us?" he said. "I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper."

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/545601

WTF kind of remark is this? (other than boneheaded and insensitive, that is)

"I doubt it was the casual holiday shopper"

No, it was probably one of those serious holiday shoppers, eh?

That goes double for war toys!

Sadly, this isn't surprising to me.  Every year for the past three at least, I have seen news footage of someone getting trampled by crazed shoppers on Black Friday (usually, if not always, at Walmart).  This is the first time I have ever heard of someone dying but it was only a matter of time. 

2007: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeSgBL7gpAk

 2006:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyh3egPw7uY

 PS - the Youtube comments are disgusting. 

Is there a way to link to the video but not the comments?

The deceased worker was not actually an employee of Wal-Mart. He had it much worse even than that; the job he was doing, Wal-Mart did not want its own employees to do. This dead worker was a temp.

Jdimytai Damour was an "independent contractor", employed by a temp agency, Labor Ready, which provided staff to a security company, Securitas Security Services USA Inc, which held the security and patrol contract tendered by the mall owner or administrator, Vornado Realty Trust, where the Wal-Mart is located. According to the statement of claim, Jdimytai had been employed for one week and received no security training whatsoever before being deployed on this job, in which rabid shoppers ripped the door off the hinges to access the heavily-promoted loss leader bargains. (ETA: If the property ownership structure is anything like the set-up here in Guelph, which I understand is fairly typical, the corporation that owns and runs the mall is actually part of Wal-Mart's real estate division -- another reason why it's so unfair for these agency workers to be deprived of the rights of regular employment.)

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6a7xh7

Temp workers in the US have the same fundamental vulnerabilities as do ours here.

Quote:

these workers are financially insecure. This is true whether they perform "white collar" work in offices or "blue collar" work in factories. Because of their need for money, they take just about any job at almost any pay, willingly do unpleasant work, work very hard, and don't complain or argue. And, as an added bonus, they disappear when the job is done.

Why are temps in such need for money? One reason for the economic insecurity is the low rate of pay these workers receive. The agencies that send out workers on temporary assignments keep from 40 to 50 percent of the money the contracting company pays for the worker's services. That doesn't leave much money for the worker. Another reason for financial insecurity is that the worker doesn't know when the current job will end. Some people, in some fields, can contract to work for a specified period of time. These people have a good estimate about the length of their jobs, barring unforeseen events. Should some change of circumstance occur, however, these people are naturally the first to be kicked out the door. They are disposable and they know it.

Other people, both blue-collar and white-collar workers, are sent to a company to work as long as they are both needed and wanted. If the company they are serving needs the labor but doesn't like the laborer, that worker will be sent away and another person will be inserted. If the labor is not needed, no amount of respect or affection will keep the temp employed. Sometimes they get advance warning that the assignment is coming to an end, and sometimes they do not. They never know if they will be earning money tomorrow.

Blue-Collar Temps

Perhaps the group of people with the most insecurity are those that work as day laborers in blue-collar positions. They report to the offices of the employing agent early in the morning, and they stand there with hat in hand and hope that on this day enough factories need enough fill-in people to give them a day's work and a day's wages. Sometimes these assignments last two or three days, but the usual length of work is one day.

These day laborers, when they do manage to get a day's work, usually get paid close to minimum wage. In exchange for this meager amount of money, they are assigned to the worst jobs in the shop, they are often physically separated from the rest of the work crew, management personnel frequently "forget" to relieve them for breaks, and they sometimes serve as scapegoats to be blamed for anything that goes wrong.

http://www.socialistlaborparty.org/res_state_htm/here_today.html

Europe has recently gone some ways towards outlawing this barbaric employment practice: 

Quote:

On 22 October 2008, the European Parliament approved the Temporary Agency Workers Directive whereby temporary agency workers (temps) will be entitled, from the commencement of their employment, to the same treatment as permanent employees, as regards their terms and conditions of employment. Temporary agency workers are defined by the Directive as workers with a contract of employment or an employment relationship with a temporary agency with a view to being assigned to an end user (a business which hires temps) to work temporarily under the end user’s supervision and direction.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/6pvh9n

I think they're on the right track with that. I'd like to regulate these fuckers right out of business. This employment structure is an open invitation to grossly inadequate health and safety practices, with both the temp agencies and unscrupulous employers who use them getting off for the most part, scott free.