Las Vegas Metro Market Report
Not only is the 'The Daily Show With John Stewart' one of the most popular comedy shows on television, it also breaks as much or more real news than its non-competitors, the broadcast network and cable news programs, do. And Stewart and his team of enterprising "reporters" do what they do in an equal opportunity way: No person or organization - left, right or center - is exempt from their in-depth investigations.
Recently, The Daily Show's "investigative reporter," Aasif Mandvi, turned his very real but comedy-inspired reportage to an organization we write about frequently in Fresh & Easy Buzz, the United Food & Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, which is engaged in a campaign to organize store workers at Tesco's Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, Walmart and a number of other non-union U.S. food and grocery retailing chains.
Specifically, Mandvi did a report on Las Vegas-based UFCW Local 711, which in addition to currently attempting to organize store workers at Tesco's 27 Fresh & Easy grocery stores in the Las Vegas metropolitan region, is also conducting a major campaign to organize and unionize Walmart store workers in the region.
As part of its Walmart employee organizing and unionization campaign in the Las Vegas region, the UFCW Local 711 has hired numerous non-union, temporary workers, who are all being paid minimum wage, to march, protest and picket near various Walmart stores in metro Las Vegas.
The Daily Show's Mandvi recently investigated the activity and campaign. His report,'Working Stiffed,' which appeared on the show in late September, features an interview with UFCW Local 711's Secretary-Treasurer, Michael Gittings, along with some of the temp workers out on the front lines.
You can watch the video here. It's "Must See TV," including for UFCW members who have a sense of humor.
Michael Gittings comes across as being far less than a mensa member in that video. But at least he attempted to be stright rather than being the typical spin doctor. The funny thing is, living in Vegas we need even those non-union psuedo picket jobs the UFCW created, despite the hypocracy of it. I really don't see the union making any progress in organizing Wal-Mart here in Nevada. It's just not a priority for the majority of residents. With 14% unemployment the timing is way off.
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