Topic: NewsBusters
Curtis Louder whines in a Feb. 23 NewsBusters post:
In this week's episode of Wal-Mart, I mean Superstore, we get to one of the issues we've all anticipated since the show's premiere: labor unions. As Cheyenne (Nichole Bloom) goes into labor at work, the chaos is comical but the dialogue is obviously meant to persuade the viewer that it's the store's responsibility to take care of the 17-year-old pregnant girl. Almost makes you think that having Cheyenne as a pregnant character was all about making political statements (i.e. abortion) and now paid maternity leave.
Jonah lectures the other employees, "This is ridiculous. She shouldn't have to kill herself to have a baby. Did you guys know that in every other first-world nation, paid maternity leave is just automatic?"
And how will the employees force the company to pay? By starting a union, of course!
This is how the left always works. Create problems, build sympathy, then propose a solution.
Is Louder saying that Cheyenne got pregnant in order to create the "problem" of needing maternity leave? Weird.
Louder then peddles well-worn right-wing tropes against labor unions:
Wal-Mart is the largest employer in the universe. Over a million people collect a check from wallyworld and sure it isn't always $15 an hour but it isn't brain surgery either. And if it was $15 an hour then Wal-Mart wouldn't be the biggest and cheapest retailer. It's called capitalism. Not perfect, but better than anything else.
Labor unions are not inherently evil. They may have done some great things a century ago but they have also stymied innovation. For example, Uber has had to fight taxi unions in order to serve in certain areas. They have also led to violence at times and we all know they are a giant Democratic Super PAC.
Labor unions haven't done anything for a century? Really? Others beg to differ.
Louder concludes by cheering that the Cloud 9 superstore in "Superstore" acted like its real-world doppelganger, Walmart, when faced with employees seeking better treatment from their employer: by firing them all. "Harsh truths for the Cloud 9 employees. Certainly not the result they were all expecting," he smugly adds.
