I was inclined to give my own take on the newest Treasury plan to bail out banks but, not that that isn’t important, I thought this was more likely to get missed. Surprise, surprise, Wal-Mart is negotiating with the UFCW about an organizing issue. But, it isn’t what you think:

Nine years after a handful of meat cutters at a Texas Wal-Mart store voted for union representation, the company and the union are at the bargaining table.

Rather than negotiating over pay and benefit issues, though, the two sides are discussing the effects on workers of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s subsequent decision to eliminate in-store meat cutters and move to prepackaged meats.

And the union, the United Food and Commercial Workers, hopes to make the nearly decade-long dispute with Wal-Mart a feature of the national debate over the proposed Employee Free Choice Act pending in Congress, which would make it easier for unions to form collective bargaining units.

   And…

The 12-member Jacksonville Wal-Mart meat-cutters unit voted 7-3 for union representation on Feb. 17, 2000. In September that year, Wal-Mart said the workers lost their right to union representation because the skilled meat-cutting jobs were replaced by the prepackaged meat program.

An administrative law judge with the National Labor Relations Board later ruled that Wal-Mart had no obligation to negotiate a contract with the workers, but said it must negotiate over effects of the new meat program on the workers.

   I remember being told this story a number of years ago. In fact, it gets even worse: after eliminating the meat cutters position in that one store, The Beast proceeded to close down meat-cutting departments in whole southern region to make sure the "virus" of unionism could not spread. Talk about justice delayed is justice denied: one person out of that 12-member group has died since the vote, and only one remains at the store.

   And, as the article points out, The Beast’s home-stomping grounds are the breeding grounds for spineless Democrats, who are poised to try to crater the Employee Free Choice Act–a bill that, at the very least, would make sure that people get a fair hearing in a timely fashion:

Arkansas is a hot spot in the national debate because its two U.S. senators, Democrats Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor, are considered swing votes and because Bentonville-based Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, has successfully fended off union-organizing efforts in the United States throughout its history.

Lincoln and Pryor were cosponsors of the legislation in 2005, but have since expressed reservations about it.

   After hearing the story of the people who had the courage to stand up to The Beast, I am even more convinced that Democrats who undermine EFCA should face primary challenges.