in new york, we're joined by josh eidelson, who broke the story last week. his most recent piece for salon is called, "mitt romney's bain made millions on big tobacco in u.s., russia." "walmart strikes spread to more states." >> yesterday when walmart store workers and multiple stores walked off the job, that was the first time, the second time in five days and the second time in 50 years of walmart that we've seen multiple u.s. store workers going on strike together. it signifies we're in a new wave in this multi-decade struggle between u.s. labor and the world's largest private employer. it is a wave that started in many ways the summer in june when we saw eight workers go out on strike at a walmart supplier. it continued last month when workers in walmart's supply chain, who get squeezed by the budget even though on paper the work for a contractor, went on strike in california and then in illinois and then escalated last week and again yesterday with a combined 150 walmart store workers taking this action. >> i would like to bring mike compton into the co

that's what we don't know it won't hurt me not have decided the instant question you know neither josh eidelson thanks so much for being with us josh thank you very much tom now for the flip side of the story i want to bring in neil asprey an entrepreneur and host of truth for america and author of the book conscientious equity you know walk of time thanks for having me back and to have you physically in the studio here with us and it's good what's wrong with democracy in the workplace and nothing at all and that's just it they don't have the votes you know you get one point four million wal-mart workers in the united states and with the most pro union president in ministration that we've ever had in this country and with all the outside influences trying to come down on wal-mart why can't they get the votes is because by and large the wal-mart workers are happy with the way things are going like you said when you started the show the largest private employer in the world two point two million employees around the world i was just down in mexico city last week a little story and i'm working on

down the road but first and foremost they want to negotiate so let's talk now to labor journalist josh eidelson a contributor at salon dot com he's been covering this josh pretty much since day one and we just heard from one employee what else are these workers asking for. so since our roller began organizing last year in two thousand and eleven they've been raising concerns about the staffing i'm reporting today at salon about a worker who talks about hollowing candy they've got could out in a bargain bin in the summer after the chocolate had turned white just because there weren't enough workers to put the food out before that to get it out onto the shelves so staffing wages benefits the focus of the strikes the has been the retaliation at least say workers faced actively raise these concerns. as i mean that's certainly has been a major concern and we have to remember i mean this is not a company where you have unionized workers they don't get the same basic rights as you know other corporations where workers are organized but talk a little bit about it from your reporting the ways in which s

fledgling labor dispute black friday looming at the end of next month the latest i'm joined by josh eidelson labor reporter and contributor and contributing writer to salon and in these times josh welcome back thank you tom what do you make of this memo is wal-mart getting softer intimidated or is it just you know the time has come for the workers i think it's too soon to say that i think it shows one of two things either it shows well or building a paper trail in the omen that they were brought before the labor board may have missed a memo which says that they tell their managers to follow the law or it could genuinely show the company being more cautious than they have in the past about retaliation at least for now and if they are being more cautious that's likely not because of the law and the law has been there for a long time it's because by taking this industrial action going on strike workers have brought much more attention both from the media and from over workers around the country to what happened next where is your talent getting when it was just a group of workers at one store o

the police union is suing the city claiming the move will risk public safety joining me now is josh eidelson labor reporter for salon and in these times josh welcome thanks for having me back tom thanks for thanks for joining us it's great to see you again the n.f.l. refs are back but it's not all good news for organized labor. first of all let's explain the difference between actually i'd like to start with camden new jersey we just we were just talking about that are we going to see a situation now where if you get stopped by the police in camden new jersey they'll say. your driver's license registration and by the way would you like fries with that. well clearly camden is going into relatively on charted territory i mean there's a real debate to be had about how we reduce crime the role of poverty the approaches around decriminalization of drugs that could affect some of the root causes here but was disturbing as we see the movement into the public sector of a long time trend in the private sector where you bust the union when i was an organizer in the hotel industry you'd see this all th

josh eidelson joins me now he's a labor journalist and contributing writer to salon and in these times josh welcome back to the show thanks for having me same so you got an article up today kind of updating on what's going around wal-mart and the workers there are hinting that there could be mass action on black friday if wal-mart doesn't give in to demands to stop retaliating against workers what is the realistic possibility of black friday being hijacked by you know striking workers. well given wal-mart's history given the intensity with which one has fought organizing attempts before the fact that the shutdown of the entire store in canada after workers couldn't organize the way that wal-mart has withstood other campaigns in the past though never strikes like this i don't think there's any reason to be too optimistic about a resolution coming soon so i think if you're a black friday shopper there's every reason to expect that the workers will follow through on their threat now when i ask for work spokesperson about this today it was a little more cory said he wasn't going to specula