Mackey famously compared unions to herpes. Let's give WFM a serious case of the herpes then. That will keep all the banking and finance types away. Those are the worst scum of the earth. They literally kill thousands of people speculating on commodities markets just to make a buck. We should unionize all the freaking stores because it would benefit us and because it will piss corporate, regional, metro, and store management. F them. F their f***ing bonuses. They don't deserve any bonuses. The word "bonus" means good in Latin. What good have those motherfuckers done lately? Maybe a union can't get things better but a collective bargaining agreement might secure the benefits already in place in the GIG. As it stands the GIG is not a binding document and WFM can change it whenever they feel like it. And securing that would be a significant gain even if right now it doesn't seem that way.
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The rumours are that the company has been being shopped for awhile now. That's what ran the stock price up (twice) only to crash and burn (twice) in the past four years. The problem is that when these private equity vultures (potential buyers) put the books under a microscope, what they see doesn't justify any kind of premium. A private equity buyer can't load the company up with debt and cash out in this case, because putting major obligations (like store and warehouse leases) off the balance sheet doesn't mean they're not there. What the execs have kept OFF the balance sheet, buyers will always put back ON the balance sheet. And the difference between the two means one of two things, because in Accounting 101 you learn that Assets = Liabilities plus Equity. Either there's less equity there, or liabilities are higher. In other words, objects in mirror are closer than they appear! Also any potential buyer is going to see that the organizational structure, technology and logistics are a cluster f&^%. It's like ordering a plate of spaghetti and being told you have to straighten it out before eating any. The assholes were too clever by half, and they were greedy. They should have sold millions more shares at $67 three years ago, cashed out and retired. Now they're stuck trying to repair the mess they've made. Bwaaaaahahahahahahahaha