This is absolutely hilarious. A Las Vegas Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market is being picketed. Not by disgruntled employees. Not by fired workers with an ax to grind. Not even by undercover news employees trying to dig up dirt. They are temps hired by a food workers union, paying people $6 an hour to stand around in 100+ degree heat to protest Wal-Mart’s employment practices.

Ironically the Nevada average hourly wage for Wal-Mart employees is $10.17 per hour according to the store’s manager. Nevertheless, the union accuses Wal-Mart of suppressing wages and not giving employees sufficient or affordable health care options. Coincidentally, one of the hired picketers previously worked at Wal-Mart:

But standing with a union-supplied sign on his shoulder that reads, Don’t Shop WalMart: Below Area Standards, picketer and former Wal-Mart employee Sal Rivera says about the notorious working conditions of his former big-box employer: "I can’t complain. It wasn’t bad. They started paying me at $6.75, and after three months I was already getting $7, then I got Employee of the Month, and by the time I left (in less than one year), I was making $8.63 an hour." Rivera worked in maintenance and quit four years ago for personal reasons, he says. He would consider reapplying.

Terrible, is it not? He made more at Wal-Mart than he does picketing them. He did have one negative thing to add though:

While Rivera’s words for Wal-Mart seem less than harsh, he does add, "I did not want to get insurance from them because it was too expensive."

Lower income employees of any company would probably express dismay at the cost of health insurance, but in case you were wondering:

For the least comprehensive medical coverage, Wal-Mart workers pay from $17.50 for individual coverage and $70.50 for family coverage biweekly, according to the company website.

Thirty-five dollars a month? The inhuman monsters.

What we have here is a union-organized rent-a-protest outside a Nevada Wal-Mart in brutal heat, paying less per hour, with no benefits, than what the employees of the store they are protesting earn. Adding a dash of silliness, the protesters have even made use of the Wal-Mart’s pharmacy to buy balm for blisters caused by protesting the store. The picketers are also dropped off and picked up by a union van, except on weekends. Having to make his own way there on the weekends, hired protester Rivera has begun to realize the absurdity of the situation:

He [protestor Rivera] talks about how he takes three buses to get to this work site on weekends; it takes two hours to get there and two hours to get home—a nine-hour day including that transportation for a gross pay of $35.

While the man in question realizes the poor quality of his “job” he takes the mentality that the union should be doing something about it for him.

"I asked him (union organizer Hornbrook), I said, ‘How come we’re working here for $6 an hour? I need you to help us find a better job. I want information on the union,’" Rivera said.

Instead of showing some initiative by walking into the Wal-Mart and filling out an application, Mr. Rivera stuck with his “union job” and got this response from the organizer:

He was told, he says, to secure his own job with a grocery store, and then the union would help him to be sure the store paid him appropriate wages.

"This is an informational picket line only," Hornbrook said. "We’re paying these people. They were out of work before (joining their picket lines). This is an in-between-jobs stop. Picketing isn’t a career.

What do you mean “picketing isn’t a career?” Professional protesters are out there, and Cindy Sheehan attracted plenty of Left-wing money to keep her ensconced in that Crawford ditch.

Still, there is nothing quite so refreshing and inspiring as heart-felt, sincere, hired free speech, is there?