As Black Friday approaches, Wal-Mart workers and activists are planning another round of protests and strikes at the nation’s largest employer on the biggest shopping day of the year. The Black Friday protests come at a time of heightened scrutiny for the company. It made headlines last week when a photo surfaced online of a sign made by workers at one of its stores in Ohio. The sign was taped to a table and read: “Please Donate Food Items Here, so Associates in Need Can Enjoy Thanksgiving Dinner.” Wal-Mart says the food drive shows the company tries to help its workers. But critics say it reveals the low wages Wal-Mart pays them. The National Labor Relations Board also ruled last week that Wal-Mart violated the rights of striking workers.
Catherine Ruetschlin talking:
The revelation of that food drive in Canton, Ohio is a really important moment for people outside of the retail sector looking in, to really see what it means for these workers to stand up to one of the most powerful companies in the world and ask to be treated with dignity and respect. It is not just at the holidays that workers are struggling. When you are in a poverty level wage, putting food on the table is always a tough task. We found talking to Wal-Mart workers over and over again that their wages give them just enough to meet their basic needs and at the end of every month, they’re making critical trade-off decisions. Determining whether they’re going to get medicine or pay their school fees or put food on the table or keep their electricity on. So, what workers like Barbara who are out there really had a chance to show the average American who interacts with retail all the time and maybe has seen that these protests have been increasing in their intensity but hasn’t really been able to sort of relate to what that actually means.
Wal-Mart CEO Bill Simon, back in September, in a presentation to Goldman Sachs was actually responding to the workers demands and calling out, as they called out Wal-Mart for fair wage, and saying, hey look, we have 425,000 workers who earn the wage that you’re asking for. But, Wal-Mart is the largest employer — the largest private employer in the U.S. That leaves 825,000 low-wage employees. Now, that is a workforce of temporary workers, part-time workers, workers who wish they could get a full-time hours but can’t get them out Wal-Mart. And the business model that Wal-Mart chooses to operate is really this low road kind of devaluation of their labor force, where they see their workers as equally replaceable and disposable as opposed to an alternative, high-road model where they can invest in that labor force and see greater productivity, sales and a really committed staff.
Wal-Mart earned $17 billion in profits last year. Now, how they choose to allocate those profits is a business choice. What Wal-Mart did with a pretty substantial portion of it last year was go into the stock market and repurchase their own shares. What that did was consolidate ownership, it gave the Walton family heirs a greater than 50% stake in the comedy for the first time, and it bumps up earnings-per-share. But, that is kind of a short-term Wall Street maneuver that over time doesn’t actually represent a productive investment in the firm. A lot of analysts say that as the effects of that kind of one time buyback wear off, the firm doesn’t see any real long-term benefits. If they, instead, took the $7.6 billion that they used to buy back their own shares and used it to invest in their workforce, they could actually give a raise amounting to almost six dollars an hour for all 825,000 of those low-wage workers.
Amidst criticism of the workers low wages, Wal-Mart has been touting its campaign to promote more than 25,000 of its roughly 1.3 million U.S. employees by the end of January.
Wal-Mart, by their own admission, is just making the same promotions that they would have made anyway. This isn’t an improvement in their labor standards at all. In fact, what it is, is a lot of workers who have been part time before and just kind of waiting on the fringes for the opportunity to put in more hours are being kind of touted with a grand fanfare that this is a great promotion. But, it doesn’t change the fundamental labor practices at Wal-Mart where they operate on a model of low investment in their workforce and high turnover. In fact, approximately 500,000 Wal-Mart workers quit every year.
Barbara Collins talking:
Before I was terminated, I was making $12.05 an hour, and I was classified as a full-time associate, but that didn’t mean that I always got 40 hours a week. There was times that I was only scheduled eight hours for a week, 16 hours for a week. So, it would be — so, workers, just because they’re classified as full-time, they need to give the full time hours, and act responsible and start respecting the workers. With the new CEO, I’m really hope he listens to OUR Wal-Mart. We are only asking for a better Wal-Mart, and to have them act responsible when they come into the communities and follow through with their promises.
I was there for almost 8 years, and I had to make the decision to drop my health care for me and my children because of my scheduling, no matter what, they were going to take out $36 every paycheck for health care. With it being eight hours a week or 16, maybe 32, I still had to have to pay rent, electricity, put food on the table for me and my two children. So, it was a really hard decision, and I had to cancel it.
Catherine Reutschlin talking:
A recent report showed that every single Wal-Mart in the country cost taxpayers between $900,000-$1 million in support for poverty alleviation programs like critical health care for workers and their families. The Walton’s see this as a huge subsidy to their company, but they could be making a better business decision. They are part of this organizing against government’s intervention in the workplace, but they could take upon themselves in the absence of government action to pay more wages, and they would see huge gains. They would see greater productivity. They would see lower costs from turnover and training as workers stick around and are more loyal to the firm. And over the last couple of quarters, Wal-Mart has actually been complaining about unimpressive sales. They blame this on a challenging retail environment. But, what they don’t realize is that they are generating that challenging retail environment I’m not putting enough money in the pockets of the people who shop there.
– source democracynow.org
Barbara Collins, worked more than eight years at Walmart in Placerville, California. As one of the Organization United for Respect at Walmart’s (OUR Walmart) top leaders, she led her coworkers out on strike last Black Friday, as well as other strikes. She was later fired for her organizing efforts. She joins us from Bentonville, Arkansas, where Walmart’s headquarters is located. She’s been protesting there since Friday.
Catherine Ruetschlin, policy analyst at Demos, where she co-authored the new report, “A Higher Wage is Possible: How Walmart Can Invest in Its Workforce Without Costing Customers a Dime.”