Walmart worker strikes spread across the country
Protesters stand outside the Walmart home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, on Oct. 10, 2012 / Fort Smith KFSM
There are only two entities that employ more people than Walmart, and they are the U.S. and Chinese militaries. The company says it employs 2.2 million people worldwide -- including 1.4 million in the U.S. alone.
One of the many things the company is known for is being aggressively anti-union. None of its American employees have officially unionized, and all attempts to do so to date have been crushed.
So it may come as a surprise that in the same week that Walmart (WMT) shares hit an all-time high, its workers across the country appear to be trying to organize and walk out for the first time in the company's history in demand of better wages, benefits and work hours.
The size and scope of the strikes are unclear, but what began as a walkout by workers at a Los Angeles Walmart on Tuesday has since spread to 11 other cities, reports CBS affiliate KCBS in Los Angeles.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Walmart workers rallied outside the company's home office in Bentonville, Arkansas, reports CBS affiliate KFSM in Fort Smith.
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Janna Pea, with the union-backed "Making Change at Walmart," told KFSM her group and more employees from "Our Walmart" came in by the busload after walking off the job in the first-ever Walmart associate walk-out.
Besides Los Angeles, other cities affected include Dallas, Seattle, Miami, Washington D.C., Sacramento, and San Francisco.
Dan Schlademan, director of the "Making Change" group, told The New York Times they might stage a protest the Friday after Thanksgiving, also known as Black Friday, the biggest retail shopping day of the year.
Organizers claim the company retaliates against workers who even bring up general workplace concerns by doing things like cutting schedules.
Evelyn Cruz, who works at the Pico Rivera store in Los Angeles, told KCBS: "They want to silence as many of us as they can."
Walmart spokesman Dan Fogelman told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO in Los Angeles last week that the company considers these protests nothing more than union publicity stunts.
"If you go out on the Web and look at some of the stories of people that work at some of these unionized grocers in Southern California were telling you last year ... you're gonna see people working part-time jobs for less than ten dollars an hour," said Fogelman. "Yet they're complaining about our jobs, when the average full-time associate in California makes $12.82 an hour."
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They just built a new HUGE new store near me and theeir shelves are bare except for the front edges, More than 20 cash registers and only a few have electric belts. A store too big to walk with little in it and prices that are no lower than other area chains. Also, only Target has fewer employees. The only REAL, worthwhile difference is they finally replaced the three junk handicapped carts with six new ones. Other than that, they should have stayed in the building where they were.
It most certainly depends on who you are and how well you are liked by management for them to decide whether to keep you or get rid of you. I have seen first-hand people get terminated because the manager is looking for a reason to do so. I've been close to getting fired, myself, because I am one to speak up if I see people get in trouble for things they should not have or other people have clearly gotten away with because of who they are. People like me do get fired-just for speaking the truth!
When I first started, I loved working for Walmart. There were all kinds of incentives for striving to be a better worker. All of them were taken away. There is not one incentive out there now to be a better worker, but yet your managers still expect you to do your best or be forced to step down. Even when you do your best "you still are not in the top 5% of the company." Therefore, you only get a .40 raise! We have specifically been told when doing our associate yearly evals, "Everybody is to get a "meets" or "below" on their evals from now on. Noone gets an "exceeds". They have to be in the top 5% of the company in order to get "role model." How are they going to know if you are in the top 5%? Really?
Walmart has also let me down in another way. A few years ago, I was told that I was going to be going up one in the "payscale" for my position but not get any more money(from a 6 to a 7). In our payscale, you get a .40 raise for each step you go up. I went from a 5 to a 6 when I became a "department manager." Then, several months ago I was told that my area was going to merge and that instead of being in charge of 2 departments, it would be (technically) 7 and not get any more money for doing so. I decided to take another department manager position that had opened up, instead. I was told that I would have to take a .40 paycut because it is a level 6 and I was at a level 7. I tried to fight it because I never got the .40 to begin with when I was bumped up. I lost. So, if you look at it this way, it's as if I went from being a regular sales floor associate to being a manager but not getting paid for it. Plus, I have a lot more responsibility as a department manager.
With Walmart combining all of their departments; it is putting too much stress on all of the department managers. Many of us started out with one or two and now have 4, 5, 6 or more but are required to do more work with less help. Some managers don't have any help. They are the only person in their areas. It is almost as if the company is setting us up to fail.
What I don't understand is, they are the number one retail company in the world but they want to be like our number 2 and 3 competitors! Walmart has been number one for a reason-their excellent customer service! Now they are trying to cut back on wages so they cut back on staffing. Our customer assistance has gone downhill because of it! That customer should not have to go all the way over from one side of the store to ask for assistance on the other or stand in long lines at the registers because they cut the full-time associates' hours and won't give any more to the part-time that also need them!
I do have to say that Walmart is great at donating to charities and helping our communities. I am very thankful for that. I just hope that Walmart can turn themselves back around and get back to caring about their customers and associates and not so much the money that the company is making. They will be even richer in doing so. For it is the corporation that now needs to "repect the individual", "strive for excellence", and provide better "service to our customers".
If they want to get rid of you, and your a good worker with an excellent attendance record, they will try to bait you into arguments so they can try to write you up for insubordination.
I also find management is not interested enough about their profit margin. They will let hundreds of plants die, let merchandise walk out the door, without blinking an eye.
They don't even have personnel checking receipts at the door. The theft and the lack of concern for profit, greatly affects the incentive that the employee's work so hard for.
The last point I would like to make, is that most of the hourly workers, aren't shown any appreciation for their their hard work. The salaries are low, and a thank you would go along way in strengthening moral. The problems I see are more with management technique than the employees. Most employees hard for little and don't even get recognized unless they do something that upsets the managements apple cart.
1/ Your argument implies that Wal-Mart represents progress. Clearly it does not. Only the owners really benefit. The workers are treated like trash, and the shoppers who think they are getting a great deal are actually paying extra through taxes for the social services that Wal-Mart workers have to avail themselves of to live. (And other tax breaks and government handouts that the company gets.)
2/ Religion has no part in this. This is purely a secular matter. Furthermore, polling shows that the majority of Americans do not believe in God or the biblical fairytale.
3/ "Can the middle-class and workers invent such a thing?" you ask. Albert Einstein was born into a middle-class Jewish family and his first real job was working in a patent office. If you hop along to NASA, you'll find that their brainiacs aren't from one socio-economic class (as far as such things are even meaningful). And just a point of fact: NOBODY has invented a way to travel to other planets in just seconds as of this writing, so don't get ahead of yourself and build arguments on events that haven't taken place.
4/ The buyers, the marketplace, very much DO create jobs. This is Economics 101. Sure, they have to have shops to go to, but your argument is cutting out a critical factor.
5/ Then there is the notion of survival. Wal-Mart slashes its overheads (e.g. wages) so that it can undersell the competition and make massive profits through volume. Common sense dictates that if they didn't do that, you'd find that the Waltons and their execs aren't so smart and Wal-Mart would line up with all the other similar outlets. Hence, there is nothing special or gifted about Wal-Mart, its executives, or owners, other than the fact that they are willing to play the dirtiest game in town.
6/ Your sacrifice of a million workers is more in line with Hitler and Pol Pot than the people you have named. Besides, Jesus Christ was just another prophet wandering around spouting off; Steve Jobs was an unethical jerk; and Henry Ford set in motion some of the worst aspects of industrialization vis-a-vis the workers. Your point doesn't hold water. And how many great minds might be in that million you lose?
7/ Unions seek to give all people a fair chance. Capitalism is designed to keep the masses down and let a greedy few get fat. Furthermore, we do not even have real capitalism (e.g. are the markets free? Is competition fair? No. Markets are interfered with and the government constantly gives out massive contracts to their best buddies rather than the superior bidder).
You clearly have no understanding of political systems or socio-economic theory. And your statement about Obama is laughable. He's in the pocket of Wall Street. You really believe the two candidates are significantly different. I wouldn't be worrying about socialism if I were you; I'd be worrying about how these "great" men and women (mostly men) that you think so much of, will find ways to cut you off at the knees and make YOUR life worse.
Best wishes
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