On Tuesday, I went to the common security club event that was the subject of the last post. There were many ideas proposed for how individuals and communities can get by during hard times. The speaker, Chuck Collins from the Institute for Policy Studies, pointed out that our economy is designed to funnel money upward toward the wealthy. Those on the right believe that wealth trickles down. Why we believe money conforms to the laws of physics–funneling upwards like a cow caught in a twister or trickling down like soap suds caught in the drain–eludes me.
I’m not a physicist nor am I an economist. I don’t know how money reacts in a physical universe except to say that it does leave my wallet just about as fast as I can put it in there. My sense is, when I go to Walmart (I’ve only ever been once. I bought a sweater.) the money I give them is mostly funneling up. Sure, some small portion of it goes to pay the cashier, the sales associates, stock clerks, etc. A significantly smaller portion (an infinitesimal portion) makes its way back to the factory worker in Indonesia who put together my $12 sweater, but I think the vast majority of my money found its way into the wallets of the Walton Family.
Sure they’ll take my money and yours and build more stores and employ more cashiers, stock clerks, sales associates and managers, but no one is getting rich working for Walmart. Evidence suggests that most Walmart employees are just barely making ends meet. The Walton family on the other hand, well they’ll just keep doing better and better. It’s not their job to make sure their employees get rich. So far as they see it, it’s the responsibility of their employees to see that the Waltons remain rich and become even richer. Do they feel any responsibility to their employees or their suppliers? Or is it in the interest of the Walton’s that their employees be given just enough to get by and no more? After all, if they did make a good living, well … all manner of things might happen to upset that strong current upward.
What does any of this mean to someone who doesn’t have a job? In the current economy, I’m not blaming anybody for working for Walmart or for shopping there. I do believe that if we are ever to get out of this bind of waiting for money to trickle down so we can send it back up through the funnel, we need alternatives and we need to fight for them.
With that in mind, I’m posting here coverage by Luke from the fight to keep DC Walmart Free–Dozens Protest Walmart Outside of Developer’s House posted on DC’s Independent Media Center and his video Walmart’s DC Developer Gets 2nd Protest at his House as posted on LiveLeak.com.
Soon Walmart will intensify a media campaign that insists that those who oppose Walmart would turn down new jobs, stop people from paying lower prices and hinder Walmart’s noble efforts to feed poor folk healthy food. (Oh Michelle, what are you doing?) To get the other side of the story, check out walmartwatch.org and walmartsubsidywatch.org.
If you’re none too fond of sitting in front of a computer screen to get your information and would prefer to be among people, go to the free community film screening of
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Prices Wednesday, January 26, 2011 6:30-8:30 PM Emory Recreation Center 5701 Georgia Avenue NWTo get specifics about the campaign in DC and join the fight go to walmartfreedc.org.
Finally, for all of us out here who want to put food on the table and buy clothes for our kids that we can afford without shopping at Walmart or Target consider forming or joining a common security club. You’ll get all the information you need and more at the Common Security Club Workshop sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies:
Saturday, January 29, 201110:00 am to 4:00 pm Festival Center 1640 Columbia Road NW
Washington, DC
Thanks!
Your welcome, Netfa. I of course know that you’re thanking me for including the Common Security Club workshop in the above post. I’d like it if the comments on this blog went beyond just a personal conversation between contributors, but I’ll take what I can get. -Liane
A few things to think about:
1. Who does Walmart hire? Low skilled people who are almost always not otherwise employable. A job at Walmart is the best they can hope for in their current situation. By working at Walmart they receive A) A paycheck and the pride that goes with earning for yourself and B) An opportunity to build skills that make them more marketable to other employers.
2. Walmart is absolutely notorious for promoting from within. After hiring these people and paying them while they build skills, Walmart promotes them and pays them more to build further marketable skills in middle management positions.
3. Because of the economies of scale and other efficiencies available to a large enterprise, Walmart is able to sell staple items at the lowest possible prices. This is an incredible boon to the lower and middle classes especially, who are able to stretch scarce dollars as far as possible specifically because Walmart exists.
The one point I agree with you on is that the Walton’s are getting rich. Good for them. Like you said, that enables them to open more stores and warehouses, increase their economies of scale and other efficiencies, employ more low or no skill workers, lower prices on staple items, and generally perform acts positive for communities and economies.
A fight against Walmart is based on two things – 1. Class envy, anger that Sam Walton had such an incredible idea and took the risk to successfully implement it, and 2. NIMBY-ism against the lower and middle class people who work and shop at Walmart. Walmart is one of the greatest make work programs the world has ever known and a God-send for the poor. It deserves to be celebrated, not reviled.
I don’t agree. I think if you’re employable by a Walmart then you’re employable by a small business that provides comparable goods or services. If smaller retail stores were given the same kind of incentives that Walmart is given by the city then those “unemployable” people would have access to better jobs than they can get at Walmart, maybe not living wage jobs, but they might be more likely to pay benefits.
The fight against Wal-Mart is based on very solid data that shows the company discriminates against certain workers (women), has extremely high employee turnover as a way to avoid giving raises, and employs practices against competitors that border on illegal. All that aside, the rabid expansion of the company alone justifies members of the community coming together to oppose the building of one (or more) in D.C. Predatory business practices are never a good thing for employees and surrounding business.
In short, this has nothing to do with jealousy of the bank account of Sam Walton, and has everything to do with protecting the well-being of the community.
Another excellent comment.
Thanks Luke. Another thoughtful comment. It occurs to me that it’s good to have these responses on the Grassroots Media blog, but it might be even better to have them on DCist and/or the City Paper blog, both of which get way more traffic. I always fear that the Council actually reads those comments and believe they represent the majority of DC residents. The thought gives me the willies. I mean honestly, follow this link and check out the comments – http://dcist.com/2011/01/on_the_same_day_that.php#comments
-Liane
David, before you post what sounds like bullet points from a Walmart press release, please dig a little deeper and think about what you’re saying.
1. To address your fist point – as the previous commenter pointed out, Walmart jobs are not unique. All retailers (with a few exceptions like high-end electronics retailers, for example) have similar low-skill jobs available. Combine this with the evidence from a 2007 academic study (Neumark et al., I can provide the link if you care) that Walmart eliminates more jobs than it creates, and your entire argument is meaningless.
2. Yes, Walmart promotes from within, but it also has a very high turnover rate, and has relatively few higher level positions. So, while those who are promoted are all from within, very few are promoted. And we can’t vouch for the idea that those who are promoted are necessarily the most deserving either – more than a million women are suing them on charges of being systematically discriminated against in pay and promotions. So there is no evidence that Walmart jobs provide more upward mobility than other retail jobs – and some evidence that the reverse may be the case.
3. Yes, Walmart sells goods cheaper than most (not necessarily all) competitors. (Dollar stores and Aldi are typically cheaper.) But that’s a drop in the bucket for what families spend on these days. Just look at BLS price index data for overall cost of living, for housing, and for health care. You’ll find that the prices of housing and health care have gone up much more rapidly than the overall cost of living. And Walmart does not sell health insurance (yet) and is not a landlord for rental housing either. So yes they reduce prices of some essential goods, but these goods are a dwindling share of a household’s expenditures. Meanwhile, by keeping wages low for their own workers and exerting competitive pressure on their rivals to lower wages, they act as a drag on earnings and on living standards.
So check your facts before parroting company press releases.
I could not have possibly put it better. Thank you. -Liane
Wal-Mart is notorious for killing more jobs than they create. One study shows 1.4 people lose their jobs for every person hired by Wal-Mart on average. This means Wal-Mart is a drain on jobs, not a source of jobs. This is true if you think all jobs are alike, which they are not.
A bagger or cashier in Wal-Mart will be paid about $4 an hour less than they would be in Safeway, like the one on Ga Ave that will surely close if Wal-mart opens.
OK, let’s assume you work in Safeway today, and Wal-Mart two years from now. You make less money and pay less for groceries and clothes, but guess what? Your rent is going UP, not down, and you can’t buy gas to heat your house, water, or electricity at Wal-Mart either. You are worse off then before, and the cashier that used to work next to you was not rehired, as Wal-Mart needed fewer employees than what it replaced. He is being evicted, and you fear you are just one illness away from being next.
Still think Wal-Mart’s a good idea?
Actually, Luke, I do still think Wal-Mart is a good idea. I noticed the comment above deriding another commenter for “parroting company press releases.” That’s not an argument, it’s standard “world will explode” hyperbole that often attends the mere mention of Wal-Mart in certain circles. Although I am not an economist, I have seen a fair number of studies employing a simple cost-benefit analysis of Wal-Mart that weighs in favor of allowing the company to build stores in large, urban centers; in other words, the costs that Wal-Mart allegedly imposes on society by driving employees to welfare, creating sprawl, and destroying jobs in competing operations is still well exceeded by the net benefit of cost savings to the consumer. If Wal-Mart outcompetes some small businesses, they go out of business, and resources are reallocated, so be it. As a 6 year DC resident, I’d be more than happy to shop there. On a purely anecdotal level, the thing that bothers me the most about the discourse surrounding Wal-Mart is the inability of some to brook any dissent on the issue. Often, I detect a discernible whiff of urban sophisticate disdain for a company that is based in Arkansas, sells firearms, and caters to a largely middle American, rural clientele. It also provides essential items at affordable prices to a large portion of the American population that otherwise would have trouble obtaining them. Considering our demographics, DC would be foolish to bar WalMart from the city.
Hello Drew, thank you for your comment. I have been directed to a number of studies that claim to prove that Walmart is not a net gain for communities. I’m posting one of them here with the hope that you, someone who is pro-Walmart, will look go through them and maybe point out to the rest of us where they go wrong.
This one is a study by Hunter College on Walmart’s ec. footprint:
http://advocate.nyc.gov/files/Walmart.pdf
This article summarizes the Hunter College study:
http://ufcwone.org/story/new-study-wal-mart-means-fewer-jobs-less-small-businesses-more-burden-taxpayers
To be clear, I’m not looking forward to Walmart coming to DC. I’m probably a lot poorer than you are and have gotten by without a Walmart all of my life (with the exception of the purchase of a $12 sweater). I think DC can do better than Walmart, but I invite you to convince me otherwise. -Liane
Is there any way to still listen to this Latino Media Collective from the date mentioned?
Thanks!
I’m searching for it. I’ll let you know if I find it one way or the other. Thanks for bringing it up. -Liane
Hello Susan,
I’m sorry, I can’t find that edition of the Latino Media Collective. WPFW isn’t archiving more than five shows, so it’s not there and the LMC just doesn’t have everything up on DC Indy Media. It’s very frustrating. This is not the only broken link on this blog. I’m afraid I don’t have time to maintain it properly. But we do what we can. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. Sorry I wasn’t able to be more helpful.
fired from walmart for reporting employee abuse.
I worked at The Exton, Pa. walmart for 10-years. I always gave my all, got great work reviews, and many notices for excellent customer service. Then we got a new store manager who was severely verbally abusive to many employees, myself, and even a mentally handicapped female employee. I reported this behavior many times and nothing changed, then the manager made negative comments to me about my reporting him and fired me. i contacted the NLRB and they filed a charge on walmart, which i had to have dropped in exchange for having my job reinstated. Upon returning to work i was consitantly retaliated on and fired twice more for lies made up by the same district manager who failed to do anything about the abusive store manager despite my numerous reports. When i went back to the NLRB tthey said that walmart lawyers got involved and they didn’t want to pursue it and when i tried to file a complaint about the illegal retaliation i had been subject to since returning to work, they dismissed it and printed a bunch defamatory slanderous lies that walmart told them that i beieve they knew weren’t true in a govererment file.
fired from walmart for reporting employee abuse.
I worked at The Exton, Pa. walmart for 10-years. I always gave my all, got great work reviews, and many notices for excellent customer service. Then we got a new store manager who was severely verbally abusive to many employees, myself, and even a mentally handicapped female employee. I reported this behavior many times and nothing changed, then the manager made negative comments to me about my reporting him and fired me. i contacted the NLRB and they filed a charge on walmart, which i had to have dropped in exchange for having my job reinstated. Upon returning to work i was consistently retaliated on and fired twice more for lies made up by the same district manager who failed to do anything about the abusive store manager despite my numerous reports. When i went back to the NLRB tthey said that walmart lawyers got involved and they didn’t want to pursue it and when i tried to file a complaint about the illegal retaliation i had been subject to since returning to work, they dismissed it and printed a bunch defamatory slanderous lies that walmart told them that i beieve they knew weren’t true in a govererment file.
Hello Robert,
Wow, it sounds like you had a horrible experience with Walmart. I’ll bet any money you’re not alone. I wonder what would happen if you wrote up your story in more detail and then posted it on a nationally syndicated blog like Daily Kos asking for more stories. I’d post that on this blog as well. I just suggested Daily Kos because it has more of a national focus where as this blog is interested specifically in DC. But I would post those stories here because we’re trying to keep Walmart from coming to DC. If we had stories from folks who’ve worked at Walmart across the nation, then we could better educate folks here in DC about what working for Walmart would really mean. Does that make sense?
[…] They say this is one of Walmart’s first ventures into building in cities, versus on the outskirts of town…which is what is causing the delay. Not community outrage and protest. No, not in DC. […]
Hello, I have been trying forever to get some help with this matter, but nobody seems to care at all. There is a very serious problem of fear of reporting unfair labor practice in Walmart. I worked there for almost 10-years with an excellent work history, up until we got a new store manager who was extremely verbally abusive to employees including a mentally handicapped female who he would bash until she was hysterically crying. You could hear her wailing across the store, and when I suggested to employees that we report it they said they were afraid they would be fired. I said we have rights and laws in this country and we do not need to be afraid to report abuse, especially of the handicapped. They said I was naive, and that everyone knows Walmart controls the government and everything with its money and lawyers and prides themselves on being able to get away with doing anything they want, I had more faith and trust in our system than that. I told myself from the begining, do the right thing, tell the truth, follow the rules, and trust God, and i began reporting the abuse to upper management. Before you know it the abusive manager started letting me know he was angry with my reporting him and fired me. That was just the begining of the mess. I went to the NLRB and they filed A charge on walmart for firing me for engaging in protected activity.
Walmart then forced me to drop the charge before they would reinstate my job, and then harshly retaliated on me in many ways including false write ups and 2 more wrongful terminations shortly after i returned. When I went back to the NLRB as they had told me to do should this occur Walmart gave perjurious testimony to the NLRB and told numerous extremely slanderous and defamatory lies in order to have the case dismissed. I have struggled very hard through 2 dismissals before obtaining my NLRB files through FOIA and managing to prove so many lies that walmart had told the NLRB, that i believe that is why The Deputy General Counsel finnally told me to re-file my case. It is now back open, but not going well.
Walmart has gone to great lengths, by doing things like what they did to me, in order to instill an atmosphere of fear of reporting in the employees. Everything is not fine at all in Walmart, in fact nobody has any idea how bad it really is because walmart has carefully ensured that the employees are so afraid to report wrongdoing that they won’t even say anything when they hear a mentally handicapped female hysterically wailing across the store and hiding in the break room from the ongoing extreme verbal abuse of the store manager, and when the one guy naive enough to say something speaks up, he is promptly fired and subjected to many forms of retaliation up to and including false terminations and having his name defamed and slandered to the NLRB. I could go on and write a book about everything that I alone have been through, not to mention what others have been through with this evil tactic used by walmart to keep their employees quiet about the truth of what really goes on in those stores on a daily basis, but it seems nobody would probably even care. If you could please get back to me to at least confirm that you have recieved this I would appreciate it. Meanwhile I have lost my job, my career of nearly 10-years, and probably any chance at ever retiring in my lifetime all because I reported employee abuse including of a mentally handicapped female by a store manager in our walmart store. Robert Snodgrass, 715 Taylor rd., Downingtown, Pa 19335, snod307@hotmail.com 484-252-9596 Thank You. God Bless you, and God Bless America
Hello, This is my true story of abuse of handicapped, illegal retliation,and a masterfully well established atmosphere of fear of reporting at Walmart.I have been trying forever to get some help with this matter, but nobody seems to care at all. There is a very serious problem of fear of reporting unfair labor practice in Walmart. I worked there for almost 10-years with an excellent work history, up until we got a new store manager who was extremely verbally abusive to employees including a mentally handicapped female who he would bash until she was hysterically crying. You could hear her wailing across the store, and when I suggested to employees that we report it they said they were afraid they would be fired. I said we have rights and laws in this country and we do not need to be afraid to report abuse, especially of the handicapped. They said I was naive, and that everyone knows Walmart controls the government and everything with its money and lawyers and prides themselves on being able to get away with doing anything they want, I had more faith and trust in our system than that. I told myself from the begining, do the right thing, tell the truth, follow the rules, and trust God, and i began reporting the abuse to upper management. Before you know it the abusive manager started letting me know he was angry with my reporting him and fired me. That was just the begining of the mess. I went to the NLRB and they filed A charge on walmart for firing me for engaging in protected activity.
Walmart then forced me to drop the charge before they would reinstate my job, and then harshly retaliated on me in many ways including false write ups and 2 more wrongful terminations shortly after i returned. When I went back to the NLRB as they had told me to do should this occur Walmart gave perjurious testimony to the NLRB and told numerous extremely slanderous and defamatory lies in order to have the case dismissed. I have struggled very hard through 2 dismissals before obtaining my NLRB files through FOIA and managing to prove so many lies that walmart had told the NLRB, that i believe that is why The Deputy General Counsel finnally told me to re-file my case. It is now back open, but not going well.
Walmart has gone to great lengths, by doing things like what they did to me, in order to instill an atmosphere of fear of reporting in the employees. Everything is not fine at all in Walmart, in fact nobody has any idea how bad it really is because walmart has carefully ensured that the employees are so afraid to report wrongdoing that they won’t even say anything when they hear a mentally handicapped female hysterically wailing across the store and hiding in the break room from the ongoing extreme verbal abuse of the store manager, and when the one guy naive enough to say something speaks up, he is promptly fired and subjected to many forms of retaliation up to and including false terminations and having his name defamed and slandered to the NLRB. I could go on and write a book about everything that I alone have been through, not to mention what others have been through with this evil tactic used by walmart to keep their employees quiet about the truth of what really goes on in those stores on a daily basis, but it seems nobody would probably even care. If you could please get back to me to at least confirm that you have recieved this I would appreciate it. Meanwhile I have lost my job, my career of nearly 10-years, and probably any chance at ever retiring in my lifetime all because I reported employee abuse including of a mentally handicapped female by a store manager in our walmart store. Robert Snodgrass, 715 Taylor rd., Downingtown, Pa 19335, snod307@hotmail.com Thank You. God Bless you, and God Bless America