For years, Wal-Mart has fended off repeated efforts by unions to organize its workers. Now, that battle is once again escalating.
SOYMB previous posted on the industrial struggle going on at Walmarts in America.
In October, workers at one Los Angeles Walmart walked out in a show of unity against what they called poor working conditions and retaliation by the corporation against employees sympathetic to union organizers. The spontaneous action spread to Walmart stores in 12 other cities. Unions, of course, were formed to fight for the rights of workers and to protect them from abuses by management. Workers got pissed off because of lousy working conditions.
Walmart is as big and successful as it is because they know how to save money, and cheap labor is necessary for such a large operation to function. With 1.4 million U.S. workers, Walmart is the country’s largest private employer, and the biggest in at least 25 states. It is also the nation’s largest of employer of women, African-Americans and Latinos. It is one of the top 20 largest companies in the world. Walmart is basically the 23rd largest country in the world. Walmart has 2.1 million global employees, or 7 times the population of Iceland.
As the largest private employer in the United States and the world, Walmart sets the standard for jobs. Such a large company could find the money to pay its employees a living wage and provide healthcare benefits. Walmart employees have reported that if they complain about their schedules, wages, or benefits, the company either docks their hours or fires them. A handful of labor organizations announced an ultimatum to Walmart – stop targeting its employees for retaliation, stop manipulating worker schedules to avoid providing legally-mandated benefits, provide health insurance instead of advising employees to go on welfare, and raise compensation rates to a livable wage. Walmart actively pursues an agenda which systemically reduces the standard of living for an entire area while increasing the corporation’s already astronomical profits in the process. The store routinely changes full time employees to part time employees, typically working just under 32 hours per week to avoid providing benefits. Walmart human resource managers have repeatedly been videotaped directing store employees to apply for welfare and Medicaid since the corporation pays such low wages, most employees qualify as living in poverty. WalMart has just announced that employees will pay between 8-36% more in healthcare premiums in 2013. Wal-Mart has vigorously resisted unionization drives, closing a store in Canada after workers there voted to unionize and arranging to have outside suppliers provide pre-packaged meat after the butchers at a store in Texas voted to unionize in 2000. For decades Walmart has escaped the danger of militancy through rampant outsourcing and a global supply chain that divides workers across the country.
Each week, nearly one-third of the entire US population visits a Walmart store. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest busiest shopping day of the year. During the shopping rush, Walmart will need all hands on deck, giving the striking employees the most leverage they’re going to get. Not to mention that, striking employees and a picket line will surely put a damper on prospective shoppers. Workers at key points in the supply chain can create massive disruptions in the process. We have a company in Walmart, that’s not producing anything, but is selling things. Walmart is the master of lean supply, they are known for squeezing every cent out of their suppliers. Walmart depends on daily deliveries, and if workers can throw a monkey wrench in that, it will cause them significant problems.
The strike, backed by Making Change at Walmart (MCW), a coalition of Walmart employees, union leaders, and other supporters, will be the first in the company’s history. Aside from targeting individual employees, Walmart has also enlisted its army of corporate attorneys and PR professionals to fight the Black Friday Boycott movement. Walmart sent letters to a number of labor organizations mentioned above threatening legal action against any individuals caught trespassing on store property. An ex-Walmart employee was handcuffed when he visited his old store to talk to workers about “Black Friday” strike. Alex Rivera, who was fired in September, Walmart has also filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board accusing the United Food and Commercial Workers Union of unlawfully organizing picket lines, in-store "flash mobs" and other demonstrations in the past six months, actions that violate the National Labor Relations Act, which prohibits picketing for any period over 30 days without filing a representation petition. Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar warned
"If the store employees are scheduled to work, we expect them to show up and do their job. If they don't, depending on the circumstances, there could be consequences,"
"Wal-Mart is in effect firing a shot across the bow of the UFCW, essentially saying 'Look, you can expect this and more unless you desist,'" said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in labor issues.
OURWalmart organizers say they have 1,000s of actions and events planned in support of the campaign, which has been gaining momentum across social media platforms. The organization's Facebook page now has more than 28,000 'likes' and its accompanying YouTube video has been watched over 103,000 times.
Depending on the scale and success of Friday’s action and on what happens afterwards, the strike could provide unions with the impetus to kick-start the class struggle. Walmart workers are organizing by just doing it, without even trying to certify union locals under the Wagner Act. Effective action can be achieved by not by "working within the system" meaning the NLRB rules. The resurgence of wildcat walk-outs certainly brings more aggressive tactics to the fore once again. This tactic is an example of the way workers can circumvent legal constraints. The Coalition of Immolakee Workers — an uncertified union of agricultural laborers centered in Florida — has over the last several years won a string of major victories against fast food chains. Relying entirely on boycotts, solidarity movements and boycotts that give negative publicity to their corporate targets (what the Industrial Workers of the World call “the open mouth”), CIW forced Taco Bell, Burger King, KFC and Chipotle to raise wages for farm workers.
"There's nothing to lose when you're up against the wall," said Emily Rosenberg, director of the labor education center at DePaul University.
The courts are against us. The politicians are against us and the boss tells us there are tens of workers waiting to take your job at a lower rate of pay. There is no other answer than to organize.
Hostess Brands, makers of Twinkies, says a worker strike is shutting them down with a loss of over 18000 jobs when the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers, and Grain Millers union rejected the company's' offer, which included 27 to 32 percent cuts to wages and benefits. A bankruptcy judge imposed the contract anyway so union members responded by walking out. An employee who walked out at a Hostess plant in Seattle, told reporters that
"we know we will probably lose our jobs, but if we accept these concessions, standards for bakers and other workers will keep going down. We are taking it on the chin for workers all over." That kind of unity is creating a new wave of worker activism. Was the union to blame for the demise of Hostess? Not according to Adam Hartung at Forbes, who says it's scapegoating. The collapse is the result of the company trying to sell the same old products with the same outdated business model for too many decades. People bought Twinkies but NOT at a price which would cover costs and return a profit.
"Labor, like other suppliers, has a 'market rate,'" he writes. To demand is tantamount to management saying to those who sell wheat they expect to buy flour at 2/3 the market price – or to petroleum companies they expect to buy gasoline for $2.25/gallon..
That management was unable to run a company which could pay the market rate for its labor is not the fault of the union." Striking workers accuse the company of diverting funds intended for capital investment, product development, plant improvement and new equipment into executive bonuses and Wall Street investors instead.
Workers feel they've had enough when it comes to issues over pay, hours and benefits and that it's time to fight back. During the 1970s, there was a yearly average of 289 major work stoppages involving 1,000 or more workers in the U.S. By the 1990s, that had dropped to some 35 each year. In 2009, there were just only 5. But in 2010, there were 11 major work stoppages in the U.S. That climbed to 19 in 2011. What we need some sort of organization that can fight for all workers.
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