Wal-mart employees Unionize

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

TAMPA, Fla. - It's not a union, but some Wal-Mart workers say it might be the next best thing.

 

Searching for a voice in their work lives, employees of some central Florida Wal-Mart stores have formed a workers group to collectively air complaints about what they claim is shoddy treatment by the retail giant, which is known to take a dim view of organized labor.

 

About 250 employees and former employees from 40 central Florida stores have joined the fledgling Wal-Mart Workers Association, spurred by what they say is a reduction of hours and schedule changes recently that may jeopardize health care benefits for some. Organizers say the word-of-mouth campaign is attracting 15 to 20 new members every week.

 

The members say they hope their efforts will persuade the company to listen to its people and make some changes.

 

"Management seems like they don't really respect the associates," said Carl Jones, the group's acting chairman, who makes $9.40 an hour as the lead cart-pusher at a store outside Orlando. "We don't have a voice. We don't have any rights at all."

 

Wal-Mart, however, says most of its associates are happy, and characterized the effort in Florida as another attempt by the unions to get their hands in the pockets of some of its 1.3 million workers in the United States.

 

"It's within (employees') legal rights to do that, but this group is a wolf in sheep's clothing," said Christi Gallagher, spokeswoman for the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer. "This is a labor organization attempting to masquerade as something else."

 

The world's largest and most profitable retailer has heard the employees' complaints before. Stores around the United States have been accused of everything from paying lousy wages and locking workers in overnight to discriminating against women, while foiling attempts by labor groups such as the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to organize workers.

 

The food and commercial workers union is among the sponsors of the new workers association, along with the Service Employees International Union, and Acorn, an advocacy group for the poor. Central Florida was chosen for the launch because of Wal-Mart's aggressive expansion here.

 

"Florida is like Wal-Mart central," said Rick Smith, state director of the Wal-Mart Alliance for Reform Now (WARN), a coalition of labor, anti-poverty and environmental groups trying to change the way Wal-Mart does business. Smith is spearheading the workers association project.

 

"It was carefully formulated," he said. "This is not the traditional unit we have now in terms of collective bargaining or having an election, this is about what sort of problems Wal-Mart employees are having at work and what can they do to make their lives better at work."

 

The group has already helped some of the employees who've had their hours cut apply for partial unemployment benefits, Smith said.

 

Claire Middleton, 70, said she worked a full-time day job for four years taking in returns at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Pinellas Park near St. Petersburg. The store changed her schedule in July, telling her she would have to be available from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week if she wanted to keep getting shifts.

 

Her bad eyes make it difficult to drive after dark and she's afraid of losing her health-care benefits if she doesn't work enough hours. She makes $8.56 an hour.

 

Rveva Barrett, 61, was working as the community involvement coordinator at the same store, even appearing in a national Wal-Mart commercial last year with community leaders. Her job was eliminated recently and she was told she could take another position with a $200 a month pay cut or leave.

 

Both women have joined the workers association, paying the $5-a.m.onth dues.

 

"This is a really bad thing that's happening to all the people at Wal-Mart," Barrett said. "Unless we do something about it now, it's going to get worse."

 

Gallagher, the Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the incidents are isolated. She said the company has an "open-door policy" and urges associates to talk over any problems with managers. That works for most, she said, noting that associates themselves have shunned opportunities to unionize.

 

"We regularly receive thousands of applications for 400 jobs when we open new stores," she said. "I think that certainly would be an example that we are seen as a benefit to a lot of our associates."

 

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etc....

Wal-mart has been losing ground to Target, mostly with affluent customers. Their stock has dropped nearly 20 dollars in the past 2-3 years for a variety of reasons.

[CBright7831 0]

Fuck Wal-Mart, I go to Target and FYE.

 

[BUTT 0]

I wish I could make 9.40/hr pushing carts.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Yeah, I was wondering about that myself.

 

I don't have an opinion of Wal-Mart, but one thing that got me laughing was a few years ago when they were saying managers weren't forcing their workers to work "off the clock." Having worked shit jobs in the past, I can say this happens all the time (although I never worked at Wal-Mart, so I can't say "for certain" that this place does it, but it wouldn't surprise me if it did...)

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Man, I wish I made $9.40 pushing carts at Wal-Mart.

 

And I push carts at Wal-Mart.

 

Seriously though, sometimes I wonder about some of these people. I mean, I work at Wal-Mart, and I can tell you that these jobs aren't WORTH $15 an hour, but to hear some people, that's what they deserve, goddammit.

[Slayer 0]

Justice for CronoT!

[CanadianChris 0]

The chairman of this group is a cart-pusher.

 

I think I can predict failure for this group just on that fact alone.

[The Czech Republic 0]

The chairman of this group is a cart-pusher.

 

I think I can predict failure for this group just on that fact alone.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is he a disillusioned intellectual?

[Guest MikeSC]

I bet he could kick all our asses and knows really obscure endings to video games.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

[tekcop 0]

My mom used to work as a night stocker there. She said it was harder work than any factory jobs she's ever had, and she was getting paid a lot less.

 

Seriously though, sometimes I wonder about some of these people. I mean, I work at Wal-Mart, and I can tell you that these jobs aren't WORTH $15 an hour, but to hear some people, that's what they deserve, goddammit.

I work at Domino's and I've seen people sitting around in the back and doing nothing while complaining about how little they get paid. Of course, if you tell them to do something, they complain about that too.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

I Thought you quit.

 

Oh, and I hate those people, too. And don't forget those that bitch about how few hours they work, and when they get more hours they bitch and call off.

 

Then they complain about the amount of their next paycheck...

[tekcop 0]

I Thought you quit.

I changed my mind at the last minute. I want to go ahead and pay off the insurance company and get my schooling paid for before I quit.

 

Oh, and I hate those people, too. And don't forget those that bitch about how few hours they work, and when they get more hours they bitch and call off.

 

Then they complain about the amount of their next paycheck...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Man, it's like you've lived my life. That is exaclty how the majority of the people I work with are. Are the people you're talking about either teenagers with no aspirations or middle-aged, food-stamping collecting people who've never bothered to do anything with their lives?

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Man, it's like you've lived my life.

 

No, you're just living mine -- so get a shotgun and put yourself out of your misery because it only gets worse from here.

 

In my experiences, it was usually the teenagers -- many of the adults showed up for work and were bitter about their lot in life.

 

Although I did have the other kind of teenager -- the one that acually has aspirations and treats the job as a sidenote. They would write on the request-time-off slip the days they are available to work in a month rather than the days they need off. (Example: I've got a National Honors meeting every Tuesday, soccer practice Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but I CAN work Saturday the 21st from 1-5 p.m. and Sunday the 13 from 2-6 p.m...)

[CanadianGuitarist 0]

Man, it's like you've lived my life.

 

In my experiences, it was usually the teenagers -- many of the adults showed up for work and were bitter about their lot in life.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

That's about right. The cynysicm of the colege kids at work is fairly overbearing.

 

Anyone between the ages of 21-49 feels that they're far to good to work there.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/latimests/walmarts...WtkBHNlYwM3MTg-

 

Wal-Mart's Memo Blurs Its Message on Benefits

 

By Abigail Goldman and Lisa Girion Times Staff Writers

 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which built its reputation — and a virulent opposition — on rock-bottom prices, has talked a lot lately about becoming a kinder, more responsible company.

 

 

But the retailing giant is finding that convincing the world that it is "committed to change," and to keeping costs low, is a tough balancing act.

 

On Monday, Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. pledged to bring health insurance within reach of his 1.3 million U.S. employees. On Wednesday, a leaked company memo revealed "bold steps" to reign in Wal-Mart's employee benefit costs.

 

Among the recommendations: using more part-time workers, cutting life-insurance payouts, pushing spouses off health plans through higher premiums and trying to dissuade unhealthy people from seeking jobs by, among other things, requiring cashiers to gather carts in Wal-Mart's vast parking lots.

 

To some Wal-Mart watchers, the difference between what Wal-Mart says and what Wal-Mart does makes perfect sense.

 

"I don't think the DNA of Wal-Mart has changed at all," said HSBC Securities analyst Mark Husson, returning Wednesday from an analyst meeting at Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. "It's like a religious cult — it has a low-cost gospel to bring to the country and sees it as a divine duty to do that and nothing is going to get in its way. It will do what it has to do and say what it needs to say to get there."

 

In the healthcare memo, whose contents were first reported in the New York Times, Executive Vice President of Benefits Susan Chambers wrote to the company's board of directors that Wal-Mart workers on average spent 8% of their income on healthcare — almost double the national average. Last year, Chambers wrote, nearly two-fifths of those enrolled in Wal-Mart health plans spent 16% of the average Wal-Mart income on healthcare.

 

What's more, 46% of the children of Wal-Mart employees either are on Medicaid or are uninsured, the memo said. That marked the first time that Wal-Mart has acknowledged that a significant number of employee dependents rely on public assistance. On Wednesday, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman called that figure "unacceptable."

 

"We have to do better and we will," spokeswoman Sarah Clark said. "But … that challenge isn't just limited to Wal-Mart."

 

Clark said that the memo was not a final list of recommendations and was the result of a six-month study of employee benefits.

 

"Those are the things that we are looking at — how do you continue to provide the best benefits to employees and remain competitive?" Clark said. "There is a genuine desire to do just that at Wal-Mart, but we feel like we can certainly improve our offerings today."

 

In his speech Monday, Scott announced new benefit options for employees, including health savings accounts and a trial health plan for some workers with premiums as low as $11 a month.

 

Chambers described Wal-Mart's problem: a workforce that is older and less healthy than the national average, and a population that overuses the most expensive kinds of care, such as emergency room visits, leading to a 15% annual growth rate in benefit costs. Fewer than half of Wal-Mart's workers at more than 3,600 stores are covered by the company's insurance programs.

 

If not addressed, Chambers said, benefit costs would consume an incremental 12% of total profit by 2011, or $30 billion to $35 billion in market capitalization.

 

Throughout the 27-page benefit memo, Chambers refers repeatedly to the company's public reputation and "messages to use in combating critics." The critics, which the memo said include labor unions and state governments that have attacked Wal-Mart for the number of workers it has on public aid, have grown increasingly vocal about what they consider to be stingy benefits at the world's biggest retailer.

 

Chambers recommended "reframing" the Medicaid issue as everyone's problem, not just Wal-Mart's, and engaging in a "sustained communication campaign" about the company's healthcare offerings.

 

She also posits that the company would have "political cover" for moving employees into health savings accounts because other retailers offer similar options.

 

Several of Chambers' proposals are considered progressive, including offering part-time employees health insurance after one year on the job instead of the current two, and adding health clinics to Wal-Mart stores for employees and the public.

 

Still, the memo concludes that even if all the recommendations are adopted, the company's healthcare enrollment will drop because of the shift to more part-time workers and that a "significant number" of employees and their children will continue to qualify for Medicaid.

 

"It's like an X-ray into the heart of them — on the one hand they want to portray themselves as family that cares and that is respected," said Nelson Lichtenstein, a professor of history at UC Santa Barbara and editor of the forthcoming book "Wal-Mart: The Face of 21st Century Capitalism."

 

"On the other hand, Wal-Mart's core mission was low-cost distribution of goods to a huge working-class clientele," he added.

 

"These two things are clashing and Wall Street is not stupid, Wall Street understands the contradiction that the company is caught in," he said.

 

Wal-Mart, which last year earned nearly $10.3 billion on sales of $285 billion, has seen its stock fall 21% from its 52-week high of $57.89 last November. Shares in Wal-Mart rose 19 cents Wednesday to $45.58.

 

Sales growth at stores open at least a year, a key measure of strength, has slowed to 3.2% in the first half of the year, compared with 5.2% for the first six months of last year.

 

Crucial to the company's growth in the United States is expansion into urban areas most hostile to the company's business model, including California, the East Coast and Chicago. Wal-Mart's new public relations bid, analysts and academics have said, is an attempt to win over those new consumers.

 

The benefit memo, however, may undercut the corporate image that Wal-Mart has sought to promote through its television commercials and public relations efforts.

 

"The company story is that the workforce is everything," said David West, executive director of the Center for a Changing Workforce, a Seattle think tank that has studied Wal-Mart's benefits. In TV ads, "it's 'Our people make the difference.' But, if you read this memo, their people aren't making the difference. It's time to get a new, younger workforce that doesn't go see the doctor."

 

Benefit experts also said that Wal-Mart was partially to blame for its rising healthcare bill because expensive health plans discourage healthy workers from participating.

 

"The people that have health problems buy it and those who don't, don't," said David Style, who heads Corporate Benefit Marketing in Encino and is a board member of the Los Angeles Assn. of Health Underwriters. "They are in a death spiral."

 

Wal-Mart is not alone in its struggle to contain healthcare costs. Nationally, such costs have outpaced inflation for several years. That has prompted employers to shift costs onto workers through higher co-pays and deductibles.

 

"A Wal-Mart world — low wages, low benefits, stagnant incomes for the working class — is not actually good for Wal-Mart," Lichtenstein said. "And now they understand that."

 

Covering workers

 

Wal-Mart's health insurance plan covers fewer than half the company's employees. About 80% of all employees are eligible to participate, but only 60% sign up for coverage.

 

Percentage of workers eligible for coverage

 

Wal Mart: 81%

 

National employers: 81%

 

Retailers: 56%

 

*

 

Percentage of eligible workers with insurance

 

Wal mart: 60%

 

National employers: 83%

 

Retailers: 63%

 

*

 

Percentage of all employees with insurance

 

Wal Mart: 48%

 

National employers: 68%

 

Retailers: 36%

 

--

 

For some employees without insurance, Medicaid is an option.

 

Employees

 

Medicaid Uninsured

Wal Mart 5% 19%

 

National 

 

employers 4 18

 

Retailers 6 18

 

Children of employees

 

Medicaid* Uninsured

Wal Mart 27% 19%

 

National 

 

employers 22 10

 

Retailers 36 NA

 

NA=not available

 

*Meidcaid or State Children's Health Insurance Program

 

Source: Internal Wal-Mart document

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

...trying to dissuade unhealthy people from seeking jobs by, among other things, requiring cashiers to gather carts in Wal-Mart's vast parking lots.

 

Look out Crono, they're gunning after you...