Cross-posted at Immizen.com with links to sources.
My middle school daughter for some reason decided to Facebook “like” Walmart. I don’t remember why exactly and she is at the pool with her friends right now and I will not call her to ask why she “liked” Walmart. I am going to guess that she did it because some friend bought some hip China-made something at Walmart or because she saw a good friend “liking” Walmart and teenagers are often copycats.
The problem is she forgot to “unlike” them after I told her I thought that was kind of lame and after explaining the reputation of Walmart for exploiting their workers. And now, I just saw my daughter’s cute face next to the Walmart logo and the thumbs up. Before I forget again, I sent her an email.
This is what I wrote:
Can you please unlike Walmart? Walmart owners are Republicans and they treat their employees really bad, like many Republicans do. WalMart has a reputation for employee abuse, for paying them the lowest possible salary, for firing them if they get sick, and for paying women lower salaries than men and not promoting them to higher well paid positions (Unfortunately, the Republican US Supreme Court ruled that Walmart has the right to continue to discriminate against women) .
And don’t think all company owners are Republicans just because I told you the rich often vote Republican. As an example, there is Starbucks, whose owner is a Democrat, who treats his employees very well, giving them good health insurance, even for part-time employees.
Please don’t “like” companies who exploit their workers.
Of course, if she decides she wants to still like them or decides she wants to become a Republican, hey, it’s her choice, but at least she will do so after being informed of who they are and I will want to know her reason for going astray.
As a recap, let’s compare Walmart to some great companies that treat their employees well:
Starbucks
Few American employers offer what Starbucks under Schultz has long given its 107,000 "partners" (what the company calls its employees) in the U.S. In addition to equity grants of "Bean stock," all fulltimers and part-timers putting in at least 20 hours a week (which means nearly all of them) get health care benefits. When Schultz returned as CEO, he refused calls from institutional investors to reduce health care coverage. That would have been anathema to the corporate "ethos," Schultz says, and it would ultimately have been "self-destructive" in "sapping the reservoir of trust" that employees had.
Costco
The founder, Jim Senegal, son of a Pennsylvanian who was a coal miner and a steel worker and a good union man, Senegal had this vision that “I’m going to treat my workers well. I’m going to have very low prices. But I don’t want anyone thinking that I have low prices because our workers work under sweatshop conditions.” He decided, in setting up Costco, that Costco would have the best wages and benefits of any retailer, general retailer, in the nation. And generally, it does, yes. Someone working at Costco for, say, five years, their wages and benefit package together will be two, two-and-a-half times what the wage and benefit package is together at Wal-Mart. You know, the health plan is extremely good.
There’s this funny story about Costco, where each year they do a survey of their workers, saying, “What’s the best thing about working at Costco? What’s the worst thing about working at Costco?” And one poll found that employees said the worst thing about working at Costco is they weren’t allowed to wear shorts to work year round. So, imagine if that were the biggest complaint at every company in the United States.
Wal-mart
Walmart had this worker, Mike Michell, who worked as security guard for a Wal-Mart in Texas, and he was a great security guard. He caught 180 shoplifters over a two-year period. One day, he runs out into the parking lot to chase after someone who’s using stolen checks. The woman’s accomplice floors the accelerator, hits Mike, you know, messes up his back, breaks his kneecap. You know, Mike asks for a few weeks off, because he needs surgery on his knee. He applies for workers’ comp, and boom, he’s fired.
Wal-Mart is known to discriminate against women. A nationwide class action case was brought against Wal-Mart for sex discrimination at Walmart. The origins of the lawsuit date to 1999 when Stephanie Odle was fired after complaining that she was discriminated against because of her sex. She said she had discovered that a male employee with the same job and less experience was making $23,000 a year more than she was. The case began in 2000 when the lead plaintiff in the case decided by the Supreme Court, Betty Dukes, filed a sex discrimination suit claiming she had been denied the training she needed to receive promotion. The civil rights lawyer Brad Seligman, representing Dukes, claims Walmart systematically discriminated against female employees, who were underrepresented in management positions and were paid less than male colleagues.
Wal-Mart had to pay $135,540 in 2005 to settle federal charges that it broke child labor laws, the Labor Department said Saturday (and that although Bush helped them avoid a heavier penalty). The 24 violations, which occurred at stores in Arkansas, Connecticut and New Hampshire, had to do with teenage workers who used hazardous equipment such as a chain saw, paper bailers and fork lifts. Child labor laws prohibit anyone under 18 from operating hazardous equipment.
When WalMart came to California, it forced other large grocery stores in the state to cut wages and benefits after a four month strike. The stores argued they could not compete if they had to pay cashiers an average of $17.90 an hour while WalMart was only paying $8.50.
Walmart donates significantly more money to Republican candidates than Democratic candidates and only donate money to Blue Dog Democrats, the right-wing conservative group of Democrats. In state races, the Walmart PAC donated $1.8 million to Republicans and only $550,000 to Democrats. The Walton family donated more than $600,000 to Republicans at various levels, and only $62,000 to Democrats. In all, according to Walmart Watch, in 2010 $3.5 million in Walmart and Walton dollars went to Republicans and only $1.5 million to Democrats.
Links to Sources