RE: [Futurework] Wal-Mart...

[Karen Watters Cole]

Thanks for sharing the SF Chronicle article about Wal-Mart’s shenanigans in obtaining signatures for ballots, Robert.   - KWC   Here’s the beginning of another article, too long to drop in here, but also contains other details, including making the point that “WalMartization” has contributed to illegal immigration around the US. Stores Follow Wal-Mart's Lead in Labor Competitors Struggle to Match Savings From Non-Union Workforce By Greg Schneider and Dina ElBoghdady, Washington Post, Thursday, November 6, 2003 MORGANTOWN, W.Va. -- As a young man, Roy Bukrim found a job that seemed better than working in dangerous coal mines like his relatives: He hired on at the Kroger supermarket, where 27 years later he's head night stocker and supports a wife, two kids and a mortgage.  But Bukrim, 48, figures he wouldn't have that career option today. Young people who take a job there now get minimum wage and no health benefits, then leave after a few months. Bukrim said the future that he saw in grocery work no longer exists. "We've been the generation where that's all changed." To Bukrim and other workers -- as well as Kroger Co. executives -- the juggernaut driving that change is the store's most-feared competitor, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.  "All we've heard is Wal-Mart this and Wal-Mart that," said Kroger cashier Victoria Marano. "They want to be like Wal-Mart so they can compete." Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer and the nation's biggest private employer, has become so powerful that its practices reverberate throughout the U.S. economy. About as many people work for Wal-Mart -- 1.3 million -- as are on active duty in the U.S. military.  Its most recent annual sales -- $245 billion -- are greater than the gross domestic product of Switzerland. It's no wonder the company has more than 3,000 stores in the United States; on Oct. 29 alone Wal-Mart opened 39 stores, and it once opened 47 in a day. Because it wields enormous buying power, Wal-Mart influences the makers of virtually all household products, dictating everything from pricing to packaging. What's more, Wal-Mart's mania for selling goods at rock-bottom prices has trained consumers to expect deep discounts everywhere they shop, forcing competing retailers to follow suit or fall behind. The Oct. 23 arrest of 250 illegal aliens working for outside cleaning crews at 61 Wal-Mart stores nationwide underscores another aspect of Wal-Mart's low-price formula: a fervent effort to hold down labor costs. This week the retailer said it has received a "target letter" from a federal grand jury in Pennsylvania, signifying that Wal-Mart itself is under investigation for its role in using illegal workers. Part of the reason the chain is able to offer a microwave oven for under $30 or a 24-can package of Sam's Choice cola for $3.64 or a gas-powered lawn mower for under $150, for instance, is because it contracts with outside janitorial services -- some of which have questionable hiring practices -- and relies heavily on lower-paid part-time workers, say unions and competitors. Wal-Mart's vast, non-unionized work force earns a typical wage of about $7 to $8 an hour. Unionized workers at Kroger, by contrast, said they were making between $11 and $13 an hour, with full health benefits. About 62 percent of Wal-Mart workers are eligible for benefits, but less than half of the workforce participates. Critics say the low participation is because Wal-Mart requires steep employee contributions. As other retailers follow Wal-Mart's lead, workers without technical training are feeling a tightening squeeze. Low-skilled manufacturing jobs are vanishing at historic rates -- West Virginia's coalfield employment, for instance, plummeted from 59,700 jobs in 1980 to 15,700 in 2000. Untrained people entering today's workforce the way Bukrim did three decades ago have dwindling odds of reaching the middle class. "These are jobs that have historically yielded a middle-class lifestyle. But with a much more lean and mean approach to services, many of those jobs are going by the wayside," said Jared Bernstein, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. Nowhere is that shift more evident than at supermarkets, such as Kroger, which have seen Wal-Mart rocket to the top of their industry in only 10 years. Bukrim and 70,000 other unionized workers at the Kroger, Safeway and Albertsons chains in several states -- including West Virginia, California and Kentucky -- are now on strike or locked out in a conflict over wage and benefits changes their employers say are necessary to compete with Wal-Mart. Some economists argue that the Wal-Martization of the American workforce is simply the free-market system functioning as it should. Gary Stibel, founder and principal of the New England Consulting Group, said Wal-Mart has saved consumers more than $20 billion through its discount pricing. Figuring in Wal-Mart's pressure on other retailers to lower prices, savings top $100 billion, he said. "In this day and age, the United States needs more companies like Wal-Mart to create jobs, even if not at the highest pay," Stibel said. "The company that makes its mark by taking the cost of manufacturing products and services up will lose, and the country that promotes that will lose."   http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6513-2003Nov5.html   Snipped from “Wal Mart Shops for Voters” by R.Rosen, in the SF Chronicle @ http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/11/03/EDGT42MT171.DTL   “Last June, the Contra Costa Country Board of Supervisors passed the ban when it recognized that Wal-Mart's seductive low prices come with hidden costs to residents. The retailer's subsistence wages drive down the pay of other workers; its huge super-centers undermine local small businesses and create more traffic congestion. Taxpayers, moreover, end up paying for workers' health care because they can't afford costly benefits on such low pay. In response, Wal-Mart - which never takes no for an answer – immediately parachuted in paid workers to gather 27,000 signatures to force supervisors to either rescind the ban or place the issue before the voters. Supervisors have put the question on the March 2 ballot. To fight off these restrictions, Wal-Mart has just launched a campaign to convince the community to vote "no." At its Martinez, Pittsburg and Antioch stores, Wal-Mart has hung banners and posters advertising its new "Consumer Action Network (CAN)," a rather transparent effort to persuade shoppers to vote against the limiting ordinance. Last week, workers at Wal-Mart handed out flyers that describe CAN as a "good government" program. (Many low-income shoppers, who receive some form of government assistance, might mistakenly think CAN is a government-sponsored program.) In exchange for signing a membership card (and providing your personal information), you get "a personal membership card, free newsletters, important bulletins and an invitation to special events." You also get a chance to fill out a voter registration application, which is conveniently mailed to Wal-Mart's CAN, rather than to the registrar of voters. If you want more information, you are referred to an 800 telephone number. But 20 calls to the number elicited the same response: "Only 'Kathy' knows about the program, she's on the other line, so just leave your name and number." Is it conceivable that Wal-Mart has hired only one person who is familiar with CAN? Or is this just a ploy to gather names and phone numbers to enlist shoppers in its political campaign? Meanwhile, a coalition of community activists is gearing up to support the ordinance. They include the nonprofit group ACORN, which promotes affordable housing and open space; union members; and religious, environmental and "smart growth" organizations. But they face a formidable enemy - the largest corporation in the world, which has unlimited funds to reach their intended goal of building 40 new super-centers in California. “ ______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework