Inspired by the freedom rides during the civil rights era, roughly 100 Wal-Mart employees have organized a caravan to company shareholders’ meeting in Bentonville, Ark., to protest low wages, few benefits and alleged harassment at work.
“All we really want is for our rights to be respected and to live a life worth living. We’re not just numbers on your assets, we are living people. We do have [the right] for a better life,” said Golben Lebel, a Wal-Mart associate from Colorado, in an interview with Mint Press News.
Our Walmart, a workers’ rights advocacy organization, has put forth demands for a minimum wage of $13 per hour and respect at the workplace. Organizers claim it is the first prolonged strike in the company’s history.
Lebel was hired as an assembler 2010 at a store in Denver. He was promoted to the position of inventory supervisor but noticed that employees were frequently overworked and mistreated by the store management, he said.
“I got tired of the working conditions, there was way too much work and we were understaffed. The real problem is that there is a lot of favoritism. I couldn’t deal with it,” he said.
Lebel says that he noticed that employees were overworked in ways that violated Wal-Mart’s own policies regarding working conditions.
“They don’t follow their own policy and procedures. They have the facade of policy. For example, we are not supposed to work two shifts in 12 hours. They had an employee working 2 to 11 and then 7 to 4 the next day, maybe getting four hours of sleep and then right back to work. If you don’t go along with the program they will write you up for poor performance,” Lebel said.
“We are asking for $13 per hour, better schedules and to be staffed correctly. We need enough people to do the work — not just hiring three people, running them into the ground, firing them and then hiring three new people,” Lebel said. “Who doesn’t want more respect, more benefits, more health care? It’s not like we are asking for the impossible. We are asking for respect as human beings. Everything we are doing is legal.”
When asked what he would tell shareholders, Lebel said, “At the end of the day it is all about profit for Wal-Mart. Your profit is coming from slave wages. You are oppressing America for your bonuses and it is wrong.”
Wal-Mart corporate representatives have not met with the delegation, claiming that the group is made up of paid union activists.
“This group has paid the same people to come to Bentonville to hold these publicity stunts. It’s nothing new compared to last year. That group came by the office today. It’s a group made up of mostly union activists. We have a different focus — we’re bringing in 14,000 associates for a chance to thank them for their work,” Kory Lundberg, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart, told Mint Press News. “We talk to our associates everyday, they are the best generators of new ideas. If there are ideas or issues, we certainly want to hear them.”
Living wage?
The protest builds upon one-day strikes held last year, including a walkout at Wal-Mart locations on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year.
Wal-Mart, one of the world’s largest retailers, boasts a commitment to low prices and respect for the community. The discount superstore grew quickly after Sam Walton, the company founder, opened the first store in Bentonville, Ark., in 1962. The corporation now racks up $469 billion in annual revenue and employs roughly 1.4 million people across the U.S., or 1 percent of the total workforce.
“Wal-Mart does offer competitive pay and the majority of hourly workers are full-time. I’m not sure other employers can say that. We have 300,000 associates who have worked for the company for more than 10 years,” Lundberg said.
On its website, Wal-Mart says it pays full time employees an average wage of $12.67 per hour.
Many workers say they are given only part-time work and paid less than $12.67. According to a leaked Wal-Mart document obtained by the Huffington Post last year, many employees are given part-time work and are paid as little as $8 per hour. By comparison, Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke made $20.7 million in 2012, a 14 percent pay increase from the previous year.
Environmental problems
Workers and environmental groups claim that the low-wage philosophy championed by Walton has led to an increasing number of problems, including allegations of worker abuse and environmental degradation in recent months.
Wal-Mart has been forced to make a financial settlement for past incidents of environmental pollution dating back to 2006. The Environmental Protection Agency reports that Wal-Mart pleaded guilty to six federal environmental crimes last week, agreeing to pay $81 million in a settlement. The fines were increased to $110 million due to separate legal actions brought by California and Missouri.
According to documents filed in 2006, Wal-Mart did not have a program in place to train employees in proper waste disposal. As a result, the EPA reports that “hazardous wastes were either discarded improperly at the store level – including being put into municipal trash bins or, if a liquid, poured into the local sewer system – or they were improperly transported without proper safety documentation to one of six product return centers located throughout the United States.”
The case involves incidents dating back to 2006 that include the illegal disposal of toxic materials and improper disposal of returned fertilizer.
“By improperly handling hazardous waste, pesticides and other materials in violation of federal laws, Wal-Mart put the public and the environment at risk and gained an unfair economic advantage over other companies,” said Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
A representative for Wal-Mart told Mint Press News in a written statement that the claims have now been resolved.
“The resolution follows previous civil settlements Wal-Mart entered into with the State of California in 2010 and the State of Missouri in 2012 that addressed the same facts the federal government in this case raised and which Wal-Mart has already remedied,” said Randy Hargrove, director of national media relations for Wal-Mart.
“The incidents on which the charges are based occurred years ago and involved the transportation and disposal of common consumer products such as fertilizer, hairspray, nail polish and bleach. No specific environmental impact has been alleged and since then, Wal-Mart designed and implemented comprehensive environmental programs that remain in place today.”
Abusing taxpayers?
Because Wal-Mart does not pay a living wage for many employees, thousands are forced to rely upon public assistance to meet basic needs — costs that are passed on to consumers and taxpayers.
“I can’t afford the healthcare, $70 out of my paycheck for co-pays per month,” Lebel said.
Senate Democrats released a study on Wednesday finding that one Wal-Mart supercenter in Wisconsin could be costing taxpayers $900,000 a year. In Wisconsin, 3,216 Wal-Mart employees are enrolled in the state’s public healthcare program. When the dependents of those workers are added to the roles, the number of enrollees increases to 9,207.
Based on this finding, the state of California is now debating legislation that would fine large corporations, like Wal-Mart, that refuse to pay an employee a living wage. The current proposal would fine a corporation $6,000 for each employee that ends up on Medi-Cal, the state Medicaid program for the poor.