Nicholas Omann
Honors 1105
May 7, 2006
Unions and Wal-Mart: A Look at the UFCW and WakeUpWalMart.com
Wal-Mart has been under attack from many different groups and organizations for quite a while now. One of groups throwing most of there weight at attacking Wal-Mart is the labor unions. The unions see Wal-Marts 1.3 million US employees, which it states at Wal-Mart Facts, as something they definitely want to add to their groups (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.) . While this is true some groups like ”the commercial workers' union, with about one million members, has failed to make inroads in organizing the company and has said it will move away from organizing and instead focus on building support against Wal-Mart's practices” (Bloomberg News, 2005, ¶ 3). The unions also see that the media and many people are at odds with Wal-Mart and can see that it is something that they could hit more and try and make the unions look better. The unions are currently trying a few different ways of attacking Wal-Mart. There are a large number of unions working together. From these the AFL-CIO is a major player in financing it and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union heading the campaign. This campaign started about a year ago created WakeUpWalMart.com. WakeUpWalMart.com is one of the largest players by the unions that are attacking Wal-Mart how accurate is its information, what plans does this site have for the future and has it been moving towards its goal?
Differences in the Attacks on Wages
When attacking Wal-Mart, Unions will normally attack on the issue of wages. The interesting thing with wages though is no websites seems to be able to agree on what they actually are. First, there is Wal-Mart who does not give a normal average amount but they do tell us that an “average hourly wage for regular full-time store associates in the U.S. is $10.11 an hour [at Wal-Mart]” (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.). Wal-Mart states that “the majority of Wal-Mart’s hourly store associates in the United States work full-time” (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.). This seems to be a scapegoat of sorts as a way for Wal-Mart to not show their actual average wage. According to the UFCW's “Hold Wal-Mart Accountable page on the UFCW’s own website “Wal-Mart pays an average hourly wage of $8.23 an hour, according to independent expert statistical analysis, which falls below basic living wage standards and even below poverty lines” (UFCW, ¶ 1). The UFCW also says “Wal-Mart claims an hourly wage of $9.68 an hour is its national average, though that still equals poverty levels for workers” (UFCW, ¶ 2). This statistic is not on Wal-Mart's own website because they only list the average wage for a fulltime employee. This number comes up again in a MSNBC article pointed out later. The AFL-CIO's website has no direct stating of Wal-Mart’s wages and only points out that “Wal-Mart’s average full-time pay lands a four-person family in poverty” (AFL-CIO flyer). Through one section of the AFL-CIO website that does have links to two PDF files. One being “Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Wages, Workers’ Rights and the American Dream” which works but also one being “Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart” which brings you to an error page (AFL-CIO, 2006). The report “Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Wages, Workers’ Rights and the American Dream” at one point quotes the average wage of a Wal-Mart employee. This is quoted from an MSNBC article in which the UFCW states “an average wage of $9.68 per hour” (Curry, 2005, ¶16). This number is the same as the number that was found at the UFCW's website but is there said to be the number given by Wal-Mart. To see if there was any difference in the wages I searched to see if there were other estimates elsewhere. For this I was able to find that “Wal-Mart pays an average of $9.37 an hour” and in another BBC article it says that the average is “$9.37 an hour” as well (BBC News, 2005).
Current WakeUpWalMart.com Campaigns
The current anti-Wal-Mart campaigns by the unions are being lead by the UFCW who are the founders of Wake up Wal-Mart.com. One of the campaigns that have recently happened was in August of 2005. “The National Education Association, with 2.7 million members, and the American Federation of Teachers, with 1.3 million, teamed up with the United Food and Commercial Workers to urge shoppers to buy school supplies elsewhere” (Bloomberg News, 2005, ¶ 2). Wake-Up Wal-Mart's main campaign is their “Fair Share for Heath Care” campaign. They are currently on there website are attempting to get people to “Co-Sponsor Health Care Legislation in [their] state” (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005). They also have a large banner on there main page which states “ALWAYS HIGH COSTS…YOUR MONEY” which is followed by the amount that they claim has been spent on Wal-Mart employees by the government (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005). Also they are having a rally April 26th of this year (2006) which is to try and stop “Wal-Mart's Heath Care Crisis” by having “In at least 35 cities, grassroots supporters of WakeUpWalMart.com…take part in this national day of action to raise awareness about the Wal-Mart health care crisis and sign the pledge to make Wal-Mart pay its fair share for health care” (Laura, 2006, ¶ 3). This is they say an event at which “supporters will take to the streets to sign up thousands of Americans to join the fight for health care by signing the ‘Cure the Wal-Mart Health Care Crisis’ pledge” (Laura, 2006, ¶ 6). At their RSVP for the rally they have a flyer for people that are not in towns with rallies to distribute but also have the Petition/Pledge referred to above which states, “I believe that Wal-Mart, a company with $11 billion in profits, has the moral responsibility to pay its fair share for health care so its workers and their children no longer suffer without insurance and taxpayers no longer foot the bill” (WakeUpWalMart.com Petition). The flyer that they are telling people to distribute state that “the Wal-Mart ‘Health Care Crisis’ will cost taxpayers an estimated $9.1 billion over the next five years” and also that it cost the taxpayers “$1.37 billion in 2005” (WakeUpWalMart Flyer). Another major campaign for WakeUpWalMart.com is “Six Demands for Change” which include “Living Wage...Affordable Heath Care...End Discrimination...Zero Tolerance of Child Labor...Buy American...Respect Communities” (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005).
Unions Effects on Wal-Mart
The major question is whether or not the unions having an effect on Wal-Marts practices. The unions have been putting a lot of pressure on Wal-Mart. In a Los Angeles Times article Governor of Arkansas pointed out that ”Wal-Mart has really become the whipping boy of labor unions across the country who would love to demonize the Wal-Mart brand and the Wal-Mart culture...Wal-Mart would tell you they're not a perfect company” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 15). There was recently in the LA Times an article about how union is “polishing” its image with people (Goldman, 2006). The article goes and states “its biggest detractors are Wal-Mart Watch...and WakeUpWalMart.com, funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 18). Also in the same article it pointed out how ”[Wal-Mart] has fared no better on Wall Street, where its stock has been relatively unchanged for the last 6 1/2 years” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 12). Some of the things that the unions have been campaigning and holding rallies for are now being fixed. In one New York Times article about new changes at Wal-Mart it points out “the company has expanded health insurance to the children of part-time workers, committed to sweeping reductions in energy use and is planning to support local businesses, including competitors, near its proposed urban stores” (Barbaro, 2006, C13). The unions do not believe this is enough though and responded to these changes and the media conference with Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com, saying, “After two more days of publicity stunts, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott again missed an incredible opportunity to change Wal-Mart and change America for the better” (Associated Press, 2006, ¶ 7).
The average wage which when I started this I was expecting to be very different on many websites ended up being most of the time reported around the same area with the differences being about 30 cents. WakeUpWalMart.com has many campaigns they are currently running most of these campaigns are aimed at Wal-Mart’s health care and wages. The major problem though is that much of their current campaigns are focused on heath care which is one the main areas that Wal-Mart has been making an attempt to fix some of the major problems in but the unions keep trying to downplay these moves instead of looking at them as successes. The unions must start looking at Wal-Mart not as a corporation, which cannot change, and must start looking at it as though it could change or they will never be able to make progress.
References
AFL-CIO Flyer Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/upload/shopfacts.pdf
AFL-CIO. (2006) Paying the Price at Wal-Mart. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/walmart_8.cfm
Associated Press. (2006, April 20). Changes for real, Wal-Mart says. Deseret News, pp. E.04. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from ProQuest Newspapers, Ethnic NewsWatch.
Barbaro, M. (2006, April 20). Chief's Tone Reflects Change At Wal-Mart in the Last Year. New York Times, pp. C13.
BBC Business. (2005, October 26). Wal-Mart calls for higher wages. BBC News. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/437734.stm
BBC Business. (2005, December 1). Wal-Mart is labelled 'bad for US'. BBC News. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4490434.stm
Bloomberg News. (2005, August 11). Unions Boycott Wal-Mart. New York Times. Retrieved April 22,2005, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/business/11walmart.html?ex=1145851200&en=954dc0e4420a1b1f&ei=5070
Curry, T. (2005, July 5). Campaign vets run anti-Wal-Mart effort. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8333653
Goldman, A. (2006, April 19). Wal-Mart Works to Polish Image, but Detractors Gear Up Too. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart19apr19,1,108109.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Johansson, E. (2005) Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Workers' Wages, Rights, and the American Dream. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/walmart/report.cfm
Laura. (2006, April 21). Join Your Local Rally To Change Wal-Mart and Change America. Blog posted to http://blog.wakeupwalmart.com/
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. (2005). WakeUpWalMart.com. Retrieved April 24, 2006 from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/
UFCW. (n.d.). Wal-Martization of Wages. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/facts_and_figures/walmartwages.cfm
WakeUpWalMart.com Petition. (n.d.) Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/ctw/
WakeUpWalMart.com Flyer. (n.d.) Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/ctw/
Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). Wal-Mart Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.walmartfacts.com/doyouknow/
Honors 1105
May 7, 2006
Unions and Wal-Mart: A Look at the UFCW and WakeUpWalMart.com
Wal-Mart has been under attack from many different groups and organizations for quite a while now. One of groups throwing most of there weight at attacking Wal-Mart is the labor unions. The unions see Wal-Marts 1.3 million US employees, which it states at Wal-Mart Facts, as something they definitely want to add to their groups (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.) . While this is true some groups like ”the commercial workers' union, with about one million members, has failed to make inroads in organizing the company and has said it will move away from organizing and instead focus on building support against Wal-Mart's practices” (Bloomberg News, 2005, ¶ 3). The unions also see that the media and many people are at odds with Wal-Mart and can see that it is something that they could hit more and try and make the unions look better. The unions are currently trying a few different ways of attacking Wal-Mart. There are a large number of unions working together. From these the AFL-CIO is a major player in financing it and the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union heading the campaign. This campaign started about a year ago created WakeUpWalMart.com. WakeUpWalMart.com is one of the largest players by the unions that are attacking Wal-Mart how accurate is its information, what plans does this site have for the future and has it been moving towards its goal?
Differences in the Attacks on Wages
When attacking Wal-Mart, Unions will normally attack on the issue of wages. The interesting thing with wages though is no websites seems to be able to agree on what they actually are. First, there is Wal-Mart who does not give a normal average amount but they do tell us that an “average hourly wage for regular full-time store associates in the U.S. is $10.11 an hour [at Wal-Mart]” (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.). Wal-Mart states that “the majority of Wal-Mart’s hourly store associates in the United States work full-time” (Wal-Mart Stores. n.d.). This seems to be a scapegoat of sorts as a way for Wal-Mart to not show their actual average wage. According to the UFCW's “Hold Wal-Mart Accountable page on the UFCW’s own website “Wal-Mart pays an average hourly wage of $8.23 an hour, according to independent expert statistical analysis, which falls below basic living wage standards and even below poverty lines” (UFCW, ¶ 1). The UFCW also says “Wal-Mart claims an hourly wage of $9.68 an hour is its national average, though that still equals poverty levels for workers” (UFCW, ¶ 2). This statistic is not on Wal-Mart's own website because they only list the average wage for a fulltime employee. This number comes up again in a MSNBC article pointed out later. The AFL-CIO's website has no direct stating of Wal-Mart’s wages and only points out that “Wal-Mart’s average full-time pay lands a four-person family in poverty” (AFL-CIO flyer). Through one section of the AFL-CIO website that does have links to two PDF files. One being “Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Wages, Workers’ Rights and the American Dream” which works but also one being “Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart” which brings you to an error page (AFL-CIO, 2006). The report “Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Wages, Workers’ Rights and the American Dream” at one point quotes the average wage of a Wal-Mart employee. This is quoted from an MSNBC article in which the UFCW states “an average wage of $9.68 per hour” (Curry, 2005, ¶16). This number is the same as the number that was found at the UFCW's website but is there said to be the number given by Wal-Mart. To see if there was any difference in the wages I searched to see if there were other estimates elsewhere. For this I was able to find that “Wal-Mart pays an average of $9.37 an hour” and in another BBC article it says that the average is “$9.37 an hour” as well (BBC News, 2005).
Current WakeUpWalMart.com Campaigns
The current anti-Wal-Mart campaigns by the unions are being lead by the UFCW who are the founders of Wake up Wal-Mart.com. One of the campaigns that have recently happened was in August of 2005. “The National Education Association, with 2.7 million members, and the American Federation of Teachers, with 1.3 million, teamed up with the United Food and Commercial Workers to urge shoppers to buy school supplies elsewhere” (Bloomberg News, 2005, ¶ 2). Wake-Up Wal-Mart's main campaign is their “Fair Share for Heath Care” campaign. They are currently on there website are attempting to get people to “Co-Sponsor Health Care Legislation in [their] state” (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005). They also have a large banner on there main page which states “ALWAYS HIGH COSTS…YOUR MONEY” which is followed by the amount that they claim has been spent on Wal-Mart employees by the government (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005). Also they are having a rally April 26th of this year (2006) which is to try and stop “Wal-Mart's Heath Care Crisis” by having “In at least 35 cities, grassroots supporters of WakeUpWalMart.com…take part in this national day of action to raise awareness about the Wal-Mart health care crisis and sign the pledge to make Wal-Mart pay its fair share for health care” (Laura, 2006, ¶ 3). This is they say an event at which “supporters will take to the streets to sign up thousands of Americans to join the fight for health care by signing the ‘Cure the Wal-Mart Health Care Crisis’ pledge” (Laura, 2006, ¶ 6). At their RSVP for the rally they have a flyer for people that are not in towns with rallies to distribute but also have the Petition/Pledge referred to above which states, “I believe that Wal-Mart, a company with $11 billion in profits, has the moral responsibility to pay its fair share for health care so its workers and their children no longer suffer without insurance and taxpayers no longer foot the bill” (WakeUpWalMart.com Petition). The flyer that they are telling people to distribute state that “the Wal-Mart ‘Health Care Crisis’ will cost taxpayers an estimated $9.1 billion over the next five years” and also that it cost the taxpayers “$1.37 billion in 2005” (WakeUpWalMart Flyer). Another major campaign for WakeUpWalMart.com is “Six Demands for Change” which include “Living Wage...Affordable Heath Care...End Discrimination...Zero Tolerance of Child Labor...Buy American...Respect Communities” (United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, 2005).
Unions Effects on Wal-Mart
The major question is whether or not the unions having an effect on Wal-Marts practices. The unions have been putting a lot of pressure on Wal-Mart. In a Los Angeles Times article Governor of Arkansas pointed out that ”Wal-Mart has really become the whipping boy of labor unions across the country who would love to demonize the Wal-Mart brand and the Wal-Mart culture...Wal-Mart would tell you they're not a perfect company” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 15). There was recently in the LA Times an article about how union is “polishing” its image with people (Goldman, 2006). The article goes and states “its biggest detractors are Wal-Mart Watch...and WakeUpWalMart.com, funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers union” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 18). Also in the same article it pointed out how ”[Wal-Mart] has fared no better on Wall Street, where its stock has been relatively unchanged for the last 6 1/2 years” (Goldman, 2006, ¶ 12). Some of the things that the unions have been campaigning and holding rallies for are now being fixed. In one New York Times article about new changes at Wal-Mart it points out “the company has expanded health insurance to the children of part-time workers, committed to sweeping reductions in energy use and is planning to support local businesses, including competitors, near its proposed urban stores” (Barbaro, 2006, C13). The unions do not believe this is enough though and responded to these changes and the media conference with Chris Kofinis, a spokesman for WakeUpWalMart.com, saying, “After two more days of publicity stunts, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott again missed an incredible opportunity to change Wal-Mart and change America for the better” (Associated Press, 2006, ¶ 7).
The average wage which when I started this I was expecting to be very different on many websites ended up being most of the time reported around the same area with the differences being about 30 cents. WakeUpWalMart.com has many campaigns they are currently running most of these campaigns are aimed at Wal-Mart’s health care and wages. The major problem though is that much of their current campaigns are focused on heath care which is one the main areas that Wal-Mart has been making an attempt to fix some of the major problems in but the unions keep trying to downplay these moves instead of looking at them as successes. The unions must start looking at Wal-Mart not as a corporation, which cannot change, and must start looking at it as though it could change or they will never be able to make progress.
References
AFL-CIO Flyer Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/upload/shopfacts.pdf
AFL-CIO. (2006) Paying the Price at Wal-Mart. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/walmart/walmart_8.cfm
Associated Press. (2006, April 20). Changes for real, Wal-Mart says. Deseret News, pp. E.04. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from ProQuest Newspapers, Ethnic NewsWatch.
Barbaro, M. (2006, April 20). Chief's Tone Reflects Change At Wal-Mart in the Last Year. New York Times, pp. C13.
BBC Business. (2005, October 26). Wal-Mart calls for higher wages. BBC News. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/437734.stm
BBC Business. (2005, December 1). Wal-Mart is labelled 'bad for US'. BBC News. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4490434.stm
Bloomberg News. (2005, August 11). Unions Boycott Wal-Mart. New York Times. Retrieved April 22,2005, from http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/11/business/11walmart.html?ex=1145851200&en=954dc0e4420a1b1f&ei=5070
Curry, T. (2005, July 5). Campaign vets run anti-Wal-Mart effort. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8333653
Goldman, A. (2006, April 19). Wal-Mart Works to Polish Image, but Detractors Gear Up Too. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-walmart19apr19,1,108109.story?ctrack=1&cset=true
Johansson, E. (2005) Wal-Mart: Rolling Back Workers' Wages, Rights, and the American Dream. Retrieved April 22, 2006, from http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/walmart/report.cfm
Laura. (2006, April 21). Join Your Local Rally To Change Wal-Mart and Change America. Blog posted to http://blog.wakeupwalmart.com/
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. (2005). WakeUpWalMart.com. Retrieved April 24, 2006 from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/
UFCW. (n.d.). Wal-Martization of Wages. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.ufcw.org/issues_and_actions/walmart_workers_campaign_info/facts_and_figures/walmartwages.cfm
WakeUpWalMart.com Petition. (n.d.) Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/ctw/
WakeUpWalMart.com Flyer. (n.d.) Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/ctw/
Wal-Mart Stores. (2006). Wal-Mart Fact Sheet. Retrieved April 24, 2006, from http://www.walmartfacts.com/doyouknow/
posted by Louise Mengelkoch at
12:37 PM
