Don’t get me wrong. I hate Walmart, but sometimes I wonder about their PR
people. Do they have PR people? Are these people being paid minimum wage? Or is
Walmart so powerful and eliminated so much of the competition that they no
longer need PR people? The answer to these questions doesn’t really matter.
What matters is the meta experience of Walmart employees that are aware them
make a poverty wage and the store that employees them is collecting food for
them.
Take a minute. Throw something. I’ll wait. I threw a mug…it didn’t break.
So this is happening in Canton, Ohio. Walmart claims that it is proof
employees are looking out for one another by trying to provide Thanksgiving
meals to their coworkers. Of course, everyone else things it is proof the
company doesn’t pay enough to survive. Olivera
Perkins wrote the story for The Plain
Dealer.
This food drive is in employee only areas out of the line of sight of
customers, because can’t let your customers know something like that. It should
be noted that Walmart employees go on strike
today (Monday) in Cincinnati and Dayton.
Naturally, employees and those trying to organize them are pretty angry
about all this because I don’t know pay your employees. Kory Lundberg, Walmart
spokesman, claims the food drive is proof employees care about one another: “It
is for associates who have had some hardships come up. Maybe their spouse lost
a job.
“This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and
take care of them when they face extreme hardships.”
Lundberg asserts that the food drive was decided at a store level in
Canton. This is all in the wake of more Walmart strikes across the states. The
people involved in these strikes are looking for fair pay, safe working
conditions, etc. The activists and organizers are working on something for
Black Friday, but no one is talking about specifics at least to the press.
This isn’t a new drive at the Canton Walmart, and some people are
wondering why it is a big deal now. Employees seem mixed; some think it is
useful and kind while others feel ashamed and demoralized by it. I’m not going
to get into pay rates, but even by the spokesman’s assert average rate still
only comes about to about $25,000 per year, and it is assumed he went high on
his rate.
You can read more from Allison
Kilkenny. I really don’t understand how anyone can be in favor of the
Walmart model, which is essentially short-term profits over long-term
sustainability resulting in inequity, poverty, and hunger. Good job guys.
