|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
On Wednesday, Mountain View’s Walmart was one of many around the country where workers presented management with a petition asking for $15 an hour minimum pay and access to full time work, promising massive Black Friday protests if there is no response.
After a string of high-profile protest, including demonstrations in front of the homes of members of the Walton Family (owners of Walmart), “The workers have their attention now like they never have before,” said Simone Mock, lead organizer for the local United Food And Commercial Workers union. In mid-October Walmart board chair Robert Walton promised to do away with paying minimum wages to Walmart employees, but members of group dismissed the promise as “pretty vague” on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
The interest among city leaders to raise Mountain View’s minimum wage to $15 was part of what spurred a few Walmart workers from the East Bay to join Mountain View Walmart worker Pam Ramos in delivering the petition. Ramos — who talked about her situation in detail earlier this year — has been unable to pay for housing as a Mountain View Walmart employee for the last four years because of her low pay and unpredictable part-time schedule. She broke down in tears before the Mountain View City Council meeting in October before the council voted to increase the city’s minimum wage to $10 an hour next year and made it a goal to get to $15 by 2018.
A few members of the group prepared to enter the store under a court injunction which limits union organizing activity after several disruptive protests were held inside Walmart stores in recent years. “We’re so intimidating to Walmart we aren’t even allowed to have a piece of paper” inside the store, Mock said. “They are so afraid we might pass something to employees, we’re not allowed to take in a bag – that includes all supporters.”
The group was surprised to be greeted by a smiling shift manager named Mansour outside the front door. He gave Ramos a hug and said, “Nice to see you.” He added that the petition was “not my business” but would make sure his bosses knew about it.
The petition for “$15 and full time” read “The Waltons are robbing America. Workers are fighting back.” It addresses the owners of Walmart, saying “If you fail to respond by Black Friday (November 28th), the biggest shopping day of the year, we will hold massive protests nationwide.”
Mock said the petition was signed by community members at more than 3,000 stores nationwide and by Walmart employees at more than 2,000 stores.
Beforehand, several former and current Walmart workers gathered in the parking lot, and at one point complained that Walmart policies discourage them from ever taking sick leave. One local supporter of the effort, Mountain View resident Alison Hicks, expressed disgust: “I don’t want to go into a store where employees are sick while stocking things.”
-
Council candidate Ken Rosenberg is congratulated as votes stream in at KMVT, during election night, on Tuesday night, Nov. 4, 2014. Photo by Michelle Le -
Council candidate Lenny Siegel is congratulated by confidante Ed Brennan at Siegel’s election night party held at his house, on Tuesday night, Nov. 4, 2014. Photo by Michelle Le
Okay Robert, it’s obvious that you’ve accepted the Wal-Mart line completely, and without actually thinking about it.
Here’s something to consider: Wal-Mart sets its wages for most of its retail employees so low, they are REQUIRED to seek government assistance, such as food stamps and the like, in order to make it through a given month.
If you think that is appropriate behavior on the part of a massive business operation such as Wal-Mart, you are truly a sorry sort.
What I like about Walmart are its low prices. If they increased their wage rate by 50% I’m sure that their prices would rise accordingly, and shoppers who are on fixed income will not be able to buy as much as they can now. This might mean the difference for poor shoppers who depend upon Walmart low prices to feed their families without having to resort to food stamps, subsidized housing or other handouts.
Perhaps we should return to the time of slavery and indentured servitude and give a $0.00/hour wage. If lower wages means that prices will drop so the impoverished will be able to buy good, then that sounds good!
Hmm..I wonder why we don’t do that….Hmmmmm…..
vhvhbbbk
Walmart pays around $8/hr and gets employees worth $8/hr. If forced to pay $15/hr, they will demand and get employees worth $15/hr. They will get employees who can speak English and actually know where merchandise is in the store. Many of the current employees including the ones demanding $15/hr will lose their jobs. Irony.
I keep reading that if people cannot support their families on 8 bucks/ hour, then they should just leave.
Why don’t you take your own advice? Since most people in MV support minimum wage, then perhaps YOU should leave. Go live in a “red state” and live with like-minded people.
Bye!
how about just a cost of living raise, a 40 cent raise a year does not help, the cost of living increases are a lot more than what we get in raises
We still live in a country which still has a few remaining freedoms, and one of those is that the employees can petition Walmart for a higher wage. Walmart can accept their threat of sabotaging black Friday sales as real and decide whether or not to raise their wages. If Walmart refuses and the strike makes the store unprofitable, they might as well close it, costing all of those jobs. It’s a balance between both sides.
And please, stop it with the slavery nonsense. Nobody would take a job at Walmart for free, though plenty of people do accept unpaid work to learn a trade or build connections. That’s just a piece of silly rhetoric, just like bringing up Nazis to argue against socialism.
Can’t have it both ways. If you think a minimum wage is an assault on our freedoms and damaging to our economy, then you must be wanting to go back to the old days of working for no pay. Or indentured servitude for life. That’s how unchecked capitalism works. Just look at our beloved country’s history.
“Nobody would take a job at Walmart for free.” Again, look at this country’s history. Factories would set-up dorms to house their employees and pay them next to nothing. In fact, you were required to buy your stuff from the company, so would often end up in debt. Do we really want to return to those times? Where only the 1% could afford a meal and a roof over their heads?
I love it when die-hard republicans all of the sudden are so concerned for the workers if Walmart closes. What a joke! It’s obvious you care little.
I didn’t mention the minimum wage at all, just that the employees have power over an employer, just as an employer has over them. The employer does have the jobs, but they have the skill and the training. It’s very impractical to train up a whole new staff all at once. Walmart operates on a 3% profit margin, so they won’t have much wiggle room.
The old work camps in the US are history, they won’t happen again. Unionization helped employees fight for safety and a reasonable work week from employers, and now we have cultural expectations of what is legitimate employer behavior and what isn’t, not to mention labor code which sets these expectations in stone (for better or for worse). If Walmart announced that employees must live on-campus, and will be paid in scrip only to be spent in the company store, how many do you think would accept this proposal? The locals would probably boycott the place too. Employees couldn’t be forced into it either, since employment is not compulsory. I could make an argument this ridiculous as well. North Korea has no capitalism, it’s communist, so it must be a worker’s paradise, right?
It’s silly to assume that people will work for someone unless they’re getting some benefit. Even the old company towns with employers that paid in scrip were better than living on the streets, but today, we’re far wealthier as a society, so we don’t have people destitute enough to go for that sort of thing anymore, though it does happen in places with a destitute underclass, like China and its famous factory dorms/sweatshops.
Resident, my friend… You really need to go back to school and get educated.
Let’s go over your words:
@Resident wrote: “…the employees have power over an employer, just as an employer has over them.”
Are you kidding me? A minimum wage walmart worker has the same power over Sam Walton as Sam Walton has over the worker?
@Resident wrote: “The old work camps in the US are history, they won’t happen again. ”
Ever read the statement popularized by Winston Churchill? “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
@Resident wrote: “If Walmart announced that employees must live on-campus, and will be paid in scrip only to be spent in the company store, how many do you think would accept this proposal?”
Well, how do YOU KNOW that nobody would accept the proposal? They accept minimum wage today. If the wage was lowered, there’s no reason to think that many would stay employed. Historically, that is true. As you pointed out earlier, there are apprenticeships that are unpaid, so why not $0.25/hour? Fortunately, we live in a community that refuses to test this.
@Resident wrote: “…we’re far wealthier as a society, so we don’t have people destitute enough to go for that sort of thing anymore…”
Wow… go visit the homeless camps and report back. Look at the rapid erosion of the middle class. There’s quite a bit of poverty in this country and while the nation is wealthier, it doesn’t always “trickle down” to everyone.
Glad to live in a community that wants to return the minimum wage level to something approaching the poverty level. The current one is well below.
Amazing how silly most of the arguments are on MW. Just shows how illiterate people are about understanding voluntary exchanges in competitive labor markets and how wages are determined.
Hmmmm… Didn’t know that Walmart employees were unionized. Thanks for sharing from your great body of knowledge Sparty!
Great thing about boosting the minimum wage is that it improves the economy. Trickle-down economics was a disaster, because the wealthy do not locally invest 100 pct of their earnings.
Raising the minimum wage is an example of Trickle-UP economics…and it works because folks at that earning level are most likely spending 100pct of their income. And spend equals invest!
Either this concept is too difficult to understand or Fox News is more influential than I thought.
The red herring arguments about businesses closing are ridiculous. If a slight expense increase causes a business to fold, then they were likely going to die soon anyway. Another more efficient business will simply take their place. That’s America. Love it or leave it.
Walmart is the epitome of unfettered greed and exploitation, and the lousy wage is just the one aspect of their sordid existence. Destroying main street America and exporting jobs and pollution to China have so lowered earnings in so many communities that people have no choice but to do their shopping there. It is nearly the equivalent of the “company store” of the early 1900’s where workers were paid in company vouchers that were only good at the company store. Leave the wealthy bay area and go into some smaller communities and see the destruction to what used to be viable town centers and the Walmart economic destruction is on full display. The only response to this economic travesty is to boycott Walmart, regardless of the subsistence wage they may be willing to pay.
Why should people who work at Walmart get paid $15/hr.?
1. Because they are such highly trained workers that if Walmart doesn’t pay them that much they can easily jump ship and go work someplace else for more?
2. Because Walmart doesn’t have to worry about their bottom line or how much they charge for the products that they sell?
3. Because everyone else in Mountain View has plenty of money and we will all agree to chip in by shopping at Walmart if their prices increase above that of their competitors as a result of higher labor costs to show our support for their decision to raise wages?
Walmart is a company that offers local people an opportunity for employment. The people have a choice, accept the terms of employment or go fish. No one is forcing anyone to work, that is the workers choice.
When your check arrives in the mail, which will give you the most pride, the one from the welfare or unemployment dept. or the one from an employer? How one answers that question says a lot about who you are.
All the tech jobs around, and I’m sure they’re qualified…why don’t they just leave?
Dear Stop the Trolls: You seem to believe that people are somehow required to work for low wages, which they are not. If they don’t like their job, they can quit. If they find that living in Mountain View is too expensive, they can move. People are free to do as they wish, workers are not indentured to Walmart or chained to Mountain View. Everyday we make decisions that affect our lives and most people take personal responsibility for those actions. The workers at Walmart should put on their grown up clothes and be grateful that they have a job, or they should quit.
Who pays more… Walmart? Bloomingdales? Macys? Needless Markup?
OK, easier question..who pays the LEAST. And which place is it that you’ll get blank stares when you ask a question? Employees standing around jabbering at each other? Even Target has an exponentially better customer experience.
Walmart has accepted that their service is garbage, and hires only who they need to to provide that garbage level of service. That’s the trade off for 10 pairs of socks for $15.
“Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.
quote from the guy who doesn’t think Walmart workers have power.
who forgot about labor unions in the US somehow
Didn’t know they were prohibited by law to have a union. Thanks for the comment on current laws.