Wal-Mart

Congratulations to the workers and their union for winning their contract! Predictably, Wal-Mart is already implying it will seek to get out of the government-imposed labor agreement in Quebec. A Wal-Mart human rights official reportedly has threatened to shut down the automotive department. (New York Times)

"The closure drew attention continent-wide because Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and the Jonquiere outlet, located about three hours north of Quebec City, was one of the first in North America to be organized." (National Post)

Sesame Street’s “Ernie Building Set” was released on July 15 in the United States and Europe, a product assembled in a sweatshop factory in Shenzhen, China by young exploited workers.

[UPDATED] Judge Robert King Jr. ruled in favor of workers on Monday in the Dakota County District Court of Hastings, Minnesota.

"Wal-Mart broke Minnesota labor law more than 2 million times over six years by forcing some employees to work without breaks and without full pay," costing the retail giant up to $2 billion not counting back wages for the 56,000 employees represented under the Braun v. Wal-Mart suit (Star Tribune).

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So far, there are 80 class-action suits in 41 states against Wal-Mart

Victorious worker Glenda Allen:

“After beating all the odds -- surviving my injury when not expected to survive, walking again when told that I would never walk again, and returning to work where I received excellent performance evaluations and consistent merit increases -- I was devastated to have the rug pulled out from underneath me simply because Wal-Mart could ‘no longer accommodate my handicap needs.’ I am hopeful that this settlement will make Wal-Mart take a closer look at its policies and practices with respect to the employment of individuals with disabilities so that what happened to me will not happen to someone else.” (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission)

Two recent New York Times articles paint a picture of Wal-Mart as experiencing a turnaround in its battered public image. Wal-Mart apparently sells a lot of energy efficient light bulbs and has allegedly made marginal improvements to its stingy health care plan.

But there's a problem (among many others) with the idea of a Wal-Mart on the up-and-up: the world's largest company still has shown zero respect for the right under international and domestic law to form a labor union.

Given that to this day not a single Wal-Mart worker in the United States has the benefits of union membership and that Wal-Mart has demonstrated absolutely no sign of easing its rabid hostility to union organizing, we should cast a skeptical eye to Wal-Mart's token improvements.

Joining a labor union is the best way retail workers can exercise their right to free association on the job and articulate an independent voice in society.

Superficial improvements by Wal-Mart designed in large part to provide cover for its union-busting agenda should not distract people of conscience from holding the company accountable for its misconduct.(Wal-Mart’s Detractors Come In From the Cold) and (Smiles All Around at Wal-Mart’s Annual Meeting)

UPDATE (05/13/2008): Burger King exec. is ousted over anti-worker Internet smear campaign. (Associated Press) The question remains whether Burger King CEO John Chidsey ordered the operation.

Writing in the New York Times, Eric Schlosser decries corporate spying against advocates for social change including Burger's King spying operation against the Student/Farmworker Alliance. Schlosser calls for a congressional investigation of the increasing use of spying programs by multinational corporations. (New York Times)

But Olbermann is not satisfied yet. He's going after Wal-Mart to compensate Debbie Shank for her legal nightmare.

Go Keith Go!

If you missed the CNN piece breaking the story of Debbie Shank, it's here.

UPDATE: April 1, 2008- Wal-Mart caves to pressure and agrees to stop hounding Debbie Shank!

WATCH THE VIDEO

Debbie Shank getting hit by a semi-truck, becoming severely brain damaged, and losing her U.S. soldier son to war, wasn't enough to shake Wal-Mart's relentless pursuit of money.(CNN)

Kris Maher of the Wall Street Journal has an excellent article on the growth of insecure part-time jobs with constantly changing work hours and reduced wages and benefits. Fluctuating work schedules with no guaranteed hours each week are major detriments to the quality of life for retail workers and their families. Here's how it often works at the retail and food chains:

Every week or two, employees will find out their work schedule. Not only do days off change week-to-week, so do the start and end times of shifts. One week you might have Monday and Thursday off and then the following week you'll get Tuesday and Saturday. You might start a week off with a 9am-3pm shift, then do a 1pm-9m shift the next day, only to wake up the following day for another morning shift. You also don't know how many hours you'll get each week, so your precise monthly income is very much up in the air.

The basic idea here from the perspective of workers is that the regular rhythms of family life are seriously disrupted. What time you work each week and on what days is dictated by a computer scheduling system which seeks to deploy labor the way companies deploy other resources - just-in-time for when the company wants them. But despite the treatment they often receive from the corporate giants, human beings are not soy beans or electricity or Barbie dolls.

Workers deserve to be able to schedule their lives around predictable hours of work and predictable monthly incomes. The corporations are pushing in the other direction. The preferred frame of the retailers, their lobbyists, and their public relations firms is the mantra of "flexibility". Flexibility in the 21st century workplace is a convenient frame which seeks to avoid the inconvenient topics of reduced wages, lowered benefits, and schedules which stress flexibility all right, but "Flexibility For Whom", as Professor Elaine McCrate recently titled an academic article on the deleterious effects of schedules over which workers have no control.

In Europe, a public discourse regarding the degraded state of many once secure jobs has emerged under the banner of precarity. Whatever term advocates in other parts of the world choose, a robust public debate including the voice of retail and food workers is needed.

A pressing task ahead for retail workers and their allies is a push back against the tyranny of constantly fluctuating and insecure work schedules. Family life and personal wellbeing is too important to be subjected to the whims of computer scheduling systems and the greed of corporate executives.