Coastal
Post Online
December,
2003
Who Pays When Walmart Keeps Workers Poor
By Domenico Maceri
Five of the richest people in the world
are descendants of Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart empire. Recently it was
announced that Wal-Mart hired undocumented workers to do the cleaning in some
of their stores. In one case, some undocumented workers had been paid 2 dollars
a day, according to a USA article.
The gap between executives at Vons, Albertsons, Ralphs, and their
employees is not that huge. However, if the workers currently on strike at
these three Southern California supermarkets lose their fight, they'll move
closer to being paid like Wal-Mart employees.
Striking grocery workers make about five dollars an hour more
than those at Wal-Mart ($12 versus $8.50). So why don't they count their
blessings? Although all the fine print of the negotiations is not totally
clear, management has proposed that given the significant increase in
healthcare, workers would have to pay part of it. In addition, newly-hired
employees would be paid under a different (lower) scale. In essence, the new
proposal would create two classes of workers.
Management is right that healthcare costs have risen
significantly. Estimates are that it costs twice as much as it did five years
ago to provide the same coverage. Since Vons, Ralphs, and Albertsons have to
compete with stores such as Wal-Mart, which pays much lower wages and benefits
to its employees, it makes sense to lower their costs.
The problem with lowering costs the
Wal-Mart way is that it can reduce people's standard of living down to a level
which brings them to the edge of poverty. At Wal-Mart, for example, estimates
are that 70% of their employees qualify for food stamps.
Who pays for food stamps and healthcare
when employers don't provide a living wage?
We all do. All the taxpayers. Including the 70,000 strikers. In
a way, the strikers are picketing not simply for their own benefits, but to
encourage non-union companies to pay decent wages and benefits for their
workers. If not, we all end up subsidizing employers.
Taxpayers' subsidies of employers occur
not just with Wal-Mart but also with other companies hiring undocumented
workers. When companies don't pay the full cost of their employees, taxpayers
end up picking up the tab for their benefits.
The fight to maintain decent wages and benefits for current and
future workers in grocery stores deserves everyone's support. We should not
forget that many gains workers have made throughout history have occurred
because of unions. Some things people take for granted such as the forty-hour
work week, health benefits, sick leave, paid vacation, safety in the workplace,
etc., did not come about because of
the generosity of corporations.
Corporations are motivated by greed, which may not be all bad, since it
does provides opportunities for people to work and services to consumers. But
if corporations are left completely to
their own designs, workers would have no protection whatsoever. And
corporations do not think twice about moving factories overseas if they can
make greater profits. So anytime you buy something made in other countries, you
have to translate the purchase in real terms. It means Americans lost jobs. In many cases, union jobs, which paid
decent wages for your friends and neighbors.
Although unions may not be perfect, all workers owe them our
gratitude and support. Crossing pickets lines means you support supermarket
executives who make obscene salaries.
Larry Johnston, Albertsons' CEO, makes about 12 million dollars a year. You
will probably never see him in your supermarket. The workers on the picket line
are the individuals whose eyes you have to look at when you buy your groceries. And if executives don't
want to pay for the employees benefits, you, the consumer, eventually end up
picking up the tab as a taxpayer.
Wal-Mart has plans to open 40 supercenters in California, megastores
which will sell just about everything including groceries. If strikers lose,
you'll see more workers being paid with Wal-Mart's salary scales. And you, the
taxpayer, will have to pay to subsidize Wal-Mart and keep the Waltons the
richest people in the world.
Domenico Maceri (dmaceri@hotmail.com), Ph.D., UC Santa Barbara, teaches
foreign languages at Allan Hancock College in Santa Maria, CA. His articles
have appeared in many newspapers and some have won awards from the National
Association of Hispanic Publications.