Fired By Walmart for Christmas

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http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/12/22-3


Raging Grannies – Kathy Conner, Ruth Arent, Jannet Rassmussen (Photo: The Corvallis Advocate)

The holidays are meant to be a joyful time. Religion aside, they are a time for family and celebration. For many workers at Walmart, however, the holidays are a source of stress and challenge. Stores become figurative, sometimes even literal, battlefields, making already-taxing work more demanding, even chaotic. At the same time, low wages and inadequate benefits stretch year-end budgets, leaving little room for the joys of the holidays.

On average, US retailers make 20% of their sales during the holiday shopping season. Walmart does not publicize holiday revenue figures, but its fourth-quarter sales are almost a third higher than the rest of the year. With profits similarly higher, Walmart and its shareholders have cause to celebrate during the holidays, especially as the company has been aggressively buying back shares, using its profits to line the pockets of investors with over $15 billion since the summer.

Walmart “associates” (the term Walmart uses for its employees), on the other hand, have fewer reasons for holiday cheer. The last two holiday shopping seasons have kicked off with highly-visible Black Friday protests organized by OUR Walmart, the organization of current and former associates that aims to improve conditions at the retail giant. According to OUR Walmart, problems at the retail giant center on a lack of respect for associates, low pay and benefits as well as haphazard enforcement of policies including scheduling. These grievances are even more evident during the holidays.

Mary Watkines is a 13-year veteran at Walmart in Federal Way, Washington. She describes a fundamental shift in the culture at Walmart that can be traced back less than a decade. For her, a more “family-oriented” approach that saw associates as partners has been replaced with a drive for profit that squeezes workers. And this squeeze is at no time more apparent than during the holidays. Mary portrays the situation at her store as a “panic” growing larger as the holidays approach. She adds that the situation at Walmart has “gotten out of hand: the abuse, the disrespect and the intimidation.”

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