Why we have to support the workers of Walmart on Black Friday… and beyond

Last night, Walmart warehouse and retail employees in Southern California walked off their jobs and began picketing. They were joined this morning by Walmart employees in Seattle. And, if all goes according to plan, a great many more will join them tomorrow, on Black Friday, when employees from over 1,000 Walmart stores are expected to walk out, take up placards, and begin marching. According to those behind the Making Change at Walmart campaign, which is, at least in part, being supported by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union, these walkouts are necessary for the following reasons.

…As the largest private employer in the United States and the world, Walmart is setting the standard for jobs. That standard is so low that hundreds of thousands of its employees are living in poverty—even many that work full time. The problems extend to workers who toil in unsafe working conditions in subcontracted warehouses. And also to workers in developing countries such as China and Bangladesh who make incredibly low wages while manufacturing the goods on Walmart’s shelves. That pulls down standards for workers in the United States and around the globe.

Because of its size and political influence, Walmart is affecting much more than just working conditions. Although it has gained much fanfare for its efforts in environmentalism, sustainability has mostly been a public relations campaign for Walmart. The company has written hundreds of press releases and thousands of blog posts, but made little actual progress in reducing the environmental impacts of its products and business.

And Walmart has an outsized impact on our food system. It is the largest and seller of food in this country. That gives Walmart influence over which foods are available to the public, the methods in which food is produced, and the prices paid to producers.

Across this country, in rural and suburban communities, there are too many small businesses to count who have closed their doors due to competition from Walmart. Now, Walmart has aggressively set its sights on the final frontier—large urban communities like New York City and Los Angeles.

The company is also a major contributor to widening gap between the very rich and everyone else. The average full time Walmart “associate” makes about $15,500 a year. And worse, Walmart is pushing more and more workers toward a permanent part-time status. Meanwhile, the six members of the Walton family—heirs to the Walmart fortune and near majority owners of the company—have a combined wealth of $93 billion. That’s more than the bottom 30% of Americans combined

According to the Corporate Action Network website, while there could be protests at several local Walmarts tomorrow, it looks as though the main ones in our area will be at the Walmart Supercenters in Bellville (10562 Belleville Road at 11:00 AM) and Dearborn (5851 Mercury Drive at 10:30 AM). If you know of others, please leave a comment.

For those of you who can’t make it out to support the strike in person, and take up a few parking parking spaces that could otherwise be used by Walmart shoppers, there are a few things that you can do to help. If you’re so inclined, you could, for instance, write a letter to Rob Walton and let him know that you won’t return to Walmart stores until they begin paying a living wage. (You might also want to ask him not to fire the Walmart employees who walk out this holiday season.) If you have the financial wherewithal, you can also make a cash contribution to the Stand Up, Live Better Fund, which will be supplying striking workers with food cards for their families. And, if you have a moment, you can help spread word of the strike online, asking your friends to join you in avoiding Walmart on Friday.

One last thing… I know that quite a few of you probably shop at Walmart because it’s cheap, and may not care that the company’s employees have been treated poorly, bullied, kept from organizing, etc. While I understand, given the state of the economy, that value is important, I’d ask you to consider the following… The price that you pay at the cash register, when you shop at Walmart, likely doesn’t reflect the true price that you’re paying… We, the tax payers of America, you see, essentially subsidize Walmart, by funding the public assistance programs that keep its poorly-paid employees alive. Walmart employees, more than those of any other company in America, are likely to be on food stamps and we pay the price for that… Following, with more on that subject, are a few facts pulled together by the Winning Words Project.

✔ Walmart’s intentionally low wages force employees to need approximately $420,000 per year, per store, totaling $2.66 BILLION annually in food stamps and other taxpayer assistance… to survive.

✔ Walmart’s intentionally low wages cost our communities the ability to hire and retain important public service workers like firefighters, police officers, maintenance workers, and teachers.

✔ Walmart’s intentionally low wages and lack of covered benefits cost taxpayers over $1.02 BILLION a year in healthcare costs.

✔ Walmart’s intentionally low wages cost taxpayers as much as $225 MILLION in free and reduced price lunches for school-age children.

✔ Walmart’s intentionally low wages cost taxpayers over $780 MILLION in tax deductions for low-income families.

And, here, if you still need convincing, are Walmart workers explaining, in their own words, why they think action is necessary.

Here’s hoping them the best of luck. The Walton family, in the past, has responded harshly to such attempts. One hopes that this time it’s different, and that those who walk out won’t immediately lose their jobs.

[note: If you’re interested in following the movement, you can do so on both Facebook and Twitter.]

[note: And, as long as you’re not shopping at Walmart tomorrow, why not just not shop anywhere at all, and join those of us who will be celebrating Facebook and Buy Nothing Day?]

Posted in Corporate Crime, Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 38 Comments

Happy Thanksgiving again

Last November, I made the decision not to write anything new for Thanksgiving, but, instead, to recycle something that I’d written years ago. Well, here it is again. I was tempted to remove some of the old references, and replace them with new ones, but it occurred to me that altering this post, which is fast becoming a family classic, would be like changing It’s A Wonderful Life so that Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed dance Gangnam Style instead of the Charleston in that scene that takes place over the high school pool. So, with that in mind, here it is, untouched… Enjoy….

This Thanksgiving morning I’m tempted to get political and say that I’m thankful above all else for things like the fact that a majority of Americans still think of Sarah Palin as being unfit to serve as President, and that former U.S. House majority leader Tom DeLay was found guilty yesterday of money laundering. But, I’m trying to think less about politics today, and the swirling gyre of retardation that is the Tea Party, and focus instead on friends and family. I probably don’t say it here as often as I should, but I’m incredibly thankful for both. Without my family, I wouldn’t be here. And, without my friends, I wouldn’t be the person that am today… Sure, I might be a better, more successful and more productive version of myself without them, but I wouldn’t be the person that I am today. So, before I get started with this post, I’d just like to note that I’m incredibly thankful for everyone that I’m related to, from my grandmother in Kentucky, to my daughter, who is now in the other room, looking at our enormous turkey through the little glass porthole in the oven. There have been some bad times, and we’ve lost some people over the years, but, all in all, I’d say that we’ve been really fortunate as a family. As far as I know, all of us that are alive at the moment, are healthy, happy, employed and have roofs over our heads, which is quite an accomplishment in today’s world. As for friends, the same, for the most part, goes for them. A few are temporarily without partners or between jobs, but, as far as I know, the people in my friendship network (“tribe” sounded too new age) are doing pretty well, and I’m thankful for that. But, what I want to write about today are a few of the less obvious things that I’m thankful for – things that I don’t think I’ve ever shared with you before.

I’m thankful that my friends Dan and Matt, when they’d graduated from college, moved to Ann Arbor to live with me. If they hadn’t, I might never have had the misdirected encouragement I needed to start a band. And, if the three of us hadn’t formed a band, I probably wouldn’t have ever ventured into Ypsilanti, where I met my wife, Linette. There are others that played a role as well, like Ward Tomich, who booked us to play at Cross Street Station that fateful night. Without al of these folks, I’d likely be living in the forest today, sucking nutrients from moss-covered rocks.

I’m thankful for the car crash that my dad had in the late 60’s, which almost tore his arm from his body. If it hadn’t happened, my dad surely would shipped off to fight in Vietnam, with the other men that he’d been training with. Of the dozen or so men in his group, only two returned alive. I cannot imagine growing up without a father.

I’m thankful that my mother encouraged my father to apply for job at AT&T after he was released from the Navy. (He worked at the Portsmouth Naval Hospital after recovering from his accident.) He’d been working highway construction jobs when she talked him into applying for a position at a remote audio relay station of some kind near Monticello, Kentucky. He got that job, flipping switches and listening in on people’s private phone calls, and the rest is history. He steadily climbed up through the ranks, ending his career at the company headquarters in New Jersey – probably one of the few people without a college degree to do so. If this hadn’t happened, I would likely still be in the same small town in Kentucky today, instead of in the worldly sophisticated metropolis of Ypsilanti, Michigan.

While my parents never graduated from college, they did both attend classes as they could, which wasn’t easy with full-time jobs and two kids to raise. I remember pretty clearly my mom studying Spanish late at night at the kitchen table. And I remember them proof-reading class assignments for one another. It made an impression on me, and I’m forever thankful for it. It’ll probably make my mom cry to hear it, but I’m also thankful that they stopped taking me to church at a young age.

I’m thankful that my parents valued education enough to settle our family in a decent school district, instead of closer to where my father was going to be working. My dad, most days, left for work at 5:00 AM to catch the bus, and didn’t return until 7:00 PM or so at night. He did that for over a dozen years straight, and, because of that, I got to attend a great public school, where I met people like Dan and Matt – the guys I mentioned above who moved to Ann Arbor to make noise, drink $1 pitchers of beer, and publish zines with me.

Speaking of sacrifice, I’m also thankful that my distant relatives made the decision to come to America when they did. They did so without knowing if they’d ever see their homelands again. They left everything they knew in England, Sweden, Scotland, and Poland, in order to make a better life for their families. And, it’s because of their sacrifices that I’m here today, not having to work in the fields from sun up to sun down as they did.

Oh, and I’m thankful that, of all the mental illnesses in the world, I got OCD, which kind of has its up-side.

OK, there’a whole lot more I’d like to say, but that’ll have to be it for now, as the buzzer on the oven is ringing.

Happy holidays.

Posted in Mark's Life, Other | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

How should we talk with our young daughters about Malala Yousafzai?

Tonight I have a question for those of you out there with young daughters…

I’m wondering how, if at all, you’re talking with your daughters about Malala Yousafzai, the incredibly brave Pakistani 14 year old, who, several weeks ago, in response to her vocal activism on behalf of girls in her country, was shot in the head, and critically wounded by Taliban gunmen who had boarded her school bus, looking to assassinate her.

I want to talk with Clementine about Malala’s courageous work on behalf of girls who, like her, want to grow up and achieve great things, and how she knowingly risked her life to speak out against the violently repressive religious fundamentalists of the Swat Valley who oppose the education of girls, but I don’t want to do it in such a way that does harm. I don’t want, for instance, to terrify my daughter, by putting the idea into her head that we live in a world were men can charge onto a school bus, killing girls because they want to grow up, go to college, and become doctors. And I don’t want to bring it up in such a way that makes it sound as though I’m using the tragedy to serve my ever-present “you’d better be thankful” agenda, like a parent who, every night over dinner, says, “You’d better eat all of your vegetable, because children are starving to death in China.” The bottom line is, I want her to know that even little girls can stand up and make a difference. And, without being too terribly dark about it, I want her to know that some things in life are worth dying for. That’s an incredibly important lesson, though, and I want to be sure that I convey it properly.

Here, for those of you who don’t know Malala Yousafzai, is how I first became acquainted with her, in 2009, through the New York Times.

[note: If you’d like, you can the petition here to have Malala considered fro a Nobel Peace Prize.]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Mark's Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The Twinkie defense… Is management or labor is less deserving of the blame in the Hostess liquidation?

A few days ago, upon hearing that Hostess Brands Inc. was going out of business, I posted the following, assuming that it would just be a matter of time before folks on the right started floating conspiracy theories involving Michelle Obama and her “nanny state” jihad against junk food. As my friend Steve Cherry quickly pointed out, though, “Why blame Michelle Obama when you can blame labor?” And he was right. Union greed quickly became the prevailing narrative in the national press.

After news broke that Hostess was going under, the Wall Street Journal chose to frame it as the handiwork of organized labor, emboldened by the results of the last election. The liquidation of the company, they said, would be, “a sobering reality check for unions and workers looking to shift the post-recession balance of power with private employers.” The blame, it would seem, lay exclusively with the union employees of Hostess, who, when they saw an opportunity to bleed their employer for even more, went on strike, without a thought as to how the company would be impacted.

But, it didn’t take long for a competing narrative to emerge in the non-right-wing media.

It would appear that Hostess, among other things, was horribly mismanaged by a cadre of assholes for years, who were more interested in lining their own pockets than in keeping the company alive. It wasn’t mentioned in the Wall Street Journal article, even in passing, but earlier this year, the CEO of Hostess was awarded a 300% raise (from approximately $750,000 to $2,550,000), as the company prepared for bankruptcy, and began defaulting on their contractually-obligated payments to the pension plans of their union workers. And, the CEO wasn’t alone. According to a press advisory put out by the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union, “at least nine other top executives of the company received massive pay raises. One such executive received a pay increase from $500,000 to $900,000 and another received one taking his salary from $375,000 to $656,256.” It also wasn’t noted by the Wall Street Journal, but, as executive pay was soaring, so too was the company’s debt. And that, folks on the left are arguing, is why we’ll no longer have Twinkies to blame when we go on murderous rampages.

The truth, though, from what I can tell, probably exists somewhere in between these two competing narratives. Or, at least that’s the sense that I’m getting from this post that I just happened across on Reddit, by someone calling himself King of Kona. (Among other things, that CEO who boosted his pay by %300 was forced out earlier this year, and replaced by a CEO that cut executive pay, and offered a 25% ownerships stake in the company to the workers.) As I found it incredibly interesting, I thought that I’d share it here.

I know I am going to get in trouble for posting this because there is a thing called confirmation bias in psychology that causes people to only want to hear what they already believe – it is why you see racists skip over stories that portray minorities in positive ways or why the religious will often hurry up and click to another channel if a special talking about Darwinism is on television. But I’m going to write it anyway. Why? Because it is the right thing to do.

As someone with a very deep economics, financial, and business background, this entire conversation is painful to read. There are so many misconceptions about pension accounting and the bankruptcy process that I feel like reading this thread is the equivalent of seeing those videos where people at Glenn Beck rallies are interviewed spouting off about Obama’s secret muslim plot to make us all gay married communists who have interracial children and cross dress while burning flags.

Instead of writing a thirty-page explanation, I am going to explain this like I would to my five-year-old niece. I am not trying to be condescending, so I apologize for the tone. I am trying to remain sane.

For more than eleven years, Hostess was horribly run, including by a CEO who left earlier this year after awarding himself huge pay increases and demanding union concessions.

The new CEO came into office back in March or April and, after discovering these large pay hikes, ordered the top four executive salaries to $1 for the remainder of the year to make up for it, before being restored next year, evening things out.

This new CEO, with the backing of the bailout investors, went to the unions and offered them a package that included:

A twenty-five percent (25%) ownership stake in the business, which would transform Hostess into one of the largest partially employee-owned firms on the planet.

A package of bonds in the company to go to the employees with a face value of $100,000,000 that would generate interest and be repaid in the future

Two seats on the board of the directors, providing influence and power to shape the future of the enterprise

In exchange, the unions had to agree to:

Cut existing pay levels to fall in line with other major bakeries

Do like the other 90% of American manufacturing firms have and “freeze” pension plans, meaning that any new employees will have to use a 401(k) instead.

Pay more out of pocket for some other expenses such as insurance

If all of this happened, the employees of Hostess would not only get to keep their job, but they would be working for themselves. It was the best possible solution to a terrible situation caused by years of mismanagement, none of which was the fault of the current CEO who has only had the job for 8 months or so.

The Teamsters union wisely signed up. They acknowledged that the situation was bad. They talked about how terrible former management had been. They focused on the future and knew that this could work out well and, among all the potential choices, was the best that could be expected.

Then, a smaller union – the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union – said no.

They (the BCTWGMIU) were warned that if the company shut down in a strike, the finances were so weak the doors would have to be closed. Everyone would lose their job. There would be no ownership. There would be no bonds. There would be no seats on the board of directors. There would be no new employees let alone pensions for new employees. It was a complete thermonuclear scenario that would destroy the lives of 18,500 hardworking families.

The BCTWGMIU struck anyway and the Teamsters, to their credit, crossed picket lines and remained reasonable because their actions were based on facts and analysis of what was economically feasible. The company begged the BCTWGMIU to return to the table, but they refused, talking about the litany of abuses of past managements.

For anyone who is successful, well educated, and familiar with strategy such as game theory, the choice is clear. When faced with a total wipeout, you take the option that gives you the greatest long-term chance of survival. Even if the new deal had resulted in only an extra six-months of paychecks, that is six months of income for 18,500 families that relied on that cash. When you represent others, like union leaders do, their welfare is your sole concern.

That is precisely what the Teamsters did. However, the BCTWGMIU behaved like a father who commits a murder-suicide of himself and the children when a spouse leaves, convinced he is in the moral right and that he had no other choice because of his evil ex-wife. He writes a long note detailing all the past mistakes she made and how she drove him to take this action. BCTWGMIU drove Hostess straight into liquidation. The murder-suicide analogy is appropriate because that is exactly what this was: An economic murder-suicide. A vast majority of those 18,500 workers were innocent, behaved the best they could, and did the right thing in a terrible situation. Their entire lives have been destroyed by a handful of their foolish coworkers who were more interested in making a point and detailing past grievances than working with the new team that had come in and offered them a partnership stake in the firm. They were so stuck in the owner vs. employee mindset they ignored the chance to become owners.

The BCTWGMIU just struck a major blow to the little workers’ rights power remaining in the United States and hurt the labor movement incalculably. Even worse, they are too foolish to see it. The ramifications have already begun. If a new factory wants to raise money, don’t you think investors are going to demand that it locate in a right to work state like Texas, so if this had happened, all of the workers can be summarily fired? The legacy cost of this will be with us for decades.

TL;DR: The Teamsters Union behaved reasonably. The new CEO behaved reasonably. The BCTWGMIU decided it couldn’t get what it wanted – which was not economically possible based on the numbers – and turned down the chance to own 25% of the business, collect $100 million in bonds, and get seats on the board of directors. Now they get nothing, everyone loses their jobs, the owners get wiped out, and other corporations get to come in and pick up the assets for pennies on the dollar.

I share this not to take the heat off the management at Hostess, which clearly, over the past decade, has done a piss poor job, but to illustrate that, often times, we may not be getting a complete picture of events from our trusted news sources, whether they be on the right, or the left. Based solely upon the infographics floating around Facebook today, for instance, I was sure that it was the current CEO at Hostess that had inflated his pay as it became clear to everyone that they were headed for disaster. I should add that it’s possible that King of Kona has no idea what he’s talking about. For what it’s worth, though, I’ve fact-checked a few things since reading his post, and he seems to be right on the money.

Putting all of that aside for a moment, though, it just occurred to me that without Twinkies, there can be no Twinkie defense to fall back on once the revolution is over and we’re all compelled to answer for our actions. If for not other reason than that, I think we all need to start praying for a last-minute resolution at Hostess.

Also, I know that the accompanying image of Charlton Heston doesn’t really fit with the post, but I thought that I was pretty clever adding the “cold, dead hands” line, and wanted to share it.

update: And it looks like our prayers may have been answered. Word is, both sides have agreed to enter mediation. So, keep your fingers crossed. If all goes well, we could have Twinkines, Wonder Bread and Ho-Hos back to hasten our deaths before we know it.

Posted in Corporate Crime, Economics, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Grand Rapids shows us how economic development is done right… home-grown food entrepreneurship over dollar stores

A few months ago, when I was in Grand Rapids, attending the annual BALLE (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies) conference, I had the occasion to hear a speech given by the city’s Mayor, George Heartwell. I can’t find my notes at the moment, but I seem to recall that, buried somewhere in the long list of impressive facts that he reeled off about the city, he noted that, of the 100+ restaurants they have downtown, fewer than 5 of them are national chains. Anyway, I was reminded of this yesterday, as I was working on my post about how I’d prefer not to have a third Family Dollar store erected in Ypsilanti. And, after I completed my post, I began thinking about why it is that some cities are able to fend off the creeping corporate homogeneity that’s so prevalent in modern America, while others aren’t. Or, to be more specific, I began to wonder why it is that the folks in Grand Rapids have a brand new, year-round market facility to look forward to, while those of us in Ypsilanti are stuck debating whether or not Family Dollar is the kind of anchor that we want for the 38-acre development project that we’ve been told would redefine our city and put us on a path toward prosperity.

Let me start by saying that I know that it’s not a fair comparison. I know that Grand Rapids has the good fortune of having a few extraordinarily wealthy patrons, thanks primarily to the success of the international network marketing firm Amway, that are dedicated to making sure that their city is well-positioned for the future, whereas our only fantastically wealthy potential benefactor, after losing a bitter fight to legally enshrine gay discrimination in Ypsilanti, chose to move to the swamps of Florida, and build a new, ultra-conservative city in accordance with his far right religious beliefs. And I know that things are possible in a city of 190,000 that just aren’t possible in a city of 20,000, especially when those 190,000 individuals are, on average, a lot better off financially than their Ypsilanti counterparts. Furthermore, I also seem to recall having heard Heartwell say that Grand Rapids was number two in the nation when it came to per-capita charitable giving, which certainly helps.

As someone who hasn’t spent much time there, I can’t say definitively, but I get the sense that folks in Grand Rapids, in spite of their religious conservatism, actually believe in the concept of the greater good. For instance, they’re not just talking about sustainability, but they’re actually addressing carbon emissions, rapidly expanding bike paths, and implementing ‘pay as you throw’ garbage collection. And, as I mentioned above, they’re presently building an incredible year-round market facility which will not only serve to support regional growers, but also provide the infrastructure necessary to nurture a generation of budding food entrepreneurs. The following comes by way of the New York Times.

Next year… Grand Rapids is scheduled to open the $30 million, 130,000-square-foot Downtown Market, a destination that is expected to attract 500,000 visitors a year. The three-story brick and glass building, under construction in a neighborhood of vacant turn-of-the-20th century warehouses, is intended by its developers to be a state-of-the art center of commerce for the culinary arts and fresh local foods.

It is also seen as having the potential to accomplish much more.

“This project fills a variety of needs,” said David Frey, chairman of the Frey Foundation and co-chairman of Grand Action, a nonprofit group of local business leaders that joined the city’s Downtown Development Authority to raise money for the market and to build it. “It creates a lot of synergy for the development that’s been happening in Grand Rapids for some time now.”

The Downtown Market, in effect, is the newest piece of civic equipment built here since the mid-1990s to leverage the same urban economic trends of the 21st century — higher education, hospitals and health care, housing, entertainment, transit, and cleaner air and water — that are reviving most large American cities….

The design plan for the Downtown Market includes space for food production and processing, a commercial kitchen to provide an incubator for new businesses and another to educate students in food preparation and healthful eating. A greenhouse will occupy the roof and two restaurants are planned. Enough space is available indoors and out for banquets, civic events and more than 60 vendors. The market was built with nontoxic materials, and has advanced systems for energy efficiency, natural lighting, waste management, recycling and water conservation.

A feasibility study, completed in March 2010 by Market Ventures of Portland, Me., found ample reason for Grand Rapids to pursue the project. Some 12,220 farms in the 11-county agricultural region that surrounds Grand Rapids bring in a total of $2 billion in annual revenue. Many of the growers produce fruits and vegetables, including specialty crops, for sale at a public market.

The study forecast that the Downtown Market, which occupies a 3.5-acre site close to highway exits and the Grand River, would achieve gross annual sales around $25 million, and generate more than 600 jobs. A small staff could manage the market, and its annual income is expected to total $2 million, with expenses reaching $1.5 million…

Is it impossible to think that something like this would work in Ypsilanti? Probably. I would argue, however, that there are a lot of possibilities along the continuum which has, at one end, a $30 million downtown market facility, and, at the other, a Family Dollar store.

And, yes, I know that we’re talking about apples and oranges, here. But I’m not trying to make the case that we should have an indoor market on Water Street. I’m only saying that, when assessing projects, we should keep in mind that some will move us in the direction of sustainability, growth, and self-sufficiency, while others will move us away from those shared objectives. And I’d put Family Dollar in the latter category.

I know that some of you believe that Family Dollar is “our only hope,” as someone expressed in the comments sections today. I would argue, however, that Family Dollar actually represents the ceding of hope.

And, here, now that I’ve got that off my chest, are some sketches showing what the Downtown Market will look like.

FIRST FLOOR:

SECOND FLOOR:

This is what the future looks like, folks.

Posted in Economics, entrepreneurism, Environment, Michigan, Sustainability, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 42 Comments

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