White Christmas, Black Friday: What's Behind the Walmart Shopping Protests

Some people have eaten. Some are still cooking. But for many, the real focus is on the marketing mayhem merchants will unleash later today.

Holiday sales used to be for every other time of the year but what used to be called the Christmas Season. That nomenclature withered under the press of an increasingly global and multicultural civilization. Then, when competition and declining household incomes forced retailers to contemplate any way of getting shoppers into their stores, sales started on the Friday after Thanksgiving when stores opened at 10AM. Then it was 6AM. Then Midnight the night before. And this year it's 8PM on Thanksgiving. We sense that only a laser-thin strand of residual propriety is holding back the 'shop all day on Thanksgiving' trend.

But there is a new element of chaos to anticipate this year. Workers at Walmart, the world's largest retailer, are planning protests to highlight the sacrifices and inequities being forced on them in the name of 'every day low prices.'

Walmart has always touted its low prices as a kind of public service. A way for people less well off to enjoy some of the better quality products that the wealthier enjoy. But research has demonstrated that those low prices come at a high cost to the company's workers and, quite arguably, to the rest of the economy. Low wages, hostile working conditions, meager benefits, part time work to keep costs down - and massive retaliation for anyone who dares to question those policies, let alone protest.

Enough, however, seems to be enough. A coalition of Walmart workers have announced their intention to picket over 1000 stores across the US starting tonight. So along with the joyous lines of shoppers who embrace unbridled commercialism as the spirit of holidays present and future, there will be controversy - and probably lots of ugly press tomorrow.

There are grave risks for both Walmart and the protesting workers. For the company, this brings unwelcome attention to its stern - and some would say harsh - workforce policies at a time when consumers are increasingly shopping and voting their values. No one wants to support abuse, at least overtly.

But there is also a risk for the workers. Americans have made it plain that when there is a choice between convenience and other factors, convenience wins. And when entertainment is thrown in as an added inducement, there is little that can hold them back. So the protest may backfire. If huge crowds show up anyway and thrust aside the workers concerns, it will be taken as A STATEMENT, whether it is or not. Walmart will declare itself the winner - and will probably be perceived as such.

In the long run it is hard to see how such human resource policies are sustainable. As the economy improves, workers and shoppers will have the wherewithal to make other choices. Walmart will adapt. It's ethos is nothing if not determined, though further confirmation of one's role as Bad Guy does not seem like a beneficial long term strategy. One senses that no matter what happens tonight and tomorrow, there will not really be a winner either way. JL

Elizabeth Dwoskin reports in BusinessWeek:

America’s biggest retailer may be in for an unexpectedly painful holiday season.

Protesting low wages, spiking health care premiums, and alleged retaliation from management, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) workers have started to walk off the job this week. First, about a dozen workers in Wal-Mart’s distribution warehouses in Southern California walked out, followed by 30 more from six stores in the Seattle area. The workers, who are part of a union-backed employee coalition called Making Change at Wal-Mart, say this is the beginning of a wave of protests and strikes leading up to Black Friday. A thousand store protests are planned in Chicago, Dallas, Miami, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Minnesota, and Washington, D.C., the group says.

In a conference call with reporters on Thursday, workers who were either planning to strike or already striking explained their situation. “We have to borrow money from each other just to make it to work,” said Colby Harris, who earns $8.90 an hour after having worked at a Wal-Mart in Lancaster, Tex., for three years. “I’m on my lunch break right now, and I have two dollars in my pocket. I’m deciding whether to use it to buy lunch or to hold on to it for next week.” He said the deduction from his bimonthly pay check for health-care costs is scheduled to triple in January. In 2013, Wal-Mart plans to scale back its contributions to workers’ health-care premiums, which are expected to rise between 8 percent and 36 percent. Many employees will forgo coverage, Reuters reports.

Sara Gilbert, a manager who was striking in Seattle, called in on her cell phone: “I work full-time for one of the richest companies in the world, and my kids get state health insurance and are on food stamps,” she said.

Along with Target (TGT) and Sears (SHLD), Wal-Mart has plans to open retail stores at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving night. Employees said they weren’t given a choice as to whether they would work on Thanksgiving and were told to do so with little warning. “They don’t care about family,” said Charlene Fletcher, a Wal-Mart associate in Duarte, Calif. She said she is expected to report for work at 3 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. The workers said that when they complain about scheduling and other problems, management cuts their hours or fires people.

With 1.4 million U.S. workers, the Bentonville (Ark.)-based company is the U.S.’s largest private employer. For years, Wal-Mart has been targeted by unions and workers complaining about low wages, scant benefits, and retaliation against those who speak out.

Until now, the company has crushed attempts by employees to organize. So it’s unusual that Making Change at Wal-Mart has been able to organize a number of strikes—the first in the company’s history, they say. The first strike occurred in Los Angeles in October. That strike spread to 28 stores in 12 states, organizers say.

In an e-mail, Wal-Mart spokesman Kory Lundberg called the strike “just another exaggerated publicity campaign aimed at generating headlines to mislead” the retailer’s customers and employees. “The fact is, these ongoing tactics being orchestrated by the UFCW are unlawful and we will act to protect our associates and customers from this ongoing illegal conduct,” he wrote, referring to the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

The workers intend for next week’s protests to be much bigger. They say their goal is not to shame the company, but to improve conditions. “Wal-Mart needs to know,” said Harris, “that if we didn’t want to work with them, we would have quit.”

Yet the strikes—timed to coincide with the holiday shopping rush—are clearly intended to put pressure on the company during the busiest time of the year, when Wal-Mart most needs its employees. Holiday cheer is a tough sell if your workers are picketing in the parking lot.