Hi Everyone!,
Ok, so I'm fresh off the line from the effort today, by WakeUpWalmart, to help inform people of the shameful way Walmart (which earned 10.5 Billion in profit last year) treats it's employees. More than half (54%) of Walmart employees are not eligible or can not afford Walmart's health care plan (the plan itself is essentially a catastrophic coverage plan meaning minimal coverage with high copays). In 2003, sales associates, the most common job in Walmart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861. Now Walmart funded a study to learn how they can cheapen their healthcare costs even further. Their study concluded that they should hire "healthier" applicants and that their more senior employees cost more than the newly hired employees and are no more productful. What do you think they will do with this information? -Your get three guess, the first two don't count.
Anyway, today, I spoke with Claudia, a WakeUpWalmart (http://www.WakeUpWalmart.com) member, who confirmed I would be working this afternoon, distributing handbills at the front doors of the Walmart on Aero Drive (San Diego, California). When I arrived shortly before the 11:00am start time, I was greeted by Rick. Rick is a Representative from United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) and the UFCW is a major contributer to the WakeUpWalmart effort. Rick is a very nice guy and very friendly guy. He briefed me on how he had been an employee of one of the grocery stores during the Strike/Lockout and that he now works out of the UFCW Union office. He is truly an excellent fit for his job; he is one of those guys who can really relate to people and help them understand where he's coming from.
As we began distributing our material we had the opportunity to speak with a few Walmart employees who were outside selling hot dogs and sodas (the employees were raising money for their employee Christmas party). We all know that Walmart, with 10.5 billion in profits, could not possibly afford to provide their employees with any kind of appreciation such as healthcare much less a Christmas party, right?) The employees were nice which placed even more emphesis on why were were there-for them.
After about 30 minutes the store Manager came out to tell us we had to leave. Rick produced a legal document quoting the law which contradicted the Manager and read that we were within our rights to remain and continue. The Manager asked to borrow the paper and made a copy, then returned it to Rick (had he not returned it, we had copies). The Manager then left and Rick and I continued. Management them placed a trash can just inside the front doors, presumably for people to throw away the papers we had just given them. The trash can stayed there for only a short period of time and essentially remained empty. Later, Management moved the trash can further inside the doors and taped one of our papers to the side of it, again, apparently to persuade people to toss the papers. I don't think this was very effective either as I didn't see anyone use it to dispose of the papers. Mickey Kasparian, the UFCW Local 135 President, called to see how everything was going. Rick, joked that we hadn't been arrested yet.
Rick and I saw the Manager several times as he hoovered around. Each time we asked if he'd like a flyer. Apparently Walmart wanted our picture as we frequently noticed Walmart spies stealthfully taking pictures. I waved and would have posed but after we'd see them, they'd go away only to try again later.
Around 1:30 Rick and I ran completely out of flyers which is when reinfocements arrived from Shawn. The three of us then continued until our scheduled 2:00pm end time. In the few hours we were there, we succeeded in giving our information to more than 1500 people. Again, most appeared interested in the cause although there was one young lady who completely disagreed. "I don't have healthcare where I work so why should I care if they do?" she grumbled as she walked away. I can't be positive but I believe she may have been wearing a t-shirt with the word "ME" printed in giant letters.
I learned a lot from this experience; I learned how to handle Management's demands, how to get the message out to shoppers some of whom appeared very supportive to our cause. I also received first-hand experience on how Unions can be more effective when we work together towards common goals. I also learned sunblock and sunglasses would be a good idea next time.
This was the first but will definately not be the last event such as this which I intend to participate in. Hopefully, others within our organization will participate in the upcomming events at some level as well.
