Dismantling Middle Class Jobs

TIME magzine says Mayer is among “most influential” — how could she use that influence?

April 18, 2013 By Cathy

Walmart director and Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer has just been named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. We know one way she could use that massive influence: to advocate for the brave Walmart associates and supply chain workers who are standing up for respect on the job.

We’ll echo what Walmart associate and OUR Walmart leader Barbara Andridge wrote last month in an open letter to Mayer: “Marissa Mayer, we’re calling on you to act. My hope is that, just like you did in climbing the corporate ladder, you will be a pioneer on Walmart’s board and help change the culture of America’s largest private sector employer. You can be a voice for us. You can be a voice for change and a voice for a better Walmart. You have shattered so many glass ceilings in your career. Help us do the same in ours.”

Mayer should urge Walmart management and her fellow directors to listen to workers and make Walmart a better place to work and shop.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates Tagged With: board of directors, marissa mayer

Top 12 Walmart 1% Moments of 2012

December 19, 2012 By Grace 5 Comments

This year, thousands of activists stood up to the Walmart 1% across the country. It was a busy year for the one percent—and for the rest of us. There was the news of alleged bribery and corruption in Mexico, Walmart leaving ALEC under pressure from the public (here’s hoping the Walton Family Foundation follows their lead next year), forced labor at Walmart suppliers, warehouse worker strikes, and a Black Friday to remember when Walmart associates went on strike over the company’s retaliation and attempts to silence those who spoke out for improvements on the job.

Click through to take a look at some of what we accomplished, and come back in the new year, because 2013 is going to be even bigger! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Distorting Democracy, How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates Tagged With: arne sorenson, board of directors, Greg Penner, marissa mayer, Michele Burns, mike duke, rob walton, warehouse workers, wealth

Maybe next year will be Mike Duke’s year

December 11, 2012 By Grace Leave a Comment

Walmart CEO Mike Duke was named to Forbes’ Most Powerful list this month. He came in at #17, and those placing ahead of him were mostly heads of state; the Pope; Bill Gates; and the mayor of a city with no Walmarts, Michael Bloomberg.

The factors Forbes used to calculate Duke’s power were fairly standard. “[P]ower over lots of people”: check. Mike Duke oversees 2.2 million Walmart employees worldwide. “[T]he financial resources controlled by each person”: check. Walmart’s profits were over $15.7 billion last year. Finally, the people at Forbes say they “made sure that the candidates actively used their power.” Here, we’re not so sure we agree. Certainly, Mike Duke didn’t use his power as CEO of Walmart for the best this year.

In 2012, the New York Times revealed a massive bribery scandal and cover up at Walmart de Mexico. It was also the year Mike Duke received only 70% of non-Walton votes in his reelection to Walmart’s board, a big drop from 99% the previous year, as Forbes points out. This was the year Walmart had to suspend supplier CJ’s Seafood of Louisiana amid accusations of forced labor and other safety and labor violations. 2012 was the year when workers at Walmart-contracted warehouses in California and Illinois walked off the job over unsafe working conditions and, in California, named Walmart as a defendant in a major wage theft class action suit. Then, just a few weeks ago, Mike Duke saw history being made as associates at Walmart stores across the country took part in the biggest strike ever at the retailer. Mike Duke is ending this year facing the fallout of a tragedy: the deaths of 112 workers in a fire at a Bangladesh factory, where five of the fourteen production lines were used to make goods for sale at Walmart. Worse, it turns out that Walmart had previously refused to pay to help suppliers at Bangladesh factories upgrade their facilities and improve fire safety.

Forbes is right, Mike Duke is the CEO of a huge company and influences the lives of millions, but the list of his accomplishments in 2012 is dismal. We have just one request for him next year: Respect for Walmart associates in stores and up and down the supply chain.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates Tagged With: mike duke

How to become Person of the Year

December 7, 2012 By Cathy 1 Comment

TIME magazine is doing a sorta-kinda vote on who should be the magazine’s 2012 Person of the Year (you can vote, but TIME editors will make the final call), and Walmart director Marissa Mayer is one of the nominees. Mayer certainly has had a heck of a year in 2012—she joined the board of Walmart (her first corporate board), she became the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company (and the first to start the job while pregnant), and she had her first child. But does she deserve to be Person of the Year? We think maybe 2013 might be her year instead—that is, if she takes advantage of a huge opportunity that is dangling right in front of her.

In the past few months, courageous Walmart associates across the country have gone on strike, protesting the retaliation they have faced from company management when they speak out for better pay and benefits and respect on the job. Nearly 1,200 actions in support of striking Walmart associates happened nationwide on Thanksgiving and Black Friday.

Then, last month, at least 112 workers were killed in a fire in a Bangladesh factory. Although Walmart has consistently tried to distance itself from the tragedy, news reports in recent days have shown that 5 of the factory’s 14 production lines were dedicated to making goods for Walmart. The New York Times also reported that a Walmart official played a lead role in blocking an effort to have “global retailers pay more for apparel to help Bangladesh factories improve their electrical and fire safety.”

And just last week, Walmart was named a defendant in an ongoing federal lawsuit over “rampant wage theft and retaliation” at a Walmart-contracted warehouse in Mira Loma, CA. The Huffington Post reports that court documents filed by the warehouse workers explain, “Recent discovery has established that Walmart bears ultimate responsibility for the violations of state and federal law committed against plaintiff warehouse workers.”

As a Walmart board member, Marissa Mayer has a tremendous platform that she could use to take a stand with workers in the US and throughout the globe. In 2013 (and she doesn’t even have to wait until next year!), Ms. Mayer should use her role on the Walmart board to support Walmart associates across the country who are standing up for respect on the job. And she should encourage Walmart management and her fellow board members to meet with workers so everyone can work together to make Walmart jobs better jobs. She should make sure that Walmart accepts responsibility for its role in creating safe and decent working conditions for workers in the company’s supply chain.

If Marissa Mayer uses her powerful voice to advocate for and stand alongside Walmart workers at home and abroad, we’ll definitely vote for her as Person of the Year in 2013! We think millions of Walmart workers around the world probably would too.

(By the way, TIME editors, we think Walmart strikers should be the Person of the Year! They’re the ones at the front of the movement to make the American economy work for all workers!)

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates Tagged With: board of directors, marissa mayer, warehouse workers

A tremendous divide

October 12, 2012 By Grace 1 Comment

This week, Walmart associates in a dozen cities across the country risked several days’ pay to go on strike following the company’s retaliation and attempts to silence their voices.

Also this week, Walmart chair Rob Walton became an estimated $417 million richer and his family’s overall wealth grew by $1.6 billion.

Walmart associates have been coming together to call for change at Walmart for over a year. They’ve asked the company to address issues with scheduling, benefits, wages, and above all, respect in the workplace. But instead of being responsive, Walmart has attempted to silence and intimidate them through unfair disciplinary actions, cut backs in hours, and even firings. Their strike was in response to this retaliation.

While associates were taking this courageous step, Walmart’s stock soared following the news that it would soon offer a prepaid card as an alternative to checking and debit accounts. A soaring stock means good news for the Waltons, who own about half of the company, and it’s how the Waltons’ net worth leapt so incredibly this week.

As news of this strike and future actions continues to spread, it’s impossible not to note the huge gap between Walmart associates and the people they work for. It would take the average Walmart associate almost 27,000 years to make what Rob Walton made from Walmart’s rising share price on Wednesday. And Walmart CEO Mike Duke’s $18.1 million pay last year is 1,167 times the average associate’s pay. CEO pay has become incredibly out of sync with workers’, but Duke’s pay is exceptional. The average CEO-to-worker compensation was 209.4-to-1 in 2011.

As the striking Walmart associates return to work, the company should end its retaliation and consider who makes the profits possible.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates Tagged With: executive pay, income inequality, inequality, mike duke, rob walton, Walmart strike, wealth

The Waltons could cover every state’s budget shortfall this year

September 20, 2012 By Grace Leave a Comment

Following the release of this year’s Forbes 400, Josh Harkinson at Mother Jones has a great piece up today putting the Waltons’ wealth in perspective.

The six Waltons on the Forbes list are now worth $115 billion. According to the Mother Jones story, no other American family has ever controlled a 12-figure fortune. Much of the Waltons’ wealth comes from Walmart—they own half the company and three family members sit on the board. While Walmart has been good to the Waltons, Harkinson points out that the average Walmart Associate would have to work at the company for seven million years to make as much money as the Waltons are currently worth.

He also shares the following chart of seemingly astronomical expenses that are dwarfed by the Waltons’ fortune. Something to think about.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates Tagged With: Forbes 400, inequality, wealth

Mike Duke takes advantage of tax loophole

September 12, 2012 By Grace 1 Comment

According to a new report from the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS), Walmart CEO Mike Duke took advantage of a tax loophole that saved him almost $6 million in 2011 federal income taxes.

IPS’s report sheds light on a number of ways CEO pay has spiraled out of control in recent decades.

One key reason why: Our nation’s tax code has become a powerful enabler of bloated CEO pay.

Some tax rules on the books today essentially encourage corporations to compensate their executives at unconscionably higher multiples of what their average workers are paid.

It’s certainly true in the case of Walmart: Mike Duke received $18.1 million in compensation in 2011, or over 1,000 times what the average Walmart Associate makes.

Duke benefitted from a major tax loophole: deferred compensation. Last year, he put about $17 million into a deferred compensation account. Investorplace explains, “CEOs can put an unlimited amount of their annual compensation into deferred accounts where the funds grow untaxed until drawn upon.” This is common for CEOs at large companies but is not available to the average worker. As the IPS report’s authors explain, “By contrast, ordinary taxpayers currently face strict limits on how much income they can defer from taxes via 401(k) plans. The cap maxes out at $22,000 per year for workers over 50.”

The average Walmart Associate doesn’t even make $22,000 a year, let alone have that much money to set aside for retirement in one year. On the other hand, Mike Duke was able to take advantage of this loophole to the tune of $17 million, saving him an estimated $6 million in 2011 federal income taxes. This loophole is estimated to cost taxpayers $80.6 million annually, and underscores how out of touch Mike Duke is with Walmart’s shoppers and Associates alike.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates Tagged With: mike duke

Happy Labor Day

September 3, 2012 By Grace Leave a Comment

Here’s a video from two Walmart associates who are fighting for change and respect at their company. For more stories from Walmart associates, check out Walmart at 50.

Greg and Charlene Fletcher from wal 50 on Vimeo.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates

It’s been a rough ten years

August 31, 2012 By Grace 1 Comment

The Pew Research Center recently came out with a report confirming a fact the Occupy movement brought to the fore, and it bears repeating: the American middle class is shrinking.

In fact, Pew is calling 2000 to 2010 a “lost decade” for the middle class. They explain,

Since 2000, the middle class has shrunk in size, fallen backward in income and wealth, and shed some—but by no means all—of its characteristic faith in the future.

Analyzing data from other sources, Pew researchers found that median income for a middle class household of three dropped from $72,956 in 2001 to $69,487 in 2010 (all in 2011 dollars). On the other hand, the wealthy have taken a bigger slice of the pie. When it comes to wealth, the story is the same—the net worth of middle class households dropped dramatically over the same time period. As we’ve previously noted, the Waltons’ fortune has continued to rise in recent years while the median family’s net worth declined. As of 2010—the most recent year for which data is available—the Waltons had the same wealth as the bottom 42% of American families.

“America’s middle class has endured its worst decade in modern history,” Pew researchers said, according to Reuters.

The growing divide in our country is illustrated quite simply by Walmart, where the average Associate makes $8.81 an hour, or about $15,500 a year, while the Waltons make $2.7 billion in Walmart dividends this year. In short, the Waltons make the same amount as a full-time Walmart Associate in about 3 minutes. The Waltons, though, are in a fairly unique situation. They have the power to turn 1.4 million jobs into good jobs, at a time when the country is clearly hurting for them.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates

New Data: Waltons Richer, America Poorer

July 17, 2012 By Grace Leave a Comment

Walton Family now richer than nearly 50 million American families combined

According to analysis released today by economists at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and UC Berkeley, in 2010, six members of the Walton family had the same wealth as the bottom 42% of American families combined. Josh Bivens from EPI writes,

And in 2010, as the Waltons’ wealth has risen and most other Americans’ wealth declined, it is now the case that the Walton family wealth is as large as the bottom 48.8 million families in the wealth distribution (constituting 41.5 percent of all American families) combined.

These days, the Walton family is worth about $100 billion, and in 2010 they were worth $89.5 billion, up dramatically since 2007. That combined with a recession that was long and difficult for most American families means that the gap between the Waltons’ wealth and the wealth of so many American families widened substantially between 2007 and 2010.

Over at EPI, Bivens goes on to point out that the wealth of the median American family—the family that’s wealthier than half of American families and less wealthy than half—was $77,300 in 2010. He shows that it would take 1.16 million median families to equal the wealth of the Walton family.

Silvia Allegretto from UC Berkeley brings up another interesting wrinkle in story of the Waltons’ rising wealth amid a major recession: even the cumulative wealth of the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans dropped between 2007 and 2010. The Walton family really stands apart from so many American families with their gains over that time period.

As Allegretto points out, when times are tough for most Americans, Walmart thrives. Walmart’s business model is built on offering low prices by cutting costs, right down to employee wages and benefits. The Waltons—who own half of Walmart—derive much of their wealth from the company. They have the power to turn 1.4 million jobs at Walmart into good jobs at a time when the middle class has obviously taken some hard hits. Instead, the Waltons hold on to the same wealth as the bottom 42% of American families combined, while offering Walmart associates an average wage of $8.81 an hour and destroying many of the manufacturing jobs that helped build the middle class in the United States. This might be good for the Waltons’ bottom line, but it’s not good for everyone else.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates