Viewpoint: Walmart would help keep shopping dollars in Cottage Grove
July 29, 2012 at 11:34 am in South Washington County Bulletin
At present a large amount of our shopping dollars are spent outside of our community. I would ask you to think about why the citizens of Cottage Grove and the surrounding communities should be forced to go outside our community, spending gas and time, when we can keep retail spending here at home. Continue Reading
Forbes magazine, polling business executives (not employees) has ranked Wal-Mart among the best 100 corporations to work for. Yet the employees on average take home pay of under $250 a week. The salary for full-time employees (called “associates”) is $6 to $7.50 an hour for 28-40 hours a week, which is typical in the discount retail industry. This pay scale places employees with families below the poverty line, with the majority of employees’ children qualifying for free lunch at school. When closely examined, this amounts to a form of corporate welfare, as the taxpayer subsidizes the low salaries. One-third are part-time employees – limited to less than 28 hours of work per week – and are not eligible for benefits.
The company is staunchly anti-union. New employees are shown videotapes explaining that instead of unionizing, they benefit from the open door policy, allowing them to take their complaints beyond the supervisors to higher management. When the United Food and Commercial Workers tried to organize workers across the country, labor experts were brought in for “coaching sessions” with personnel who support unionization. Employees complained that these were intimidation sessions. Many such complaints are currently on file with the National Labor Relations Board.
Whereas Wal-Mart employees start at the same salary as unionized employees in similar lines of work, they make 25 percent less than their unionized counterparts after two years at the job. The rapid turnover – 70 percent of employees leave within the first year – is attributed to a lack of recognition and inadequate pay, according to a survey Wal-Mart conducted. Yet this can work to the company’s advantage, since it is more difficult for unions to organize when there is constant employee turnover.
Let’s not forget that their inventory is almost 100 percent made in China. and Mr. Mayor’s “theory” is that CG’s shopping dollars stay in Cottage Grove. Disingenuous at best, but a blatant lie at worst. Mr. Mayor, don’t you work for a retail firm that also sells most of its crap from Communist China? Yep. Radio Crap.
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The Mayor and I don’t always agree on things, but I 100% support him in allowing the transaction of private land being sold to a corporation that wants to expand our retail options in Cottage Grove. I am tired of spending the time and gas to shop elsewhere because my need/desire for low cost goods are NOT met in Cottage Grove. I welcome WalMart to this community and although it seems those opposed to Walmart are louder, that is nothing the Mayor isn’t already used to (i.e. city hall project opposition).
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Silver, Wal-Mart pays its employees fine for the work they are performing. The vast majority of the jobs in which you reference can be performed by a high school aged person. Entry level jobs deserve entry level wages.
It is irrelevant that the wages paid to employees with children often place them below the poverty line. Wal-Mart is not obligated to pay its employees a living wage for an entry level job. If Wal-Mart employees are on public assistance it is a result of their own actions, not Wal-Mart.
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