Nelson Lichtenstein, a crusading labor historian at the University of California at Santa Barbara, has written books on the history of unionism and the automobile industry, but over the last few years he’s spent much of his time thinking about Walmart. To research his 2009 book on the corporation, The Retail Revolution, which is newly out in paperback, he combed through scores of articles from Discount Store News, thousands of pages of legal filings and memoirs produced by Walmart employees, and piles of transcripts of in-house management videos recorded by a production company Walmart fired in 2006. Lichtenstein even bought ten shares of Walmart stock so he could attend a stockholders’ meeting. From his efforts came an excellent treatise that details the company’s well-oiled distribution system, its generally shabby treatment of its workers, its rabid anti-unionism, and its evangelistic corporate culture (instead of a board of directors, the company once had a board of “servant leaders”).
Either way, this breakthrough has the potential to transform Chicago. The mega-retailer already has more than 30 stores and nearly 20,000 workers in Chicago’s suburbs, making it the largest private-sector employer in the region, according to Crain’s. Now the company reportedly has plans to build 20 or more additional stores inside the city limits. And with Walmart desperate to open stores in New York and Los Angeles, observers like Lichtenstein believe its latest victory could have coast-to-coast significance.
It means that if Walmart offers just minimal concessions in urban areas, and actually treats with the unions, it can move into New York, Boston, etc. One thing to clarify is if Walmart actually did “negotiate” with unionists of any stripe.
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That’s what I hear from Emma Mitts, the alderman whose ward includes the west-side Walmart, every time she’s on TV.
Because Walmart wants to get into Chicago so badly, it’s been interesting to watch them try to manipulate public opinion—having PR firms post anonymous comments on blogs, enlisting activists to put together “grassroots” campaigns on its behalf. One of the ministers leading the charge for Walmart in Chatham, Larry Roberts, told me Walmart donated more than $1,500 in school supplies to his church last year. He doesn’t see anything wrong with it. Have you seen this kind of thing elsewhere?
It’s not just a question of lower wages and lower benefits—you don’t have a career at Walmart. Retail is not built for careers. There’s a few, 10 or 15 percent, and some managers who I guess can do that. But for the basic person, you go in there and the turnover rate is so great that you leave within three or four years. And in fact today Walmart is firing—it’s figuring out how to fire or ease out people who’ve been there 10 years, or 15, because they have higher wages.
