Walmart Fights Sky-Rocketing Wages

[lame54]

http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/walmart_lobbies_to_keep_factory_wages_under_two_cents

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Walmart Lobbies to Keep Factory Wages Under Two Cents
by Amanda Kloer October 14, 2010 02:00 PM (PT) Topics: Slave Labor

Ever wonder how Walmart can afford to sell a pair of jeans for eight bucks? It's because workers at the factory in Bangladesh where the jeans are made earn a measly one-and-a-half cents for each pair they sew. To make matters worse, Walmart has been lobbying against a government-supported wage increase, which would bump the workers up to 35 cents an hour. It's time Walmart stopped exploiting the workers who make the clothes they sell.

The 2500 workers at the Anowara Apparels factory in Bangladesh spend all day sewing jeans, primarily for the Faded Glory brand of clothes sold at Walmart. They are 90% young women, some with families to support and others trying to simply scrape a living together. The women make between 11 and 17 cents an hour sewing jeans, and they're expected to produce at least ten pairs an hour. That means they make less than two pennies for each pair of jeans they sew. Recognizing the gross underpayment of these workers, the Bangladeshi government has suggested raising the minimum wage to 35 cents an hour. Walmart has responded by lobbying against Bangladesh's efforts to fairly compensate workers and decided to keep their staff living in abject poverty.

The employees of Anowara Apparels can't afford even basic living expenses on their salary of pennies an hour. They live in make-shift shacks, suffer from malnutrition, and have no source of heat other than burning wood. Dozens of workers and their families use a communal water pump for all their sanitation needs, from washing clothes and their bodies to drinking. The extra 17 cents per month would double these workers' salaries, and according to them, make a huge difference in their lives. Yet Walmart is trying to make sure that doesn't happen, so they can keep selling you $8.00 jeans at a high profit margin.

The story of Anowara Apparels is an example of the high price workers often pay for your discounts. Walmart isn't able to sell jeans for $8.00 because they're magical. They are able to sell jeans for $8.oo because they pay the women who make them less than two pennies a pair. So when you see a dirt cheap t-shirt, bargain basement shoes, or any other deal that's too good to be true, remember that it probably is. And what might be a great deal for you often ends up being a pretty raw one for someone else.

[Barack_America]

1. A perfect example of why I refuse to shop there.

I don't care if it is cheap or convenient. If there weren't another big box store for fifty miles I would still refuse to shop there. I'd downsize my house, my car, etc., I'd move to avoid that fucking store.

[indepat]

11. A perfect example depicting the loathsome and inhumane core of Walmart's essence?

:shrug:

[jaxx]

2. That's one reason I never go to Walmart.

And the fact that they discriminated against gay and lesbian employees. Piss on them. I haven't shopped there for years and years.

edit> I got carried away. ;-)

[Not Me]

3. The first Wal Mart came to my neighborhood about 20 years ago

and I have yet to darken their doorstep.

[jmondine]

4. It's only "sky-rocketing" if you're an ant.

17 cents per hour to 35 cents per hour!? "Oh, but that's more than 100%" Please.

[driver8]

5. Bring the jobs here, pay the people a decent wage, and you don't have to sell jeans for 8 bucks!

Fuck Walmart -- I would never set foot in one of their piece of shit stores.

[madokie]

21. Henry Ford figured that out years ago

if you want to sell your products pay the people who build them a decent wage and everyone is happy. They feed, cloth and house their families and the company sells their wares.

[rsmith6621]

6. We Need To Level The Playing Field.....

.....If it cost Walmart penny's to have their products made outside of the United States then there should be a heavy TARIFFS placed on those products.....It's BULLSHIT that corporation should be allowed to destroy the American economy so they can have large profits and big bonuses...

[femrap]

7. I don't see how the members of the

Walton family look themselves in the mirror. That family has more money than the bottom third of our population!!!!

I hope they choke on their money.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. And remember that Sam Walton sold only American made goods

It wasn't until he died that WM started selling foreign made products and exploiting 11 cent an hour workers.

[Terra Alta]

30. Sam Walton must be rolling in his grave

seeing what his company has turned into. His children and their greed will end up ruining the company.

[Vinca]

8. Walmart is the most convenient scapegoat, but it's nearly all retailers.

Look through an L.L. Bean catalog and see how many items are not imported. You'll be able to count them on one hand.

[lame54]

15. Walmart is not a scapegoat...

they are the #1 abuser

other companies work hard to be like them

[Hannah Bell]

18. Walmart is bigger than every other retail outlet in the US combined, & it's

the player that's done the most to rachet suppliers' prices down by squeezing workers.

It's also been the biggest voice in lobbying for anti-worker policies and funding phony astroturf & PR for same.

It's not just a "convenient scapegoat," it's the most powerful & guiltiest player.

[Vinca]

19. Jeezus Christ on a Triscuit. You'd think I was defending Walmart.

I'm just pointing out that other, more upscale, retailers are just as guilty and shouldn't be given a free pass. Several days ago someone here pointed out that you used to be able to buy a washing machine made in the USA for $600 and now . . . after jobs have been outsourced supposedly to make goods cheaper . . . you can buy a washing machine made in Mexico for $600. Walmart is the head of the snake, but the tail is very long.

[Hannah Bell]

28. and i just pointed out why walmart is a completely appropriate target.

[Statistical]

27. Bigger than every other retailer combined? Only in fantasy land.

"Craig Johnson, president of the consulting firm Customer Growth Partners, estimates that since January, Wal-Mart's share of the $3 trillion U.S. retail market has edged up to 11.3%, compared with 10.5% during the same period a year earlier. "That's an exceptional improvement," Johnson says. "Market shares normally don't move that much.""

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/05/news/companies/wal-mart.shareholders.meeting.fortune/index.htm

The idea that only Walmart sells cheap exploited foreign crap.

Many of the exact same products sold at Walmart are sold at hundreds of other retailers.

[Hannah Bell]

32. walmart is bigger than all all its major competitors combined, yes.

2009 revenue: $408 billion

sears: $43 billion (kmart is a sears subsidiary)
target: $64 billion
pennys: $19 billion
macys: $24 billion
costco: $71 billion
home depot: $71 billion
krogers: $76 billion
safeway: $40 billion

Total: $408 billion

[Statistical]

40. That isn;t every major competitor. About half of WM revenue comes from groceries.

Include top 10 grocery chains, top 10 dept stores, and top 10 electronic stores.

All you proven is Walmart is larger than some arbitrary subset chosen by you to prove a "point".

[unapatriciated]

36. If you pay attention to their commercials

You will know what their latest class action suit is about.
It's usually PR damage control regarding the latest abuse of their employees.

[CatholicEdHead]

9. Probably not just Walmart

but Target and most other stores who sell clothes come from conditions like this.

[daleo]

10. Global capitalism exploits labor

That's essentially the whole point of globalism.

[SoCalDem]

12. America got sold out for $8 jeans & $1 plastic flip-flops..n/t

[donco6]

14. They paid more than that for Manhattan Island.

Karma's a beeyotch.

[donco6]

13. "Faded Glory" - isn't that kinda ironic?

The faded glory of a US economy now in shambles thanks to the likes of offshore kings like Wal Mart.

[Scruffy1]

16. Great post

The "sweatshop tour" of last summer shed some light on this. I like the way some in the media kiss this death dealing companies ass and I'm just amazed that my fellow union members shop there. So the boycott has been a failure
so all we can do is to shed some light on these scum suckers who did nothing but be born rich. The factories are firetraps and lake the most rudimentary safety.

[jmowreader]

17. It's not JUST because of the 2-cent/pair salary

It's also because they're using the thinnest denim it's possible to make, which allows them to shove 50 percent more jeans in a 40-foot container and still keep the weight legal.

And it's because the factory they choose to make them in isn't hampered by such profit-sapping luxuries as exterminator service or proper equipment for handling the dyes they make the pants with.

They could pay the people who make those pants a quarter per pair and it wouldn't raise the price of the pants all that much--who in hell is going to notice an extra 23 cents tacked on to the price of the pants? Even if you pull the quarter all the way into a dollar it's still reasonable. But if they made the pants out of cloth you couldn't see through, THAT would raise the price significantly.

[Bigmack]

22. They why do Murikans keep buying crap?...

Has advertising been so powerful in shaping our opinions that "cheaper is better"?

Why don't we recognize quality, be willing to pay for it, and employ our own people at decent wages to produce it?

If the jeans cost $20, but lasted longer, wouldn't they be a better buy? (Everything you see on those annoying TV ads costs $19.95)

I realize these are rhetorical questions. I think we grow dumber by the generation.

The video "Idiocracy" is a documentary.

[Better Believe It]

29. Because they can't afford to shop at Nordstrums or Macy's?

[Bigmack]

33. I disagree. They can't afford to buy crap...

that doesn't last. Those $8 jeans simply won't last. Three pair of $8 jeans won't last as long as 1 pair of $20 jeans.... net, the $8 jeans are more expensive.

"Cheap Plastic Crap That Won't Last." That should be Mall-Wart's motto.

I know I sound like an old fart, but not too long ago, we made good stuff, and people could actually fix things.

We need to do that again.

Incidentally, Texas Jeans has a sale on right now. Made in USA... thick denim... all the good stuff... $9.99 pr normally $27.95
http://www.texasjeansusa.com/1020closeout.html

Here's a directory of made in USA jeans...

http://www.stillmadeinusa.com/jeans.htm

[unapatriciated]

35. I have used your argument many times.

It is actually cheaper to buy quality clothing, also wally world can be more expensive than other retailers on many items.

thanks for the link for jeans.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

39. Does anyone know how to sew anymore?

I do. My mom taught me how. I have three all-steel electric Singers that work just fine and will last forever.

Clothing is very loose now and pretty easy to make. You do a few minutes a day and then do something else.

[jmowreader]

41. I think Reagan is responsible for this...

He and his ilk taught America that Cheap is Good.

I was working on a book for the Campbell University Business School, in which I learned of two things: Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson (the "one lesson" I took away was "the crack epidemic has been going on longer than we thought") and that the way to be successful in business is to use only the cheapest materials and labor you can possibly find to make your products.

Unfortunately, this is how to be successful in business in the short term--when people figure out your shit falls apart because you make it out of cheap crap and your production line employees don't give a fuck, they'll stop buying it.

[The Uncola]

20. Haven't set foot in a Walmart ...

... in over ten years and never will again. I detest Walmart and everything stands for.

[Kalyke]

23. Walmart: Always Low Wages.

Always.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. And where do these workers shop?

The next time someone says they have to buy clothes at WalMart because they can't afford to buy them anywhere else, I want them to tell us where they think the 11 cent an hour workers buy THEIR clothes.

[Terra Alta]

31. Coming from Wal-mart, nothing surprises me.

Yes, there is a reason their products are so cheap, and it comes at a cost to someone else.

I'm sure they would pay their own employees only a few cents an hour if not for minimum wage laws... that's just how Wal-mart is. Only caring about the bottom line, and never about the people who work for them, or the people who make their products... it's going to cost Wal-mart big one day, and hopefully sooner rather than later.

[rrneck]

34. Is it even possible to sew a pair of jeans in six minutes? nt

[laughingliberal]

37. K & R nt

[rustydog]

38. Come on now, Rush said some people are born to be slaves

The harsh reality of his callous comments glares very brightly in your post.

This capitalistic slavery must end in our lifetime.

[madmom]

42. So how does Michael Jordan's salary compare to that of the workers in the

Nike sweatshop? And don't tell me it's because he can play ball, because it's still ridiculous. Walmart may be all everyone says it is but let's get real here, they are BY FAR not the only ones and giving the others a pass while concentrating only on them makes matters worse for the people who work in these other sweatshops because the owners get away with murder (literally?) because no one is watching and calling them out, so it must be ok. It's the same thing as going after a common pick pocket while the bank is being robbed. All the attention is on the pick pocket and the bank robber get away clean.