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Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Food Access, Health Care, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Walmart

Walmart Falling Flat with Not-so-Fresh Foods

Apr 04, 2013

source: thecomingcrisis.blogspot.com

Walmart has been touting claims about its fresh produce, healthy food options, and great products all around for a while now, but recently, customers have been finding that the selection of great food products available at Walmart is not up to par with all the company claims it to be.

A few examples that went viral this week help demonstrate the problem.  When someone posted photos of a box of doughnuts that had layers of expiration stickers on it, each with a different date, many others related and shared similar stories. This twitpic shows another not-so-fresh photo from a customer who, while shopping at 6:30 pm at Walmart, saw rotisserie chickens on display that had been cooked at 10:15 am.

A driving force behind the poor selection in products like produce? An article in the New York Times helps explain what has been happening more and more in Walmart’s across the country:

“Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to stock its shelves properly.”

Walmart’s decision to deprive its associates of full-time work and healthcare is actually hurting the company:

“Internal notes from a March meeting of top Walmart managers show the company grappling with low customer confidence in its produce and poor quality. “Lose Trust,” reads one note, “Don’t have items they are looking for — can’t find it.”

Despite this problem, Walmart continues to expand across the country, while the average number of store employees has decreased from 338 to 281. Not only has the decrease in employee staffing and hours hurt the availability of fresh food, but it has created other issues as well:

“Tsehai Scott, a manager at a Los Angeles Walmart who is a member of the union-affiliated employee group OUR Walmart, said “sometimes there’s a 30- or 40-minute wait in the line” because there are not enough cashiers working. With as few as 11 people on the overnight shift stocking the 218,000-square-foot store, “stocking has fallen by the wayside in what we call the consumable areas,” meaning everyday products like food or toiletries. “The department won’t get as clean as it should,” she said, “or we’ll see spoiled food in the food department, that if we had enough hands, we could get it back to the freezer or refrigerator in time.”

The result of all of this? An exodus of customers to other retailers like Costco and Safeway.  When will Walmart realize that what is good for the associate is good for business too? If the company wants to turn things around, they should start by listening to what the world is telling it: treat your workers better.

Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Health Care, Organizing, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values

High End Retailer Juicy Couture Not Taking Care of its Workers

Apr 03, 2013

Juicy: Take Care of Your WorkersDuane has worked for Juicy Couture, a high end retailer, for almost four years as a stocker.  Darrell was a full-time sales associate for the store for more than two years.  At first, they enjoyed their jobs at Juicy’s flagship store in New York City.

But recently, things have changed.

Darrell was recently fired for supposedly violating a time and attendance policy. Even when Darrell proved that he hadn’t violated the company policy, Juicy denied him unemployment, and a judge had to step in.

Duane, who started his job at 40 hours a week, has seen his hours cut drastically over the years, so that he is now only working 14 a week.  The company claims this is due to his lack of availability, since he has a five-year-old daughter.

But Duane and Darrell are not the only employees at their location to experience such practices.  Many of their coworkers also started as full-time employees, and now only 19 of the 128 Juicy flagship workers are full-time.  When Duane and Darrell realized that their full-time workforce had been swapped for a part-time one, and part-time hours became capped at 21 hours a week, they decided to stand up to Juicy, and are telling the company–which sells $200 jeans and sweaters–to take care of its workers.

Juicy’s actions of cutting hours is so that it does not have to provide healthcare for  its part-time workers. In a time and city where it is hard enough to make ends meet while working a full time job, part-time hours and no healthcare is crippling to these hardworking individuals. To stand up for workers like themselves, who have been forced out of a job due to lack of hours or unjust firing, Duane and Darrell have started a petition in partnership with the Retail Action Project.

“We know from experience that Juicy has loyal customers and dedicated employees — if enough of us speak out and demand Just Hours, they’ll have no choice but to act,” note the former employees.  They couldn’t be more correct–which is why the workers should organize.  If the employees at Juicy Couture come together and unionize, to stand up for their rights as workers, they can put a stop to these unfair business practices.

Please sign their petition here, and tell Juicy to take care of its workers!

Corporate Responsibility, Economic Justice, Food Access, Health Care, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Uncategorized, Walmart, Workplace Safety & Health

Walmart is Key Player in America’s Health Problem

Apr 03, 2013

Walmart likes to claim that they are organic, sustainable, and all about healthy options. But in reality, Walmart is a driving force in the unhealthy lifestyles that have led to an “epidemic” of weight and diet-related health problems in our country.

Walmart’s share of the grocery market stands at an unprecedented and increasingly-growing 25%.  This means that Walmart has an alarming amount of control over what American eats.

According to an article from Truthout, Walmart has “recast its relentless expansion as a solution to ‘food deserts.’” However, when looking at the stats, it isn’t hard to see that this claim is more of a PR stunt:

“Although Walmart has made food deserts the vanguard of its PR strategy in urban areas, most of the stores the chain has built or proposed in cities like Chicago and Washington D.C. are in fact just blocks from established supermarkets, many unionized or locally owned.  As it pushes into cities, Walmart’s primary aim is not to fill gaps but to grab market share.”

Aside from Walmart’s bogus reasoning behind its rapid expansion, what is truly worrisome is this:

“Walmart’s takeover of our food system has been to intensify the rural and urban poverty that drives unhealthy food choices.  Poverty has a strong negative effect on diet, regardless of whether there is a grocery store in the neighborhood or not, a major 15-year study published in 2011 in the Archives of Internal Medicine found. Access to fresh food cannot change the bottom-line reality that cheap, calorie-dense processed foods and fast food are financially logical choices for far too many American households.  And their numbers are growing right alongside Walmart.  Like Midas in reverse, Walmart extracts wealth and pushes down incomes in every community it touches, from the rural areas that produce food for its shelves to the neighborhoods that host its stores.”

Farmers and food workers are now struggling more than ever to make a living now too, thanks to Walmart’s control of the industry.  In order to avoid being crushed by  the mega-corporation, food companies have been forced to merge and consolidate in hopes that they can supply for Walmart. The result is that 4 meatpacking companies slaughter more than three quarters of America’s beef, and a single dairy producer handles 40% of the country’s milk.  With monopolies like this, the ability for businesses to compete is all but zilch.

The effect of all of this? It comes down to less pay for farmers and food workers, a decrease in the value of the consumer dollar, and higher grocery prices overall.  But since Walmart’s prices are so low, many are forced to shop there, creating a vicious cycle: “As Walmart stores multiply, fewer families can afford to eat well.”

But let’s not forget the other huge reason Walmart is downright unhealthy: It doesn’t provide its hard-working associates with living wages, affordable healthcare, or oftentimes, even a safe working environment.  When the workers who make Walmart the success it is have to decide between food for their family or paying the electric bill, can’t go to the doctor because if they miss work they will be fired, or are afraid to speak out about issues in the workplace because of harassment and intimidation, healthy living becomes impossible–regardless of food choice.