Wal-Mart was the target of protests at stores nationwide on Black Friday, when many workers threatened to walk out over a long list of complaints about unfair labor practices–unlivable wages, insufficient benefits, and poor working conditions. Wal-Mart is notoriously unfriendly to workers’ attempts to unionize, but the past few months have witnessed an unprecedented wave of labor activism across Wal-Mart’s supply chain.
While the attendant public scrutiny may sustain the workers’ momentum, national media coverage and solidarity protests outside stores had minimal impact on Wal-Mart’s Black Friday profits. Labor advocates need another ally to pressure the goliath. Since Wal-Mart was eager to enter the D.C. market, this was an opportunity to pressure the company to submit to regulations protecting workers’ rights to fair labor practices.
Last year, Wal-Mart went on a hearts and minds tour to win over the D.C. media, likely activist opponents, and the City Council, all paving the way for four proposed stores within the District. The development was largely met with open arms, and one store is slated to open next year. For several wards, Wal-Mart will mitigate the food access problems created by food desserts. The company agreed to sign community agreements requiring them to invest in hyperlocal charities, among other things. However, these agreements contain virtually no protections for workers themselves, making Wal-Mart a sub-par option, as job creators go.
With a liberal population and an active small-scale government, the District is in a good position to regulate the wages Wal-Mart pays its employees. After Wal-Mart announced that it had found a location for its first store back in 2010, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union released the results of a poll finding that some 76 percent of residents would support legislation “requr[ing] big box stores to pay more than $12 an hour and hire from the surrounding community.”
Last year, now-Council Chair Phil Mendelson proposed a bill requiring Wal-Mart and similar box stores to pay its employees a minimum wage. Essentially, the effort fizzled. Now that Wal-Mart is a sealed deal for the District, we should reconsider implementing a meager but much-needed worker protection program.
A city like D.C. is unlikely to scare away Wal-Mart with this minimal regulation, and it would be a great first step towards implementing the kinds of changes that workers across the country are demanding.
