Beefed up SWAT teams sent to WalMart protests

Which elected official sent these guys along?

Left: beefed up cops turn up at peaceful WalMart protest

In response to the protests/strikes by WalMart workers and their supporters yesterday,  WalMart spokesperson Brooke Buchanan said that the protests were, just, “…another stunt to garner attention, it's the same old cast members trying to get some attention for their cause."  The protesters are just a lot of “…union activists and professional protesters - not a lot of Wal-Mart associates,'' Buchanan added.

WalMart has 4600 stores in the US employing 1.3 million workers, many of then part-time workers earning $8 or $9 an hour.  With no union therefore very few rights on the job, the fact that any workers walk of the job is a feat of courage in itself. Buchanan’s comments are standard from the 1%’s spokesperson’s---there’s no problems at WalMart, workers are happy, there are merely a few disgruntled folks and outside agitators.

The coalition leading these protests includes community groups, non-profits and the UFCW, are demanding WalMart pays full-time workers $25,000 a year.  Organizing one million workers would bring in a huge revenue stream for the UFCW even if these members were low waged workers that’s how the strategists atop organized labor look at it.  It’s possible that WalMart might throw a few crumbs on the table in response to these activities which would add some momentum to the movement perhaps.  The UFCW leadership, like the entire leadership of organized Labor is not willing to build a real, militant movement to unionize WalMart which would mean involving trucking (deliveries), the community, and other sections of the class that could force through direct action and strikes, WalMart to accept union recognition.

Sometimes though, mobilizations can get out of control of those who initiate them, the mood can be such that the limits put on them by the leadership are discarded and we know there is much anger and discontent beneath the surface of US society that can break the bonds of acceptable behavior at any time.

In fact what motives this short commentary is the picture included. This is how the cops turned up to one of the WalMart workers’ peaceful protests.  It is standard these days and part of the beefing up of state security forces where regular cops and SWAT teams are indistinguishable from each other. The use of drones domestically and the massive spying apparatus that Edward Snowden thankfully revealed to us is also part of this increased state security. The bosses were a little shaken up by the Occupy Movement that showed direct action and defiance of the law is a necessary part of the struggle for a decent life. The object is to intimidate workers with these thugs, terrify us in to submission.

The politicians that make the decisions to send these characters to a peaceful protest by workers earning starvation wages, no doubt receive money and support at election time from the heads of organized labor. Meanwhile, the Walton family heirs have as much wealth as 100 million Americans and Wal-Mart CEO Michael Duke earned nearly $20 million in 2012, including pay, stock awards and incentives. That works out to about $9,600 an hour. He got another $21.4 million from exercising stock options and vested shares.

But the more astute political representatives of the bankers recognize the explosive and volatile nature of the present period and their increased security measures are a necessary precaution from their point of view.  One has to think that there is no way any politician or public figure that has anything to do with sending a force like those in the picture to protect the rights of the WalMart family are anything but enemies of workers and the poor.

The ongoing crisis of capitalism and the declining influence of US capitalism on the world stage will bring more attacks on workers at home as Washington’s imperialist adventures have to be paid for.  All the gains won over the last century are to be taken back.  As we have explained many times on this blog, the refusal of the labor leaders to fight and the violent nature of the US authorities has delayed the response to this offensive of capital, has held back a movement of the working class that would introduce an offensive of our own to the equation, but the bosses will not stop, driven as they are by the nature of their system.  Our offensive will come, it will not be pretty, it will contain much confusion but it will arrive.

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The Restaurant lobby, the other NRA

With fast food workers around the nation walking off the job tomorrow I thought it would be of interest to readers to know a bit more about the  National Restaurant Association. This piece below is from AlterNet.

The Other NRA: How the Insidiously Powerful Restaurant Lobby Makes Sure Fast-Food Workers Get Poverty Wages and Have to Work While Sick

Fast-food workers feed their families on a pittance while the big corporations resist fair pay and sick leave.

Photo Credit: Shutterstock.com/L. Kragt Bakker

August 27, 2013  |  

 

Editors note: This is the first in a series of reader-supported—i.e. crowdfunded —articles about the powerful National Restaurant Association and the plight of low-wage workers who are being screwed at every turn by industry lobbying tactics and misleading propaganda. An amazing 387 AlterNet readers contributed more than $5,500 to support this ongoing investigative project. Many of the donors are listed at the end of the article.

 

While thousands of fast-food workers were preparing to walk off their jobs earlier this summer to seek raises to $15 an hour, the industry’s corporate lobbyist, the National Restaurant Association, was celebrating a string of political victories blocking state minimum wage increases and preempting local sick day laws.

 

In June, the NRA boasted that its lobbyists had stopped minimum wage increases in 27 out of 29 states in 2013. In Connecticut, which increased its state minimum wage, a raise in the base pay for tipped workers such as waitresses and bartenders vanished in the final bill. A similar scenario unfolded in New York State: It increased its minimum wage, but the NRA’s last-minute lobbying derailed raising the pre-tip wage at restaurants and bars. The deals came despite polls showing 80 percent support for raising the minimum wage. 
 
The NRA’s lobbying didn’t stop there. It also told members that it blocked a dozen states this year from passing laws that would require earned paid sick leave, which is what New York City and Portland, Oregon adopted. Meanwhile, it boasted that six states, including Florida, passed NRA-backed laws that preemptively ban localities from granting earned and paid employee sick time. “These are horrible things, but there are amazing things that are happening to change it,” said Saru Jayaraman, co-director and co-founder of the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), which has been working a dozen years to slowly change the industry’s exploitive business model and labor practices. “And there will be increasingly important stuff coming up.”    

As fast-food workers across the country prepare for a second nationwide walkout over wages on Thursday, most Americans have little idea how profitable and politically aggressive the corporate mainstays of America’s second biggest employer have become. While labor activists have had victories in 2013, such as New York and Portland passing sick leave laws, and New Jersey poised to raise its minimum wage via a ballot measure this fall, the restaurant industry’s lobbying powerhouse is at war with the industry’s workers.

“It’s an old-boy network. It’s very old-school thinking. It’s very, very conservative,” said Paul Saginaw, founder of Zingerman’s food companies in Michigan, which employes 600 people and unlike the NRA, supports better benefits for employees like healthcare. “There has to be some pressure put out to provide better lives for people.”

Most Americans are unaware that millions of people who work in the industry—especially the 2.5 million fast-food preparers and servers who earn an average of $8.74 an hour, according to federal labor statistics—are not just teens in their first job, but adults with families to support. They may not know there’s a separate minimum wage for tipped workers, $2.13 an hour, that hasn’t changed in 22 years—although 32 states have raised it slightly. They may not realize that they, as the restaurant-going public, subsidize owners via cash tips, even as the NRA routinely tells legislators its industry cannot afford to pay better wages or basic benefits.

Most Americans don’t know that restaurant salaries are so low that the industry’s 12.2 million workers use food stamps at twice the rate of the U.S. workforce, and are three times as likely to be below the poverty line. Or that women earn less than men in similar jobs. Or that restaurants are among the biggest low-wage employers of people of color. Or that virtually every chain—except for In and Out, according to ROC—don’t want to pay living wages and benefits or offer real opportunities for advancement.

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$15.00 minimum wage. Its the way you look at things.

The movement that is developing for a $15.00 minimum wage is very inspiring. It deserves the support of all working people. It also reminds me of when I was young and laboring to an older bricklayer who was good union man. One day he asked me. He was always asking me questions to increase my class consciousness. He asked me: "Tell me young fella how this comes about. They are always saying that the rich ones have to be allowed to make as much money as possible or they will not be motivated. But at the same time they are always saying that the poor and the working class need to be kept on the lowest possible wage to motivate them? What do you think about that?"  That old dude was not so slow.

We hear all sorts of excuses not to pay the $15.00 minimum wage. Actually I think it should be $15.00 minimum or a $5.00 an hour wage increase which ever is the greater. This would mobilize wider sections. But I unconditionally support the struggle for the $15.00 minimum wage. But one of the excuses we hear comes from the small employers. They say they cannot afford $15.00, it would put them out of business they say. We have to answer this.

The small business people have many expenses besides wages. Rent in most cases, interest on money they owe on loans, heating and cooling, taxes, insurance, and on and on. But it is the wages that are targeted. The small business owners see the workers wages as the easiest way to cut their expenses. . They do not want to take on the banks, the insurance companies, the tax collectors and so on. This is a false and unfair approach and one that will backfire on the small business people themselves. They should unite with the low paid workers to fight for lower rents, lower taxes, lower insurance payments etc., and in this way pay the $15.00 an hour minimum wage.

Back in the 18.00's there was the great struggle for the 8 hour day. This struggle formed 8 hour day committees and built a national network of struggle. We should establish $15.00 an hour committees and link these together into a powerful network of direct action struggle. These would take up the issue not only of wages but also conditions on the job and health care.

At the same time this $15.00 an hour movement should look to the established trade union movement with its 12 million members. Every union member should be at their union local moving motions to hold meetings in the workplaces, in the unions at all levels for the $15.00 an hour minimum wage. In this way link the existing trade union membership with the $15.00 an hour movement whether their wage is above $15.00 an hour or not. The more they keep down the minimum wage the more the bosses will push down the wage of all workers, the more the workers push up the minimum wage the more the wage of all workers will be pushed up. The reason this would happen would be that a more  powerful workers movement would be built and this would push the bosses onto the defensive and force them to hand over some of  the trillions of dollars they have looted from workers and hidden away in the last decades.

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Fast Food workers call For a nationwide strike

We are not familiar with the level of organization that has gone in to this but we should keep our eye on these developments and support them when and where we can. From Chicagoist

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by Chuck Sudo

Retail and fast food workers called out for a nationwide strike today to take place Aug. 29. The workers and their supporters have been staging strikes in Chicago, New York, Kansas City, Detroit and other cities across the country for months demanding a hike in the minimum wage to $15 an hour and the right to unionize. Hundreds of workers and several labor organizations in Chicago recently participated in two days of walkouts and protests earlier this month.
Nancy Salgado, a single mother who has worked at a Chicago McDonald’s for the past 10 years said in a press release:

“We are united in our belief that every job should pay workers enough to meet basic needs such as food and housing. Our families, communities, and economy all depend on workers earning a living wage.”

Organizers say the strikes will hit fast food chains like McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King, as well as retail outlets such as Sears, Macy’s and Dollar Tree Stores. Chicago’s protests at the beginning of the month saw walkouts at some of those locations along with Whole Foods, Sally Beauty Supply, Walgreen's and others. Supporters of the strikes say that large corporations can afford pay increases for rank and file employees when the industry sees $200 billion a year in revenue.
"It’s time for these big fast-food and retail companies to pay up. They can afford to pay us more and have a responsibility to ensure the workers who keep their businesses booming don’t live in poverty," said Latrice Arnold, a Wendy’s employee from Detroit. Recent data has suggested low wages from big box retailers and fast food chains hurt American taxpayer’s—regardless of whether or not they’re a low wage worker—because thousands of employees are also on government aid. CNN Money reported in June that one study showed 3,216 Walmart employees, America’s largest private employer, were enrolled in public health care programs in Wisconsin.

Additionally, demographics of low wage workers has changed over the years. While the assumption might be fast food chains are staffed with younger people looking for some extra cash, the Economic Policy Institute released a study that showed 8 out of 10 workers making $7.25 an hour are older than 20, and half those work 40 hours a week. Researchers from the EPI told the Washington Post “It is clear that the bulk of minimum wage workers are mid- or full-time adult employees, not teenagers or part-times.”

 

Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

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