Ya know, there may be an indication that employees need higher wages when the company holds a food drive for its workers.
A Walmart in Canton, Ohio set up a Thanksgiving food drive for its less fortunate employees.
Plastic bins in an employee-only section of the store read “Please donate food items so associates in need can enjoy Thanksgiving dinner.” So The Cleveland Plain Dealer asked: “Is the food drive proof the retailer pays so little that many employees can’t afford Thanksgiving dinner?”
Norma Mills of Canton shares their sentiment. She says she first felt “outrage” and “anger.”
“Then I went through the emotion of compassion for the employees, working for the largest food chain in America, making low wages, and who can’t afford to provide their families with a good Thanksgiving holiday,” said Mills, an organizer with Stand Up for Ohio, which is active in foreclosure issues in Canton. “That [Wal-Mart] would have the audacity to ask low-wage workers to donate food to other low-wage workers — to me, it is a moral outrage.”
The Atlantic says, “One might be tempted to take this as a sign that the country’s largest retailer (and grocer) doesn’t pay their workers enough to put a holiday meal on the table.”
But Walmart spokesperson Kory Lundberg says people have it all wrong.
“It is for associates who have had some hardships come up,” he said. “Maybe their spouse lost a job.
“This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” he said.
“Quite frankly, a lot of people in that store are frustrated and offended that this is reported in a way besides other folks rallying around each other,” Lundberg said, according to AkronNewsNow.com, adding that last year, 12 people had been helped by this very program in the store.
“I couldn’t be prouder of people in that store helping in a tough situation,” he said.
But actions speak louder than words. Last year, hundreds of Walmart employees came out for a “Black Friday” to protest the company’s wages and working conditions. And in June, protesters, including some striking workers, disrupted Wal-Mart’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
I’m lilD, and that’s the Word Eye Heard. So they don’t have to work on Thanksgiving…? They gone have Thanksgiving breakfast.
via TheWordEyeHeard
