the Sugar Conspiracy

Monday, October 27, 2003

Wal-Mart's employee benefit plan: $2/day

In a sweeping crackdown on undocumented workers, federal agents arrested more than 300 people at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states Thursday and raided the retail giant's world headquarters in Arkansas.

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The cleaning crews did not receive health insurance and were paid below the minimum wage, sometimes as little as $2 a day, a federal official said.

Jeanne at Body and Soul draws an interesing connection between this issue and the recent supermarket strikes across the country. As reported in USA Today:
Officials at Kroger and the nation's other dominant supermarket chains — Ahold, Albertsons and Safeway — often cite competition from Wal-Mart Stores and other box stores moving into the grocery business as a reason to hold the line on labor costs.

Those costs include health care benefits that are the sticking point in United Food and Commercial Worker strikes of 70,000 workers at three southern California chains; 10,000 workers at three chains in Missouri; and 3,300 workers at 44 Kroger stores in West Virginia, Kentucky and Ohio.

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Lower labor costs for non-union workers make up part of the advantage of box stores like Wal-Mart.

Or VERY low labor costs like two dollars an hour . . .

posted by chris at 11:49 AM
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