----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
Unions should attack Wal-Mart's supply chain first before trying to organize Wal-Mart stores and offices.
"By the end of 2001, Wal-Mart will have 78 distribution centers and will employ approximately 25,000 workers" ("Wal-Mart: Driving Down Standards in the Food Industry," July 11, 2000, <http://www.teamster.org/00news/nr_WW_1.htm>).
Employ 156-240 organizers and salt every single Wal-Mart distribution center, implanting 2-3 organizers per center, with the goal of bringing about a nationwide Wal-Mart supply crisis within a couple of years. That should cost $3-4.8 million per year, spending $20,000 per organizer per year (the organizers combining their union paychecks with Wal-Mart wages to survive and organize). At the same time, beef up Jobs with Justice and similar union-community-campus-congregation alliances, and line up support of union locals whose workers' labor comes into direct or indirect contact with the Wal-Mart supply chain.
If unions succeed in organizing Wal-Mart distribution workers, they can use the power to disrupt the supply chain as a lever to organize Wal-Mart store and office clerks. -- Yoshie
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As someone who knows the headaches of organizing in the logistics sector, I can tell you they'll need a lot more salt per distribution hub and more pay 'cause Wal-Mart will cut the working hours to the bone of any organizer they don't fire. They also need a plan for all the fired workers and for sustaining their presence in the hubs after the first second and third wave of firings.