Liza
> From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com>
> Reply-To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sat, 30 Apr 2005 19:38:59 -0400 (EDT)
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] WMT in NYC
>
>
>> City Limits MONTHLY
>> http://www.citylimits.org/content/articles/articleView.cfm?articlenumber=128
>>
>> Date: May/ June 2005
>>
>> MORE IN STORE
>>
>> When Wal-Mart wants to open new stores, it doesn't give up. What can New
>> York do about it? By Liza Featherstone
>
> Excellent article. (And while you're there, tell them not to abandon ship.
> I just subscribed a month ago. I couldn't believe that story a couple of
> days ago that they were on the verge of a right wing veer.)
>
>> Wal-Mart is not kind to those who work. In the last several years, it has
>> faced large-scale legal actions for sex discrimination, overtime and
>> child-labor violations. Even worse, the company pays poverty wages--$8 to
>> $10 per hour
>
> One question. Do you know where I can get data on union wages in New York
> for the UFCW and the RWDSU?
>
> The reason I ask is that I was talking to a guy at a local fruit stand that
> is unionized by Local 338 of the RWDSU. I was shocked to learn they had a
> union at all; I'd heard so many stories about arbitrariness and seen such
> long hours I'd always just assumed there was none.
>
> Anyway, he says he worked there 13 years, the first 10 without a union
> (which was brought in when a 16 year old Mexican boy died in a conveyor belt
> accident in 2001.) His conditions before the union were pure sweatshop: 60
> hours a week, no time and half for overtime, no paid days off, and wages
> that were between 9 and 10 dollars an hour at the end of 10 years.
>
> But he said that when the RWDSU came in, his hourly wage actually fell to
> their minimum of $7.75 an hour. There were 50 cent raises every 6 months,
> but 3 years later, he said his wages still hadn't risen to his original
> level.
>
> I wouldn't be surprised if his math is fuzzy here, and that he's going back
> and forth between per hour and per week. (He said that in his case, the
> result of time and a half was simply to erase 20 hours -- which was, of
> course, its original purpose.) And things might look at lot different in a
> couple years if the raises are steady. But still, it made me really want to
> get some hard figures on pay scales and actual pay. Because on the surface,
> this didn't look a lot different than Wal-Mart. And I'd feel much better if
> I could prove definatively that wasn't true. Does anyone know of a good
> source for solid data?
>
> Michael
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