NPR had an interesting segment this evening on “the urbanization of Walmart.” I caught about half of it while I was driving home from a client, although I spent some of that time singing the Thomas the Tank Engine theme song to Aitch over the cell phone, so I missed some of the salient points. Walmart is trying to expand into urban areas, including Boston, New York, and Chicago. The part of the broadcast that I heard dealt mainly with the plans for two stores in Chicago, one on the South Side that was successfuly shut down, and one on the West Side that is a go, although subject of quite a bit of controversy.
The Walmart opponents marshall the usual arguments: the company underpays its employees, doesn’t provide sufficient health care, and undercuts its suppliers. The Walmart advocates counter that cheap jobs are better than no jobs, and cheap goods are better than no goods in these underserved areas.
I lived for a while on the edge of the West Side of Chicago — not the largely Black and Hispanic community that is the proposed site of the superstore, but a gentrifying neighborhood just west of the highway. Although the commercial district had scores of trendy shops where you could buy vintage clothing and designer shoes, if you wanted basic dry goods like a toaster or a ladder, the options were slim. There was a run-down, depressing K-Mart superstore within walking distance, but if you wanted something more upscale (or even just brightly lit), you had to get in the car. The shopping options only deteriorated the further west you went. Jobs were even scarcer than goods, of course. Most blue-collar and even white-collar jobs were fleeing the city.
So I can see the point of the pastors and community leaders who are lobbying for Walmart, but it still feels like a deal with the Devil. For years I’ve been reading accounts of Walmart’s ills with unease. (Here is Walmart’s side of the story). I have a grandiose fantasy that someday I will unionize Walmart. This dream has no basis in any real charismatic talents on my part, or even a thorough understanding of labor issues, but I do have a half-assed plan for accomplishing what union organizers have failed to do for years, partly inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed.
My plan is for a cadre of thousands of activists to get jobs at Walmarts across the country and work for months or years as steady, reliable employees, making friends and gaining good reputations, a little sleeper cell just waiting to strike. Then, at a prearranged time, we would open the door to the unions and use our influence to get them voted in.
Anyone with me?