Grocery Store Workers Caught Up in Wal-Mart's Race to the Bottom

November 3, 2003

by Lisa Bennett, NOW Communications Director

NOW President Kim Gandy speaks at a press conference at the AFL-CIO in support of the striking and locked-out grocery workers in Southern California. Photo by Lisa Bennett.

Why is this a feminist issue? Because 65 percent of these grocery workers are women and 35 percent are people of color, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW). Many of them are single parents. And they are at the vanguard of a movement to preserve employer health care coverage and stop the steady stream of employers who are effectively reducing employee pay by beginning to deduct the skyrocketing cost of health benefits from workers' paychecks.

"Women are the majority of grocery workers and the majority of grocery shoppers," said Gandy. "One must stand up for the other."

The other reason NOW members and all feminists should care about this strike is that Wal-Mart, named a Merchant of Shame by NOW last year, is leading the race to the bottom. Wal-Mart has already been charged—in what could become the largest lawsuit of its kind—with discrimination against women workers in pay, promotions and training.

More importantly, Wal-Mart, which pays extremely low wages and provides almost no affordable health coverage for its workers, is now the largest grocery retailer in the U.S. Major grocery chains argue that they must eliminate health benefits for their own employees in order to be able to compete against Wal-Mart. Competitors may reduce or cancel health benefits first, but cuts in wages are sure to follow in order to meet Wal-Mart's low standards.

As part of NOW's Women-Friendly Workplace Campaign, chapter activists across the country have been handing out information to customers in front of and inside Wal-Mart stores. Wal-Mart has yet to respond to NOW's call for the company to start treating women fairly and to pay all of its employees a living wage—but they did send us a "cease and desist" letter threatening legal action.

Wal-Mart has come to dominate numerous consumer markets, including the grocery business, thanks to its low prices. Those low prices would not be possible without the equally low wages Wal-Mart pays its non-union workers and its lack of affordable health insurance.

"Health care is a family value," said Gandy. "It is a human right. These aren't numbers we're talking about, they're people—they're people with families to support."

Wal-Mart's average national wage is less than $10 an hour, putting many of its employees below the poverty line. Recently, California Assemblywoman Sally J. Lieber, D-San Jose, revealed that Wal-Mart is fully aware that its employees qualify for welfare, so much so that the store has provided information for its employees on how to apply for public assistance.

Every time Wal-Mart opens a new store, the businesses in those areas try to compete with the cut-rate behemoth. That's what's happening now in Southern California, where Wal-Mart plans to begin opening 40 new Supercenters, which sell a large line of groceries.

Anticipating that they would have to drop their prices, three leading grocery chains—Vons (Safeway), Ralphs (Kroger) and Albertsons—announced to the UFCW that their new contract would include a freeze on wages for existing workers, lower wages for new employees and severe cutbacks on health coverage funding.

Striking workers from those stores spoke at the press conference, explaining how expensive decent health coverage would become if the three grocery chains get their way.

"Wal-Mart is creating a despicable business model for the rest of this country," said Olga Vives, NOW's Action Vice President and leader of the Women-Friendly Workplace campaign. "This model says its okay to mistreat your workers, to discriminate against women, as long as you increase your bottom line and keep your shareholders happy."

Gandy adds: "After the grocery workers in Southern California, who is next? It could be any of us who depend on our employer to provide affordable health insurance."

NOW urges its supporters across the country to stand in solidarity with the striking workers. Also, contact your local NOW chapter to find out if they have "adopted" a local Wal-Mart store yet and help them spread the word about the company's unfair labor practices.