Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Save Money. Live Better. Really?

Walmart’s tag line—Save Money, Live Better—sounds good, right? If we save money on our stuff, we can put it to use to better our lives in some other way.

Or we can use it to buy more stuff, and more stuff means a better life. Or not.

I think we as workers, citizens, moms and dads need to re-examine this premise. How much of this stuff actually adds value to our lives, and how much of it ends up in landfills very shortly after it comes in to our homes? Check it out. Think about it. Are we living better?

But this is not the real issue. For those of us who are members of a labour union, we should give thought to the fact that Walmart will move heaven and earth to prevent its employees from joining a union.

No Walmart store in Canada has ever been successfully unionized. Some were unionized, but they were either closed by the company, or the employees decertified the union at a later date. Are Walmart’s employees living better?

I think the majority of Walmart employees, if freely given the choice, would gladly exercise their right to freedom of association and join a union. But the company has gone out of its way to ensure that its employees have no realistic chance of ever exercising that right.

How about the workers who make the stuff Walmart sells? Are they living better?

Workers in China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and other places who make the goods often are inadequately paid, have no benefits, and work in horrific, unsafe conditions. What are Walmart and other companies doing about it? Not enough.

As union members, I hope and trust that we are not living on the backs of workers who are not treated with the same justice and fairness we expect when we go to work. We enjoy safe working conditions, good wages and benefits, and union representation. We should demand no less for those who make and sell the things we enjoy.

Everyone wants to save money. But not at the expense of others who also seek to live better.

Save Money. Live Better. Really?

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