Last updated on September 25th, 2023 at 01:37 pm
If you’re wondering where the fighters for the middle class and working poor are, I found them at a Congressional Forum on Walmart Jobs held Wednesday morning.
Rep. George Miller (D-CA), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. Grace Napolitano (D-CA) and Rep. Alan Grayson (D-FLA) joined Walmart workers who have been fighting for a living wage of $25,000 a year. Together they addressed Walmart CEO Bill Simon’s previously unreported and rather defensive comments regarding wages, which demonstrated that as many as 825,000 Walmart workers make less than $25,000 a year.
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This is significant because Walmart has avoided addressing the issue of how many of its employees make $25,000 a year and is only doing so due to the sustained pressure of its employees and their supporters.
Rep. George Miller (D-CA) has had enough of workers getting trampled by hugely profitable companies. “For too long those who denied workers rights have dominated the conversation… Workers across the country are changing the debate.”
Scoffing at the way obscenely profitable corporations like Walmart have framed their argument for starving their workers around the “freedom” narrative, Miller continued, “The debate is indeed about freedom and fairness.” The Congressman pointed out, “There are either two places workers get their income, from their employer or from public assistance.”
He made the point that the argument is over whether the employer should pay a decent wage or the taxpayers should subsidize Walmart’s profit margin via public assistance . The Congressman is referring to the fact that just one Walmart could cost taxpayers $900,000 a year, according to a congressional report released in May of this year.
Imagine the outrage if Walmart were an African American single mother. But because Walmart is part of the predator model of the privatization and theft of all wealth from the middle and lower classes, its theft from our coffers is supposed to be an admirable trait of a “winner” and anyone who doesn’t like it is accused of hating capitalism.
Miller asked, “Why should we help an impoverished family like the Waltons?” He decried the absurdity of Republican/corporate policy, saying they advocate for “public assistance for Walmart”. He pointed out that is not what welfare reform was intended to be. Miller called for an end to federal subsidies, “End federal subsidies to wealthiest, the most profitable companies in the world are living off of public assistance and their workers are not being paid a living wage.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) said, “The most important problem facing our economy is income inequality.” Ms. Schakowsky was not impressed that in this time of huge economic disparity, taxpayers are subsidizing Walmart, “The taxpayers are the ones who are subsidizing Walmart right now. We heard a lot about takers and makers…
“The welfare kings of this country are the Walmarts who only play those low wages because taxpayers subsidize them.”
Anthony Goytia from Our Walmart works at an East Los Angeles Walmart making $12,000 a year. He works overnight so he gets an extra dollar an hour. He asks for full time position but is not given one. He wants to provide for his family, but it’s hard on $12,000 a year. He said, “As a husband and father I want nothing more than to provide for my family and let me tell you that it’s very hard to do on 12,000 dollars a year. My family and I are forced to rely on public assistance – sometimes we’re approved and sometimes we’re not which means I have to dip into my rent money. I am going to keep fighting, I’m not afraid of you Walmart, no one who works at a company with $17 billion profits should have to live loan to loan.”
Explaining that he just had to get a tooth pulled because he couldn’t afford the root canal and it takes him 4 hours to ride his bike to and from work each day, Anthony continued, “Twenty-five thousand a year would mean an overall better life, it would mean not having to ride my bike for 4 hours a day – I live 13 miles from work, I have to ride my bike…. Twenty five thousand a year would mean I don’t want to have to rely on other people to put food on my table.”
Mr. Goytia wanted to make sure that the public knew he wasn’t living high on the hog, “I want members of Congress and the public to know what life is like when you make poverty wages. I don’t need cable TV, I don’t have cable TV. I shouldn’t have to rely on donating plasma to be able to put money in my pocket to put food on my table. Walmart can do more.”
Members of Congress were asked by a member of the press about federal policy changes to fight the growing income disparity. They pointed to raising the minimum wage as the first place to make change. But as long as Republicans are the majority in the House, there’s not a snowballs chance in Hell of getting the minimum wage raised. The solution to that problem is to do what they did today – raise the profile of the issue of a living wage. By doing so, they can apply pressure to Republicans and corporatist Democrats, and then they can run on the inherent justice of a living wage and ending taxpayer subsidies to hugely profitable companies like Walmart.
The campaign frame can be: If you believe workers should earn a living wage and you don’t think you should be funding welfare for Walmart, vote for X.
Just who is trying to fundamentally transform America and redistribute the wealth? It’s not the evil socialists you hear so much about. They don’t have the money to buy the pr to buttress beneficial policy. Nope. It’s the corporate parasites masquerading as “businessmen” — an ingenious disguise for massive redistribution of taxpayer money to the upper 1%.
The working poor and middle class are being squeezed out and there aren’t very many politicians who really give a crap and get it. Those who do are concentrated within the Democratic Party or are Independent Socialists like Bernie Sanders. In order to effectively change the dynamics for labor, we need lawmakers in the House and Senate who will support a living wage. Walmart workers have shown the beauty of democracy — by speaking out over a prolonged period of time, they’ve forced Walmart to respond. Citizens can do the same to their elected representatives.
If you believe in a living wage as a basic right, insist on it in the next election. Make noise about it. Let lawmakers know that it’s time for Walmart to pull itself up by its bootstraps and get off welfare. We can’t afford their sense of entitlement to our money.
Image: Making Change At Walmart
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