Wal-Mart - Empowerment Through Collective Voice

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Former unionization that would assist, fight, and speak for the workers as a whole do not exist as they did in the mid-twentieth century, and Wal-Mart is known for being relentlessly hostile toward labor unions. They have mercilessly cut positions and closed distribution centers when facing unionization, and spend a significant amount of money discouraging the unionization of its employees. In turn, they promote the “open door” policy to headquarters, giving employees the chance to reach out almost directly to upper management. Although we see the lack of education, insecurity of job security, and lack of collective voice prevent many low-level employees from actually reaching out and fighting for their rights. In efforts to combat exploitation and to provide advocacy, organization, and education we have begun to see the development of workers centers across the nation. Similar to the former, extremely powerful, unions, the development of workers centers primarily target low-level employees, mainly immigrant workers, in efforts to provide navigation in the world of work.

In the United States today there are millions of workers who are constantly being exploited and taken advantage of by large companies. Their goals are to reduce costs, and one of the most effective ways of doing so is cutting down labor costs. These people are many times immigrant workers, or people of color, who lack the education and fear of job-security. We saw this in the past where large numbers of workers in America were able to unionize to fight for better wages, benefits and working conditions, although, now, unfair labor law and opposition by employers have made unionization extremely difficult despite the constant exploitation. The development of worker centers started in the late 1970s and early 1980s by black worker activists in response to changes in manufacturing that resulted in “worsened conditions… disparities of pay and treatment between African American and white workers as well as exploitation within ethnic economic enclaves and in the broader economy” (Fine 9). Today we see the development of worker centers targeted at immigrant workers in large cities and communities of low-wage workers. These centers provide a range of opportunities through a combination of services, advocacy, and organization in order to help immigrant navigate life and express and collective voice and take collective action in the United States.

These centers vary from center to center on how they think about their mission and take action, although all have many of the same features in common. They act as a hybrid of a number of different organizations to make life easier, while also providing services and advocacy to help enter and sustain a job in the working world. Worker centers aim to provide empowerment to the disempowered workers of large corporations through lobbying for new labor and immigration laws, bring suits against employers, and organizing and engaging in leadership development in order to seek impact on the labor market through direct economic action. The availability of legal assistance, financial assistance, and educational opportunities help form this collective voice of immigrant workers based on location rather than being work-site based. Rather than organizing for majority representation in individual work sites, they focus on immigrant workers as a whole in order to fight the challenges they face while also providing education and stepping-stones for worker empowerment.

For companies like Wal-Mart who constantly hire immigrant workers, the worker centers are planting a seed to challenge the exploitative practices and unjust treatment of their workers. While proven to be successful in advocating for public policy changes, they face struggles different from unions in the mid-twentieth century. Their struggle to build economic power, due to lack of economic and funding resources, they have succeeded in providing a catalyst for collective voice for workers at the bottom of the wage scale. The research they conduct in various industries is helping to reshape the way we see the problems faced in the low-wage working communities and provide possibilities for change.