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Wal-Mart to Hold Job Auction

Guest post by John McGowan

In a Labor Day press conference, Walmart CEO McScrooge Walton outlined the giant retailer’s reactions to—and immediate plans in relation to—Hurricane Katrina. 

“It’s a sad commentary on the state of this nation,” Walton said.  “A little water in the streets and everyone’s looking for a hand-out.  Of course, we’re not against a little well-meant charity from private citizen to private citizen.  But you make this stuff systematic and there’s hell to pay.  No more work ethic, no more responsibility.  And it isn’t just the people who are to blame.  Corporate America’s gone soft.  Paying workers who aren’t working?  Who ever heard of such a thing?  It may look hard-hearted, but the only way to recover from this disaster is to trust to the same economic laws of supply and demand, of buy cheap and sell dear, that made this country prosperous and great.”

“So I am pleased to announce that Walmart will hold a job auction on September 15th.  People are going to need jobs—and we got ‘em.  The auction rules are simple.  Jobs will go to the highest bidder.  And, yes, we understand that some folks may not have ready cash.  So we will hold a supplementary auction where the bidding will be for the lowest wage.  We stand pledged to do everything we can to get the region’s economy back on its feet.”

To objections from the gathered reporters, McScrooge said: “I’ve learned two things in my years as a businessman.  First, sometimes you have to spend money to make money.  A job is an investment.  People will be happy to pay money to get one.  Second, even though you sometimes have to pay money to make money, the most successful businessman is the one who can figure out most often how to make the other guy pay.”

Asked if he had any regrets about Walmart’s preparations for or responses to the storm and its aftermath, McScrooge replied: “I sure do.  From now on, every Walmart employee is going to be trained by the NRA on how to use all those guns we keep in stock.  You won’t ever see a Walmart looted in the future.  I guarantee it.”

When one reporter suggested that armed employees might be tempted to take on management, McScrooge scoffed: “This is America, not Canada.  Just let ‘em try it.  They’d be replaced by illegals faster than you can say Rio Grande.”

Tuesday morning found the company back-pedaling furiously from the CEO’s intemperate comments.  A NPR story that morning reported that Walmart employees displaced by the hurricane would be paid for three days of missed work, as contrasted to two weeks pay for employees of McDonalds and Northrop-Grumman, and indefinite pay from some of the smaller employers in the area.  Curiously, the Walmart web site says nothing about paying displaced workers.  All it says is:

• Any displaced associate can come and work in any other U. S. Wal-Mart store.  Thus far, these associates have been transposed and are working from stories as far away as Alaska, California and Nevada, with many more in neighboring states of Georgia, Texas, and Florida.

Walmart has not returned this reporter’s calls, so I can’t tell you for sure if the job auction will be held on the 15th, or what the word “transposed” means when used to describe associates now working in Alaska, or if there is three days of pay (i.e. about $125) available for Walmart associates washed out of a job. In any case, the FEMA debit cards definitely look like a better deal. 

Posted by on 09/08 at 08:01 AM

  1. $125--that’s not even enough to fuel an SUV for the drive from NO to to Memphis these days.  Of course, Wal-Mart employees don’t generally own SUV’s, so it’s all kosher anyway.  To paraphrase B. Bush (and many of my students, when reacting to B. Ehrenreich’s *Nickel and Dimed*):  they’re used to being poor, so they don’t mind, right?

    BTW, even though this is a guest post, it counts as one of the three posts under 1500 words (this one comes in at just under 600).  Two to go.

    Posted by  on  09/08  at  12:30 PM

  2. Jaw-dropping. Corporations spend money to make money, not homeless, unemployed people. Sounds like a great plan for indentured poverty.
    And,indeed, Canada is known for its guns, but I suppose he was speaking metaphorically about attempts in Quebec to unionize.

    Posted by Trix  on  09/08  at  07:53 PM

  3. that is stunning.  I’m curious: is there a record of this press conference anywhere? or at least more information about it? I mean, I trust your reporting, but Walton’s comments are so over-the-top I feel I need to know more…

    Posted by  on  09/08  at  08:26 PM

  4. Trix, cris—I think John was performing a bit of satire, here. Following up on the suggestion, about Wal-Mart, made in the last two posts. This suspicion is mainly founded on the fact that I don’t think Wal-Mart’s CEO is actually named “McScrooge Walton.” He should be, yes, but I don’t think he is.

    But yeah, this is still frighteningly close to something that could conceivably be said by proponents of unregulated capitalism.

    Posted by  on  09/08  at  11:10 PM

  5. Yeah, I think Michael’s propensity for sarcasm kinda rubbed off on John here.  Looks very good on him, too.

    Posted by Linkmeister  on  09/09  at  03:40 AM

  6. Right.  Satire it is.  The quote from the web site is real, however.  As is the NPR info--i.e. Walmart giving employees three days of pay as constrasted to more munificient employers.  But the press conference is phony.  And Wal-Mart does have a fund where employees can apply for $1,000 in disaster relief. Poking around on corporate web sites was very instructive; there was a clear difference between the sites that were aimed at the wider public and very PR conscious about how they looked in their responses to the disaster--and the sites that were aimed more at employees and trying to get them the info they needed.  You can guess which category Walmart falls in.  And, yes, the Walmart site is silent about the three days pay policy--which does make me wonder if they are even going to do that.  Perhaps NPR got it wrong.

    Posted by mcgowan  on  09/09  at  08:43 AM

  7. huh, satire...and yet the “quotes” were quite believable, as Lee says. I also thought hard about whether a CEO would say such outrageous things if only to avoid all the PR damage control that would inevitably follow. 

    then again, given that public discourse is particularly noxious these days, I wonder if comments along those lines would attract much attention or become a problem that needed damage control.

    Posted by  on  09/09  at  09:08 AM

  8. There’s already a lot of economic blackmail going on.  As you may have already heard, an article in yesterday’s WSJ discussed a meeting of NO elites in Dallas today to plot the city’s future:  “The new city must be something very different, Mr. Reiss says, with better services and fewer poor people. ‘Those who want to see this city rebuilt want to see it done in a completely different way: demographically, geographically and politically,’ he says. ‘I’m not just speaking for myself here. The way we’ve been living is not going to happen again, or we’re out.’”

    http://woomer.blogspot.com/2005/09/plotting-disney-fication-of-new.html

    Posted by Nick  on  09/09  at  11:58 AM

  9. <a title="Here and Now : Labor Day and WalMart - 9/5/2005” href="http://www.here-now.org/shows/2005/09/20050905_3.asp">Walmart contributes $23 million to Katrina Fund while Religious Left sneers</a>:

    Former presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced today that WalMart is kicking off their hurricane Katrina fundraising effort, with a donation of 23 million dollars; 15 million from the giant chain, 8 million from the Walton family.

    What are you doing?

    Posted by Rick  on  09/09  at  01:49 PM

  10. Rick:
    Relatively speaking, given that Wal-Mart had $285.2 *billion* in sales in the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, 2005, a $23 million contribution is pretty pathetic.

    Posted by Nick  on  09/09  at  02:10 PM

  11. Let’s face it Nick… to people like you, Walmart can’t do anything right…

    23 million is more than likely 23 million more than anyone on this site contributed.

    Get over it pal… and check with the victims who are helped, and the employees who are helped, and tell them the 23 million is meaningless…

    You people kill me…

    Having to live with that level of hatred must be tough…

    Posted by Rick  on  09/09  at  02:44 PM

  12. I guess satire always has the problem of not announcing its point directly.  Yes, Walmart has now given a lot of money for hurricane relief.  But isn’t it odd that, in their general relief effort, they are skimping their employees?  They are way behind what other firms are doing--and what they are offering has to be applied for.  It fits with Walmart’s general contempt for the people who work for them.

    Posted by mcgowan  on  09/09  at  03:33 PM

  13. This thing lost my last comment. Schucks. Anyway, mainly just pointed out the Walmart’s donation ($15 million, cause the family’s donation doesn’t affect the company’s bottom line) is around .005% of their income. I.e., equivalent to someone who makes $300K/yr giving $16, or me giving 80 cents.

    We should have a “Walmart Circle” package of benefits for people who transpose their income at this level. Entitles you to a tote bag, a 10% discount on chicory and shrimp at participating retailers, and a necklace of beads. Thank you for your support.

    I don’t want to spit on their donation, either, and it will help. But it doesn’t hurt to put it in perspective relative to what private citizens are doing.

    Posted by  on  09/09  at  04:15 PM

  14. Nicely done, John.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/09  at  05:45 PM

  15. Everything I have heard on NPR indicates that Wal-Mart has been a model of excellence for disaster relief in the New Orleans flood.  They used their supply network to ship 100’s of truckloads of water, ice and food to the victims every day.

    From the Houston Chronicle, reprinted from the Washington Post:

    During a tearful interview on Meet the Press on Sunday, Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish in the New Orleans suburbs, told host Tim Russert that if “the American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn’t be in this crisis.”

    http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3342764

    I agree with Rick, only I would take it further: You people are so blinded by hatred of big business that you are incapable of thinking for yourself anymore.  The extreme left today is worse than the fundamentalists. Both are blinded by their emotions, but the fundamentalists are in a sense incapable of making a rational decision because their belief structure prohibits it. On the contrary, most liberals are educated, believe in science and in general should know better than to blindly rely on their beliefs more than the objective facts.

    Posted by  on  09/10  at  07:24 PM

  16. Compared to sitting on your hands and doing nothing, any action at all looks good.

    That’s the real favor Bush has done big business. At this point, Walmart could load the people of New Orleans onto slave ships and be lauded by comparison to FEMA.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/10  at  07:57 PM

  17. Your rhetoric might be right--however, based on what I have heard and read, it seems Wal-Mart’s contributions to this disaster are large compared to other companies. For example, here’s another quote from the same article I cited above:

    “Wal-Mart has raised the ante for every company in the country,” said Adam Hanft, chief executive of Hanft Unlimited, a New York branding and marketing firm. “This is going to change the face of corporate giving.”

    So why single out Wal-Mart when they are the big givers? I imagine there are a lot of corporate giants that did nothing.

    Posted by  on  09/10  at  08:38 PM

  18. Personally, I was pleased to hear of WalMart’s deliveries of food and water. Good for them. Yes, it could have been more, and yes, if I was running the company it would have been more. Still, kudos to them for that.

    But three days’ pay for displaced employees is just odd. It’s as if they deliberately chose an amount too smal to be of much use. It would have been far easier on their accounting staff to just extend the payroll for an extra pay period, which it seems Northrup and Mickey D’s did and neither of those places are exactly worker-owned cooperatives.

    It just sounded like John D. Rockefeller tossing dimes to the populace. Not somethng the average person would exactly turn down, but not enough to help all that much.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/10  at  09:22 PM

  19. Oh please.  Look, no one is saying that it would have been better for Wal-Mart to give nothing.  Obviously the Katrina victims are better off with the extra $23 million.

    That said, people need to have way higher standards when it comes to assigning moral credit—especially when it comes to assigning moral credit to a corporation.  Don’t forget that a corporation is nothing but a legal fiction designed to maximize profits for its shareholders.  Wal-Mart’s board of directors has a fiduciary duty to Wal-Mart shareholders to maximize a return on their investment.  That’s it. 

    Any assistance Wal-Mart gave was motivated by a desire for good PR.  Just you wait until they start running feel-good commercials touting their contributions to the relief effort… In fact, any type of supererogatory action by Wal-Mart would probably result in a shareholder lawsuit against the board for breach of fiduciary duty.

    This criticism has nothing to do with “hatred.” It arises out of the realization that corporations like Wal-Mart are required (economically and legally) to be purely self-interested; as such, they are inherently unworthy of moral praise.

    Posted by Nick  on  09/10  at  11:16 PM

  20. That’s exactly what I meant to say, Nick. Must have been a typo.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/10  at  11:21 PM

  21. Apologies Chris.  My post was aimed at some earlier posts; not yours.  My bad.

    Posted by Nick  on  09/10  at  11:25 PM

  22. Oh, don’t worry Nick. I got that.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/11  at  12:51 AM

  23. Josh Claybourn from In the Agora (http://www.intheagora.com/archives/2005/09/walmart_to_the.html) writes:

    Here’s a list of just some of the many things Wal-Mart has done in response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster, in addition to refraining from prosecuting the numerous looters of its stores:

    150 Internet-ready computers delivered or on the way to shelters to help evacuess and families find each other via the Wal-Mart and Red Cross web sites.

    Shipments of beds were delivered to the Houston Astrodome.

    Wal-Mart donated two trailers full of water and basic necessities to the New Orleans police force.

    Emergency Prescriptions Filled Free for Evacuees With No Money: Evacuees with emergency medicine needs and no money may go to any Wal-Mart pharmacy to have their prescriptions filled free of charge, even if they do not have a copy of their prescription. People who have been displaced and are temporarily residing in other areas may receive a seven-day supply of free medication. Nurses and doctors who have authority to write prescriptions and are treating patients in special needs shelters as part of the recovery effort can send their patients’ prescriptions to Wal-Mart stores to be filled. Pharmacists are also prepared to handle situations where people do not have their prescriptions with them.

    Wal-Mart also will offer free check cashing in about 126 stores in the hurricane disaster area for an initial two-week period. This includes government, payroll and insurance checks and computer-generated checks. Proper identification will be required.

    Wal-Mart continues to send trailers of needed product to the area.

    The Emergency Contact Service has been created in our stores and on the internet to allow Wal-Mart associates and customers to post messages regarding their well-being on our websites.

    Stores in affected areas are accepting vouchers from the American Red Cross, Salvation Army, and FEMA.

    Posted by Rick  on  09/11  at  09:04 PM

  24. <em>Emergency Prescriptions Filled Free for Evacuees With No Money: </em>

    For this, I will thank them unreservedly. It’s a thoughtful and crucial gesture that will likely save lives.

    Posted by Chris Clarke  on  09/12  at  12:48 AM

  25. This discussion fascinates me.  So I have made my “case against Wal-Mart” as clearly and briefly (about 1200 words) as I can over at my blog:

    http://www.mcgowans3.com

    Comments welcome over at that site as well.

    Posted by mcgowan  on  09/12  at  10:12 AM

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