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About The skanner. (Portland, Or.) 1975-2014 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 21, 2012)
Opinion The Scam That Stole Thanksgiving “Challenging People to Shape a Better Future Now” B ERNIE F OSTER Founder/Publisher B OBBIE D ORE F OSTER Executive Editor T ED B ANKS Advertising Manager J ERRY F OSTER Account Executive L ISA L OVING News Editor H ELEN S ILVIS Multimedia Editor B RUCE P OINSETTE Reporter D AVID K IDD Graphic Designer M ONICA J. F OSTER Seattle Office Coordinator J ULIE K EEFE S USAN F RIED Photographers The Skanner Newspaper, established in October 1975, is a weekly publica- tion, published each Wednesday by IMM Publications Inc., When I think of Thanksgiving Day, I think of family, gathered around a table that groans with turkey and dressing, green beans and candied yams, mac and cheese or whipped potatoes, and lots of other goodies. I look forward to seeing folks I haven’t seen in a while, savor the food and fellow- ship, bring in the late evening over coffee and pie. Nobody is rushing out to go shopping – most people save that for the Friday after Thanksgiving, often called, Black Friday, because many stores find themselves in the black after the profligate shopping that day. There have been tragedies asso- ciated with Black Friday. A few years back, a Walmart employee was trampled to death by a crowd way too eager to get to the con- sumer goods. There have also been altercations, bruises, and cuts as customers have vied for some of the scarce goods available or for crazy deals (often only for the first 200 people). Lines often snake around stores as people wait for a chance for a bargain. Now Walmart has upped the ante. Last year, they opened at 10 p.m. and this year they will open at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving Day. Just when folks settle down from their meal and start swapping lies, someone is going to have to get up and rush to work so they can serve those consumers who want to shop on Thanksgiving Day. Many of those who will work do so out of desperation. Many Wal- mart employees don’t have a full 40-hour shift; some find their hours adjusted each week. B ENNETT C OLLEGE Julianne Malveaux Thanksgiving work will augment scarce incomes. Just this week, I talked with a couple whose joint income at Walmart is $26,000 a year, partly because neither has a full week’s schedule. There are those who ask, “Well, why do they work there?” as if there are easy alternatives. But Walmart is one of our nation’s largest employers, and they often set the tone for similar stores such as Best Buy, Sears and others. With Walmart opening at 8 p.m. on Thanksgiving, their competi- tors will follow because they don’t want to lose momentum to Wal- mart. This is why some Walmart taken against its employees, and have initiated a series of protests, including strikes, rallies, an online campaign, and other actions. Their organization, Mak- ing Change at Walmart, says that Walmart can help revive our economy if they will simply offer workers full-week schedules and fair pay. Barbara Ehrenreich captured the ways that people are forced to work at a store very much like Walmart in her book, Nickeled and Dimed. She wrote about the workers who were forced to work “off the clock,” after they had punched out, or before they punched in. She wrote about the low pay. And she wrote about those supervisors who had made a deal with the devil – implementing unfair policies for their own sur- vival. When Walmart employees speak out there is retaliation. They are fired, or their hours are cut back. They very swiftly get the message that speaking out will be pun- ished. Too many silently seethe at When Walmart employees speak out there is retaliation employees are protesting the way that Walmart treats its employees. They want to inform the public of illegal actions that Walmart has unfair policies; too dependent on the little pay they get to raise their voices. This is why the Making Change at Walmart campaign is so impor- tant. It challenges the notion that economic growth is dependent on the exploitation of workers, and suggests, instead, that paying peo- ple a living wage is a way to grow a stable and secure workforce. Walmart is not the only compa- ny that prefers to pay its workers on a part-time basis. Many fast- food operations do the same thing, varying hours each week so that workers have no way of knowing when they will work. This means they have difficulty arranging for childcare with these variable hours. Of course, that this does not concern their employers. They are more interested in their bottom line, profits. Many who are aware of the labor exploitation at Walmart say that their prices and deals are unbeat- able, and with their money tight they have no choice but to seek the best bargains they can find. Yet the price of the great deals is exploitation of another worker. The action to inform Walmart customers about Walmart’s unfair pay and illegal actions allows peo- ple who shop on Thanksgiving Day and on other days to make informed decisions about their shopping. One of the ways con- sumers can make a statement is to stay home on Thanksgiving Day, enjoying family, giving thanks, and postponing shopping. Julianne Malveaux is a Wash- ington, D.C.-based economist and writer. She is President Emerita of Bennett College for Women in Greensboro, N.C. 415 N. Killingsworth St., P.O. Box 5455, Portland, OR 97228. Telephone (503) 285-5555. E-mail: info@theskanner.com Income Inequality Growing in U.S. World Wide Web site: http://www.theskanner.com Fax: (503) 285-2900 The Skanner is a member of the National Newspaper Pub lishers Associ- ation and West Coast Black Pub lishers Association. All photos submitted become the property of The Skanner. We are not re - spon sible for lost or damaged photos either solicited or unsolicited. © 2012 The Skanner. ALL RIGHTS RE SERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION PROHIBITED. To see The Skanner News on your smart phone go to theskannermobile.com or scan this QR code with your app. • • • • • • • • Local news Opinions Jobs, Bids Sports Entertainment Music reviews Bulletin board RSS feeds Page 4 The Seattle Skanner The threat of an impending fis- cal cliff has sparked intense con- versations about whether upper income citizens are paying their fair share of taxes. But equally important – and perhaps more important in the long term – is the issue of income inequality. A new report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the Economic Policy Institute, two Washington-based think tanks, documents the growing gap between rich and poor as well as the rich and middle-class families. That pattern holds true both nationally and at the state level. The report, titled, “Pulling Apart: A State-by-State Analysis of Income Trends,” found: “Over the past three business cycles prior to 2007, the incomes of the coun- try’s highest-income households climbed substantially, while mid- dle- and lower-income households saw only modest increases. “During the recession of 2007 through 2009, households at all income levels, including the wealthiest, saw declines in real income due to widespread job losses and the loss of realized cap- ital gains. But the incomes of the richest households have begun to grow again while the incomes of those at the bottom and middle continue to stagnate and wide gaps remain between high-income households and poor and middle- income households saw only mod- November 21, 2012 T HE C URRY R EPORT George E. Curry est increases.” The poorest fifth of households “On average, incomes grew by just 1.2 percent among the middle fifth of households between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, well below the 8.6 percent gain among the top fifth,” the report stated. “Income disparities between the top and middle fifths increased significantly in 36 states and declined significantly in only one state (New Hampshire.)” The report contains charts that show how income equality plays The major reason for the growing economic disparity has been the stagnant wages for workers in the low and middle-income brackets while wages of the highest paid employees have grown significantly in the U.S. had an average income of $20,510. The top fifth had eight times as much – $164,490. “On average incomes fell by close to 6 percent among the bot- tom fifth of households between the late 1990s and the mid-2000s, while rising 8.6 percent among the top fifth,” the report found. “Incomes grew even faster –14 percent – among the top 5 percent of households. A similar gap existed been top earners and middle-class house- holds. out at the state level. The state with the largest house- hold income gap was New Mexi- co, where the bottom fifth averaged $16,319 annually and the top fifth of households earned $161,162, a top-to-bottom ratio of 9.9. New Mexico was followed, in order, by Arizona, California, Georgia, New York, Louisiana, Texas, Massachusetts, Illinois and Mississippi. New Mexico also had the great- est gap between the middle fifth of households ($51,136) and top fifth ($161,162), a ratio of 3.2. New Mexico was followed, in order, by California, Georgia, Mississippi, Arizona, New York, Texas, Okla- homa, Tennessee and Louisiana. Those gaps were even larger when poor and middle-class households were compared with the top 5 percent of all earners. For example, the income of the top 5 percent of households was 13.3 times the average income of the bottom fifth. The ratio was more than 15 times that in Arizona, New Mexico, California, Georgia and New York. According to the report, the major reason for the growing eco- nomic disparity has been the stag- nant wages for workers in the low and middle-income brackets while wages of the highest paid employ- ees have grown significantly. “The erosion weakness of wage growth for workers at the bottom and middle of the income scale reflects a variety of factors,” the report noted. “Over the last 30 years, the nation has seen increas- ingly long periods of high unem- ployment, more intense competition from foreign firms, a shift in the mix of jobs from man- ufacturing to services, and advances in technology that have changed jobs. The share of work- ers in unions also fell significantly. Read the rest online at www.theskanner.com
