Wal's Not Well That Ends Well

By Raanan Geberer Published in Brooklyn Daily Eagle 10/28/11 BROOKLYN — Included in the recent New York Times story about Borough President Marty Markowitz’s recruiting large businesses to contribute to his charities (not a bad idea as such, I believe, since the charities do good work and the city gives the Borough President’s Office so little money) was an item about Walmart. The article pointed out that Markowitz had once made statements opposing Walmart’s coming to Brooklyn based on its labor record. But after Walmart gave a donation to the Markowitz-sponsored charity that puts on his free summer concerts, according to both the Times and an earlier article in the Post, Markowitz said he was “not philosophically opposed” to Walmart, although he said he would continue to demand that the huge retail chain pay fair wages and health benefits and use union workers on any construction job. He also was quoted as saying that “you can’t keep Walmart out of Brooklyn.” This is entirely correct. Walmart is a private entity, and if another private company, the owner of the planned Gateway II Mall in East New York (the most-mentioned site for a possible Brooklyn Walmart) wants to rent to the store, it has every right to do so. However, people like myself also have every right to object to such a deal. Not only has Walmart not softened its harsh behavior toward its employees, it has only gotten worse. Recently the huge retail chain announced that it would severely scale back the health benefits it pays to its employees, ending benefits for part-time workers and cutting the amount it contributes to workers’ health savings accounts. The company only started to offer health benefits to part-time workers after constant criticisms that it deliberately kept “associates” working on a part-time basis just to avoid paying these benefits. Cutbacks in benefits may be appropriate for a company that is suffering huge losses and is on the verge of collapse. But, according to Forbes, the chain posted a reported a 5.7 percent increase in second-quarter earnings this year. Not as well publicized, but as important, as Walmart’s behavior toward its employees is its behavior toward smaller businesses and its suppliers. The company often demands that its suppliers accept extremely low prices for their products, and the companies have no choice, given that Walmart makes up such a large part of their market. The Fast Company website points out how Walmart caused substantial hardship to Vlasic Pickles by selling its jars of pickles at such low prices that Vlasic was practically taking a loss. As a result, the pickle maker had to lay off employees. Yes, Walmart has every right to come to Brooklyn, but the city’s citizens and officials also have every right to oppose it.