December 22, 2024

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Community to Wal-Mart: We Have Standards!

walmart protest

WE HAVE STANDARDS

Walmart is desperate to gain access to major urban markets like Greater Boston. The

company is promising jobs in exchange for entry into our community, spurring debate for

good reason. Because of the slow economic recovery, there is a real risk of accepting any

jobs offered rather than insisting on jobs that can support a family. We in Greater Boston

have leverage to set standards now because Walmart has saturated its other markets and

needs to expand to increase their profits.

It is important to consider the long-term impact Walmart’s arrival would have on our local

cities and neighborhoods. If we want to see real economic recovery we have to hold

Walmart accountable to our city’s standards. We must use our power to stop a race to the

bottom for retail and other workers.

HERE IS WHAT WE CAN ASK WALMART TO COMMIT TO:

o Promise to pay a living wage and provide full-time jobs so that workers

can support their families.

o Provide health care options that are affordable and keep families off

taxpayer-funded health care.

o Hire locally from within the communities surrounding its stores.

o Invest in training programs that give community members, including exoffenders,

the job skills necessary to succeed.

o Build stores with quality local contractors who provide decent wages,

training, and benefits.

o Commit to fairness in hiring, treatment, pay and promotion for all

Walmart Associates, regardless of gender, race, disability or sexual

orientation.

o Account for the impact on small businesses and neighborhoods that

will be impacted by loss of business and issues like impacts on traffic and

property values.

o Allow workers to choose freely whether or not they would like to form a

union, without intimidation or interference from the company.

o Environmental responsibility, including ethical sourcing of goods.

o A written agreement to hold Walmart accountable to its promises.

We will not accept the false choice of Walmart’s poverty jobs or no jobs. We need

quality jobs that allow workers to raise families. As the biggest employer in the world,

Walmart needs to take responsibility and meet the high standards Greater Boston expects

and deserves.

WE WANT GOOD JOBS COALITION

For more information or how you can get involved contact:

Jean-Claude Sanon, Jobs With Justice, 617-524-8778

or email [email protected]

 

About The Author

The Blackstonian Community News Service - Black Boston 411 24/7. @Blackstonian on twitter. Like our page on Facebook.

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0 Comments

  1. William Murrell

    Was reading over the Jobs for Justice list of demands and I saw they listed an impossible request to ask for like this one:

    >Provide health care options that are affordable and keep families off taxpayer-funded health care.<>Account for the impact on small businesses and neighborhoods that will be impacted by loss of business and issues like impacts on traffic and property values.<<

    Hold on. There's no law that requires linkage funding. Its a retail business not a housing development or office tower.

    Does (Jobs for Justice) guarantee Walmart or any other retail establishment in Black Boston an operating day with No threats such as robberies or shoplifting? I think not!

    When someone as well capitalized as a Walmart, a Clayton Turnbull and other risk taking business people like them decide to spend major dollars at risk to open companies in the hood, do me a favor – don't ask for more than you can give back in return.

    blackboston.com