Attorney General Maura Healey has joined the attorneys general of several states in demanding accountability of WalMart over its failure to protect workers from coronavirus. The AGs sent a letter to WalMart CEO Douglas McMillon on June 2 and its allegations are scorching.
But first some context. You may be asking, how are the WalMart heirs doing during the crisis? And the answer is, things have never been better. On April 18 Forbes reported that WalMart shares had hit an all-time high and the Walton heirs Alice, Jim, and Robert “are each up roughly $3.8 billion.”
I share your sense of relief. But the attorney generals letter shows that WalMart workers are doing even worse than usual. Here are some of the particulars, drawn from reports the AGs have amassed in their own states:
- Overcrowded stores and failure to maintain social distancing
- Failure by WalMart to adequately sanitize its stores, even after learning of Covid-19 cases in its workforce
- Employees not being informed of possible exposure to others diagnosed with COVID-19
- Employees who have been exposed or have symptoms of COVID-19 but are undiagnosed due to lack of testing capacity and are being pressured to return to work by store managers.
- Employees being allowed to work without being properly screened.
This is a direct consequence of WalMart’s everyday uncaring and unfair policies toward workers. The AGs write:
The pressure that workers feel to keep working even if they are sick or symptomatic is directly related to Walmart’s inadequate paid leave policies. . . . In this time that Walmart has seen increasing profits and expansion, it is incredibly disappointing that Walmart has failed to provide even the minimum protections and benefits to its employees that are required of smaller employers under the FFCRA. We believe it is unconscionable that low-wage, hourly Walmart employees must forgo a paycheck in order to protect their colleagues and the public. Walmart’s limited paid leave policies, and the pressure that workers feel to continue working, even if they are ill or symptomatic, hampers the ability of our states to protect public health.
The AGs then have a specific list of remedial actions WalMart should take, including social distancing, a plan to deal with probable or confirmed cases of COVID-19, providing masks, barriers at registers, cleaning, reducing the number of customers in a store at any one time, and informing state and local health departments of confirmed cases.
Then: “Furthermore, we call on Walmart to adopt a policy of paid leave which provides the minimum protections required of smaller, less resourced employers under the FFCRA.” Specific recommendations follow and you can read them all here. The AGs request a response from WalMart by June 8.
Remember that the Waltons have their very own (tax deductible) private political organization in Massachusetts composed of several fronts underwritten by America’s richest family. The fronts organize, lobby, and support candidates for state legislature, mayor, and school committees. The AGs letter highlights the free market world the Waltons want for us all, if they can impose their preferred policies. The Waltons policy preferences are highly ideological. It just so happens their ideological preferences also line their own wallets.
Good for Attorney General Healey.
We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” – Louis Brandeis
[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money. I served as a Massachusetts assistant attorney general under AG Scott Harshbarger.]