How Global Supply Chains Have Reduced Corporate Accountability

Consider the case of the textile industry. Historically, textile manufacturers like Cannon Mills in Kannapolis, North Carolina, set the terms of production and business practices and thus established the delicate balance between the cost of resources (for example, cotton), the cost of labor (wages and benefits), and the price of the end product (in the case of Cannon Mills, all-purpose fabrics used to make sheets and towels) in ways that maximized the profits of company executives and investors. But with the growing influence of a booming retail industry with the capacity to buy products from around the globe, the ability of local manufacturers to have control over their business practices has shifted away from them and to these new multinational retail brands. In a detailed case study on workers’ organizing efforts at Cannon Mills, Lane Windham writes:

Though the apparel and textile sectors had long been interdependent, starting in the mid-1980s what had been separate operations were more tightly linked into global supply chains. Now large retailers, not manufacturers, would increasingly determine what products would be produced, what raw materials would be used, and how and when the goods would be transported.²

This change in power dynamics led to new arrangements that disadvantage workers. Thus, even when local textile manufacturers shared specific interests with the unions of textile workers, the companies found themselves pushed toward choosing to align with their class interests within the retail industry, to their own detriment and their employees’. As Windham explains, “When textile employers fought their workers’ efforts to form unions and prevented the unions from growing, they weakened the textile labor-management alliance, which had served as a counterweight to these retail interests.”³

As a child in North Carolina, Smiley visited robust textile mills and expos where you could pick up free socks after watching a machine make them in front of your eyes. Today, most US textile plants—in North Carolina and elsewhere—are now museums, outlet malls, or gone altogether. As scholar Beverly Silver states, “Once the labor movement made a show of force, capitalists responded with a spatial-fix strategy that accelerated the diffusion of production to new sites.”⁴ Spatial fix—distinguished from technological fix and product fix—refers to an industry’s decision to avoid labor militancy and power by relocating sites of production.

Those still working in the textile industry today experience a situation where their direct employer is not fully in control of the terms of production. Yet many workers in this situation have often continued to utilize twentieth-century practices and laws to form unions and negotiate with employers—even when those employers cannot deliver on improved wages and conditions because they are dependent on multinational brands who can order from anywhere and set prices based on their ability to relocate production from one supplier to another overnight.

Transnational Collective Bargaining with Transnational Corporations

Some unions and other organizations have realized the futility of trying to organize and collectively bargain solely at the factory level. To obtain collective power to govern themselves and their industry, they needed a framework through which to engage the person who profits most from their labor.

Enter the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), an organization that provides a great illustration of the new practices and approaches modern-day garment workers are taking to address twenty-first-century employment relations. With Asia boasting the highest density of garment suppliers in the world, the AFWA is a strategic network of garment-sector unions and other worker organizations from countries across the continent, seeded with support from Jobs With Justice in the United States and India’s New Trade Union Initiative. These organizations seek to create a framework for transnational wage parity that would end the ability of companies to simply abscond from any country (spatial fixes) in which workers begin to gain power. This transnational collaborative effort among unions and worker-based organizations in Asia allows garment workers to negotiate with their direct employers in textile and apparel factories, and undermines the ability of multinational corporations to pit one country’s workers against another in search of the lowest price.

Here’s an example of how AFWA works. Across Asia, the minimum wage varies as governments try to compete for business. Garment suppliers are loath to pay more than any given national minimum wage—kept extremely low to attract business—given the price pressures from large multinational brands such as H&M, Walmart, and Gap, Inc. So, in 2005, the AFWA assessed what a living wage would be across Asia, using the costs of food (based on recommendations for caloric intake from the United Nations) and other necessities in each country to establish a universal formula for calculating the livable wage in any Asian country.⁵ This calculation established a shared cross-border floor wage, allowing working people in the garment sector to make consistent wage demands and negotiate with large garment suppliers and multinational brands.

Recognizing suppliers’ position within the overall apparel economy, the unions within the AFWA then began pushing the garment suppliers to pay the minimum wage—fighting to increase it when politically possible—while negotiating other local conditions that they have control over. In addition, they simultaneously pushed the multinational brands to pay suppliers enough to pay more, targeting a wage that matches the floor wage calculated for that country. So, if the garment suppliers pay the country’s minimum wage, AFWA calls on the multinational brands to make an additional wage contribution to make up the difference between the minimum wage and the floor wage that AFWA has calculated for the relevant country.

This approach gets to the heart of how twenty-first-century bargaining in supply chains needs to work. It allows garment workers to negotiate with their direct employers in the factories, their governments setting the minimum wage, and the ultimate profiteers, all within a transnational collaboration among unions.

In a global economy, with global corporations, AWFA unions are logically attempting to form a global bargaining unit with an equal role in governing the industry rather than allowing suppliers and the global retail brands to pit working people from one country against those from other countries. Furthermore, targeting the large retailers enables working people in the global south to expand the social consciousness of consumers in the United States and Europe, encouraging them to join in solidarity with retail workers in the global north in pressuring the multinational brands to come to the bargaining table. The AFWA continues to thrive even in the harsh circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing shifts in global capital.

Profile of a Modern Worker: Bettie Douglas: We All Need a Piece of the Pie

One of the global industries dominated by multinational corporations is the fast-food business. Some of those who oppose workers’ rights say that fast-food companies shouldn’t have to respect those rights because almost all the people who work at places like McDonald’s are well-to-do teenagers working for spare change. The story of Bettie Douglas, a Black grandmother working at a McDonald’s in St Louis, Missouri, who reminded both authors of their own mothers, gives the lie to this excuse—and it also illustrates why targeting the ultimate profiteer rather than local franchise owners is such an important strategy.

Children are taught from an early age whether or not they have a voice and should use it. My mother and father taught me and my siblings to speak up when I was little. They taught us to stand up for what we believe, anything we truly believe in, no matter what. Actually, with ten siblings I learned to speak up early. I was in the middle, you see. So they always knew that I would speak out, I don’t care what. I was going to speak out for what I felt was right. They were going to hear my part just like I was going to hear theirs. All of us have something to add. All of us have value.

But it was all based in love and our relationships with each other. When we got up out of bed and went downstairs, whoever you saw you had to say, “Good morning!” And most times, you had to say it with a hug. It’s just a habit now. I speak to everyone I work with at McDonald’s. And I hug them too. My coworkers and I show each other a lot of love. We support each other. I know we all have something to contribute. God put us all on this Earth with some kind of gift, and we’re each trying to find the space to work that gift—at work and in our lives. Given the opportunity, Lord only knows what we might be able to do.

My parents also taught us to be resilient. My dad in particular had a lot of responsibility thrust on him at an early age. His father wasn’t in the home, and he had to take care of his mother. He only had a second- or third-grade education. My mother taught him to read and write. I didn’t always understand why he was so tough on us. But now I get it, because when I’m at work and dealing with the snippy things my managers are saying, I think of some of the things he used to say like, “Is that the best you can do?” He taught me to be like a duck. I let it all roll right off my back.

They also taught me the value of work. We believe in working. I’ve been working since I was twelve years old, starting at the businesses my parents had and then moving into retail and other jobs. I’m sixty-one years old now, so I’ve been working for a long time. Even when I feel I’m not being treated fairly, I could be as mad as a bear, when I walk in the door I’m going to do the best job that I can. If I know I’ve given it my all, it’s hard to shake me. I got suspended for giving out a cup. Of course, that’s not the real reason I was suspended, but that’s what they said. But I knew I’d always done my job well. And I told the franchise owner, “I’ve been with you for thirteen years!” And even he had to admit that every time he saw me I was mopping or wiping tables or helping a customer. Clearly I was doing a good job. They weren’t mad at me for doing a good job. They were mad because I was trying to organize my coworkers into fighting for union rights with the Fight for Fifteen.

Honestly I was scared at first. I had a lot on me, still do. I was taking care of my parents, who have both now passed away. I have three sons, one of whom has autism. Another just survived surgery to remove a tumor. They’re older now, but it has still been hard. I’m thinking that I can’t lose my job. The bills are all still due. My washing machine needs to be fixed. My refrigerator is broken. We’re buying food every day because we can’t keep it cold. We had to go without heat during the winter at one point because my furnace was broken and I couldn’t afford to fix it. And the bill collectors want all of my tax money. I figured God would see me through it. He doesn’t put anything on me that I can’t handle.

Well, it must have been God that kept the organizers coming back over and over again to talk to me. I certainly didn’t give them good reason to keep talking to me. I kept telling them from the drive-through window that I did not want to lose my job. No, not today! I was scared. But I was thinking about what they were saying.

I thought about how it takes me longer to get to work and get home than the actual time I spend on the job. With the buses I have to catch to get to McDonald’s, it takes me four hours to get there—no matter what the weather is each day. I can’t afford a car. I walk seven blocks from my house to the bus stop. Even if I am only scheduled to work for four hours, it still takes me another four hours to get home. That would be difficult for a young person, and I’m in my sixties.

I also thought about the machinery at the store, which was raggedy. My coworkers and I have to work on the equipment to get it functioning again. I’m not a mechanic, but I often have to act like one at McDonald’s. I’ve had to pull stuff out of the toilet to unclog it. I’m not a plumber, but I often have to act like one at McDonald’s. It’s all a part of doing my job well. But I shouldn’t have to do that.

I was really scared. But then I thought about what my family had been through before. I had a cousin who was roped up by white people and then dragged by a car. He was my dad’s first cousin. He was dating a white woman and people didn’t like that. My dad used to tell us the story, and I knew it had really impacted him. He said his cousin was dragged all through the town where they grew up, his brain matter leaving a trail. His body was torn up so bad that there was no body to bury. My family has gone through so much for me to be here, not having to worry about that kind of attack. And to see that we’re now at risk of losing all that they fought for, how could I stay quiet? If they could survive that, and speak out against it so that my children didn’t have to face that ever again, could I really keep my head down and not speak up at McDonald’s? I think it was then that I realized that I had to make a different choice. I knew I couldn’t just be scared. I had to get out there and do the best that I could. Even if I messed up, I had to try. It was the least I could do. I felt something rising up in me, telling me I had to speak up. Awaken the sleeping giant! I had to become a monster for good. Soon after, some of my coworkers walked out and the news cameras came to our store. One reporter walked right up to my window and it just happened. I was tired of riding the bus for eight hours and not getting paid enough. I was just tired. And you know, when you’re sick and tired, you’re sick and tired. And I was truly sick and tired. I had a whole lot to say.

Well, our managers didn’t like what we were doing. But I had to do it. I had to at least try, to know I did my best for me and my family. Closed mouths don’t get fed. And we were hungry. We had to fight to survive. They said we were crazy, that we would never get $15 an hour. But never tell me never, honey. Now I had something to prove. And we did. We won an increase from the city of St. Louis to $10 an hour.

And let me say, nothing motivates you like success. My managers have tried to bring me down from this high. They’ve told new employees not to talk to me or talk to those of us who are trying to organize a union. I haven’t been promoted since I started fighting for better pay and conditions. They cut my hours back to just five hours a day. They really tried to break me down. At the peak of it all, they suspended me. They suspended me for handing out a cup to a customer. We hand out cups all the time. That’s not why they suspended me. They were trying to keep me from organizing, and they wanted others to see that if they organized, they would be punished. It was about retaliation. But it’s no matter. Like a duck, I let that roll right off me. That little five-day suspension didn’t get me down. To tell you the truth, I needed the break. Like I said, I was tired. And because of working with the Fight for Fifteen, us employees told the NLRB we knew it was about retaliation. And after that my managers bumped me up to forty hours a week! So that moment was kind of a win-win for me.

Still, I wouldn’t mind more honesty on the job. I’m not saying I need to push my way into every manager meeting, but I want them to listen to the problems we’re having. Let us come to the table. Let’s talk about it. It could be a win-win for all of us. We’ll get to make enough to sustain our families, and they’ll be able to solve problems a lot better with those of us directly in contact with them. Actually, when I spoke to the franchise owner, he acknowledged that not much goes on in the store that I don’t know about. And I realized that it wasn’t just a decision he could make. We had to get his boss to the table. We had to try to engage the executives at the top of the McDonald’s corporation.

During that meeting with the franchise owner, I could tell he and all of my other supervisors were trying to intimidate me from talking to company executives. These are the big boys! And I finally had the opportunity to speak to them directly. I was so nervous. But my mother used to say to us, “You have just as much right as anybody else. And if you feel something, there’s nothing wrong with expressing it. You don’t have to have all the answers, and you may not always be right. But if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”

That was one thing that stuck in my mind the first time I had to testify in front of a large audience that included McDonald’s executives. I thought about my parents.

And then I thought again about all the things my family had to do for me to be here. If I don’t stand up, how can I sit back and complain about something? I had to get my feet in the fight. You can’t cry over spilled milk. You have to get out there and try to wipe that milk up! You can’t make change with your mouth closed. And I thought about how tired I was and how President Trump was giving all these tax breaks to the rich, and the only break we were getting was a broken check. I really don’t like bullies. And this all gave me courage. Nothing beats a failure but a try. And despite being nervous and stuttering, I testified to my experiences at McDonald’s and shared what I thought would make things better for all of us. I learned that when you do that, express your true feelings from the heart, it lifts you. It transforms you. It transformed me. I learned in that moment that in order to make change in the world, we ourselves also have to change. We transform into monsters for good. I sure did.

My experiences since then have been good. And we’re still fighting. Through the process of joining together with my coworkers I learned how we can combat and even prevent retaliation when we’re united more than when we’re acting alone. You’ve got to unite and come together. There are more poor people than there are rich. There are more people out here suffering. We want the executives to see our faces. We want to talk to them and tell them what we’re really feeling. We want them to come to the table with us. If I’m all the way at one McDonald’s store and you’re always in your office headquarters and we never get to deal with each other directly, then we’re going to assume all kinds of things about each other. But if we sit and talk face to face, we can see where each other is coming from. We can know what type of person you are, and you can know us. We can’t hold anything against you that you might not know anything about. But when we know that you know better, oh, it’s on baby. There’s no excuse!

It’s not fair for a small number of people to bully us into thinking that it’s ok for some people to do well and for others to suffer. All of us should have a piece of the pie. Anyone who works and who is trying to improve the lives of their families should be able to, you know? But a lot of these corporate executives want to hold us back. They don’t want to share in the wealth. They act greedy. They’ll let us smell the pie but not let us taste it. And that’s not right.

This organizing work has taken me to all kinds of places—Canada, Brazil, Great Britain. When you open up, let go, and let God in, the sky is the limit. I’m as poor as a church mouse. But look at the places I have been. Look at the things we have done together. I am so blessed. I know we got this, and if I need to be in the dark a little bit well I’ve got some candles and batteries to keep me going. We do what we have to do. When you’re clear about your purpose, even with the bad you find life to be wonderful.

And we’re still fighting. I stay humble and remember what we’re really fighting for. We aren’t just fighting for ourselves. We need to solve the problems at our store and then address some of the larger issues we’re all facing. I’ve got grandchildren now. I see so many children suffering by not getting a good education or a decent school lunch. Children need to be taught and guided. I have so much hope, though. I have one grandson who reminds me of me. I can’t tell him nothing because I always know where he’s coming from. He recently saw me organizing with the Fight for Fifteen and said, “I am very proud of you.” That gives me the initiative to keep going.

I try to pass on the things I have learned to the next generation, to make it easier because life is hard. Children are taught from an early age whether or not they have a voice and should use it. And I want my children and grandchildren to hear me using mine.

Challenges of Collective Bargaining with Transnational Corporations

Of course, global brands will not come to the table just because they are asked. A glance back at the history of the labor movement suggests what needs to happen. Originally, working people formed local guilds and regional unions, then transformed those locals into amalgamated unions targeting growing national industries. Today, the same institutions must reorganize again in order to gain the leverage needed to force the global brands into active and equal negotiations with workers. Having national unions in international solidarity with each other is good, but it is no longer enough. The new shape of global capital necessitates intensive collaboration around bargaining demands and organizing goals across national borders.

One attempt at such collaboration occurred in the global arena through the creation of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, one of the world’s poorest countries, where atrocious violations of basic worker safety principles are commonplace.⁶ The accord is described as an “independent, legally binding agreement between brands and trade unions to work toward a safe and healthy garment and textile industry in Bangladesh. The Accord was created to enable a working environment in which no worker needs to fear fires, building collapses, or other accidents that could be prevented with reasonable health and safety measures.”⁷ It was crafted by trade unions, community groups in Bangladesh, and international human rights and labor rights advocates—including the AFWA, in negotiation with multinational companies producing clothes in Bangladesh, the garment factory owners, and the national government.

Unfortunately, some United States–based retail giants like Walmart that sell Bangladesh-made garments have still refused to sign on to the Accord.⁸ And there is a distinct difference in compliance between factories where workers have unions who collectively bargain with factory owners and factories where workers are not organized into a union.⁹ Clearly there are still big challenges ahead for those who hope to expand collective bargaining to global supply chains.

AFWA is not the only organization pioneering this new approach. Labor leaders in many parts of the world are making similar attempts to add new leverage to traditional bargaining. But it is hard to overstate the difficulty of organizing workers located in so many countries. Consider, for example, the mixed record on this front of global union federations (GUFs).

GUFs are international collaborations of unions around the world active in a particular sector. Some GUFs were started as early as 1896, while others were launched very recently.¹⁰ For example, IndustriALL is a GUF founded in Copenhagen in 2012 that represents more than fifty million working people in more than 140 countries, working across the supply chains in mining, energy, and manufacturing.

In recent years GUFs have worked to construct global framework agreements (GFAs) among multinational corporations, the GUFs themselves, and the relevant unions in the countries of interest. GFAs generally incorporate the core international labor conventions set by the International Labor Organization (ILO), which ban forced labor, guarantee freedom of association, protect the right to organize and engage in collective bargaining, ban discrimination, and ban child labor. An example of such GFAs includes the agreement between the Union Network International (UNI Global Union), the North America—based United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union, and the clothing retailer H&M. A similar agreement was signed between the GUF IndustriALL and the Inditex Group, the parent company of Zara.

Unfortunately, these agreements often lack real enforceability. The UFCW was able to support H&M workers in New York but had a lot of difficulty in other places despite the agreement. Even when multinational corporations that operate within the United States agree to GFAs, the US subsidiaries of those corporations often opt not to recognize the agreements and continue with their union-busting tactics, in many cases with the support of state and federal government. For example, though IndustriALL publicly accused Volkswagen of violating the terms of a GFA it had signed by refusing to bargain with a group of workers at its Chattanooga, Tennessee, auto plant, Volkswagen has still not recognized their union, the UAW.

It is also important to note that the GFA process has been very Eurocentric, with the overwhelming majority of agreements having been signed by companies based in Europe.¹¹

All these factors have led GFAs to have less effect on US labor practices than many worker advocates had hoped. One study found that US subsidiaries and US unions both argue that GFAs do not apply to the United States, with unions arguing that the differences in labor law between the US and Europe render GFAs unenforceable here.¹²

For GFAs to become relevant to US bargaining, GUFs must negotiate GFAs with a specific intention to make them binding to subsidiaries, contractors, and suppliers, broadly defined, and enforceable either by the NLRB or US courts. If that proves too daunting, GFA violations should at least lead to consequences for labor relations between European unions or the US workforce and the multinational corporation. And all of this says nothing about the needs of workers outside of the global north, which are often ignored in GFAs. Of course, this is what makes the strategies of the AFWA so promising. They seek to move beyond dialogue into a sharper understanding of the relations of power, which will make it possible to truly hold companies throughout a supply chain accountable for their behavior.

Financialization Redefines the Real Boss

Just as the growth of multinational retail brands transformed the textile industry, the expanding power of finance capital is quickly overpowering retail. As more hedge funds and investors buy majority shares in publicly traded corporations, the willingness of those companies to protect workers and their communities erodes. These financial entities seek to buy up companies and turn them around for a quick profit, even at the expense of shutting the companies down altogether.

John Stumpf, former chairman and CEO of Wells Fargo, is an example of an ultimate profiteer who came directly from the financial sector.¹³ In that role he had direct control over the working conditions of hundreds of thousands of individuals employed by Wells Fargo, most of whom were frontline nonunionized workers earning little more than the minimum wage and receiving few benefits. He also had control over the tens of thousands of subcontracted workers that Wells Fargo uses throughout its system, such as security guards, custodial workers, and so on.

Wells Fargo holds or services the mortgages of millions of homeowners and their families, which means Stumpf ultimately had control over foreclosures that leave thousands of people homeless. Hundreds of thousands of students owe Wells Fargo billions in student debt; tens of thousands of small business owners are dependent on the bank for lines of credit; and millions of credit card holders are Wells Fargo customers. Furthermore, across the country, state and local governments, school districts, and other public entities rely on Wells Fargo for cashflow loans, bond financing, and banking services. That means that Stumpf also wielded control over the children who attend public schools, the commuters who ride public transit, and the patients who use Medicaid to get access to healthcare.

Wells Fargo also has a huge investment-management business that manages the retirement savings of millions of people, which gave Stumpf hundreds of billions of dollars to invest in other companies. For example, Wells Fargo is a major financial backer of Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), the largest private prison company in the world, which makes a huge amount of its income by jailing immigrant detainees. Those investments gave Stumpf tremendous power over those corporations and companies.

Stumpf also sat on the board of other companies like Chevron and Target. Thus, he was responsible for these companies’ management and deserved to be held accountable for polluting communities and exploiting workers worldwide. Finally, Stumpf also used the wealth and power of the bank to push his political agenda through groups like the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).

Only small portions of the people who were impacted by John Stumpf’s decisions actually brought their fights to his doorstep. But there were literally millions of people suffering because of the unfair practices and influence that he wielded. If we unite, we stand a much greater chance of forcing people like John Stumpf and other ultimate profiteers to deal with us—people like Stephen A. Schwarzman of Blackstone, Sam Zell of Equity Group Investments, and Stephen Feinberg of Cerberus. For years, these executives have wielded unregulated power in all aspects of our lives, from employment to housing to education and beyond. Their unfettered reign must be challenged by workers who demand the power to bargain with the ultimate profiteers.

Taking on the Untouchably Rich, and Winning

In 2019, workers at the Toys “R” Us retail chain proved that it is not impossible to win a fight against a large retail brand backed by finance capital. The company went bankrupt, satisfying only their commitments to investors while leaving employees in the lurch with unpaid wages. The workers were told that they had no leverage because they had no access to the company’s customers or shareholders. In response, they targeted private equity firms that have been making billions from leveraged buyouts and bankruptcies, many of which owned shares in Toys “R” Us. After the workers pressured hedge funds and other large investors—including New Jersey’s Public Investment Fund—the company was forced to make its employees whole for gambling with the economy.¹⁴ More than thirty thousand laid-off workers won $20 million in severance payments, a significant victory given that the company had not committed any funds to cover the losses for workers.¹⁵ Financialization of the economy requires that workers continue to find new approaches to negotiating with the ultimate profiteers, as this victory demonstrates.

Migrant Workers versus the One Percent

Organizing along commodity supply chains is not the only approach to targeting multinational companies. Some workers have started to organize and attempt to collectively bargain throughout migration corridors—industrywide patterns of moving people between two or more regions for work, perhaps timed with a specific growing season or retail peak.

Migrants, often coming from the global south to the global north to work, face hard conditions and limited protections due to their precarious immigration status most often controlled by their employer. Company bosses can threaten to shift work between migrants from one community and migrants from another community, or between migrants and native-born workers, as a means of suppressing wages and heightening workers’ economic insecurity. But when working people collaborate across these divisions, setting standards within a migration corridor is possible.

One example of what can be done is represented by the workers leading Familias Unidas por la Justicia (Families United for Justice). For years, Driscoll’s, a major company in the US berry market, had used supplier Sakuma Brothers in Washington State to employ immigrants and long-term residents from southern Mexico to pick berries and live in company-provided housing during the harvest season.¹⁶ The immigrants were largely indigenous people with first languages other than Spanish.

In 2013, berry pickers at Sakuma Brothers began protesting low pay and bad working conditions. When the company fired the protest leaders, many other workers began a strike against the company. They eventually organized into Familias Unidas por la Justicia to bargain on their behalf. Sakuma Brothers retaliated by greatly expanding their request for H-2A guest worker visas, asking the Department of Labor for 479 visas when, previously, they had used fewer than 80. To justify this request, Sakuma claimed it was unable to find workers in the United States. H-2A visas are supposed to be reserved for seasonal work in cases where employers cannot find a local workforce to fill necessary positions. But they are often used to hire and exploit vulnerable workers because undocumented workers and guest workers are not consistently protected by existing US labor law.¹⁷ At the same time, Sakuma told the people who had engaged in a strike against them that they were terminated, a permitted act because the farmworkers were not covered by the NLRA.

Next the workers unleashed a bigger weapon against Sakuma. First, each one of them wrote a letter to the US Department of Labor refuting Sakuma’s claim that it was unable to find workers in the United States by saying that they themselves were willing to work at Sakuma. Second, they organized a boycott against Driscoll’s, the ultimate profiteer. The upside of not being covered by the NLRA was that there was nothing to prevent them from organizing a secondary boycott of Driscoll’s to win concessions from Sakuma—a powerful tactic otherwise banned by the law. The boycott against Driscoll’s won support from other unions, including the longshoreman’s union, which one day refused to load any Driscoll’s berries onto ships. In addition, the union organized student protests and consumer boycotts of Driscoll’s. Another key step that they took, which is particularly important for workers today, especially in a global industry such as agriculture, was that the workers reached out to their counterparts in Mexico, their country of origin, to ask them to join in the action against Driscoll’s. The workers in both countries set up a binational front to launch a strike and a boycott.

All of this pressure brought Sakuma to the table. Despite the lack of legal protection for the workers, Sakuma agreed to negotiate with the workers’ newly formed independent union in 2016, and in 2017 they agreed to a collective bargaining agreement.

The union has not stopped there. It now has plans to start up a union co-op farm, which would allow the union to set labor standards for themselves rather than negotiate with growers to obtain fair working conditions, ideally introducing competition within the sector that could raise standards.

The National Guestworker Alliance used a similar approach in 2012. Workers, many targeted from the same community in Mexico, were recruited to work in the United States in food-processing plants under temporary H-2B guest worker visas. These workers were often recruited annually to the same company, in this case C.J.’s Seafood. They lived on-site at the shrimp-processing plant in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. The managers often locked them into the boiler room, forcing them to work long hours, causing some to faint, and keeping them from using the bathroom. They received pay that was much lower than the amount required by law, and when they complained, supervisors threatened their families.¹⁸ It was a combination of abuses rarely seen in the United States since the end of sharecropping.

The National Guestworker Alliance’s strategy to target the ultimate benefactors of their labor is a powerful example of bargaining with the ultimate profiteer—in this case, the Walton family.

Founded by family patriarch Sam Walton in 1962, Walmart today directly employs 2.3 million workers.¹⁹ It also has tentacles throughout the economy. Consider one Walton in particular, Greg Penner, Walmart’s chairman, son-in-law of Sam Robson “Rob” Walton, and grandson-in-law of founder Sam Walton. Penner has his own investment firm, sits on the boards of Walmart and Hyatt Hotels, and funds anti-public-school initiatives through a set of nonprofit organizations. Charting out all the workers he touches, whether or not they are directly employed by one of these companies, we find Walmart “associates” and the Louisiana seafood workers whose employers supplied almost exclusively to Walmart. The list also includes subcontracted workers at the Hyatt in Los Angeles, workers at the Hyatt in San Francisco, and temporary construction workers building new Hyatt hotels. It includes the janitors in the Silicon Valley building of Penner’s investment firm and the educators at the charter schools benefiting from donations from his Charter School Growth Fund. These workers and many, many others make up the army of people whose labor ultimately benefits Greg Penner (see figure 8.1).²⁰

So, when guest workers at Walmart’s supplier in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, faced abuses, their power analysis pushed them to go around their apparent “boss” and instead target Greg Penner and his team of Walmart executives. They organized at great risk to their safety, engaging other guest workers and Walmart associates alike. And when the New York Times published an editorial about Walmart titled “Forced Labor on American Shores,” it changed the scale and scope of the fight demanding justice for Walmart workers. The approach taken by the Louisiana workers forced Walmart to the bargaining table.

More action is necessary to push Walmart and other companies to take full responsibility for the workforce throughout their supply chain, labor migration chains, and other employees that are directly impacted by their policies and practices. But the successes achieved by the National Guestworker Alliance demonstrate what is possible when following this strategic framework.

Profile of a Modern Worker: Cynthia Murray: “I Stay for the Fight”

Associates working within the Walmart stores are now extending their fight for fair treatment beyond their local management to the ultimate profiteers who drive the corporation’s policies. Cynthia Murray, a tenacious older white woman organizing with what was known at the time as the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), now simply United for Respect, put it best when she said, “With a company like Walmart, you can’t just go store to store. We had to get to the top of the company.”

I grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. My father was a single parent, and he was a Teamster. He drove a tractor trailer for a living. My father was active in the union, and as kids we used to set up the union hall when they had their meetings. I remember he told us that if there’s a picket line you don’t ever cross it. “If you’re not going to pick up a picket sign and join them, you walk away, you never cross it.” My father used to stand the four of us in a line and say, “Never tell on each other. You either stick together or you fall together.”

My father took care of four kids and his mother, who took care of us. There were six of us in the family and he was the single earner. My grandmother was a very strong individual to take care of four children at age sixty-nine. She instilled in us the compassion of being able to take care of one another and loving each other. She taught me that you’ve got to hold onto your faith regardless if times are rough. Now, in my life experience, I can see how generation after generation repeats history. When my grandson was born, he and my daughter lived with me. We all took care of him. So many families today have to come back together, to support each other to be able to live, which means our economy is not the way it should be in the United States.

I worked in the canteen at US Steel for a short period of time before they closed. And then I ran two bar clubs. It supported what I needed for my two kids. Back then, that area was booming. It had anything and everything you needed. Once the steel mill closed, there was a lack of jobs. By then I had met my husband and we agreed to move to Maryland. I wanted my children to be able to have a better life.

When I got here, I drove a truck for the Washington Post—picking up bundles of papers and dropping them off at sites. I injured my back there. It took a long time for me to recuperate. But when I did, I couldn’t move my legs the way I needed to drive a truck. So, that’s how I ended up going to work at Walmart.

I have worked at Walmart for nineteen years, and I still don’t make $15 an hour. That’s sad. Now I stay for the fight!

It all got started for me in 2007 with the Wake-Up Walmart campaign effort run by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). There were a few of us from my store who got involved. I spoke out about the Fair Share Care Act. I never thought about being on television or anything else. I remember that my sister-in-law’s sister was in the hospital and she saw me and said, “Oh my God, Cynthia’s on the news.” So, after standing up and speaking out in front of everyone, my store manager singled me out at work the next day as “the one who’s been talking.” I participated in the campaign until the UFCW decided to shift strategies.

I knew there had to be something for me and others at Walmart. We realized how disrespected we were. Management at Walmart was bragging about paying workers like me nothing. You don’t think that’s wrong in the United States? I was yelled at in front of customers, and I could not take time off to care for my daughter when she was sick with cancer. My father taught me that a good employer is one that will treat you with respect, and respect is free. So, I never understood how you can treat workers like they are less than nothing.

We could not stay silent. So, at first we tried to unionize. I had been handing out union cards to my coworkers. One of the workers gave my store manager the union card, and he put it above the time clock behind a piece of glass. This was supposed to be a lesson for us, right? I started jumping up and down. I was mad as hell. I felt betrayed. How could someone give that union card to that asshole? I told the manager that the card belonged to me and that I wanted it back. I remember he was standing in the doorway. I had tears of anger in my eyes. When I looked at the faces, he said to me, “Look at these people, they need something, and it’s not a union.” I was so mad.

When I got home, I called Dan, the organizer at the union, and told him that this union stuff ain’t working but that we needed something for us workers. I grew up in a union household; I believe in unions. But it’s not the right thing for us, especially up against a major company like Walmart. We talked about building an organization instead. I took a sign-up sheet to work the next day, and eight workers signed on immediately. This was how we began to build OUR Walmart, the Organization United for Respect.

I have been to many actions at Walmart’s home office and shareholder meetings, and I have met with top management. It can be scary to do that. I think that’s the first emotion that I felt, but then I got grounded in my belief that what I’m doing is right. I don’t even know how to explain the different mixed emotions I have felt when taking part in an action. Like my grandmother taught us, I believe in standing in my faith. And I know this is what I gotta do. It just has to be done for all of us. It’s about us, not just about me.

One of the first issues I organized on was scheduling and having enough hours of work. At one point, workers in my store were getting schedules with only two days of work per week available to them. How could you feed anybody, how could you pay any bills with that kind of schedule? This wasn’t just happening to new workers, this was happening to workers who had been there for twenty-plus years. So, in my store we kept approaching the manager about this and asking for more hours. We kept organizing actions in the store until he finally said he would meet with us. For example, we just started clapping once until he would meet with us. It was so amazing because every worker in the store was involved. The store manager told us that they had schedules with nobody assigned to certain days and hours. So he said that anybody who wanted more hours could go meet with personnel. Well, half the group left after that because they thought they would be fired if they showed up to the personnel office. There was a lot of fear. But me and others went as a group. And we were told that they had open shifts and they would start posting the shifts so that people could sign up for what they wanted and needed. He agreed to post open available shifts three weeks out and agreed that people could sign up for as many days of work as was available, even if the work was not in their assigned department. Workers did not care if they were working in other departments, they just wanted as close to forty hours a week as possible.

This was our first win in my store. And soon after, Walmart implemented this scheduling process and technology to make it possible in every store. With a company like Walmart, you can’t just go store to store. We had to get to the top of the company.

I remember at one of our actions we met with Doug McMillion, a Walmart executive. He says he came from the bottom up. Well, we wanted him to hear from us what it is like to work for this company. We made him listen to one of the worker’s story—her story of losing her baby while working. She had told the manager that she did not want to pull a pallet jack because of her pregnancy. The manager threatened to fire her if she did not. She lost her baby. He had to listen to her tell that story to his face. And that was the first time that I could see that he was human, and he realized we were humans too. We were able to say, “You may make the money ’cause you’re a CEO, but what about us? We’re the ones who make that money so that you can sit back and do whatever you want.”

I heard so many stories of struggle from Walmart workers. Stories about having to spend your time at a food bank on your day off. Or stories about being able to pay rent, but not being paid enough to pay the groceries to feed their kids that night. How do they face their kids? These stories are what made me want to build an organization for every worker in the country. After our first win with scheduling we organized on issues like raising the minimum wage and pregnancy discrimination. We knew we had to listen and understand what workers really needed. Some workers were parents and needed childcare, others needed care for their parents, and much more. These issues were part of our true lives. We’ve been underpaid and disrespected for so long now that it’s time for them to give back to their workers and stop draining us.

We all want to be respected. For me, respect means dignity. We want to have dignity in the workplace. Come on, we’re humans. We want to be treated in a fair way. My father said, if you work hard, you should be paid for that. You shouldn’t be beaten down, it doesn’t have to be that way. We should be able to walk onto our job and do that job with dignity and be able to hold our head up when someone tries to make us feel like our job is worthless. Like when people say, “Oh, you’re just a Walmart worker.” Why does that make me less of a human? Or if you work at McDonald’s. A McDonald’s worker is feeding you or your kid a sandwich this morning, so why are you treating them with disrespect? Why treat anybody any less of a person? Why shouldn’t we just have to work one job to take care of our kids?

Walmart has a diverse workforce. There are many people working for Walmart in management positions who do discriminate against others. I see people of color treated sometimes less human and I think it’s because they think, “Who cares? Who’s going to stick up for us?” That’s what really pisses me off. We are all human no matter our color.

You see, back in Pittsburgh I grew up in an Italian community within a larger Black, white, and Jewish community. We were treated poorly; we were one of the underdogs of the races. We had a lot of struggles with racism. But my father always taught me, “It’s not the color of your skin. It’s in here. It’s in your heart. It’s the person in there. That’s the person you should be seeing. If I cut you, you bleed just like if I cut a person of another color.”

I remember my father falling in love with this Black lady. She lived in the projects and I remember my father would take us over to play with her kids. One day, someone in the community hung a rat on her door. My father saw it and said we can’t go back over there because we don’t want something to happen to her and her kids. So, he would bring them over to our house.

Given the hate and racism we see today, I think white workers like me have to stand with our brothers and sisters of color. I think we have to sing from the mountaintop that we’re not going to accept this. It’s unacceptable. My grandson is biracial and my husband is Black. We can’t let race divide us. This is a time when we have to stand together. Some may call us the entitled race. We’re not.

Workers need a predictable schedule, a decent wage, and decent health care. We need to be supported, not constantly threatened to be fired. Women need to be paid the same wages as men. And our seniority should be recognized. We need family medical leave. My daughter, who is in cancer remission, is sometimes sick. I want to be able to take care of her, even if that means I miss a day of work. I should not have to pick between work and my child in this way.

I believe that we need to put workers on the boards of all companies, not just Toys “R” Us. We need to stop CEOs from raking these companies out of everything they’ve got, shutting the companies down with no care for the workers, and taking all of the money.

I also believe that if workers could have a voice and power in the workplace, it would change their lifestyles for the better. We won our scheduling and wage victories because we spoke up and took action. There is so much we still need to change. We’re not going to just stop with Walmart workers.

I took my grandson with me to Walmart home office actions when he was young. I took him because he’s the generation that’s got to continue to fight for respect. If we don’t teach our kids and grandkids, then who will? This fight has to be about each and every one of us making it better for the next generation.

Targeting the One Percent: Why It Works

A bargaining effort aimed at the ultimate profiteer provides a framework for a multifaceted campaign to address the myriad problems caused by the consolidation of wealth by the superrich—the powerful elite group often referred to as the 1 percent. This tiny club of individuals accounts for nearly 40 percent of political spending and thus disproportionately influences our government.²¹ In addition, the 1 percent are also responsible, as individuals and through the corporations they control, for huge donations to right-wing lobbying groups, think tanks, and other organizations that aim to protect property and profits over the basic needs of people—for example, ALEC, which drafts probusiness, antiworker, anti-majority-rule bills for state legislators to introduce and support.

Additionally, targeting the billionaires who are the ultimate profiteers of their exploitation helps once-disunited workers to realize that they have many interests in common. This is why longshore workers, over-the-road truckers, warehouse workers, manufacturing workers, janitors, and delivery workers are now joining together to confront Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, demanding better working conditions for those whose labor feeds the company’s profits—including all the workers throughout the company’s supply and distribution chain who nominally work for other companies and who have recently recognized their power in the economy as essential workers.

There are other approaches to bargaining with the ultimate profiteer beyond supply and migration chains. Working people are now banding together not just based on traditional definitions of who is an employer and who is an employee but also in ways that respond to how work is currently organized. For example, temp agency workers across sectors and geographies are banding together to assert their collective power.

These organizing practices are allowing workers in states without access to twentieth-century-protections (the mostly southern states shaded white or dark gray in the map we presented in chapter 7) to engage those who have such protections (in the light and medium gray shaded states in chapter 7). This is why workers even in states like Louisiana—not exactly hotbeds for traditional union membership—are now finding ways to demand and obtain a seat at the power table.