Vol. 80/No. 7      February 22, 2016

 

Walmart closes 269 stores worldwide, affecting 1,000s

 
OAKLAND, Calif. — Walmart closed its only store here Jan. 17, affecting 400 employees and thousands of workers who shopped there. Management gave workers two days’ notice following a corporate announcement that 269 stores would be closed worldwide, another expression of the international contraction of manufacturing and trade.

When the store opened 10 years ago, 11,000 people applied for 400 job openings. Bettie, now 64, was hired then. Many employees are transferring to other stores, she told the Militant, but “I’m done with Walmart!”

A rally outside the store during its last hours of business protested the closure and demanded Walmart find a new job for every worker.

“This is a big company with a lot of money,” Juana Pelayo, a cleaner, told the Militant outside the store the final night. “They don’t need to shut things down here. People need these jobs.”

“It made me really angry,” said Derrick Logon, a worker on disability. “I don’t make much on disability and I need cheap groceries. And the bus routes don’t go to the other Walmarts.”

Workers report managers have said the store was not profitable despite its high gross sales, blaming shoplifting and Oakland’s $12.55 minimum wage.

The company closed the Walmart Express chain of 102 smaller stores. They were launched in 2011 as neighborhood stores, often in rural towns with small populations, driving out competing grocers with aggressive pricing. Without them residents in many towns will be left without a nearby store.

In addition to 10,000 workers affected by store closures in the U.S., 6,000 workers in Latin America are impacted.

Walmart shut four Amigo and three Super Ahorro stores in the U.S. colony of Puerto Rico, affecting 400 workers, but remains the largest retailer there, employing 15,000 people. Some 60 stores are being shuttered in Brazil, where Walmart is the third-largest retailer.

In order to deflect attention from the crisis of capitalism, the bosses and their spokespeople claim that layoffs are the result of wage increases won by workers. “Does Walmart Closure Mean Higher Minimum Wage Equals Fewer Jobs?” headlined an article by Debra Saunders in the San Francisco Chronicle Jan. 21. “It’s hard to think otherwise,” she wrote. The scope of closures across states with lower wages disproves her argument.

Walmart announced a new entry level wage of $10 per hour starting Feb. 20, higher than the federal minimum wage, which has been $7.25 since 2009. This is a concession to the nationwide fight for $15 an hour, which has deeply affected Walmart workers. At the same time, the company announced work rule changes tightening attendance policies and further undermining holidays.
 
 
Related articles:
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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