“I’m putting a check in the mail for $321.85, which includes the COVID-19 bribe and MyShare,” wrote Anthony Dutrow from Miami. “I can’t think of a better way to reinforce what we are accomplishing in our trade union work at Walmart.
“I’ve talked over with my co-workers how we cashiers and other workers in the store — supposedly ‘frontline workers’ during the pandemic — have not received any kind of hourly increase, temporary or otherwise,” Dutrow said. “We’ve talked about how we pushed the bosses back from their denial of scheduled breaks and lunches. One worker told me this was great but ‘What about our pay?’”
Another $359 was contributed by two other Walmart workers in Miami.
“I am more than happy to put Walmart’s ‘COVID bonus’ bribe toward building the revolutionary working-class party,” wrote Maggie Trowe from Louisville, Kentucky. She is one of seven Walmart workers in that city who sent in a total of $1,872 in “blood money” bribes from the bosses. “Every department in the store I work in is understaffed,” she said, “and Walmart’s business is way up. Bosses expect the skeleton crews to pick up the slack.”
Communists use the term “blood money” to describe production, attendance, safety and other so-called bonuses bosses offer, hoping to get workers to keep quiet about speedup, low pay and unsafe conditions. These contributions to the SWP turn attempted bribes by the bosses into helping to build a fighting working-class party.