Mike Mozart/Creative Commons
What Walmart executives say about their pandemic response measures doesn’t match what’s happening in the stores.
First Response
While Amazon has taken plenty of heat for its worker safety measures during the COVID-19 outbreak, criticism of Walmart, another big winner in this crisis, has been more muted. In-store sales rose 20 percent at Walmart in March, at a time when everyone is supposed to be distancing (sales on Walmart.com were up 30 percent). Any crowded location right now will heighten danger. Earlier in April, Walmart announced that two employees in a store outside Chicago died from the coronavirus.
“My brother is more than just a number, more than a statistic,” said Angela McMiller, the sister of Phillip Thomas, one of the dead Walmart workers, in a conference call on Friday arranged by the worker advocacy group United for Respect. “The Walmart [Phillip and Wando Evans, whose family is suing the company] work at is always crowded. They didn’t have any gloves or masks to protect themselves. What’s it going to take for [Walmart] to take this epidemic seriously? How many more people have to die?”
Walmart, of course, says they are taking the pandemic seriously. On March 31, the CEOs of Walmart U.S. and Sam’s Club put out a written communication outlining significant steps already taken: social distancing at stores, deep cleaning of locations, Plexiglass shields at checkout, wipes and sprayers for all carts, and emergency leave for workers dealing with COVID-19. The memo added new measures: all associates would get screening questions and temperature checks when starting shifts, and anyone with a fever over 100.0 would be sent home with pay and asked to remain there until they have three fever-free days. It also said all Walmart workers would receive masks and gloves “as supplies permit.” These would arrive within 1-2 weeks, so by now, all locations should have them.
On the conference call, worker after worker at Walmart made clear that the corporate communication in no way reflected the reality on the ground. With 1.5 million employees (and probably more, after it hired over 100,000 new workers since the outbreak), Walmart reveals how corporate giants are too big to manage. Whatever lip service is paid from an executive suite does not filter down to worksites where the top priority is profits.
Maya Smith of New Orleans talked about workers being sent home without pay for wearing masks and gloves, with managers telling them that they were scaring customers. She reported no temperature checks at her location, 10 days after Walmart started implementing them. She reported no Plexiglass shields at checkout, either. The “emergency” time off is unpaid without a positive COVID-19 test, and tests are difficult to obtain in much of the country. “It’s not safe to work at Walmart now,” Smith said. “I’m forced to choose between a paycheck and my health.”
Zach A., a pharmacy worker in a large store in the Midwest, said that there are signs about social distancing on the floor, but nobody enforces them. People come to the pharmacy with cold and flu symptoms, putting him and everyone else in the store at risk. Cindy Murray, an employee in Virginia, said some maintenance workers are getting gloves at her store, but maybe one or two pair per shift, not enough to fully protect them.
Jennifer Suggs, who has worked a year and a half at a Walmart in Hartsville, South Carolina, was the most emotional. “I don’t feel good today, I have a temperature,” she said. “If I went to work, they would just say, ‘Do your job.’ If you don’t vomit on your shows, they won’t tell you to go home.” This directly contradicts the corporate PR about sending sick workers home.
Suggs added that hundreds of people flooding the store make social distancing impossible. Some customers were using the Walmart as a gathering place when everything else is closed, she said. Walmart claimed a week earlier it would limit numbers of people inside its stores; Suggs said it’s not happening. “We don’t matter, we’re just a number,” she concluded. “Our profit margins matter more than you. I don’t have no health coverage or anything. I don’t want to die in a hospital bed and my kids can’t be around me. I have no protection. The only thing I have is a stupid blue vest.”
There’s just no comparison between the steps Walmart executives claim to be taking and what these associates report from the stores. Corporate messages get filtered through managers with pressures to perform. When a Walmart or Amazon claims they’re doing all they can to make workplaces safe, it’s likely that top executives don’t even know how the rules are being managed. That’s a consequence of monopoly, where distant managers send mixed messages.
On Thursday, Walmart added that it would make face masks mandatory “in many communities,” including New Orleans, where Maya Smith works. But the company seems more interested in another feature it added. Zach A. mentioned that he was required to sign a liability waiver, releasing the store from fault if he fell ill or died from the coronavirus. He signed the waiver, “but I don’t agree with it,” he said.
Odds and Sods
This is the one-month anniversary of Unsanitized, I started it on March 12, when I started my personal self-quarantine. This series has been a diary of the world during coronavirus, and I’ve learned so much hearing from readers about their experiences. Please reach out at ddayen-at-prospect-dot-org, to tell me how you’re dealing with the pandemic, or anything that the public might need to know.
I should add that the Prospect survives from your tax-free donations. This is a difficult time, but if you have the means and can help support independent, non-profit journalism right now—and with the absolute carnage in the news industry it’s desperately needed—we would really appreciate it. Every donation is doubled right now thanks to a generous donor match. Donate here to our ongoing coverage of ideas, politics, and power.
The Shadow Play in Congress
When we last left Congress, Democrats had fashioned a list of demands for a new “interim” aid package, which would be passed before the fourth aid bill for some reason. On top of another $250 billion for the small business loan program, Democrats wanted $150 billion for state and local government, $100 billion for hospitals (which judging from the initial outlay, makes up for “lost revenue” in the crisis, rather than adding ventilators or other critical equipment), and a 15 percent boost to food stamp assistance.
If you noticed that requiring vote by mail for the general election was missing, or any money to surge the testing capability necessary to break out of two weeks of static numbers (testing is the critical element for ending the national lockdown), or appropriations for the Defense Production Act for enough medical equipment that no hospital has any shortage, you’re sharper than Democratic leaders.
Meanwhile, Republican leaders called the Democrats treasonous obstructionists just for suggesting these incomplete measures. It’s just sad to read Michael Grunwald’s breakdown of how Democrats are wracked with fear of being blamed for… anything really. Democrats, Grunwald writes, have “extraordinary leverage to dictate the terms” of the next bill, but “they don’t seem inclined to use that leverage to take on Trump.”
I’ve no doubt that Democrats are as afraid as church mice, but let’s face it: setting the frame like there’s some fateful decision-making coming from Washington is misleading. Everyone knows how this game will end, because the die was cast when Democrats swallowed the giant corporate bailout bill with pretty much no resistance. Not only did Republicans get one thing they wanted out of any crisis response, and therefore see no need to give in on anything else, they learned from Democratic behavior that they will always cave in overwhelming numbers.
So Grunwald can list the escalating steps Democrats could conceivably take. And Pramila Jayapal can drop her nice bill to guarantee worker paychecks during the pandemic. And liberal media figures can print their list of “demands” for the next legislation. But it’s all fantasy football, relative to reality. Democrats showed their hand, and Republicans know they’re bluffing. That’s the end of the story.
Today I Learned
- Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia sees his role as sabotaging relief for unemployed workers, apparently. (Washington Post)
- The $600 boost in unemployment checks will begin this week in Louisiana. (Nola.com)
- Private suppliers being assisted by FEMA in securing medical supplies are directing them to hospitals where they have existing contracts. (NPR)
- Mask scam #1: shipment of 39 million N-95 masks exposed as fake. (Los Angeles Times)
- Mask scam #2: $750 million shipment to the VA exposed as fake. (Axios)
- Not a scam per se, but as manufacturers from China try to make up for months-long shutdowns, the supplies they’re producing have poor quality control. (Los Angeles Times)
- The drugs needed to run ventilators are running short. (Associated Press)
