Above Photo: Starbucks employees protesting outside the Magnolia Dr. location in Tallahassee, FL. Wikimedia Commons from February 9, 2022.
New data shows big retailers have the cash to hire more workers and pay them well.
They just spend it on stocks and CEOs instead.
Ever get mad at a delivery person for bringing your pizza late? That used to be me. Now I assume itâs late because an overpaid boss is probably making two employees do the job of 10.
Thatâs because I worked for two years at a company with the kind of chronic understaffing that plagues many of Americaâs largest retailers and fast food corporations.
My job was to build merchandise displays at Loweâs, the home improvement chain. I wasnât supposed to deal directly with customers. But when people asked me for help, I was often the only employee available. So I wound up doing everything from sawing lumber to cutting keys â all the while worrying about finishing my assigned projects.
Such understaffing leads to frustration for customers and burnout for employees who have to hustle like mad for a paycheck that barely covers their bills. CEOs argue they just donât have the money to hire more workers or pay family-supporting wages. But their actions say something else.
A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies shows that Loweâs spent nearly $35 billion over the past three and a half years on stock buybacks. This is when a company takes money that could go towards worker wages or other productive investment and uses it to artificially inflate the value of their stock â and the value of their CEOâs stock-based pay.
In 2022 alone, Loweâs spent $14.1 billion on buybacks. That wouldâve been enough to give every one of the companyâs 301,000 U.S. employees a $46,923 bonus. Instead, Loweâs median worker pay was less than $30,000. And the CEO? Heâs sitting on company stock worth about $108 million.
Other big retailers are not much different. Walmart, Home Depot, Target, Dollar General, and Best Buy all spent more than $5 billion on stock buybacks over the past few years.
CEOs say buybacks are a good way to return âexcess cashâ to shareholders. Iâm pretty sure frontline workers could come up with far better ideas for investing those billions. But nobodyâs asking them.
None of these big retailers are unionized, meaning their workers have no voice in major decisions affecting their lives.
In 2022 alone, Loweâs spent $14.1 billion on buybacks. That wouldâve been enough to give every one of the companyâs 301,000 U.S. employees a $46,923 bonus.
Thatâs why a few co-workers and I started organizing at our Loweâs store in New Orleans in 2022. We wanted to build collective power to address our challenges, including understaffing, unfair pay, and a lack of grievance protections. We were tired of seeing employees have no recourse after getting fired for showing up a few minutes late for reasons beyond their control, like a broken-down bus or a child care crisis.
Not surprisingly, the road to organizing the first big box store union has been bumpy. Weâre proud that we overcame intense management opposition and gathered enough signatures on a petition to form a union. We also feel we helped pressure Loweâs to give out some modest raises and bonuses.
But due to a technicality, we had to withdraw our petition. Then, a couple months ago, I was fired in what I believe was retaliation for my pro-union activities. The National Labor Relations Board has already ruled against Starbucks and Amazon for illegally firing union organizers. They are now investigating my firing and several other complaints about Loweâs labor practices.
The deck is clearly stacked against ordinary workers at big powerful corporations. But we know that every employee contributes to the value of a company â not just the CEO. And we will keep fighting for the respect we deserve.
Source: Popularresistance.org
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