Current Event #5: Labor

While some of Sears' biggest competitors like Walmart and more recently Target, are having labor disputes, it seems that the retail industry is getting this sentiment across its biggest businesses. In the article, "Target's Honeymoon Could be Over" there is talk of labor unions arising among Target employee's and the comparison to Walmart's labor disputes. The article says that like Walmart, Target "pays workers similar wages of between $9 and $11". While Target is significantly smaller than the Walmart brand, the attention of the labor unionization is not small. The article says, "Over the past year, Target has followed Wal-Mart by shifting more of its workers to part-time...Some employees say their hours have been cut from 30 per week to fewer than 10. Part-timers must bank at least 20 hours a week, on average, to qualify for benefits.". 


With all of these labor problems apparent, it seems likely that if employees are not happy with pay, hours, etc., they will fight back.  It took me by surprise that Target and Walmart are paying their employees $9-$11 while Sears is around $7.25-$10.51. It also surprised me that as I was looking up information on labor disputes within Sears, I couldn't find any information after 2007. While there seems to be a great deal of dissatisfaction within the store with positions and pay (mostly at the cashier level), it isn't translating to such the degree of Walmart and Target, which is great for Sears but I'm wondering if it is just a matter of time. I asked a cashier who has been at the same level for 25 years what he thought about his overall satisfaction with Sears as a retailer. He told me that basically the older Sears employees are neither happy or angry with the company in regards to treatment, pay, and benefits. It's the younger employees who think they deserve more than they get and that in turn makes the older employees frustrated. 


To an extent, I believe that. Just from my personal experience, I think that many of the older employee's thought that I was just some college kid, making more than them for doing nothing. Now, of course, that sentiment is gone because they have seen my work ethic and etc. However, I think (particularly for Sears), the employees who have been there for their whole lives and still making minimum wage will, soon enough, begin to realize they are worth more than that. This same issue was brought up at the internship conference and in essence we were told that corporate would be working on the issue of competitive pay in the business to ensure that employees are satisfied with their jobs. These new unionization problems may not be an issue with Sears right now, but I do think that if they aren't taken care of quickly, Sears may be the next big company in the light. 


Source: 


CBSMinnesota.com (2011, July 14). "Targets honeymoon could be over" Retreived on July 16, 2011 from topix.com/business/retail - http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2011/07/14/targets-honeymoon-could-be-over/