REI workers in Seattle are stirring. Seattle councilwoman Kshama Sawant recently held a rally in support of REI’s workers. The outdoor cooperative is perceived by many to be a progressive company, but based on the testimony of some of the company’s employees, REI’s progressive values don’t extend to paying fair wages. The store caters to the upper third of society who is able to afford $58 dollar t-shirts and $450 tents. I had always wrongly assumed that a portion of the store’s exorbitant prices were passed along to REI’s employees. Beverages contained in a $38 aluminum water bottle taste better when the drinker knows that her bottle was made in a sweat shop free environment and sold to them by workers earning a minimum wage. Those REI workers however make somewhere around $10 an hour and work around twenty hours a week. Those few hours are also not consistent, meaning that scheduling another job or college classes is prohibitive. Also, REI workers, like Wal-Mart associates, are subjected to motivational speeches by middle management. In an industry where poverty level wages are the norm, the motivational speeches seem to be designed to build a sense of camaraderie among non unionized workers. Although some REI workers might disagree with comparisons to Wal-Mart associates, the wage structure, shifting hours, and lackluster benefits mean that similarities far outnumber differences. Unionization efforts on the part of REI employees have predictably been rebuffed by management.
It is well known that different retail outlets target particular clientele. As was already mentioned, REI targets upper income athletic types, Wal-Mart aims its marketing towards the working class, and Target hones in on young people who aren’t quite rich, but who don’t see themselves as Wal-Mart shoppers. Might it be that along with consumers self segregating themselves into types of stores, that workers as well see themselves as distinctly part of a defined segment of the retail industry? Do REI workers look down on Wal-Mart associates, and do Target employees scoff at Big Lots staff? The reason that I find this an important question is that if this type of mental self segregation of workers occurs, then there are definite barriers to organizing retail workers. If Wal-Mart associates are convinced that REI workers are simply snooty elites who don’t eat meat, and Target employees see Big Lots workers as tenders of a glorified flea market, then these people, despite their similar wages, fluctuating hours, and benefit’s packages that begin and end with “you and your employer will contribute to Medicare and Social Security” will not work together to struggle for higher wages. Are there solidarity efforts being made by organizers to breakdown barriers between different retail workers?
Michael edwards
Growing up in Orange County California during the Reagan administration and serving in the Air Force while simultaneously attending an evangelical Christian Church didn't exactly set me up for a connection to left-wing politics. My first glimpse behind the "curtain" of American Exceptionalism occurred during one of my unit's deployments to Saudi Arabia during the mid 1990s. During that time period the United States Air Force was enforcing a no fly zone in both southern and northern Iraq. At the time, between ice fights with other airmen and midnight viewings of a worn out VHS copy of the Patrick Swayze hit, Roadhouse, I was a avionics specialist in charge of repairing faulty navigation and fuel system indicators on KC135 tankers. Two events that occurred during my time in the desert started me on the long path towards the Left. For one thing, our planes were refueling F16 fighters that were bombing targets in southern Iraq. The F16s would take off fully loaded with bombs and would come back a few hours later empty. This is probably not a shock to most people but it was to me. The term no fly zone sounds so benign, "hey sir could you please fly someplace else? Thank you." We were participating in around the clock bombing sorties at a time when the American public didn't know there was a war occurring. Years later I found out that our missions were ensuring that medicines and foods were not entering Iraq. Hundreds of thousands of people, children in particular, died of curable diseases and malnutrition partly due to the no fly zone that I was a small but important cog in. On one of our days off a group of airman and I happened to be in Riyadh when news came in that a barracks full of American airmen had been bombed in the northern Iraqi city of Dhahran. As we walked through the gold market, Saudi men drove their Mercedes Benzes close to us and yelled and waved their fists in our direction. They didn't appear to want to be friends. "Weren't these people our allies? Hadn't we protected Saudi Arabia from an Iraqi invasion?" Over time the questions led me out of the military and into seriously questioning the U.S. government's intentions. I began reading books about U.S. foreign policy. Since there isn't a great market for working class people who know a lot about shady U.S. government dealings abroad and because I enjoyed working with struggling young people, I went into teaching. Currently I teach students with special needs at a high school in Washington state. I also have an MA in History from Eastern Washington University. My final project focused on Evangelical Christians from the United States and their complicity in the genocide of Mayan Indians committed by the army of convicted war criminal Efrain Rios Montt. I had the opportunity to present my paper to a panel in San Jose, Costa Rica last year. My wife and I used the trip to Costa Rica as an excuse for a honeymoon. I am also a member of the Chapter 35 Spokane chapter of Veterans for Peace. I will be taking the train down to Berkeley next month to attend the veterans for Peace conference. Oliver Stone the director of Platoon is supposed to be there. Maybe I can pick his brain and get some ideas for my new blog. There might be some lesser conspiracy theories that don't warrant his time that I might be able to take a look at.
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