Making Walmart Accountable

By Ginny Finch

Walmart is coming to town. Or is it?

According to guest speaker Mackenzie Baris, lead organizer at DC Jobs with Justice, Walmart should stay out of the nation’s capital unless it is prepared to sign a community benefits agreement. She wants the company to agree to one developed by the’ “Respect DC” Campaign (a coalition of community organizations, local labor unions, churches, and student groups) with standards such as these:

• Pay a starting wage of $12.50 an hour (a “living wage”);
• Be neutral when workers want to organize;
• Hire local workers and spend $1 million a year on job training;
• Set up a fund to support small businesses;
• Reserve some shelves for local products;
• Provide places for shoppers to sit;
• And create a “community room” with free wireless Internet.

Baris stressed the Respect DC standards could be applied to each of the four neighborhoods in which Walmart wants to build stores. “We have the power to set conditions on Walmart’s openings that would change who they are as a company,” she said. “We have a right to hold them accountable to the city.”

DC Jobs with Justice led the effort to pass the city’s Living Wage Law and Paid Sick Day Law.

For more information on “Respect DC, “ visit http://www.dcjwj.org.