Ehrenreich On Women, Workers And Walmart

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

"I'm still waiting for my check" from Walmart, author Barbara Ehrenreich (at left) said at a panel discussion Tuesday night at Busboys and Poets on the first night of Women's History Month. Ehrenreich, author of "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America," said Walmart was "something of a totalitarian environment to work in." While writing her book, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies, Ehrenreich worked at a Walmart in Minnesota in 2000. Ehrenreich explained that it was not uncommon for a Walmart manager to tell workers to "Punch out. I've got a lot of work for you to do." Sandy Carpenter, a former Walmart employee in Laurel, Maryland, said she experienced the same thing in 2009. "I had to work an average of two hours a day off the clock," said Carpenter, who claims she was fired for organizing. "They have not stopped their old ways," Ehrenreich said of Walmart.
- report/photo by Pete Tucker, TheFightBack.org