There’s a great article by Harold Meyerson in The American Prospect today taking an in-depth look at the struggles of the warehouse workers in California’s Inland Empire to restore their chance to reach the American Dream:
On May 14, Wal-Mart released its first-quarter financials for 2009 and announced that despite the recession — or, perhaps, because of it — business was booming. Shoppers in search of cheaper products had been flocking to its stores: A full 17 percent of its customers during the quarter were first-timers. The company had been able to exploit the downturn by reducing its legendarily bare-bones distribution expenses by an additional 5 percent. In keeping with its practice of compelling its manufacturers, shippers, truckers, and warehouses to continually cut costs, Wal-Mart had been able to “sweat the assets” in its distribution network more than usual, said Eduardo Castro-Wright, head of the company’s U.S. division.
On the very day that Wal-Mart released its quarterly statement, however, some of those assets announced that they’d be sweated no more. At 2:30 that afternoon, some 200 local warehouse workers, abetted by half a dozen priests and ministers and a number of union activists, paraded up San Bernardino Avenue to the main trucking gate at a Wal-Mart distribution center in Fontana, California — an obscure Los Angeles exurb that is the epicenter of warehousing not just for Wal-Mart but for the entire U.S./Asian trade sector. Moments before the demonstrators arrived, Wal-Mart security guards scrambled down the long driveway and rolled the main gate shut, lest the protestors come inside. A Wal-Mart truck, halfway down the driveway on its way to the street, slowed, then stopped.
For the next two hours, the priests prayed, the activists spoke, the workers shouted their demands — and the distribution center ceased its distributing. Then the county sheriffs carted away the four workers and three priests who had sat down in the driveway, and the demonstrators boarded their buses and left. The unthinkable had happened: Wal-Mart’s supply chain had been broken, if only for an afternoon.
As the kids say, read the whole thing. You can also learn more about the warehouse workers’ campaign by visiting their Web site, WarehouseWorkersUnited.org.