“I think the role and responsibility of corporations is going to grow significantly. Specifically, the role of protecting, preserving and enhancing benefits for the people that work for your company.”- Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO
If you blinked between the morning of Thanksgiving and the evening of Black Friday, you most likely missed the Walmart strike amidst our annual shots of shoppers camping outside stores most of us attempt to avoid 364 days a year.
Most media gave the strike little coverage, save Fox News and Breitbart.com, that decided the inability of protests across 100 cities to completely derail the biggest shopping day in the world’s largest economy constitutes failure.
The Walmart protests were, of course, never going to slow Black Friday — that wasn’t their point. The protesters’ message was simple, and one every working adult confronts: nothing in this world comes cheap.
Poor working conditions, benefits and inflexible hours are not Walmart’s monopoly, and CEO Michael T. Duke was not the only executive ordering Black Friday to commence the evening of Thanksgiving, leaving those stocking shelves, unloading trucks and cleaning floors for the impending mob without a family holiday.
Sears and Kmart opened their doors at 8 p.m. on Thursday as well. It feels banal to say this, but the fact that companies like this will always compensate their labor with the fewest dollars, the fewest benefits, and the least comfortable working conditions possible carries more weight than we give it credit for.
Fortunately, not every businessman shares the values of Michael T. Duke — which is to say not everyone is as cheap as Walmart’s low wage customers have to be. Schultz does not envision an America with responsibility-free corporations, nor does he view employees as carbon-based life legally required to leave work at some point.
According to Schultz, in 2010 Starbucks spent $200 million on employee health care. All employees, part-time and full-time, have the opportunity to access stock options and health care through Starbucks. If a latte sold for $2 instead of $3.50, and if Starbucks valued short-term market gains over long-term culture and stability, these options wouldn’t be on the table.
Starbucks does not stand alone in offering employees the now elusive “good job.” Whole Foods, Costco, Microsoft, Patagonia and Xerox all find themselves with Starbucks on Ethisphere’s list of 2012’s Most Ethical Companies, in large part for acknowledging the obvious: if a company sells a dirt cheap product, its employee compensation will be correspondingly low.
On at least an implicit level, most customers understand this relationship. Whether it changes behavior remains a separate question, but it is undeniable that subsidizing soulless corporations on any day is synonymous with what inspired the protests in the first place.
Brian Marceau can be reached at [email protected]