This is Walmart Watch

Welcome to the first edition of this bi-annual Walmart Watch bulletin. Since Walmart, America’s retail giant, acquired the 51% majority share in Massmart, a South African firm that owns local chain stores such as Game, Makro, Builders’ Warehouse and CBW. Walmart’s acquisition of Massmart has riled and captured the interest of trade unions and communities as the company is notorious for union busting and exploitative labour practices. Walmart is reputed to be the biggest company in the world with its turnover and profits dwarfing that of several national economies. Effectively it is an economic giant that profits from extreme exploitation and abuse of workers. It has now entered the South African economy and that of the continent where workers’ income levels and rights are relatively low when compared to that of North America and Europe. 

Like all large monopoly companies, Walmart will seek to expand its market here and try to out-compete the likes of Shoprite-Checkers and Pick ‘n Pay. This process has huge and potentially devastating consequences for workers and trade unions in the retail sector and indeed small business and communities. It is for these reasons that we decided on producing this bulletin. We will be monitoring Walmart’s company practices and report and inform you. Such information can contribute towards communities and trade unions better organizing themselves to respond to the bad labour and community practices that Walmart is well known for.

We start off with three articles in this the first bulletin to serve this purpose. We have an article that looks at the impact of Walmart in South Africa. Jobs are already being shed in South Africa’s retail companies so that they can cope with competitive pressures from Walmart and as is customary workers bear the brunt of this. 

With South Africa already having positioned itself and being seen as a gateway for foreign direct investment in Africa and it is only a matter of time before Walmart takes over and dominates the retail and wholesale market in Africa. The second article looks at what impact the acquisition has had on the continent since Massmart and other South African big businesses are operating in different countries in Africa. We also include the press release from High Court Judge Dennis Davis which provides a summary of his judgement on the case brought by the government and trade unions against the Competition Commission’s decision in favour of the Walmart takeover of Massmart. 

A notable victory for workers and Saccawu in the judgement was the decision to reinstate the 503 workers who were retrenched by the company in 2010 to secure the deal with Walmart. However, this reinstatement order has already been mired in conflict between the company and the union with Walmart insisting that the reinstatement is not retroactive to the original date of the workers’ dismissal but rather the day of the High Court tribunal judgement. Workers and the union have also complained that in real terms most workers have not actually been reinstated as the company claims that they are unable to contact the workers. Many workers who have accepted reinstatement also complained that they are being offered different jobs at lower levels than previously or in stores far away from where they live.

The last article is about the corruption scandal in Mexico that Walmart has been involved in. With the high-levels of corruption in South Africa both in the public and the private sectors, it remains to be seen whether South Africa would similarly be fertile ground for Walmart’s corrupt practices in its quest to dominate the market here. 

For more on Walmart and other issues that affect workers in South Africa and in Africa please visit our website and go to the podcast section. Also tune in into your community radio station, SABC Channel Africa, Cape Town TV (every Tuesday between 21h00-22h00 and Soweto TV). 

We encourage all readers to also contribute to the bulletin either with relevant information or articles.

The next edition will be for October – November 2012.

Martin Jansen

Director/Editor

Workers’ World Media Productions

Contributors: Lindiwe “Tiny” Magija, Mzi Velapi and Martin Jansen

Design and Layout: Nicolas Dieltiens