Rarely would an environmental organization put “Walmart” and “win” in the same headline, but when a company increases wages for half a million employees and makes big gains in clean energy, it’s a victory for grassroots activism in our books.
With more than 5,000 stores nationwide, Walmart is the largest private employer in the country. For years, Walmart workers and their allies have put pressure on the company to treat its employees more fairly and treat the planet better. For a Walmart worker, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving and the busiest shopping day in the United States, can be the most demanding day of the year. Symbolically, that also makes it the most opportune time for Walmart workers to demand more respect in the workplace. In the week leading up to 2014's Black Friday, Walmart workers, Sierra Club activists, and other allies teamed up in a series of marches, protests, and other events calling on the world's largest retailer to focus less on getting bigger and more on doing better, especially when it comes to paying workers fairly, creating good jobs, and investing in clean energy.
These demonstrations and continued pressure paid off in February when the company agreed to raise the wages for about 500,000 of its employees around the country -- about 40 percent of its workforce. According to Walmart, by April all of its United States workers will earn at least $9 an hour and at least $10 by next February. Minimum wage in the United States is $7.25 per hour, for comparison.
This victory for workers comes on the heels of another promising commitment from the company. In November 2014, Walmart announced that it would install as many as 400 new solar systems on its stores over the next four years, a small but much-needed divergence from the company's reliance on coal for energy. Before that, a 2014 report from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance found that Walmart was one of the nation's largest users of coal-fired electricity, pumping nearly 8 million metric tons of carbon pollution into the air each year. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups responded to the report by calling on the retail giant to reduce its reliance on coal. Simultaneously, 50,000 SierraRise supporters signed a petition urgently asking Walmart and the Walton Foundation, which was begun by Walmart's founders, to withdraw support and funding from groups that fight clean energy sources. Just hours later, the retail giant responded, pledging to ramp up its solar deployment. The price to produce solar power is now cheaper than coal, gas or nuclear, so this move not only made sense for helping clean up the air, water, and climate but also made sense economically for the company.
"The Sierra Club is proud to congratulate the brave workers at Walmart who demanded change and won, thanks to persistence, organization, and solidarity," said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune of both of the victories.
"Whether it’s higher wages for 500,000 more people or solar for hundreds more stores, these victories prove that when we fight together, we will win against even the most powerful and entrenched adversaries," he said.
Even with these wins marking great progress, there’s still work to be done. Many Americans still struggle to live on $9 an hour, and our climate will continue to be in danger as we continue to burn fossil fuels like coal and oil. Walmart has an opportunity to build on this progress by continuing to make smart investments -- in the well being and happiness of its workers and in the innovation and affordability of clean energy.
As Brune put it, "That’s why we continue to stand with the workers demanding a living wage of $15 an hour, just like they stand with us in our calls for Walmart to ramp up to 100 percent clean energy. This fight isn’t over, and we are eager to continue the push in the months and years to come."