Hi Sally,
You asked for ideas. How about intermediation, i.e., intermediate
entities?
I'm referring to independent (possibly employee-formed)
employment enterprises associated with each store (perhaps locality),
providing enough moral support, pooled worker-relevant information,
practical work-scheduling benefits and potentially even financial
benefits (mutual insurance) and community betterment to make it
worthwhile for employees and potential employees to create them and
use their services.
I believe experiments have shown that, where workers have other
workers with whom they can talk about their work and can
develop mutually satisfactory practical working arrangements, working
conditions are bettered and also productivity increases. Thus such
"tweens" can play a constructive role with respect to both corporate
and union objectives.
Resistance to their formation on the part of either corporations or
unions is thus disfunctional and would reveal another agenda. Indeed
their formation should be supported by both corporations and unions.
Independent of each, under control of neither, and supportive of the
functioning of both, they are the incubators of an enterprising
attitude, a responsible citizenry, also future ways of working that
include both strong corporations and strong unions?
Maybe we on this futurework list can talk about appropriate names
for organizations playing such a role with respect to Walmart? Nodal
entities in the economy, maybe they might be called Walworks? At the
least, some brain-storming about them seems in order.
Regards,
Gail
----- Original Message -----
From: Sally Lerner <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2007 10:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] Wal-Mart Seeks a Just-in-time workforce
Talk about being jerked around!! This was predictable, of
course, but still disgusting. How to fight this? any ideas?? Sally
Wal-Mart Seeks New Flexibility In Worker Shifts
3 January 2007
The Wall Street Journal <javascript:void(0)>
A1
The nation's biggest private employer is about to revamp the way
it schedules its work force, in a move that could shake up many
employees' lives.
Early this year, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., using a new computerized
scheduling system, will start moving many of its 1.3 million
workers from predictable shifts to a system based on the number
of customers in stores at any given time. The move promises
greater productivity and customer satisfaction for the huge
retailer but could be a major headache for employees.
The change is made possible by a software system that can crunch
an array of data, part of a shift toward computerized management
tools that can help pare costs and boost companies' bottom lines.
But it also could demand greater flexibility and availability
from workers in place of reliable work shifts -- and predictable
paychecks.
Wal-Mart began implementing the new system for some workers,
including cashiers and accounting-office personnel, last year. As
the world's largest retailer, the Bentonville, Ark., company
often sets the standard for others, and many chains already are
heading in the same direction.
Others that have rolled out advanced scheduling systems in the
past year or are currently doing so include Payless ShoeSource
Inc., RadioShack Corp. and Mervyns LLC. Payless expects to have
its system in 300 of 4,000 stores by the end of January. The
system, designed by Kronos Inc., tracks individual store sales,
transactions, units sold and customer traffic in 15-minute
increments over seven weeks, and compares data to the prior
year's, before scheduling workers.
Payless hopes to "optimize our schedules to better anticipate
when customers will be in our stores so that we can better engage
them," says Larry Leibach, the shoe retailer's director of
project management.
A company using these fine-tuned programs might start the day
with a few employees on hand at many stores, bring in a bunch
more during busy midday hours, and gradually pare down through
the day before bulking up for the evening rush.
Staffing is the latest arena in which companies are trying to
wring costs and attain new efficiencies. The latest so-called
scheduling-optimization systems can integrate data ranging from
the number of in-store customers at certain hours to the average
time it takes to sell a television or unload a truck, and help
predict how many workers will be needed at any given hour.
Companies also hope the scheduling systems will cut litigation by
helping them comply with federal wage-and-hour laws, and
variations at the state level on everything from the timing and
frequency of breaks to how many hours minors can be scheduled.
Moreover, retailers say tighter scheduling lets them better serve
customers by shortening checkout lines.
"There's been a new push for labor optimization," says Nikki
Baird of Forrester Research Inc. "You want to have the
flexibility to more closely match . . . shifts to when the demand
is there."
But while the new systems are expected to benefit both retailers
and customers, some experts say they can saddle workers with
unpredictable schedules. In some cases, they may be asked to be
"on call" to meet customer surges, or sent home because of a
lull, resulting in less pay. The new systems also alert managers
when a worker is approaching full-time status or overtime, which
would require higher wages and benefits, so they can scale back
that person's schedule.
That means workers may not know when or if they will need a
babysitter or whether they will work enough hours to pay that
month's bills. Rather than work three eight-hour days, someone
might now be plugged into six four-hour days, mornings one week
and evenings the next.
Some analysts say the new systems will result in more irregular
part-time work. "The whole point is workers were a fixed cost,
now they're a variable cost. Is it good for workers? Probably
not," says Kenneth Dalto, a management consultant in Farmington
Hills, Mich.
Unions have criticized Wal-Mart for its scheduling changes,
saying the company is forcing people to be available to work more
hours each week but to sacrifice a more regular schedule. Paul
Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com, funded by the
United Food and Commercial Workers union, says the new scheduling
system has "devastating implications" for employees. "What the
computer is trying to optimize is the most number of part-time
and least number of full-time workers at the lowest labor costs,
with no regard for the effect that it has on workers' lives," he
says.
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sarah Clark says the system isn't intended
to schedule fewer workers, and hasn't where it has been
implemented so far. The company says that in one test last year
in 39 stores, 70% of customers said the checkout experience had
improved. "The advantages are simple: We will benefit by
improving the shopping experience by having the right number of
associates to meet our customers' needs when they shop our
stores," Ms. Clark said.
In the past, store managers for Wal-Mart and other huge
retailers, including Sears Holdings Corp.'s Kmart, Payless and J.
Crew, scheduled workers based on store promotions and weekly
sales figures from the previous year. By comparison, the software
systems created by workforce-management software companies such
as Workbrain Inc., Kronos and CyberShift Inc. rely on real-time
data feeds, such as sales rung up at the cash register and
customer traffic.
The systems can boost productivity by freeing up managers. While
it can take managers an entire day to create schedules for
several hundred workers at a single big-box store, staffing can
now be drawn up across an entire company in a few hours.
Workbrain says it generates schedules for Target Corp.'s 350,000
U.S. employees at 1,500 locations in less than six hours. Target
declined to comment on its scheduling system.
Store chains spent $55 million on licensing fees for
work-force-management software in 2005, up from $44 million in
2004, according to AMR Research Inc. in Boston. AMR analyst
Robert Garf estimates revenue for these systems grew by 15% to
20% in 2006. "We're really at this tipping point today," he says.
Wal-Mart is rolling out the new "optimizer" system from an
outside vendor in all its stores and for all employees this year.
Wal-Mart asks hourly employees to fill out the hours they can
work on "personal availability" forms. A copy provided by
WakeUpWalMart states that all full-time cashiers and
customer-service workers are encouraged to consider including "if
at all possible" a weekend shift every week. "Limiting your
personal availability may restrict the number of hours you are
scheduled," the form reads.
Some workers say the form has been used to pressure them to be
open to more shifts. Tami Orth, a full-time cashier in Ludington,
Mich., says she used to work a regular schedule of nearly 35
hours a week, with Mondays and Wednesdays off. In May, managers
began to assign her as few as 12 hours a week, and her shifts
began to fluctuate. "You can't budget anything," says Ms. Orth,
who earns $9.32 an hour.
Some longtime workers also say they believe managers use the
system to pressure them to quit. After working 16 years at a
Wal-Mart in Hastings, Minn., Karen Nelson says managers told her
she had to be open to working nights and weekends. After she
refused, her hours were trimmed, though they have been restored
in recent months. "The store manager said he could get two people
for what he pays me," says Ms. Nelson, who earns about $14.50 an
hour.
Ms. Orth and Ms. Nelson both had contacted union critics of the
company in recent months.
Ms. Clark denied managers use the system to pressure people to
change their availability or force out seasoned workers. She also
said the new system makes schedules more consistent.
==========================
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