Workers protest pay, conditions at Walmart warehouses
American Public Media
Mitchell Hartman
There’s been plenty written over the years about poor wages and working conditions in Asian countries, such as China, that produce cheap consumer products for American retailers like Walmart.
But some questionable labor conditions exist right here at home, where those imported goods are funneled into the domestic supply chain. Labor groups and regulators point in particular to problems faced by temporary workers who staff huge warehouses that line freeways and rail yards outside Los Angeles and Chicago.
Southern California’s Inland Empire — a vast desert region east of Los Angeles — is home to the largest number of warehousing facilities in the country, including several that move goods for Walmart. The area’s boom as a national logistics hub over the past several decades has been facilitated by cheap land for development; access to freeways and rail lines, along with extensive public-private investment in transportation infrastructure; massive imports from Asia that need to get to distribution centers and big-box stores inland; and a base of low-skilled blue-collar workers available to do the warehousing and truck-driving work required.
Walmart’s warehouse No. 6909 is located in Mira Loma, Calif., about 50 miles east of the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. A steady stream of Walmart and Sam’s Club trucks roll past on their way to the loading docks inside.
Javier Rodriguez is a temporary worker at the warehouse. He’s worked there for more than a year. Looking past the guard house at the gate, he describes operations inside: “What’s arriving is merchandise for different Walmart destinations,” he says, “and our job here is to sort it and send it in trailers all over the United States.”