It’s not unusual to have a food drive at work for the less fortunate during the holiday season. At one Walmart, donation bins appeared in an employees-only area, gathering food for people who are struggling to pay for a nice Thanksgiving dinner. The problem? Those struggling people are their Walmart colleagues.

Now, one should probably consider the source of this photo: OUR Walmart, an organization meant to mobilize Walmart workers for better pay and work conditions. It happens to be backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, with access to some very smart public relations people. They know that most people would have a very visceral negative reaction to relatively low-paid Walmart workers being asked to help out their worse-off colleagues.

The store in question is in Canton, Ohio. If you ask Walmart, and the Cleveland Plain Dealer did, this food drive is just an indication that store employees take care of each other. “This is part of the company’s culture to rally around associates and take care of them when they face extreme hardships,” the spokesman explained. The company also has staff-funded emergency assistance funds for colleagues.

Workers can have a nice holiday dinner if they work on Thanksgiving, but that doesn’t help the families that they provide for.

Is Walmart’s request of associates to help provide Thanksgiving dinner for co-workers proof of low wages? [Cleveland Plain Dealer]
Walmart is asking us to donate food to our coworkers [Facebook]

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