August 30, 2012

Low-Paying Staples Is Romney’s Go-To Example of “Success”

<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/wvs/4445146858/sizes/m/in/photostream/">wvs</a>/Flickr

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The RNC lineup for Thursday night includes Thomas Sternberg, the co-founder of Staples. Mitt Romney, who served on Staples’ board of directors in addition to investing in the company when he was at Bain Capitol, likes to tout the chain as an example of private-sector success. But as the National Employment Law Project Action Fund points out in a new report, that success has not trickled down to employees.

The report lists Staples as one of the 50 largest low-wage employers in the US. The company has continued to turn high profits even in the recession, and its CEO made $8.8 million in 2011 (which was a 40 percent drop from what he made in 2010). And yet most of its nearly 33,000 employees make less than $10 per hour. Here’s part of the graphic that goes with the report:

NELP Action FundNELP Action Fund

National Employment Law Project Action Fund also highlights the fact that next week’s Democratic National Convention lineup includes Jim Sinegal, the former CEO of Costco, also a hugely profitable corporation, which pays workers an average of $19 an hour and gives many of them health benefits. There are pretty clear differences between the businesses that the political parties are holding up as examples of “success” at their conventions.

That’s not, of course, to say that Costco is without its issues. The AFL-CIO and other unions have been picketing the chain, accusing it of not following its own Supplier Code of Conduct for continuing to do business with the frozen pizza manufacturer Palermo Pizza, whose workers have been on strike since June after the company refused to recognize their attempts to unionize.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

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And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

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