Kmart boycott spreads nationally: employees at North Carolina retailer charge wage/race discrimination

Black Enterprise, July, 1996 by Yana Ginburg

In its national TV ads, Kmart promotes itself as a consumer-friendly store always giving the very best deals to its customers. But a growing number of Kmart employees in Greensboro, North Carolina, are saying the store needs to start taking better care of its own personnel.

Efforts are under way to expand a grass-roots boycott that started in Greensboro to draw national attention to alleged pay disparities at Kmart's North Carolina distribution center. There are also charges that employees in Greensboro have been passed over for promotions because of race.

Kmart, the nation's second largest retailer, opened the Greensboro center in April 1992. Of its 13 national distribution centers, this is the only one with a majority of African American workers and the only one that has voted to unionize. Since 1993, the Union of Needle Trades, Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE) has been negotiating with Kmart, but the 550 employees have been working without a contract.

The dispute escalated in the spring of 1994, after a series of boycotts and peaceful demonstrations in Greensboro led to several arrests. In recent weeks, the demonstrations have spread to Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis, Norfolk, Houston and Cleveland, attracting 2,000 to 3,000 supporters. Kmart raised its wages across-the-board in Greensboro by 50 cents in March, bringing the pay scale up to $7.25 to $9 an hour. But workers charge that even with the raise, this is still as much as $4 an hour less than what employees at the other national Kmart centers earn.

Deborah Compton-Holt, 44, is one of five employees who have filed a lawsuit against the retailer claiming they were passed over for promotions because of race. "We are not going to stop until we get parity," Compton-Holt says.

"Our hope is that not just Kmart, but other companies will be on alert," says the Rev. William Wright, president of the Pulpit Forum, which represents about 80 Greensboro churches that have joined the demonstrations. "Why do we give incentives to corporate entities to come in ... and then let them treat people any way they want?" The incentives Wright alludes to include about $1 million in tax breaks, sewer lines and a highway interchange, all of which were reportedly provided to Kmart for building in Greensboro.

The boycott effort received an added boost after the Greensboro NAACP entered the fray, returning a $10,000 donation they had requested from Kmart for a crime-prevention program. Local and national officials have also thrown their support behind the effort. Bill Lucy, a member of the national board of the NAACP, and Atlanta Labor Council President Stuart Acuff were at the Atlanta demonstration. Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, Howard Jefferson, president of the Houston branch of the NAACP, and the Rev. M.C. Cooper, president of the Gulf Coast Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, appeared at the Houston rally.

Although Kmart concedes that the pay scale in Greensboro is lower than at its other distribution centers, it claims the pay differential is not race-based. "Kmart opened the Greensboro distribution center with a wage program that was competitive in the Greensboro area. Kmart does not discriminate against its associates because of race," says Mary Lorencz, director of media relations. Kmart operates approximately 2,080 stores and 87 Super Kmarts in all 50 states.

"This is a trend that is sweeping the nation," says the Rev. Wright. "Corporate entities recognize huge profits, but those who help them achieve them are being pushed through the cracks of poverty."