From Affective Shareholding to OUR Walmart: Organizing Labor in a Post-Union World

Abstract

From Affective Shareholding to OUR Walmart: Organizing Labor in a Post-Union World, by Christine Labuski and Nick Copeland. This essay examines OUR Walmart (Organization United for Respect at Walmart), a group of current and former Walmart employees who are fighting for improved working conditions within the company. We situate OUR Walmart's emergence within the breakdown of management strategies that substitute affective and symbolic inclusion for material benefits. We also show how OUR Walmart shames the company over social media by contrasting workers’ precarious lives with the extreme wealth of the Walton family, and redefines respect to include collective and material rights.

Keywords

• Walmart
• labor organizing
• shame
• corporate culture
• affective management