What’s really happening with Walmart’s automation and American jobs? Continue reading below to know the real happening.
So, down in Tampa, Florida, Walmart had an annual investor meeting and dropped a bombshell. They’re planning to replace a whole bunch of their workers with automation. Can you believe it? They want 65% of their stores automated by 2026. This news came just days after they decided to cut about 2,000 employees working in online fulfillment jobs.
Now, the Daily Mail says that Walmart’s been pouring money into automation to speed things up in their e-commerce fulfillment facilities. This retail giant is worth a crazy $388 billion and has about 1.7 million workers in the U.S. The bigwigs at the company haven’t said when the layoffs might happen, but they did say that automation means they won’t need as many low-paid workers.
You know, Walmart’s customer service ain’t exactly the best of the best, but they might have no choice but to cut down their workforce. With inflation going through the roof under Biden and the Democrats pushing to raise the minimum wage, things are getting tricky.
Take a look at Michigan. The court stopped the minimum wage increase there, which would’ve bumped up the tipped employee rate at restaurants from $3.84 to $11.73 an hour. Someone on Twitter said that this change could’ve cost about 50,000 jobs.
Justin Winslow, the big cheese at the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association, talked about how restaurant owners are getting nervous. They thought the Democrats would raise the minimum wage after just barely winning the House and Senate. He mentioned that restaurants are still trying to bounce back from the Covid shutdowns and are dealing with crazy high inflation.
Governor Gretchen Whitmer‘s iron-fisted shutdowns have hit small businesses hard – the same ones that would be crushed by a huge minimum wage increase. And don’t even get me started on Biden’s clueless financial “gifts” to Ukraine and his spending sprees – they’re making life tough for Americans who aren’t rolling in dough.
Now, Walmart did say they’re hoping to replace lost jobs with better-paying positions. They said in a filing:
“As the changes are implemented across the business, one of the outcomes is roles that require less physical labor but have a higher rate of pay. Over time, the company anticipates increased throughput per person due to the automation while maintaining or even increasing its number of associates as new roles are created.”
So, what’s the big question here? Are the Democrats and their ideas pushing companies like Walmart to go for automation and kick a whole bunch of hardworking Americans to the curb? It’s time for us to stand up against these job-killing policies and demand better for our friends and neighbors. A strong economy depends on people working, and that ain’t gonna happen if we keep forcing businesses to swap people for machines.
Sources: 100percentfedup, Daily Mail,