<p> Walmart is one of the next big companies to become a focus of extended campaigns to push for higher pay and expanded union presence for its workers after a group named OUR Walmart announced to CBS MoneyWatch that a workers’ strike was planned for September 5th.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> The CBS report notes that, while Walmart claims to pay the average full-time $12.83 per hour wage, the company will not disclose the overall average wage nor how many of its employees can’t get full-time work, which may drop the real average lower. As these low-wage issues continue, both big labor and big business may be inaccurately portraying themselves as being run by grass roots efforts.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Although these campaigns have largely been motivated by significant national problems such as low-paying part-time work, CBS News reports that these issues are being discussed by PR firms with their own interests rather than union workers themselves. This may be a consequence of declining union enrollments, which amounts to less power and lower revenues for each individual organization. Since grass roots groups seldom have the money and marketing organization to lead their campaigns themselves, a PR firm can structure the messaging to make it appear as though the union was led entirely by employees.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"> Whether these groups planning the strikes are being directed by PR campaigns or by “a coalition of labor unions, community groups, and Walmart workers,” as the group calling for the September 5th strike claims to be, the issue of low wages will continue to be the main driving force behind potential labor challenges at Walmart.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><a class="btn btn-sm btn-primary col-lg-12" style="white-space: normal;" href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505124_162-57601077/walmart-is-next-battleground-for-labor-business/" target="_new"> CBS News </a></p><hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
