Thursday, Nov. 2 'Day of Action' to focus on Wal-Mart

On Thursday, Nov. 21, working families across the nation will join with community, student, civil rights, environmental and consumer activists for a National Day of Action at Wal-Mart stores. The Day of Action is part of the ongoing People's Campaign/Justice@Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart customers, many of whom are union members, will join with other members of their communities to conduct actions at local stores in every state. Their message will be that they want to spend their dollars at a store that recognizes the value of being a good corporate neighbor - one that responsibly raises living and working standards, rather than eroding them. In Portland, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 555 is asking supporters to rally from 3 to 5 p.m. at Wal-Mart Eastport, 4200 SE 82nd Ave.

"With events in all 50 states, this Day of Action will demand that Wal-Mart become a responsible corporate citizen that provides good jobs, equal opportunity, fair business and trade practices and respects the rights of workers," AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and United Food and Commercial Workers President Douglas Dority said in a joint letter to affiliated unions and to state and local central bodies.

Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the country, with more than 1 million employees. And it leads all companies in sales and profits. Several of the top 10 richest people in the world are Waltons, descendants of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton.

At the same time, said Sweeney and Dority, Wal-Mart is a corporate outlaw and virulently anti-union. They cite the fact that the National Labor Relations Board has issued more than 40 complaints against the company in 25 states in recent years for labor law violations.

Because of its size, Wal-Mart exerts tremendous influence on the practices of other retailers. "Wal-Mart is setting the lowest common denominator for wages and benefits - its workers are paid $2 to $3 an hour less than union workers who perform similar jobs; less than 38 percent of its workers are covered by company-provided health insurance," say Sweeney and Dority.

Wal-Mart suppliers run sweatshop factories in Bangladesh, Honduras and other developing countries, according to the anti-sweatshop action group National Labor Committee (NLC), which also lists Wal-Mart as one of the largest customers of manufacturing plants run by China's People's Liberation Army, which in turn uses the profits to continue to oppress Chinese citizens and workers.

Wal-Mart also is one of the largest importers of products from China, a country where workers' rights are systematically denied and workers and prisoners regularly are forced into slave labor. Wal-Mart also is facing two major sexual discrimination lawsuits. In California, current and former Wal-Mart employees have filed suit alleging company-wide gender discrimination in its practice of promotion, compensation and job assignments.

In August 2002, a federal judge in Atlanta granted class-action status to a lawsuit that contends Wal-Mart discriminates against women by denying health insurance coverage for birth control. According to the National Organization for Women, Wal-Mart reportedly saves about $5 million a month by denying contraceptive coverage to female employees.

Recently, an Arizona court ruled in favor of a woman who sued Wal-Mart after she had left the store to attend college and then was not rehired because she returned pregnant. A Kansas court rejected Wal-Mart's motion to dismiss a case filed by a woman who was denied a promotion because, according to her supervisor's testimony, "she was pregnant."

The Kentucky Human Rights Commission in June ordered Wal-Mart to pay $40,000 in back pay to an interracial couple fired by Wal-Mart for dating.

Wal-Mart also is involved in the West Coast dockworkers labor dispute. The Wall Street Journal reported in May that Wal-Mart - which receives nearly one-quarter of all the goods carried in containers unloaded at ports - leads a coalition of retailers urging West Coast shipping owners to demand concessions from the dockworkers.

Besides violating workers' rights, many activists claim Wal-Mart worsens urban sprawl, which destroys community environment and aggravates pollution. In Inglewood, Calif., at the urging of unions, environmentalists and community groups, the city council Oct. 28 passed a new ordinance that prevents Wal-Mart from building one of its super stores within the city limits.

Not only do Wal-Mart stores add to sprawl, the stores destroy the fabric of communities by displacing family-owned businesses, dispersing their customers and eliminating jobs, UFCW reports. For every two jobs Wal-Mart creates, the community loses three, the union says.

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