Wal-Mart is Not Good, Patrick, Wal-Mart is Not Good!
November 21st, 2005 |
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Wal-mart is to the world community what air is to Spongebob.
I shopped at Wal-mart once in the last year. It was 2 in the morning and I had a hankering for an item that could only be found there at that late an hour (another x-box live account for a friend - halo rocks!) but I was still rather ashamed...
Yesterday afternoon, Fragilegirlfriend and I saw a grassroots screening of "Wal-mart: The High Price of Low Cost". It was fairly infuriating. Touched on were the following:
- The Obliteration of Mom and Pop Shops
Featured were companies that had been in business for nearly 50 years with treasured and well treated employees and real family and community values, forced to close within months of local Wal-mart openings.
- The Negative Impact on Local Property Value
As soon as a Wal-mart is opened, the property value in the area plummets. The reason: the sheer anticipation of the closures of all local shops causes banks and investors to devalue the area. The way they see it, plenty of space will soon be available soon enough.
- Ludicrous Anti-Union Measures
- Security cameras set up to monitor and deter union talk
- Withholding scheduled raises for all employees when unionization is suspected - this is explained by Wal-mart as not bribing those employees to vote against unionization.
- Anti-union propaganda in Wal-mart training videos
- Mass hiring before union votes - this ensures that even if the existing employees are ready to organize, the new hirees will be unready to commit to such an endeavor
- A private jet and anti-union response team to fly to any location at any time to prevent unionization or even union talk amongst employees - this sounds far-fetched, but I assure you, it exists.
- Disregard for Community Safety
Wal-mart's security cameras are for preventing unionization and theft only. The cameras in the lot have detected crimes that resulted in murder with no attempt to stop or report the occurrences. The stores have invested in studies and measures that have resulted in over 80% of the crime to be committed outside the Wal-mart store in the parking lots.
The solution found in the studies to reduce crime to 0% - put a security guard in the parking lot with a golf cart. Measures taken independently - none.
- Disregard for Environmental Safety
Poisons and toxins are often stored outside the store, open to the elements and leaking directly into the local communities water supplies. When notified of these occurrences, Wal-mart ignores the complaints until the media or the law is finally breathing down their neck. Even then, avoidance and misleading tactics are taken to solve the problem. See here how the Catawba Riverkeeper, Donna Lisenby struggled to deal with Wal-mart's pollution and unresponsive tactics.
- Wal-mart's Poor Healthcare
Less than half of Wal-mart employees are covered by Wal-mart's health plan. This is compared with average large companies employee coverage being almost 70%. - www.walmartfacts.com
Why? Simple... the employees who do qualify can't afford the healthcare Wal-Mart offers due to large deductables, copays, and additional fees for family members.
- Government Assistance Needed for Wal-mart Employees
As the healthcare programs are often unaffordable to the employees and the wages are on average below the poverty line, employees are left seeking government assistance.
- Discrimination Against Minorities and Women
Women not only earn less at Wal-mart, but are often passed over for management positions as well (ex: Women comprise 92% of Wal-mart's cashiers, but only 14% of Wal-mart's store managers). - Dukes vs. Wal-mart, walmartclass.com
Additionally, African-Americans are not proportionately employed by Wal-mart when compared with other industry standards (ex: 15% of truck drivers in America are black, while Africa-Americans comprise only 2-3% of Wal-mart's fleet of over 7,800 drivers). - New York Times, 7/14/05; 2005 Wal-Mart Annual Report
- Wal-mart Shortchanges Workers
The average pay for a Wal-mart sales associate is $14,000 a year - $1,000 below the poverty line for a family of three.
Wal-Mart reportedly paid $50 million to settle a lawsuit that involved 69,000 workers in CO who had allegedly been forced to work off the clock. In recent years, Wal-Mart has faced legal actions in over thirty states for overtime violations.
A former manager of over 15 years states that it was common practice for fellow managers to alter time sheets to avoid overtime pay, and that the behavior was a result of systematic pressures.
- Wal-Mart Fires Employees Who Report Mistreatment in International Factories
Workers in China can be forced to work 15 hours+ per day, and 7 days per week. When they are up for review the employees must hide these details or be fired or punished.
If this were the result of the factories simply covering up these facts, it would be one things, but this is another systemic problem with Wal-Mart.
The film interviews a Wal-mart employee responsible for traveling from factory to factory to review and report on conditions. He finds himself in tears on his first assignment at the miserable conditions the workers have been forced to endure. Sure that upon his submittal, the situation will be remedied, he informs the company of the problems. The reports are instead repeatedly ignored and the reviewer is "let go".
That's a lot of it anyway. Just one last one for comparison sake:
On average, Costco pays its workers 65% more than Wal-Mart, yet earns more profits per employee - New York Times, 5/3/05; Business Week, 4/12/04.
Long story short. Wal-Mart is evil, corrupt, and just plain lame. The least you can do is not shop there. But for information on being a little more pro-active, here are some links to get started:
www.walmartwatch.com - news postings, activist opportunities, blog, rss feed, and online hub for fighting the negative impact of Wal-mart.
www.wakeupwalmart.com - easy sign-up with your zip code to receive announcements of upcoming actions local to your area
www.walmartmovie.com - buy the film here, signup to host screenings, find screenings, read the blog, etc
Fight the good fight.
