Wal-Mart’s Labor Problem
In some instances, the NLRB found that cameras have been installed in parking lots to keep an eye on employees who might organize to discuss potential union operations. Employees have also reported Wal-Mart officials trailing them around the store and spying on them in their homes. Management denies both of these practices.
Wal-Mart workers filed a lawsuit against the company in 2003 (Lupiani v. Wal-Mart Stores) that accuses the company of misleading workers with false statements about employees losing benefits provided by Wal-Mart if they became union-represented.
Recently, Wal-Mart headquarters warned managers and supervisors that should a Democrat take over in the fall, the administration would welcome a resurgence of the labor movement and, consequently, boost laws allowing for easier union membership. Although executives from the corporate headquarters insist that they were not telling employees how to cast their ballots this November, some employees aren’t buying it. One customer service supervisor from Missouri said, “I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote.”
Deplorable Health Insurance Coverage
Most of the employees that work for Wal-Mart cannot afford the employer-provided health insurance. Many employees qualify for Medicaid, welfare, and WIC because Wal-Mart fails to provide adequate wages. Employees report that managers encourage them to seek out government programs like Medicaid. Between 2000 and 2005, the cost of premiums for the health insurance Wal-Wart offers its workers rose 169 percent for single coverage and 117 percent for coverage that extended to an employee’s family. For family coverage, deductibles range from a low of $350 to a high of $3,000. All of this means that the average worker would have to pay one-fifth to one-third of his or her paycheck for healthcare coverage through Wal-Mart.
This reliance upon government funded programs shifts the burden of responsibility from the company to taxpayers. Recent reports show that Wal-Mart is at the top of the list of companies whose employees and/or their children rely on the state to foot the bill for healthcare. The following list illustrates how Wal-Mart has dropped the ball:
· Alabama: Wal-Mart employees with children on Medicaid cost the state between $5.8 million and $8.2 million.
· California: Employees rely on the state taxpayers for about $32 million annually in health-related services.
· Tennessee: Approximately 10,000 Wal-Mart employees are on the state’s expanded Medicaid program.
· Georgia: 10,262 children of Wal-Mart employees are enrolled in the state’s PeachCare program for health insurance in families meeting federal poverty criteria.
Discrimination
The biggest civil rights lawsuit in history comes at the behest of Wal-Mart, in a class action suit (Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) filed by 1.6 million current and past female employees. Wal-Mart Versus Women, a group dedicated to promoting gender equality in the corporation, says that, “Two-thirds of Wal-Mart’s hourly employees are women, but they hold only one-third of management slots and less than 15 percent of store management positions.” Corporate executives have been quoted saying that female employees are “not worth promoting” even though, on average, women have a lower turnover rate and receive higher performance reviews. When Wal-Mart employee Kathleen McDonald told her manager she was upset that her male coworkers made more money than she did and that she had not been given a promotion in her 15-year tenure, he promptly replied that, “God made Adam first, so women will always be second to men.”
Further Resources
– Wal-Mart Watch
– Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Worker’s Rights at Wal-Mart by Liza Featherstone
– Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price directed by Robert Greenwald
– The Case Against Wal-Mart by Al Norman
– The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works-and How It’s Transforming the American Economy by Charles Fishman
Aaron Ludensky is a former Editorial Intern at Campus Progress and a senior at University of Maryland-Baltimore County.
