LISSA’S: Wal-Mart Workers Say They Need a Fair Shake at the Workplace

Chances are, you know someone who works at Wal-Mart. Not only is Wal-Mart not a good neighbor, its corporate practices are less than friendly. In fact, millions of current and former Wal-Mart workers currently are seeking to win back their rights in court.

Current and former female Wal-Mart workers say the company has discriminated against them in pay and promotion policies because of their gender. In 2004, a U.S. District Court in San Francisco gave class-action status to their lawsuit against Wal-Mart, making it the largest class-action lawsuit in U.S. history representing 1.6 million women who have worked at Wal-Mart since 1998.

For the same job classification, women earn from 5 percent to 15 percent less than men, according to a February 2003 report by Richard Drogin, professor emeritus of Statistics at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2001, this equated to nearly 40 cents less per hour for hourly workers or nearly $5,000 less annually for female managers, according to Drogin.
Wal-Mart balks at paying even the poverty-level wages workers have earned: In April 2004, the California Supreme Court declined to block class certification in a lawsuit alleging Wal-Mart Stores Inc. required some 250,000 employees to work off the clock. Workers say managers required employees to finish their work before going home and that Wal-Mart understaffed stores to make off-the-clock work mandatory for all practical purposes.

In June 2003, a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge found Wal-Mart violated federal labor laws in 2000 by refusing to bargain over job changes it imposed on meat cutters in a Jacksonville, Texas, store after they voted for a voice at work with the United Food and Commercial Workers. After they sought to join a union, the skilled meat cutters were suddenly demoted to "sales associates" and all Wal-Mart stores eventually shifted to selling pre-cut meat.

When Wal-Mart interferes with its workers' freedom to form unions in order to keep wages and benefits down, it encourages other employers to follow suit. Such efforts have real and significant consequences. According to a report prepared for the city of Los Angeles, grocery chains cited "the labor polices of nonunion superstore retailers" as a factor in their demanding wage and benefit cuts from UFCW grocery workers who struck and were locked out in 2003 . And according to a 2002 report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, unionized workers in the retail food industry make more than 30 percent more in hourly wages than their nonunion counterparts.

Undocumented workers have been exploited at Wal-Mart. On Oct. 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states and arrested 245 nightshift janitors who were undocumented workers employed by cleaning contractors. In an Oct. 25, 2003, New York Times story, one undocumented janitor said he had worked every night except Christmas and New Year's Eve for 16 months and made approximately $6.25 an hour with no benefits. Following the October raids, nine Mexican immigrants who worked as janitors in New Jersey sued Wal-Mart alleging that it, as well as the contractors, failed to pay overtime, withhold taxes and make required workers' compensation contributions. No federal charges were filed against Wal-Mart, but the company agreed to pay $11 million to settle claims stemming from the federal investigation. The settlement, announced March 18, 2005, also calls for $4 million in criminal forfeitures by 12 firms the retail giant hired to provide janitorial services.

source: aflcio.org