------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the Nov. 28, 2002 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION NOV. 21: LABOR LAUNCHES WAL-MART ORGANIZING DRIVE By Mary Owen The union drive to organize Wal-Mart workers got a big boost on Nov. 21 at stores in all 50 states. Labor, community, civil rights, environmental and consumer activists held events to demand justice and a union for Wal-Mart workers and to expose the retail giant's anti-union practices. Wal-Mart, the country's largest retailer, just reported billions of dollars in third-quarter profits from its 3,300 stores in the U.S. and around the world. Those profits came from the unpaid labor of over 1 million Wal-Mart employees and millions of other workers who toil for slave wages in the sweatshop factories of Wal-Mart suppliers. Most Wal-Mart workers in the U.S. are paid less than $9 an hour, or $18,000 per year. Out of that, they have to pay thousands of dollars for insurance coverage. Not one of those workers is in a union. The Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), with labor and community support, is organizing to change that. "It's essential that the biggest company in the world treat its employees decently, with decent wages and benefits," Bill Meyer, director of the union drive in Nevada, told the New York Times (Nov. 8). "It's going to be a struggle. It's not going to be overnight." Many Wal-Mart and affiliated Sam's Club discount stores are in rural areas with no union traditions and few other job opportunities. This corporate outlaw has a history of anti- union actions--such as illegal firings of pro-union workers-- aimed at intimidating workers and hampering organizing. The one time that Wal-Mart workers successfully organized-- in 2000 in the meat department of a Jacksonville, Tex., store--the company phased out the butchers two weeks later and announced it would use prepackaged meat at that store and 179 others. But with the union's help, Wal-Mart workers have fought back in the courts and on the ground. The National Labor Relations Board has issued 40 complaints against Wal-Mart in 25 states for labor law violations. The union says most cases occurred at the 90 stores where organizing has been most active. In June, the Kentucky Human Rights Commission ordered Wal- Mart to pay $40,000 in back pay to an interracial couple the company fired for dating. And just last week, Alaska Wal- Mart worker Ken Stanhope was reinstated in his job with full back pay after an NLRB judge ruled that Wal-Mart "eviscerated" his rights. Wal-Mart fired him from its Wasilla store over a conversation with a coworker about joining the union. A similar case is pending in Boone, N.C. Nearly 24 additional cases are awaiting adjudication. They include two sexual discrimination lawsuits against Wal-Mart. One is a federal class action involving discrimination against women--Wal-Mart denies women health insurance coverage for birth control. The National Organization for Women says Wal-Mart saves about $5 million by denying contraceptive coverage to its female workers. The other is a California case charging Wal-Mart with gender bias in promotion, compensation and job assignment. On the National Day of Action at Wal-Mart, Wal-Mart workers and the UFCW took an important step by reaching out to community residents and shoppers for support. The actions, supported by the national AFL-CIO, were part of a broader campaign to bring popular pressure on Wal-Mart, to expose the dirty deeds of the giant discount conglomerate and to urge justice for Wal-Mart workers. For more information on this campaign, go to the community action site at www.walmartwatch.org or to the Wal-Mart workers' site, www.walmartyrs.org. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe [EMAIL PROTECTED] Support the voice of resistance http://www.workers.org/orders/donate.php) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. To subscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, E-mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Send administrative queries to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
