Wal-Mart is the 31st largest economy in the world. It has a higher GNP than Ireland or Venezuela. It is the largest private employer in the world.
Forty percent of Wal-Mart employees must turn to state funded (that means you and me) health insurance because Wal-Mart refuses to provide it for them. Wal-Mart has recently introduced a wage cap in order to encourage long-term employees to quit (instead of getting fired and then applying for unemployment) so that lower-paid workers can be hired to replace them. Wal-Mart requires a majority of it's employees to be part-time and on-call, available to work any shift at any time (and ineligible for benefits). Forget trying to plan for a babysitter. Forget trying to have a life. Any attempt at unionizing Wal-Mart workers so that they could negotiate a better situation for themselves is squashed by the company.
If you get a job at Wal-Mart you are expected to buy the $13 khaki pants that are required for your job. No discount is offered.
I can't ask people not to shop at Wal-Mart because the reality is that for many people, those most hurt by Walmart's wage and hiring practices, Wal-Mart is the only place they can afford to shop. It is the perfect exploitation machine. Wal-Mart keeps wages low so they can sell goods cheap. Other companies need to compete and so they do the same. The only jobs available become Wal-Mart jobs and so the market is flooded with low-wage people who can't afford to shop anywhere else but Wal-Mart. It is a self-perpetuating monster.
Meanwhile, the five members of the Walton family will receive $500 million dollars as a direct result of the Bush dividend tax cut. They are all billionaires who inherited their fortunes and so their families benefit to the tune of billions by the repeal of the inheritance tax.
And on and on.
I own Wal-Mart stock. I didn't choose to- it was just something that my stock broker bought on my behalf. I am going to ask him to sell it today. Please do the same.
2 comments:
In the unlikely event that you are open to anything positive about WalMart ... My church sheltered special-needs evacuees from New Orleans after Katrina, and my wife and I, with limited funds, were able to buy winter coats for a mother and her six children, thanks solely to the fact that WalMart had good products at affordable prices. I suppose you advocate for those six youngsters to just grit their teeth and do without. Pretty pathetic.
There is no doubt that Wal-Mart provides goods at a low price. The reality for many families is that Wal-Mart is the only place they can afford to shop. And in fact, the introduction of organic goods to Wal-Mart stores finally brings pesticide and pollutant free goods to classes of people who could never afford to shop at Whole Foods (or Whole Paycheck). However, as Martin Luther King said, when we come upon the begger on the road to Jericho it is not enough to give him a coin - we must ask ourselves why he is on this road begging and do what we can to stop it. Wal-Mart manages to provide a necessary service to the working poor while at the same time ensuring that they remain the working poor. This practice has to stop.
Wal-Mart, as the nations largets employer and retailer, has the power to make a difference. Witness what they are committing in terms of the environment. Recently they have introduced a five year plan to to help its suppliers shrink product packaging and, in turn, cut energy and waste costs by up to $3.4 billion.They have vowed to cut green-house gas emmissions 20% by 2012 (as per the Kyoto treaty that our government wouldn't sign), double the fuel efficency of their truck fleet within a decade, make all stores 30% more enrgy efficient, and cutting their solid waste production by 25% in the next three years. Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott claimes that the Wal-MArt empire will eventually run on 100% renewable fuels, create zero waste, and sell an increasing number of sustainable products.
If Wal-Mart could make the same commitment to reforming labor practices we would all be better off.
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