The Wal-Mart Watch Blog
Wages

| Jan 21, 2010

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How often have you thought, “hey, I’d really like to keep up with Walmart news, see what folks are doing to change Walmart, and help spread the word about Walmart’s negative impact on worker’s rights and communities”? Well you’re in luck because we’ve joined forces with Wake Up Walmart, and we’re on Facebook and Twitter, and we want to connect with you! So take a minute to click on these links and become a fan of WakeUpWalmart.com on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

Once you’re connected with us, we’ll tell you all about what we’re doing, we’ll keep you up to date on the latest Walmart news, and, more importantly, you can let us know what you think!

| Dec 04, 2009

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Wal-Mart workers in Massachusetts are getting a ‘Christmas Bonus’ from their employer---but it’s actually money they rightly earned at work, but were never paid.

The world’s largest retailer has had its legal department working overtime this past year settling a stack of class action lawsuits over wage and hour issues brought by its current and former “associates.” But unlike Wal-Mart lawyers—who get paid for every hour they work---the lowly hourly worker at Wal-Mart often is not fully paid for ‘off the clock’ work, rest breaks, and meal breaks.

Last year at Christmas, Wal-Mart released a staggering list of 63 separate wage and hour lawsuits that had been settled by the company, at cost ranging from $352 million to $640 million, depending on various trial court approvals. One month later, in January of 2009, Wal-Mart announced another $54 million settlement in a case from Minnesota, followed later by a $172 million settlement in California.

In settling these cases, Wal-Mart tried to distance itself from its own past labor transgressions that led to all these class action lawsuits. Typical was Wal-Mart’s disclaimer after the Minnesota case: “This lawsuit was filed years ago and the allegations are not representative of the company we are today.” Wal-Mart went on the assert that “Our policy is to pay associates for every hour worked and to make rest and meal breaks available.” Yet the lawsuits kept coming.

This week, 87,000 current and former Wal-Mart workers were covered by the Massachusetts settlement. This agreement itself was a nail-biter, coming only days before the lawsuit was ready to begin trial in state court in Woburn, Massachusetts. The court was notified on November 29th that a settlement was being filed. The Baystate lawsuit charged that Wal-Mart forced its hourly workers to work off the clock, and denied them required short breaks. A lawyer for the workers explained to the media that the class of Wal-Mart workers covered in the settlement could get as much as $2,500 in earned pay and benefits, or as little as $400. How much a worker gets will be based on their number of years on the job.

One lawyer for the workers—in a tongue-in-cheek description---labeled this $40 million payment as a “mini-stimulus” package, as if Wal-Mart were imitating the Federal Government. When the workers finally get their money---after waiting 8 years since this case was originally filed---they will spend it in the local economy.

What you can do: As in past cases, Wal-Mart used the same weak defense of its actions. “Resolving these lawsuits is in the best interest of our company, shareholders and associates,” a Wal-Mart spokesman said. “These cases were filed years ago and the allegations are not representative of the company we are today.” The workers and their legal representatives were originally insisting on a settlement worth $50 million. But Wal-Mart balked at that figure, and the lead plaintiffs in the case, Elaine Polion and Crystal Salvas objected to the original Wal-Mart settlement, saying that only $20 million would actually be paid out by Wal-Mart---and a good portion of that would go to the lawyers. Polion and Salvas also charged that Wal-Mart had reached an agreement with lawyers who weren’t the plaintiff’s primary representatives.

In the end, the settlement was set at $40 million—and all of that money will get disbursed. As much as $15 million off the top could go to the attorneys in the case. “This settlement obligates Wal-Mart to pay a full $40 million, with no amounts reverting back to them in the event of unclaimed funds or otherwise,” said attorney Philip Gordon, one of the lawyers representing the workers. As in past wage and hour cases, Wal-Mart agreed to put in place better systems for recording worker’s hours, including a system that denies workers access to cash registers if they are not clocked in for work. The workers will also be able to phone a ‘hotline’ to anonymously blow the whistle on the company if rest breaks or meal breaks are skipped, or off the clock work takes place.

The total Wal-Mart settlements to date in these wage and hour cases has been estimated at just shy of $1 billion. By not paying its workers what they have rightfully earned, Wal-Mart helped its stockholders and Board of Directors to save money and live better. It also helped Wal-Mart to keep the prices of its cheap underwear low. But because of these settlements, Wal-Mart workers will live a little better-—if only for a few months until their back pay is gone.

Readers are urged to contact Wal-Mart media relations at 1-800-331-0085 with the following message: “Congratulations on settling another wage and hour lawsuit in Massachusetts. This is such a lovely Christmas present to your workers in the Baystate---knowing that after 8 years of litigation you have finally agreed to pay them for every hour worked. Now that you are prepared to pay their arrears, how about raising their wages for 2010, and giving them a health plan that has real value and is affordable?”

| Dec 04, 2009

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Continuing the series of settlements Walmart is making in class action lawsuits across the country, Walmart agreed to pay workers in Massachusetts $40 million for forcing employees to work off the clock, and skip lunch and other breaks. The settlement covers as many as 87,500 of its current and former workers. According to the Boston Globe story, the employees will get “between $400 and $2,500 depending on number of years worked, with the average worker receiving a check for $734.”

While this is, actually, a rather large sum for each employee, it is unlikely that it will cover the full extent of the back pay for many of the workers. The $40 million also doesn’t include any fines or compensation for Walmart systematically breaking the law.

It is truly unfortunate that Walmart gets away with breaking the law like this and suffering very few consequences. Walmart make around $13 billion in profits every year, so $40 million is just a drop in the ocean.

You can read the full article here.

| Dec 01, 2009

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Walmart’s treatment of workers, both in the United States, and abroad, is a major issue that needs serious attention and change. In the case of workers in the US, it seems that Walmart deliberately squeezes every dime out of their workers. Overseas, it seems like workers are mistreated more as a symptom of a destructive business model.

A new report from China Labor Watch reveals labor abuses in Walmart’s Chinese factories, a failure of Walmart’s auditing system, and, ultimately, how Walmart’s demand for the cheapest goods leads other companies to follow in its footsteps, creating a race to the bottom. Here’s how it works:

“Wal-Mart pricing is too low. As the world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart leverages its huge orders to convince factories to sell goods at low prices that are not sustainable. This puts pressure on other brands to pay less, thereby setting a dangerous industry precedent. In conversations with CLW, both factories and other brands frequently cite Wal-Mart’s pricing structure as a major source of financial pressure.”

Walmart likes to brag about how much money it saves people, even if they don’t shop at Walmart. Their argument is that by having the lowest prices, other companies are forced to compete and lower their prices as well. The same properties are at work with sweatshop labor. Walmart is a trend setter in the industry because of its size. It is important to remember that Walmart’s low prices come at a cost.

The ultimate message in China Labor Watch’s report is that Walmart needs to focus on real change, and not on image, a message we’ve been preaching for years now. The real problem, says the report is that, “corporate codes of conduct and factory auditing alone are not enough to strengthen workers’ rights if corporations are unwilling to pay the production costs associated with such codes.”

You can read the full China Labor Watch report here (pdf).

| Oct 21, 2009

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Check out this article from the Hunterdon County Democrat about a Walmart rally planned for today. We’ll try to get some pictures up later in the day!

A demonstration is planned for today at the new Walmart here, with some 300 to 400 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 1262 expected to hold what it calls a “consumer education rally” outside the store.

The local represents some 30,000 food service workers, mostly in supermarkets, in the northern half of New Jersey. The demonstrators gathered at a hotel in Woodbridge yesterday morning and would board seven or eight buses to come here, said Cyndi Spill, local communications director.

The rally was planned “to make the public aware of Walmart business practices, as far as not providing health care to their employees” and paying low wages. She said that in the union’s view the health insurance takes a long time to quality for and its cost puts it “out of reach for most workers” at Walmart.

Also, in the union’s opinion “they do not pay what we call a fair, living wage, something that you can raise your family on.” The rally was to “educate the public on Walmart’s impact on and cost to the local community,” she said.
While the union internationally has an initiative to try to unionize Walmart, Spill said “we’re not as a local to try to organize this location.”

Raritan Township police said they were aware of the demonstration.

| Oct 14, 2009

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Current and former Walmart workers in Iowa are the most recent to be a party to a major class action settlement with Walmart. The $11 million settlement is in response to Walmart illegally forcing employees to work through breaks or work off the clock. This particular settlement is part of a larger agreement Walmart made back in December to settle 63 wage and hour cases across the country.

Of course the settlement is far from satisfactory. First because Walmart admitted no wrong doing, even though they clearly systematically abused their workers. Second, with 97,000 workers sharing the $11 million settlement, that works out to a little over $100 a person. I would bet that that doesn’t even cover the wages they cheated workers out of.

Read the full story from the AP here.

| Oct 13, 2009

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MSN.com has a cover story about Walmart today. Actually, they have two. In a point/counterpoint style called Perspectives on Walmart, MSN is running one story called “Why you should love Walmart” and one called “Why you should hate Walmart”. They are both interesting reads, but we find the latter far more convincing. Take for example this section in the article:

“It’s troubling that Wal-Mart goes to such lengths to shine its image instead of simply avoiding the practices that tarnished it in the first place. In a desperate attempt to keep its costs down, Wal-Mart—which clocked in as the 14th-most-profitable company in the world last year, as measured by Fortune—has established corporate policy that calls for stepping on virtually everyone it’s involved with.
In a 2005 memo (.pdf file) to the Wal-Mart board of directors, a human-resources executive outlined myriad ways to save money on benefits, including ways to hire healthier people and requiring physical activity for all associates. She even raised the problem that comes with employees who are happy enough to stay at Wal-Mart for longer than the company would like:

“(T)he cost of an Associate with seven years of tenure is almost 55% more than the cost of an Associate with one year of tenure, yet there is no difference in his or her productivity,” she wrote. “Moreover, because we pay an Associate more in salary and benefits as his or her tenure increases, we are pricing that Associate out of the labor market, increasing the likelihood that he or she will stay with Wal-Mart.”

The horror! If we treat our people well, they might actually want to stay. This kind of thinking by a senior human resources executive at one of the world’s biggest companies is simply unconscionable. Over the years, there have been too many examples of this kind of pervasive thinking among Wal-Mart’s top ranks.

When you have to hire an army of people to help improve your image, you’ve probably been doing some things wrong. That’s a lesson Wal-Mart seems incapable of learning.”

The counter argument, on the other hand, is based on company touted lines about saving Americans money and a rather terse explanation that Walmart is big and is slow to change, but it can change, but it’s great because it’s still running on the same strategy that it used to. Most importantly, it hardly convinces us of its thesis, which seems to be to prove that this vision of Walmart is wrong:

“The goods Wal-Mart sells aren’t hip enough for self-styled trendsetters on the U.S. coasts. To those who would never deign to set foot in a Wal-Mart, the chain’s labor practices are widely regarded as only slightly more civil than a slave galley. The retail giant is belittled for driving mom-and-pop shops out of business and bullying vendors into cutting profits to the bone.”

| Oct 05, 2009

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Walmart has a rather seedy past when it comes to gender discrimination. The company has been sued by women who were systematically denied equal wages and promotional opportunities because of their gender. Their law suit is the largest class action case in the country and includes more than 1.6 million women. Imagine having to sue a company just to be treated fairly.

This is, of course, not the only example of gender discrimination at Walmart. Today, according to the Associated Press, “The highest court in Massachusetts has upheld a $2 million jury award to a former pharmacist at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. who claimed she was fired by the retail chain after asking to be paid the same as her male colleagues.” The plaintiff in the case, Cynthia Haddad, had worked at the Walmart store for ten years, and was not only discriminated against, but also fired for simply asking to be treated the same as everyone else. Imagine how hurtful it would be to find out that your employer was not paying you the same as your coworkers simply because of your gender. Now imagine that when you went to talk to your manager to fix the situation, they fired you. Talk about adding insult to injury. 

| Oct 02, 2009

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From our allies over at Wake Up Walmart:

If you are an Ohio taxpayer, you’re probably footing the bill for Walmart’s unaffordable health care plans.

Newly released data shows that Ohio spends roughly $68.5 million each year providing state benefits to Walmart employees. The numbers are staggering. Over 15,000 Walmart employees use Medicaid, 12,000 are on food stamps, and thousands more utilize other state-run programs.

Worst of all, it’s paid for out of Ohio taxpayers’ pockets.

Walmart doesn’t need your money to support its employees. With nearly $14 billion in profits last year, Bentonville can clearly afford to do better.

We can’t allow Walmart to fail its employees and your state. Please take action: inform your local newspaper about Walmart’s exploitation of Ohio’s health and welfare programs.

Write Your Newspaper: Let Your Community Know That Walmart is Failing Ohio

Walmart claims to support health care reform and the employer mandate. Yet, In spite of astronomical profits, Walmart fails to cover 700,000 of its employees and offers plans too costly for its average employees to afford.

Walmart claims that nearly 95% of its employees are covered by company health care or by a family member. Yet, in Ohio, 28% of Walmart’s Ohio employees are on Medicaid.

Walmart’s claims simply don’t add up, and your state needs to know about it.

Why is Ohio subsidizing the #1 company in the Fortune 500? Let Ohio know that you won’t allow your tax dollars to be a stopgap for Walmart’s low wages and unaffordable health coverage.

Write a Letter to the Editor Today

With your help, we can make Walmart live up to its responsibilities to its workers and to Ohio.

The Team,
WakeUpWalMart.com

| Jun 26, 2009

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So were back to this? And we thought worker intimidation was soooooooo last year.

In 2007, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing Wal-Mart’s unionbusting policies and practices in the United States. According to the report, “while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus.”

That aggressiveness is back in the news, courtesy of a unionizing push in St. Paul, Minnesota:

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 filed unfair labor practices complaints this week with the National Labor Relations Board. The union contends that during meetings with employees at its Midway store in St. Paul, Wal-Mart managers said people who sign union authorization cards would be fired. The union also charges that store managers interrogated employees regarding their union support and whether they had signed cards in favor of the union.

Of course this shouldn’t be very surprising, though it does seem pretty interesting that management staff came right out and told people that they’d no longer be a Wal-Mart employee if they supported unionization. You’d think they would hew closer to the Godfather-esque, vague threat route - we can’t be held responsible if, say, a supporter “had an accident” type thing. They should know that threatening workers’ employment status is illegal, right? Or do they just not care? One thing we do know is that they’ve certainly had problems with labor issues in Minnesota before.

Anyway, we’re attempting to get a copy of the NLRB complaint. In the meantime, feel free to check out video of the Local 789 worker rally after the jump.

Read the rest of this story ...

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