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In the last week, the blog Chicagoist has written what is one of the most in-depth looks at what it means for Americans to work at Walmart we’ve seen in the media this year.

In a three-part series, Chicagoist journalist Kevin Robinson, interviewed three current and former Walmart employees about what it is like for them to work for the world’s largest private employer and took a look at the labor practices that Walmart uses to create massive profits while at the same time depressing wages throughout entire industries.

That the Chicagoist is taking a look at Walmart is especially, well, appropriate.  The Good Jobs Chicago coalition has been working for years make sure that if a Walmart is built in the South Side community of Englewood it will provide good jobs with living wages. 

And we mean years. 

If you live in Chicago (and I would imagine most regular Chicagoist readers do) you’ve been hearing about this proposed Walmart store for some time.  A big-box wage ordinance that was aimed at the retailer was passed by the City Council and was then vetoed by Mayor Daley, his only veto to date (and he’s been in office for two decades).  In 2007, a coalition of activists, unions, and community organizers pushed back against Daley, not supporting him for reelection, and helping to elect a number of pro-labor alderman.  Now activists are looking to push a living wage ordinance that would require any company with 50 or more workers to pay the wage of at least $11.03 per hour if the company benefits from a city subsidy. 

So Walmart might have been in the news a few times.

Part One of the Chicagoist series introduces the three associates, all working at Chicagoland area Walmart stores, how tough management can be as taskmasters, safety concerns (two of whom have suffered injuries on the job), and how Walmart’s push for low prices extends into how they pay their employees.

The second part addresses wage concerns and one of the scams that Walmart uses to increase profits.  The scam?  Pushing employee wages so low that many employees qualify for food stamps and public assistance.  Specifically, the piece looks at how Walmart employees make such low wages that they are eligible for food stamps, which they then spend at Walmart to great advantage by the company.

Part Three examines Walmart’s labor practices, something near to our hearts here at Wake Up Walmart.  That Walmart has one of the most aggressive anti-union practices in the world should come as no surprise, and Robinson includes some very interesting information about how those practices directly impact associates.

So if you have a few minutes, head over and read the articles.  It is a very good introduction to how Walmart operates nationwide and provides good insight for anyone who might be hearing about a Walmart attempting to move into their town, or for Walmart associates to know that they are not alone when it comes to the kind of poor working conditions and employee treatment that occurs in Walmart stores everywhere.

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Bloomberg is reporting today that Wal-Mart and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are among those opposing legislation that would allow the U.S. to cut off duty-free imports from factories in Pakistan and Afghanistan, if they fail to adhere to international labor standards on matters such as prohibiting forced labor and child labor. The bill, titled the Afghanistan-Pakistan Security and Prosperity Enhancement Act, is meant to help strengthen democracy in the two countries by creating “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones” and increasing their ability to export goods to the U.S. - and in return, it only requires that the countries make sure their factories are providing adequate working conditions.

Wal-Mart, however, is among those arguing that such labor restrictions would reduce any beneficial effect the legislation might otherwise have - and besides, if factories in Pakistan can’t export products to the U.S. because of labor and human rights abuses, Wal-Mart can’t then turn around and sell those products at their everyday low prices, right?

“Pakistan doesn’t have a good record in terms of child labor and the employment of women,” [Susan Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University in Washington who has written on trade and human rights] said. “This ensures the rule of law will be followed.”

The House bill states that each country “shall continue to receive duty-free treatment under this Act only if the President determines and certifies to Congress that Afghanistan or Pakistan, as the case may be has implemented the requirements set forth” - said requirements including insuring the following:

(A) compliance with core labor standards; and
(B) compliance with the labor laws of Afghanistan or Pakistan, as the case may be, that relate directly to core labor standards and to ensuring acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational health and safety.

We’ve already documented Wal-Mart’s sourcing issues in other international locales, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that they would oppose such regulations here. Links to summaries of both the House version of the bill (with labor requirements) and the Senate version can be found after the jump.

Obama’s Bid to Boost Exports From Pakistan Hits Snag Over Labor [Bloomberg]

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Each week, our speak out website continues to be resource for employees around the country. The daily stories, commentary, and input from these people provides inspiration for other employees to discuss the company’s unfair policies.

This week, we received numerous heart wrenching, outrageous, and shameful stories that will surely make your blood boil. This week’s stories include discrimination, the move to part-time status, overworked associates, and the bogus claim that Wal-Mart is helping communities.

Our first story comes to us from an anonymous worker in Texas who witnessed discrimination against a disabled associate…

I work for a Wal-Mart store in Texas. I was made aware of a situation involving a mildly mentally disabled worker and a new district manager with a reported ‘zero tolerance’ towards disabled employees. This particular disabled employee has been a loyal and hard-working asset to our store for many years now. One day I realized that I had not seen this employee for a couple of weeks and asked around the store to see if anyone knew where he was. I was told by multiple store employees that he had been forced to leave his daytime shift and go overnights by the new district manager because he was not ‘the face’ that he wanted to represent Wal-Mart. This particular disabled employee was given no reason or choice in regard to this decision. Needless to say, he was extremely disturbed by this course of action.

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Today, Wal-Mart Watch is launching a new web page - “Wal-Mart’s Urban Problem” - which looks at the company’s attempts to get back in to New York, Chicago and L.A. Over the next few weeks we’re going to make sure to keep you as informed as possible on this issue, and give our readers every opportunity to take action to stop it.

If you’ve been reading the blog, it’s no secret to you. For years, Wal-Mart has tried and failed to build stores in America’s biggest cities.

Why they want to build in cities like New York, Chicago and L.A. is no secret either. Wal-Mart has expanded to nearly every corner of the country, and America’s untapped urban cities represent the last real avenue for growth - and perhaps the greatest challenge that the company still faces.

In an April 2006 speech in Chicago, Lee Scott declared that his company wanted to be an “urban pioneer” and that Wal-Mart “has never been afraid to invest in communities that are overlooked by other retailers.”

Unfortunately for Lee Scott, it didn’t come true. Wal-Mart was notably shut out of Chicago after refusing to pay higher wages, but also has continued to be stonewalled in New York City and central Los Angeles - as well as Detroit, Washington, DC, and Boston.

Lee Scott was so frustrated with the failures that he famously went to New York City and said “I don’t care if we are ever here...I don’t think it’s worth the effort.”

But now that the economy has turned down, Wal-Mart smells a weakness and wants another shot. Wal-Mart has negotiations underway for a store in the Florence-Firestone neighborhood of central L.A., is eying up to 5 stores in Chicago, and is rumored to be considering several locations in New York City.

Unfortunately for Wal-Mart, the company hasn’t changed – only the economy has.

We’re confident that Americans won’t be fooled into believing that Wal-Mart has changed its low-wage, low-benefit business model. Without any assurance that Wal-Mart will be a responsible company, letting Wal-Mart build in America’s biggest cities would be a major mistake.

A Case For Employee Free Choice

The only thing on the table that would assure Wal-Mart respect New York workers is the Employee Free Choice Act. EFCA is a bill that would finally allow Wal-Mart workers to freedom they deserve to join a union – without harassment or intimidation from their managers. 

If you live in or around New York, Chicago or Los Angeles, send an email to your city council and let them know how you feel (by clicking the aforementioned links.) Your city council members can’t pass EFCA themselves, but they can send a strong message to Wal-Mart and to Congress that they won’t even discuss a potential Wal-Mart plan until the Employee Free Choice Act is passed. 

Our big cities are special places - let’s make sure they stay that way.

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Much is made of Wal-Mart’s presence in China - from the fact that many of its products are sourced there to the realization that the growing power remains a prime target for Wal-Mart’s expansion.

Harold Meyerson, in his Washington Post column marking the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, poses that it has been American capitalism - chiefly the Wal-Marts of the world - that has spurred the growth of China into a rising superpower:

The transfer of manufacturing from the United States to China—driven by the rise of mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart that have been able to enforce a regime of low wages all along their global supply chains—has diminished our middle class and expanded theirs.

In fact, Meyerson points out it was American businesses and their representative groups (here’s looking at you, U.S. Chamber of Commerce) that opposed legislation in China aimed at strengthening worker rights. The goal was to improve working conditions and arrest the practice of withholding wages and forcing employees into working insanely long hours, but American business interests succeeded in pushing amendments to “make it more acceptable to foreign firms” - a fancy way of saying weakening the effect the bill would actually have on workers and the businesses that depend on keeping costs down. No wonder they’re such close buddies nowadays.

You can read the whole column, but Meyerson unleashes his most venomous critique in his closing:

Wal-Mart, which used to lock its night-shift stock clerks and janitors inside a number of its stores until the morning managers arrived, prefers production in Guangdong to manufacturing in the Midwest. Indeed, the director of purchasing for Wal-Mart is based in China.

As historian Nelson Lichtenstein and others have documented, Wal-Mart inspires in its managers an almost fanatical allegiance to the company’s cause. In Wal-Mart world, the provincialism (if not “idiocy") of rural life is fused with a brilliance in the art of low-cost, low-wage logistics to create a company that is both authoritarian in its inner workings and a friend of authoritarian regimes abroad. The butchers of Beijing could not have found any more compatible capitalists.

Beijing’s Favorite Capitalists [Washington Post]

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“Underpaid, disempowered Wal-Mart employees have a tough time staying chipper these days — and they pass along their misery to the company’s customers.”

So begins the entry for Wal-Mart in Business Management Daily’s list of the five worst companies for customer service. In compiling its list BMD interviewed several sources, including Service Quality Institute president John Tschohl and David VanAmburg, managing director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index. The worst offenders, in order:

1. Bank of America; 2. Comcast; 3. ebay; 4. Wal-Mart; 5. U.S. Airways

So where exactly does Wal-mart come up short?

“Wal-Mart built its business on customer service, but they’re in the sink now,” Tschohl contends. “The stores are ugly, and they attract the people with the least amount of money who are willing to put up with bad service.” Adds David VanAmburg, managing director of the American Customer Satisfaction Index: “They are at the top of our list when it comes to value, but near the bottom when it comes to service.”

The key, of course, is that you would think this problem would have an easy solution. Treating your employees better through better wages, better/more affordable health benefits, consistent scheduling, ending discriminatory practices and pay theft...well, you get the picture...would all lead to a more content work staff. And what happens when you have happy employees? That’s right, happy customers.

“It’s a matter of treating your employees better than anybody else does and offering world-class customer service,” explains a manager of a Les Schwab Store in Concord, Calif. “That is what keeps your business growing.”

That will be something for Wal-Mart to keep in mind as the economy slowly rebounds. As more people return to their previous shopping habits - and more importantly, their previous shopping locals - Wal-Mart could see its sales figures returning to the flat numbers from pre-recession days. Is it really THAT hard to show your employees a little love??

Failing grades: The 5 worst companies for customer service [Business Management Daily]

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To the right is Millswood eighth-grader Samantha Titus. She lives in California, and this week she had the chance to flex her arguing muscles in a debate competition at the Lodi Boys and Girls Club. The topic? If you guessed Wal-Mart - and this IS the Wal-Mart Watch blog - then commence patting yourself on the back.

Titus was one of about 25 middle school students to participate in the debate tackling whether the city of Lodi needs a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter - a battle that has frequently found its way onto our Battlemart Blog, as you can here, here, here and here.

Personally, I think this is a great story, and not just because those students arguing against the development so TOTALLY kicked butt. (Actually, all sides gave well-presented arguments, with those for offering job creation and convenience while opponents pointed out negative environmental impacts, poor wages and the effect on local business.) The real winners were all the students involved, who learned how to research an issue in depth while picking up a little thing called self confidence in the process:

Jeisen Elemen has noticed that the team of three boys and two girls that he coaches are less nervous with public speaking..."They were very quiet,” Elemen said. “Now, they are coming up and speaking out in front of a live audience,” he said.

And how did the students feel about the experience? Take us home, Samantha Titus:

“We’re teenagers. We like to fight with people,” said Titus. “We fight with our parents, so we should use our ability to debate.”

Local students debate Wal-Mart issue [Lodi News-Sentinel]

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This week we’ve continued to hear from workers who are frustrated with their jobs at Wal-Mart. As always, we are amazed by the sheer quantity and variety that we get on a day-to-day basis. Regardless of what the mainstream media and Wal-Mart spokesmen say about the company, you can always come to this website to hear the real stories from the workers who write us.

The following comments - both from employees and non-employees - address expensive health care, wages, unions, food donations, doctor’s notes, and the lack of air conditioning—it was enough to make two workers quit this week.

A.M. from Indiana writes to us about wage discrimination and expensive health care:

In our store you only have a chance at a promotion if you kiss up to the managers. Moreover, the variance in the pay rates for the same job codes ranges about three dollars. Tell me how this is fair! Not to mention the health care issues, how can I afford daily meds for a chronic condition when my premiums are so high and my pay is so low? When I get to the pharmacy, I find that 80 percent of my prescriptions are not covered.

An anonymous worker from Pennsylvania describes an uncomfortable anti-union meeting:

I am disgusted with myself and the way in which my life has turned out since I have been employed with Wal-Mart for five years. I recently became a salaried manager because I needed the money. After four years at Wal-Mart, I had not yet worked my way up to what I had made at my previous job - a fast food franchise. You must understand, I never wanted to work for this company, but the truth is that when you are poor, you have no skills, and you have no college education, it is difficult to find a job that pays well. I expected to be poorly paid for a while. However, I had high expectation for myself and expected to move quickly through the management ranks.

Before starting with the company, I had read lots of anti-Wal-mart propaganda. I knew there were a ridiculously small number of women managers compared to males - especially when I factoring in how many more women work at Wal-Mart. I expected those challenges and I embraced them. Unfortunately, I overcame them without ever doing anything to ensure that no other deserving woman would be held back.

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A group of Rabbis have jumped into the deep end of the EFCA fight by writing Senator Specter a letter in support of the controversial legislation which Wal-Mart also strongly opposes. The Rabbis clearly come down on the side of workers’ rights here. They point to a Talmudic ‘sanctity of labor’ that Wal-Mart, by neglecting its workers’ wages and benefits, has blatantly disrespected.

The Rabbis make an argument similar to what we at Wal-Mart Watch and others have been saying: it’s time to provide workers a level playing field, or as the Rabbis put it, ‘balance the scales of justice.’ Casting Specter’s opposition, and thereby Wal-Mart’s in religious terms, the Rabbis wrote:

“Every major religion is sympathetic to the laborer. Judaism was early among the major religions in its assertion that labor involved more than mere economic activity. The commandment to observe the Sabbath was as much an affirmation of human dignity as of divine authority. “Six days shalt thou labor and do all thy work.” But the seventh day was to be holy - holy in the eyes of God, but equally important - holy in its respect for all who work. As it is written in Deuteronomy: “You shall not abuse a needy and destitute laborer, but you must pay him his wages on the same day, for he is needy and urgently depends on it.” It is not always easy to translate the sanctity of labor into terms that have meaning today, a time in which the marketplace seems to have been elevated above all other holy altars. We believe that the Employee Free Choice Act presents an opportunity to give concrete meaning to the often frustrated dream of a just society.” [Huffington Post]

This isn’t the first time that Wal-Mart’s values have been challenged by religious authorities. Some have gone so far as to call Wal-Mart’s treatment of labor immoral. We certainly think it is. And 75 Wal-Mart Workers who came to DC last week agreed, including Eugene Robinson who made an impassioned plea for better treatment from his employer. Watch the video here.

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following comments include a retail industry veteran telling it like it is, the experiences of a disabled employee, the departure from Sam Walton era values, and a dream job gone wrong.

A former employee from New York writes to us anonymously to say that Wal-Mart is one of the worst jobs out there:

“I’m 62 years old with 18 years of produce experience and over 30 years experience in retail. I wanted a part-time job to help pay for the extras my wife and I love. I took a job at hell-mart. In all my years of working in retail, I have never witnessed a company as heartless as Wal-Mart.

The pay is a joke; I was told my starting pay is based on my experience (LOL). I make $8.30 an hour. I was told I would be part-time...24 hours a week. They have no one in the produce department who knows what they are doing so they work me two weeks at 40 hours and then one week of 32 hours. This way they don’t have to make me full time and won’t have to pay for benefits.

When I complain about the number of hours I’m working, they tell me how lucky I am to be working at Wal-Mart. The hours are a joke. Every week is different. You never get the same hours from week to week. It’s impossible to plan anything.

God help you if you get sick. You better come in and work no mater how you feel. If you take a sick day five times in any six-month period, they coach you. This is when they take you behind closed doors and read you the riot act. If you are sick one more day after that, you are fired - for any reason they want. I have seen some very sick people come into work - so sick, they could hardly stand up. Wal-Mart doesn’t care. If they ask to go home, they are told it will count against them if they do. I was told even if your doctor puts you off from work you still have a count against you. There is absolutely no excuse for being sick.

There is a God and I just pray one day that the Walton family pays for the way they treat the people who make them rich. I have only been there for 7 months and I could tell you things you wouldn’t believe, it is unreal the way they treat the employees.”

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It’s time for the latest addition of Wal-Mart Watch’s speak out round up. As workers continue to write to us about their experiences with Wal-Mart, we’ll make sure to highlight some of the best submissions of the week. The following employee comments address layoffs, disrespect for loading dock workers, the plight of seasonal Wal-Mart employees, and inadequate bonuses. 

The wife of a former Wal-Mart worker from Arkansas write to us about the questionable layoffs at the company’s home office:

“I am writing about the 700-800 layoffs that Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club did back in February 2009. I am infuriated with the way the company – who just happened to post record profits this past year – says that economic turmoil forced them to cut jobs. As the wife of one of these employees, I can honestly say that these last 10 weeks have been painful. To see your husband, who worked with the company for over 13 years, struggle to find a job to support his family of seven has been very difficult. I would like to know why Wal-Mart is posting openings at its corporate offices just weeks after the layoffs. Was this their way of getting cheaper people? Why couldn’t they help with job placement for the displaced workers? Now it seems like Wal-Mart is only looking out for the pay of executives and the Walton Family. Sam Walton’s family company has turned to evil greed, and I am sure that he is rolling in his grave...This company needs to be stopped. Why won’t the government penalize companies that post record sales, and then lay off so many dedicated employees? Wal-Mart is only hurting families so that higher up people can collect more compensation. Please help stop WAL-MART!!!”

A Wal-Mart worker from Pennsylvania writes to us anonymously about life on a Wal-Mart loading dock:

“I work unloading trucks at my store, and we are definitely at the bottom of the barrel.  We are severely understaffed, and find ourselves - at least once a week - unloading a large truck with just a few people. Normally, it would take six people a few hours to unload this truck.  We are harassed by managers saying it should be done faster and blatantly insulted by overnight stock employees who do half the work we do and get paid twice as much.  I know why they don’t want us to discuss our pay rates - it would make me sick.  Why are there overnight stockers who make $11 an hour doing next to nothing half the night...when I’m making $8 an hour doing four people’s jobs, often getting two hours of overtime a night (and being chewed out for that as well, I might add.)

I understand the rule in this store; the more you do, the less you make.  Morale is non-existent. I refuse to stand by and watch my fellow coworkers, who work just as hard as I do, be insulted and harassed and treated like garbage by people who are paid more and do less.  Hire more people and quit setting unrealistic expectations of those you have, Wal-Mart.  Or else soon, you won’t have anyone.”

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Wal-Mart workers from across the nation are converging today on Capitol Hill for a National Organizing Meeting to brief Senators about wages, benefits and the Employee Free Choice Act. We have Wal-Mart Watch peeps down on the Hill, and will have more updates as the day goes on.

Wal-Mart Workers Holding Historic National Organizing Meeting [UFCW Release via EarthTimes]

WASHINGTON - (Business Wire) Walmart workers from across the nation are converging today on Capitol Hill for a National Organizing Meeting to brief Senators about wages, benefits and the Employee Free Choice Act. Nearly 100 Walmart workers from 17 states are participating in the event. As part of their campaign for a union voice on the job, they will urge lawmakers to level the playing field for working people by supporting the Employee Free Choice Act.

“I made the trip into Washington DC to stand with my fellow Walmart workers and to urge my Senators to pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” said Dominique Sloan a Dallas, Texas, Walmart worker. “We need change in this country. All you have to do is look at how all the money goes to CEOs. But when it comes to workers, it’s always the same, no health care or health care that’s too expensive and low wages. We need to change that.”

The National Organizing Committee is made up of Walmart workers from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.

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Multiple proposals are being pushed by pro-business groups in 13 states in response to a certain bill pending in Congress known as the Employee Free Choice Act.

With the successful passage of the Employee Free Choice Act still up in the air, business groups appear willing to take no chances. The individual pieces of legislation, such as a resolution proposed in Missouri, are generally geared towards requiring secret ballots in union elections instead of allowing workers to choose between elections or signing cards.

The measure resembles proposals being pushed by pro-business groups in 12 other states in response to a bill pending in Congress that would make it easier for employees to form unions.

Florida is another state with a bill on the table - the Florida proposal has been titled “Guaranteeing the Right to Vote by Secret Ballot.” Not everyone in the state is sold on its “guarantee,” however:

“The intent of the language is to mislead the voters, to make the voters think that they are voting in favor of protecting their own rights at that ballot box,” said Rep. Richard Steinberg, D-Miami Beach. “That is not what this is about.”

Both measures remain in their respective statehouses - the Florida Senate still has to consider the issue, while the Missouri proposal remains with the Missouri House, and its chances of passing the Senate during this legislative session appear slim.

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It doesn’t happen very often: a mainstream retail writer pushed to change opinion on Wal-Mart by an upswelling of feedback from Wal-Mart workers. But it just happened over at Home Textiles Today.

On March 25th, James Mammarella congratulated Wal-Mart on his blog for its worker bonus program, and went so far as to compare Mike Duke to Henry Ford and his progressive system of worker compensation. Pretty typical mainstream business commentary, right?

But earlier this week, Mammarella posted on the topic again in a post entitled “Walmart Hall of Mirrors?”. A slew of comments were left on his first post real Wal-Mart workers who told of the same thing we hear all the time - workers on the ground seeing little or no share of the bonus program. Apparently it convinced him to change his mind:

But then I read something: the comments posted to my blog. All negative. And apparently, mostly from people who work at Walmart....

The people commenting mainly were putting forth the view that Walmart was making the right noises about helping its employees in a time of great need – but that in practice it was difficult for workers to actually take full advantage of the benefits in question....In light of these comments – and of their consistent message in both tone and particulars – I have rethought my reaction.

“Sometimes the world seems simple.” That was the first line of my blog.

Let me add another: “Sometimes the world is not as it seems.”

Read all of the worker comments here.

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I think I can speak for everyone when I say that far, far too much time has gone by since we last heard the phrase “Joe the Plumber” uttered in public.

Joe, also know as Samuel “the unemployed Republican mascot” Wurzelbacher, has made an admittedly impressive living out of not knowing much about anything...and now he get’s to apply his craft to the Employee Free Choice Act.

Wurzelbacher will be touring Pennsylvania at the end of this month, giving speeches in three places against the EFCA on behalf of an organization called Americans for Prosperity. The group didn’t hire him for any particular sort of expertise on labor issues, of course—they’re just hoping he’ll still be a draw. “The public loves Joe the Plumber,” a spokeswoman told Sargent. “They see him as a role model.”

Ahhhh yes....the public “loves” Joe the Plumber. Probably because, you know, he’s a blue collar working man, a regular Joe Sixpack. (Man I miss Palinisms.) But should the public really listen to this man? I mean, whatever happened to experts sitting down and debating the issues, instead of slipping their notecards to good ol’ Joe and praying noboby asks him a follow-up?? Jim the Writer, from D.C. Examiner, doesn’t think Joe’s the needed voice:

The thing that always bothered me about “Joe the Plumber” was that he represents the part of the Republican “base” that are voting against their own interests...shouldn’t Joe the Plumber, as a working guy, be part of the Plumber’s Union? (If he were actually a plumber.) Wouldn’t he be better served by a strong worker’s union? Shouldn’t he be PRO-union? Wouldn’t he be better off as PART of the Labor Movement? Yes. Of that, there is no doubt. That is, if he weren’t currently being paid by Republicans to say otherwise.

Well put. I can’t REALLY think of anything more to add about Sam the Mascot, except to say that his website still ROCKS!

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It’s important to point out that “free trade” and “worker’s rights” are not contradictory goals. Here, Nobel prize-winning economist Jagdish Bhagwati makes an honest and straightforward argument: he acknowledges that stagnant real wages in the U.S. are a problem and that a decline in union membership is a contributing factor to the growing gap between rich and poor. Bhagwati also rightly recognizes that U.S. labor law as it is interpreted has become increasingly stacked against workers.

Pieces like this are helpful to make the case for Employee Free Choice, and fight back against the constant stream of misinformation coming from Wal-Mart and the business community.

Bhagwati’s article in The New Republic is republished below:

The proposed Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which passed the House on March 1, 2007, but was blocked by a Republican filibuster in the Senate, has now been reintroduced and still faces opponents in many quarters. Several economists and business groups deplore its promotion of a “card check” system, which would enable a simple majority of workers to sign up for a union and so avoid the subsequent holding of a secret-ballot election (under Section 2 of the act). These opponents deride the use of the phrase “free choice” in legislation that they see as denying it. And it is, indeed, hard to defend the denial of an automatic secret ballot.

But while these issues will doubtless be debated, and the actual legislation will go through the usual legislative mauling and modification, the current debate misses the essential reason why EFCA makes sense, a reason that has led a stout defender of free trade such as myself to endorse it. The proposal is an appropriate and free-trade-compatible approach to dealing with the overriding problem we face: the long-standing stagnation of workers’ real wages.

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Aubretia is a Wal-Mart associate in Hudson, New York, who was courageous enough to speak out. From wages to scheduling to health care, Aubretia explains how hard it is to get by as a Wal-Mart employee.

Watch the new video:

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This morning at the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch consumer conference, Wal-Mart Treasurer Charles Holley made a little news. 

First, he cockily said that Wal-Mart is “confident” that EFCA will fail.

And then there was this gem:

Holley added that Wal-mart has looked at compensation packages for union and non-union businesses and that it already “stacks up well,” including starting pay and flexibility for workers.

“We’re very, very competitive with union and non-union shops,” Holley said.

Surely he wasn’t serious.

So Charles, if Wal-Mart is “competitive” with union shops on wages, then why does Wal-Mart close down stores that unionize, only because it has to give its workers a raise? And why is Wal-Mart opposed to EFCA and unions at all, if they weren’t terrified of an increase in wages and benefits costs? 

Unfortunately, the mainstream media is reporting this bunk without any simple verification of those facts. Some even going so far as to include quotes from mainstream financial analysts on how much Wal-Mart’s labor costs would rise if EFCA were passed, directly after Holley’s assertion on wages. Of course, the analysts are correct. The U.S. Government, academic research and common sense all consistently find that union wages for retail are higher than Wal-Mart wages.

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From IPS (Inter Press Service): When a woman was interviewed for a job at a local Wal-Mart in the Mexican capital, the first thing she was asked was whether she was pregnant – a question she did not know at the time was illegal.

The woman, who goes by the fictional name of Paulina, is just one of many cases IPS cites in describing the growing problem in Mexico of discriminatory behavior towards women.

“I had to present a certificate of my state of health to get the job,” Paulina tells IPS in the parking lot of one of the U.S. retail giant’s stores in Mexico City. Paulina’s case is an illustration of the persistence of discriminatory practices that violate the labour rights of women in Mexico, even though they represent 42 percent of the workforce in Latin America’s second-biggest economy.

In the U.S. under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978, pregnant women cannot be treated differently than other workers experiencing a temporary disability. In effect, they are treated as being temporarily disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and are therefore subject to certain protections. And despite that fact, Wal-Mart has still been the subject of numerous disability-related lawsuits, many of which we have documented here. Several years ago, Wal-Mart was forced to settle with the EEOC after the company failed to hire a woman based on her pregnancy. In Mexico, however, there aren’t nearly the protections that exist here to the north - and a recent report by the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Project has focused on Wal-Mart in particular:

The report, “Lo barato sale caro: violaciones a los derechos humanos laborales en Wal-Mart México” (roughly, “cheap is costly: violations of labour and human rights in Wal-Mart Mexico"), concluded that the corporation violates rights in terms of wages, health, security, hours, overtime pay and labour benefits. It also blocks the creation of trade unions under the argument that its employees are considered “associates...” One of the authors of the report, PRODESC researcher Shaila Toledo, pointed out that women workers suffer discrimination and exploitation, such as being required to take a pregnancy test before they are hired, and being bypassed for promotion.

With Dukes v. Wal-Mart slowly moving forward here in the U.S., this doesn’t speak well for Wal-Mart’s claim to be changing its ways in North America.

LABOUR-MEXICO: “They First Asked if I Was Pregnant” [IPS]

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Wage theft. The illegal practice is rampant at restaurants, nail salons, car washes, nursing homes and farms, according to federal labor department surveys. Large corporations including Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, Target, McDonald’s and Burger King have faced lawsuits over allegations of wage theft.

Wal-Mart is of course a prime example. While the seemingly endless list of wage/hour suits against the retailer is systematically shrinking as Wal-Mart settles case after case - wrapped up and tied neatly with a bow - the spectre of the hundreds of millions the company had to pay out in settlements will hang over the company for the near future. And according to Kim Bobo, author of a newly published book, “Wage Theft in America,” wage theft is a national epidemic.

“Greed is nothing new, but what’s changed is that we don’t have adequate enforcement to deter and penalize wage theft,” she said. There are fewer than 750 federal investigators currently policing fair wages for 130 million workers nationwide, compared to 700 investigators for 15 million workers in 1941.

According to Bobo, wage theft is pretty common. Having read file after file from Wal-Mart cases, I could have told you that, but it’s surprising just how far the practice reaches. Some companies will do anything to make a profit - especially in this economy - even if it means siphoning money away from their own workers, many of which fear for their jobs and have few resources with which to protect themselves.

As many as 10 million American workers have suffered wage theft, forfeiting an estimated $40 billion to $50 billion annually in wages rightfully owed to them by employers who steal tips, pay less than minimum wage, refuse to pay overtime, classify full-time employees as temporary independent contractors and take illegal deductions.

Help wanted: Long hours, no pay [Albany Times Union]

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