When Wal-Mart employees stand up for themselves and try to form a union, they face threats, propaganda, discrimination, intimidation, and even firings in retaliation. As the word’s largest employer, the company’s abysmal labor standards and aggressive interference with its employees’ democratic right to form unions has a hand in legitimizing the widespread use of this behavior.
Last month, Wal-Mart settled more than 60 wage-and-hour lawsuits and agreed to pay as much as $640 million in back wages to workers. Today, American Rights at Work published an open letter to new Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke, agreeing that the time is ripe for a new Wal-Mart, and outlining further steps the world’s largest retailer can take to ensure its workers have a fair share in the company’s success.
These steps include ensuring workers are free to choose a union to improve their wages, benefits, and working conditions without the fear of intimidation or reprisal and ending Wal-Mart’s opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act.
The New York Times has called on the Federal Elections Commission to investigate Wal-Mart for illegally telling its workers how to vote. Wal-Mart has reportedly been “educating” its employees about the Employee Free Choice Act and intimidating its workers into voting for candidates who oppose the legislation:
…The Wall Street Journal reported that thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads had been called to mandatory meetings and told that if Democrats won in November they would likely pass a law to make it easier to unionize companies. According to The Journal, Wal-Mart executives warned that could force the company to cut jobs, while workers would be forced to pay union dues and might have to go on strike.
American Rights at Work, the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and WakeUpWalmart.com filed a formal complaint with the FEC, because in holding these meetings, Wal-Mart may have broken election law.
American Rights at Work hand-delivered a complaint and petition to the Federal Election Commission (FEC), asking the FEC to open an investigation into Wal-Mart’s attempt to influence its employees’ votes in the November election.
Outraged over news reports that Wal-Mart told employees to vote against candidates who support the Employee Free Choice Act, more than 60,000 people signed the petition, which was delivered along with a formal complaint filed by American Rights at Work, the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and WakeUpWalmart.com.
American Rights at Work, the AFL-CIO, Change to Win, and
WakeUpWalmart.com filed a formal complaint with the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) calling for investigations into Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.'s
unlawful corporate expenditures on electioneering and unionbusting in the
workplace.
The complaint contends that Wal-Mart made "prohibited
corporate expenditures by expressly advocating against Senator Obama's election
to employees who were not in its restricted class." Further, the complainants
request that "the Commission immediately open an investigation to determine
whether a violation occurred and, if so, to take all appropriate steps to
remedy that violation of federal election law."
Click "read more" to see the complaint, or download the PDF now.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.
Unfortunately for Wal-Mart workers, this intimidation is nothing new. It's actually part and parcel for Wal-Mart's business plan. When Wal-Mart employees stand up for themselves and try to form a union, they face threats, propaganda, discrimination, intimidation, and even firings in retaliation.
Exposing the harmful impact of Wal-Mart's low-cost, low-price business
model is the subject of the recently released report "Wal-Mart's
Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique." Twenty-three
organizations, including American Rights at Work, reveal how the big
box retailer's business model undermines the environment, communities,
and workers.
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When Wal-Mart employees stand up for themselves and try to form a union, they face threats, propaganda, discrimination, intimidation, and even firings in retaliation. As the word’s largest employer, the company’s abysmal labor standards and aggressive interference with its employees’ democratic right to form unions has a hand in legitimizing the widespread use of this behavior.
