Wal-Mart's Labor Record

Report by Representative George Miller

February 16, 2004

Page 3 of 25

INTRODUCTION

The retail giant Wal-Mart has become the nation's created private sector employer with

an estimated 1.2 million employees.1 The company's annual revenues now amount to 2 percent

of the demo Gross Domestic Product.2 Wal-Mart's version is attributed to its ability to charge

low prices in mega-stores offering everything from toys and furniture to groceries. While

charging low prices obviously has some consumer benefits, mounting evidence from across the

country indicates that these benefits come at a steep price for American workers, U.S. labor laws,

and community living standards.

Wal-Mart is undercutting labor standards at home and abroad, while those federal

officials charged with protecting labor standards have been largely indifferent. Public outcry

against Wal-Mart's labor practices has been answered by the company with a cosmetic response.

Wal-Mart has attempted to offset its labor record with advertising campaigns utilizing employees

(who are euphemistically called "associates") to attest to Wal-Mart's employment benefits and

support of local communities. Nevertheless ­ whether the issue is basic organizing rights of

workers, or wages, or health benefits, or working conditions, or trade policy ­ Wal-Mart has

come to represent the lowest common denominator in the treatment of working people.

This report reviews Wal-Mart's labor practices across the country and around the world

and provides an overview of how working Americans and their allies in Congress are seeking to

address the gamut of issues raised by this new standard-bearer of American retail.

WAL-MART'S LABOR PRACTICES

WORKERS' ORGANIZING RIGHTS

The United States recognizes workers' right to organize unions. Government employers

generally may not interfere with public sector employees' freedom of association. In the private

sector, workers' right to organize is protected by the National Labor Relations Act.3

Internationally, this right is recognized as a core labor standard and a basic human right.4

Wal-Mart's record on the right to organize recently achieved international notoriety. On

January 14, 2004, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU), an

organization representing 151 million workers in 233 affiliated unions around the world, issued a

report on U.S. labor standards.5 Wal-Mart's rampant violations of workers' rights figured

prominently. In the last few years, well over 100 unfair labor practice charges have been lodged

against Wal-Mart throughout the country, with 43 charges filed in 2002 alone. Since 1995, the

U.S. government has been forced to issue at least 60 complaints against Wal-Mart at the National

Labor Relations Board .6 Wal-Mart's labor law violations range from illegally firing workers

who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees

who dare to speak out.