Wal-Mart and the "Big Boxes"

CEO and its members are concerned about the "race to the bottom" being lead by Wal-Mart and are actively engaged with other advocates in the fight to hold Walmart accountable for its mistreatment and disregard of their employees.

 

The poster child for irresponsible corporate behavior, Wal-Mart, is not alone. While the biggest and the "best", they did not invent corporate corruption disguised as capitalism.  However, because they are now the largest employer in the United States they are setting the bar lower and lower forcing even those companies with a unionized workforce to have to negotiate away living wages and benefits for workers at the bargaining table.

There are numerous resources on Wal-Mart.  In an effort not to duplicate or recreate the work that has been done around the country, we have compiled a comprehensive list of resources that will help you get any and all answers you might be seeking.

 

Click here for that list.

Wal-Mart is a "Big Box" Retailer
Click here for information on "Big Box" retail operations:

Wal-Mart: A CEO Perspective

Have you googled Wal-Mart lately? Try it, but be careful. If you have an older computer, it might implode. The list of lawsuits against and settlements by this corporate giant are endless, including:

1. A women’s class-action lawsuit representing as many as 1.6 million current and former female employees alleging that Walmart pays its male employees more than its female employees and bypasses women for key promotions;
   
2. An agreed upon $2.8 million “payment” to settle allegations of false or partially-dispensed prescriptions by some of its pharmacies to counter against insufficient stock;
   
3. Numerous claims and findings regarding unpaid overtime for Walmart workers;
   
4. A $1 billion discrimination and exploitation lawsuit in response to raids in October of 2003 by federal immigration agents on 60 Walmart stores in 21 states;
   
5. Failure to report safety hazards;
   
6. A suit by the EEOC for racial discrimination;
   
7. 60+ complaints alleging illegal anti-union activities;
   
8. Countless Child labor law violations including 6 in CT alone

The “Wal-Martization of America” theory written about in the New York Times in 2003, suggests that Wal-Mart is able to keep its prices about 14% lower than other retail stores because “they are aggressive about squeezing costs, including labor costs.  Its workers earn one third less than unionized grocery workers and pay for much of their health insurance.” 

On the health coverage front, state after state is discovering how they are unknowingly subsidizing Wal-Mart to the tune of $10 million dollars a year in Georgia and $32 million a year in California.  In Connecticut, a recent report by the legislature’s Office of Legislative Research (OLR) found Wal-Mart to be the largest employer of HUSKY recipients to the tune of over $2 million dollars annually according to the Connecticut Health Policy Project report summary.  Additionally, the same OLR report indicates that Wal-Mart is the second largest employer of TFA recipients and food stamp recipients.  And if you think part of the reason for such high numbers of employees on public assistance is because Wal-Mart employs mostly part time workers, you may be only partially correct.  The OLR report indicates that the majority of Wal-Mart workers receiving HUSKY work more than 30 hours per week.

In an effort to better assess the true costs to Connecticut's taxpayers of company's not providing affordable health coverage to their workers we need minimally to require annual disclosure by the Department of Social Services of employers with employees on HUSKY, TFA and Food Stamps. Such a bill, SB 671, was passed in the Senate during the 2005 legislative session but was not revisited in the House. More importantly, CEO and its members will continue to seek disclosure by corporations of taxes paid and tax breaks, credits and expenditure programs they enjoy and push for standards to be applied to companies enjoying the benefits of such tax break programs.