Walmart: Are You Educated?
Most people think that when Wal-Mart comes to town there will be more job opportunties and a better place to shop. The truth is that Wal-Mart doesn’t pay living wages and if you think they do, talk to people who work there. They stay because they have to keep working to pay the bills and they believe it’s the only option for them. Thousands of people work at Wal-Mart and probably none of them will ever see a promotion or even a pay raise. A small portion of these employees are teenagers, most are mothers and fathers trying to support a family. And that’s not all, WalMart’s low prices are doing much more than denying employees health care benefits, they are forcing American businesses to close their doors. So for the small amount of jobs they bring to one community, even more jobs are lost across the nation as Wal-Mart out-sources to China.
“People ask, ‘How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at WalMart?’ Sure, it’s held inflation down, and it’s great to have bargains. But you can’t buy anything if you’re not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs,” exhorts Steve Dobbins, president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers–half of which supply Wal-Mart.
Charles Fishman at Fast Company wrote in his article The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know, “Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: “We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world–yet we aren’t willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions.”"
Not only has WalMart reached a new platform where only WalMart exists, they have begun to break the law to get there. According to Guardian Unlimited, a politically independent newspaper since 1821, “Wal-Mart has violated a law that is normally applied to organized crime. The Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisations Act (Rico) was applied because it is alleged that the company entered into a conspiracy with subcontractors who hired the workers from around the world and transported them to WalMart stores in the US.”
“Wal-Mart was systematically defrauding people of the minimum wage, social security protection, and workers’ compensation,” a New York lawyer said. “If they were injured on the job, they were told to go to the hospital on their own. It’s obscene, and one step away from slavery.”
Wal-Mart and its contractors are also accused of failing to make required workers’ compensation and social security payments, failing to withhold federal payroll taxes, mail fraud, wire fraud, bringing in and harbouring illegal immigrants and allegedly engaging in a “pattern of racketeering activity” to prevent officials from enforcing wage and immigration laws. Get the full story.
We are kidding ourselves if we really think we are getting everyday low prices because we are paying out even more on the back end for Wal-Mart’s employees who can’t afford health care. To compare a small business who doesn’t offer health care to Wal-Mart is not a fair comparison when Wal-Mart is the biggest retailer in the country, profiting nearly 96% more profits than the number 2 retailer Home Depot. It’s not okay for Wal-Mart to not pay taxes, commit fraud and engage in other illegal activity. This giant has grown so big that it is not only bullying its employees but now our government. Watch this movie clip – Wal-Mart: High Cost of Low Prices.
Buy the DVD and watch the entire movie. If you can’t buy it, then rent it.
Sources: Guardian Unlimited: Migrant Workers Sue Wal-Mart, Fast Company: The Wal-Mart You Don’t Know
