[Mb-civic] Wal-Mart Harms American Workers

[ean at sbcglobal.net]

http://www.americanprogressaction.org/site/pp.asp?c=klLWJc
P7H&b=259335
Wal-Mart Harms American Workers
December 1, 2004
Wal-Mart™s low-wage, low-benefit, anti-union policies are a 
prime example of how rapacious free market ideology harms 
American workers. With nearly 5,000 stores worldwide, the 
world's largest retailer has never acknowledged a single labor 
union”except in China, where the company was recently 
forced to acknowledge the state run union in order to 
safeguard $18 billion in cheap Chinese goods. In fact, a Wal-
Mart handbook explicitly instructs its managers to bust 
unions: œWal-Mart is opposed to unionization of its 
associates. Any suggestion that the Company is neutral on the 
subject or that it encourages associates to join labor 
organizations is not true. 
*   Wal-Mart symbolizes everything that is wrong with 
    free market ideology. Rather than providing good 
    wages, solid benefits, and opportunities for collective 
    bargaining and better relationships between 
    management and workers, Wal-Mart goes out of its 
    way to depress wages, reduce benefits, and threaten 
    employees who seek better working conditions “ all in 
    the name of profit. Yet, one of its chief competitors, 
    Costco, takes the exact opposite approach”good 
    wages, benefits, and cooperative management”and 
    has outpaced Wal-Mart in recent years. 

*   Wal-Mart undercuts American workers by relying 
    on cheap Chinese labor and goods. On top of its 
    anti-union policies, the corporate giant is rapidly 
    becoming a slave to cheap Chinese labor, undercutting 
    American workers and products in the process. Wal-
    Mart imports so much merchandise from China”now 
    estimated at around $18 billion in total inventory”the 
    company is now a major contributor to the overall U.S. 
    trade deficit with China. 

*   Wal-Mart kills small businesses and communities 
    all across America. Small businesses across America 
    have been killed by Wal-Mart™s business model of 
    relentlessly driving down prices by undercutting 
    American workers and fighting unions. Home-grown 
    businesses in rural areas and small cities simply can 
    not compete with a corporate giant who cares little 
    about the impact of its policies on communities and 
    workers. 
Daily Talking Points is a product of the American Progress 
Action Fund.

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