Happy May Day, Wal-Mart Stores Inc.!
Mon Apr 30, 2007 at 06:56:12 PM PDT
Steven Greenhouse of the New York Times, writing for tomorrow's paper, gives Wal-Mart a great big May Day present courtesy of Human Rights Watch:
In its first study of how an American company treats its workers, Human Rights Watch asserted yesterday that Wal-Mart’s aggressive efforts to keep out labor unions often violated federal law and infringed on its workers’ rights.
Human Rights Watch, which typically focuses on rights violations in Burundi, North Korea or other foreign countries, said that when Wal-Mart stores faced unionization drives, the company often broke the law by, for example, eavesdropping on workers, training surveillance cameras on them and firing those who favored unions.
"While many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus," the human rights group wrote.
Just in case you're wondering why Human Rights Watch is doing this, remember that Article 23, Section 4 of the UN's universal declaration of human rights reads:
Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Back to the NYT:
Wal-Mart, in response, vigorously defended its labor practices. David Tovar, a Wal-Mart spokesman, said that Wal-Mart provided an environment for open communications and gave its employees "every opportunity to express their ideas, comments and concerns."
"It is because of our efforts to foster such an environment that our associates have repeatedly rejected unionization attempts," he said.
Open communications cannot exist without an equal distribution of power. The largest corporation in the world vs. one worker struggling to make ends meet is not a fair fight. Wal-Mart's fiction is totally laughable. It's so "Nineteenth Century Robber Baron" it gives the creeps. It also flies in the face of Human Rights Watch's considerable evidence:
"Wal-Mart assets that respect for the individual is one of the core values that have made us into the company we are today," the report said. "Wal-Mart’s systematic interference with individual workers’ right to freedom of association flies in the face of this professed core value."
The report found that unions and workers had brought 292 cases against Wal-Mart, with the National Labor Relations Board finding that 101 cases had merit. Those cases were consolidated into 39 complaints, with 17 administrative law judges ruling that Wal-Mart had violated labor laws. The labor board reversed two of those decisions.
You can read the Human Rights Watch report right here. I'd bring you more of it myself, but Heroes is coming on soon here in the lovely Mountain Time Zone. Look for excerpts appearing at our blog, the Writing on the Wal, over the next few days.
JR
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