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AUGUST 2006
Love it or hate it, Wal-Mart is costing our communities
by Rick S. Bender, President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO

A friend recently asked me why unions hate Wal-Mart so much. He said that, while he wishes Wal-Mart employees made more money, he shops there occasionally and he doesn’t like being made to feel like he is doing something evil.

Here’s what I told him.

Wal-Mart isn’t evil. People who work there aren't bad people; they're just struggling to get by like the rest of us. People who shop there aren't bad people either; in many cases they are lower-income folks on tight budgets who are just hoping to find bargains.

But we, as a society, have to recognize that Wal-Mart and any other corporation that shares its business model are destructive. Their business model kills middle-class jobs, promotes a race to the bottom on wages and benefits, and costs taxpayers millions of dollars every year. And we, as a society, have the right -- and the responsibility -- to say, “enough is enough.”

If an oil corporation was able to beat its competition by polluting more and dumping more toxins into the air and water, we wouldn’t allow it, would we? Well, organized labor and many others believe that what Wal-Mart is doing is economic pollution, and it’s time to hold this giant corporation accountable for the damage it’s doing to our communities.

Wal-Mart’s business model is to sell products cheaper by keeping its labor costs low. Despite all of its “happy associates” public relations campaigns, it’s clear that Wal-Mart keeps labor costs low by paying workers less, providing fewer benefits, and aggressively opposing unionization.

There are costs to this strategy, like class-action settlements in wage-and-hour and discrimination lawsuits, expensive we're-not-so-bad public relations campaigns, and legal bills for fighting against the cities and towns that don't want its stores in their neighborhoods. But despite this, its business model has succeeded and helped revolutionize the retail and grocery industries.

Revolutions usually happen when the people rise up, but in this case it’s happened when the people in power clamped down.

Because the grocery industry has been almost completely unionized on the West Coast, people who work in supermarkets have led middle-class lives for decades.  Most could afford to own a home, keep their families healthy, save enough to help send kids to college, and eventually, to retire. All of the stores provided good union wages and benefits, so they competed on a level playing field, based on the quality of their products and services.  They still managed to sell stuff at prices consumers could afford, and they still made plenty of profit at the same time.

Then along came Wal-Mart and its low-road labor strategy, and all that has changed.

Now we have a race-to-the-bottom competition among the retailers and grocery stores that have survived. Tens of thousands of unionized grocery workers in Washington have either lost their jobs or are giving up their wages and health benefits so their employers can try to compete with Wal-Mart.

Love Wal-Mart or hate it, you, too, are a victim.

In 2004, about 3,200 Wal-Mart employees were on taxpayer-funded health plans because their company -- the richest one on Planet Earth -- chooses not to offer affordable health benefits. That subsidy cost state taxpayers $12 million that year, by the legislature’s estimate. Twice that, if you include costs to federal taxpayers.

The good news is that Americans are starting to figure all this out. People are starting to see the link between companies like Wal-Mart and their tax bills, their rising health care costs, and the economic destruction of their communities.

On Labor Day, Sept. 4, a national bus tour called “Change Wal-Mart, Change America” will conclude in Seattle. This tour, which began in New York City and visited 27 cities in 20 states, has educated many Americans about affordable health care, living wages, the outsourcing of U.S. jobs and corporate accountability.

Led by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, this campaign and bus tour are not just about Wal-Mart. The goal is to build a movement of millions of Americans who are ready to take our country back from multi-billion dollar corporations like Wal-Mart, so that America's working families can once again have affordable health care and economic security.

Care to join us?  Visit www.WakeUpWalMart.org.

Rick Bender is President of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO,
the largest labor organization in the state.

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Copyright © 2006  Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO