WPCNR WHITE PLAINS VOICE. September 18, 2004: A third letter from our union correspondent notes a series of alleged conditions that characterize Wal-Mart business. The writer is connected with a local union in an executive position and feels Wal-Mart would not be a welcome tenant in the old Sears Building on Main Street because of its anti-labor practices. His final installment follows:
Wal-Mart is the worldıs largest retailer. It is the largest corporation and
private employer in the United States.
* Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in 25 states. They set the standard
for wages and labor practices.
* Wal-Mart employs 1.4 million workers worldwide and over 1 million in
the United States. More than half of Wal-Martıs U.S. employees leave the
company each year.
* Wal-Mart has more than 3,000 stores in the US and almost 1,300
International operations.
* The Walton family is worth about $102 billion.
* Wal-Mart ranked #1 on the Fortune 500 list of corporations in 2001.
* Wal-Mart is the top U.S. seller of products ranging from dog food to
diamonds with sales of $244.5 billion in the fiscal year ended January 2003
up from $220 billion in 2001.
* In 1970, the country's largest employer was General Motors, with
350,000 workers. Overwhelmingly union, they earned $17.50 an hour plus
health, pension and vacation benefits and cost-of-living increases. Today,
the country's largest employer is Wal-Mart, with over 1 million US workers.
They earn an average hourly wage of $8.00, with no defined benefit pension,
and inadequate health care.
* Wal-Mart was sued 4,851 times in 2000 or about once every 2 hours,
every day of the year. Wal-Mart lawyers list about 9,400 open cases,²
according to a report published in the August 14, 2001, USA Today newspaper.
* Wal-Mart plans to open only 15 to 20 of the traditional food-and-drug
combo stores in 2003, down from previous projections of 20 to 25 outlets.
It will open 210 supercenters, the high end of its previous development
range for that format.
This is it, I won't send any more.
A Union Executive,
ANONYMOUS
