All decent people should get happy when Wal-Mart gets a whuppin'. Wal-Mart isn't just big, the nations largest employer; it's also arguably the meanest junkyard dog in corporate America. But a class action suit on behalf of 1.5 million women is moving through the federal court system, and might yet bring the bully low. The former and current workers charge they were discriminated against in pay and promotions, in favor of men. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the women have presented credible evidence pointing to a nationwide "pattern and practice of discrimination."
The number of plaintiffs in the lawsuit is huge - actually larger than the current Wal-Mart workforce. If the women ultimately win, Wal-Mart could face billions of dollars in back pay. Not that that would bankrupt Wal-Mart. Bankruptcy is what Wal-Mart brings to other people, to whole communities of businesses, and not just small ones. Wal-Mart is the ultimate corporate predator, savaging both competitors and its own vendors - forcing the companies that make the products that Wal-Mart sells to cut their prices so low, it's hard for the vendors to stay in business.
"If the women ultimately win, Wal-Mart could face billions of dollars in back pay."
Wal-Mart has been described as a "Death Star." It sweeps through communities, wiping out virtually all commerce but its own, and then proclaims itself a good corporate citizen. Few previously existing retailers are left to argue the point, and the working folks of the area soon find that the floor has been knocked out of the standard of wages and working conditions they can demand. The fact is, Wal-Mart recognizes no one's demands, other than the greed of the family that owns it, the surviving heirs of the company's founder, Sam Walton. Together, the Waltons are worth more than $100 billion dollars, a chunk of which they invest every year in organizations intent on destroying public education in the United States, through privatization.
It's no wonder that the female plaintiffs were able to amass so much evidence of sex discrimination. Old Man Sam, the founder of Wal-Mart, started his first retail business in the mostly white Ozark Mountain region. He pretended that his employees were "family" and demanded the obedience due a patriarch. Women had their place - at the bottom of the company totem pole. From the very beginning, men were routinely placed in management positions over women. That's the way the world worked, thought Old Man Sam. Not coincidentally, women were not expected to be seeking life-long employment - so, what did they have to complain about? They didn't need careers and family-supporting salaries, like men.
Today's Wal-Mart operates under a clear policy of discouraging long term employment. Workers who start thinking about staying on the same job for years get ideas about joining a union. And Wal-Mart would rather shut down stores than allow unions to take root. This is one mean corporation. So we salute the 1.5 million women who are suing Wal-Mart. That junkyard dog needs to be put down. For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
A false narrative of "Christian genocide" is being weaponized against Nigeria, which is itself victimized by western neo-colonial policies.
The cause of the explosion at Mitchel Houses in the South Bronx harkens back to the arson-for-profit schemes of the 1970s that caused mass destruction of Black and Latine communities. Decades later,…
The A.I. boom is on the verge of bursting like every other capitalist bubble. Financialization and speculation will result in another economic crisis.
On the southern shore of Lake Maracaibo, communards sustain themselves by fishing, but just as much through practices of solidarity.
The western response to crises in Venezuela and Argentina reveals a stark double standard. One nation faces economic pressure and isolation, while the other receives financial support.
