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.
In this week’s segment we will discuss the recent Democratic Party Senate primary in Michigan, in which the establishment and AIPAC backed candidate went down to defeat, part of a new trend of…
Ambassador Malainin Lakhal is Deputy Representative of the Sahrawi Republic to the African Union. He joins us from Algeria to discuss 50 years of occupation by Morocco, which promotes irregular…
Abayomi Azikiwe is editor of the Pan-African Newswire and a Detroit resident and activist. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed won the Democratic Party primary for the senate in Michigan, defeating the establishment…
Ajamu Baraka and Dimitri Lascaris join BettBeat media to interrogate the questions the anti-imperialists keep refusing to ask.
The evisceration of the Voting Rights Act is of great concern to Black voters. But most of them are affiliated with the Democratic Party, whose leadership have no real interest in making it a…
