Wal-Mart -- The High Cost of Low Price

Tom Domer of WILG Workers First Watch has some interesting thoughts about how Wal-Mart is degrading workers' rights and hurting communities around the world. Here's what he had to say in a recent essay about the documentary "Wal-Mart -- The High Cost of Low Price," which deals with the company's practices:

Need yet another reason not to patronize Wal-Mart? How about the substantially significant possibility that you will be assaulted, raped, or even murdered in a Wal-Mart parking lot while video cameras (placed there to monitor potential Union activities - not to protect customers) beam their images to a monitor in a security room (vacant, of course)? Hyperbole cannot adequately describe the nefarious effect this heartless monster-corporation has imposed on America and the world. The film depicts, through the poignant words of ex-employees, the myriad ways in which Wal-Mart wreaks havoc on the lives of its employees and their communities.

The regular readers of Workers First Watch are likely already aware of Wal-Mart's egregious violations of labor laws, its dismal environmental record, its bleeding precious tax dollars through infrastructure subsidies, and the incredible number of its associates who must avail themselves of tax-supported public assistance programs. The movie is most effective, however, in indicating this is not just an inevitable consequence of Wal-Mart policy, but the result of a conscious, articulated corporate game-plan. Wal-Mart employees, for example, are encouraged by store managers to explore and enroll in public relief programs for insurance, in place of non-existing Wal-Mart benefits packages.

For many readers, this is preaching to the choir. Many of us have friends and family (or - admit it - in a private moment, ourselves) who stop at a ubiquitous Wal-Mart / Sam's Club empire. Studies suggest one of these mammoth buildings is within five minutes of 94% of all Americans nationwide. This film underscores the point: patronizing Wal-Mart is flat out wrong.

The film artfully illustrates the feel that those of us who have dealt with Wal-Mart employees already know. The incredible hypocrisy spewed by this giant in all its abysmal litany of violations (Fair Labor Standards Act, overtime violations, sex and race discrimination claims, NRLA Union busting, etc.).

Wal-Mart president Lee Scott's annual year end report to his shareholders becomes a standup comic routine as his saccharin-sweet pronouncements are contrasted on screen with the better commentary of Wal-Mart ex-managers and employees. Some heretofore unpublicized nuances emerged from this movie, revealing the profit-over-people philosophy permeating the Wal-Mart corporate culture. After receiving tax-supported subsidies for infrastructure (roads, stop lights, sewers, etc.), many Wal-Mart locales move outside city limits when local property taxes are imposed.

Not to despair, the film concludes with uplifting stories involving community activists whose valiant efforts have kept Wal-Mart from expanding into and destroying their local communities. The film is a must-see for all progressives concerned about working people. Copies can be requested on the website www.Wal-Martmovie.com or via info at www.bravenewfilms.org.

WILG Workers First Watch
May 2006

Tom Domer is a member of the WILG Board of Directors and is the Chair of the WFW-Workers' First Watch Editorial Board. He is an adjunct faculty member at Marquette University School of Law, where he teaches workers' compensation law. He has authored numerous articles and texts on workers' comp. Domer also holds a Ph.D. from Marquette University. He may be reached at Domer Law in Milwaukee, WI at 414-967-5656 or tom@domerlaw.com.