Adopt-a-Wal-Mart
Feminist News and Views
by Mavra Stark

Wal-Mart is now the largest company in the world. Unfortunately, the way they got to be the largest was upon the backs of their female employees and the slaves who work in their manufacturing facilities overseas.

Wal-Mart is being sued in a number of venues all over the country for sexual discrimination and sexual harassment. The fact sheet that our national office sent to our chapter leadership reveals some serious issues:

• The total earnings paid to men is about $5000 more than earnings paid to women, among full-time employees working at least 45 weeks, on the average.
• Women are paid lower hourly rates than men on the average, even when working in the same job.
• Women are disproportionately employed in lower paying hourly jobs. In each of the 41 regions at Wal-Mart, the percentage of women among hourly employees was approximately twice their percentage among salaried employees.
• This is true even though it is also true that women have more years employed at Wal-Mart than men overall, in salary and hourly jobs. Women also have higher performance ratings in hourly jobs than men, on the average.
• A relatively small percentage of Wal-Mart employees are eligible for benefit packages because most of them are part-time workers.
• Wal-Mart has had a policy of insisting, at some of their stores, that employees clock out before they are actually finished with their work for the day, sometimes hours before.
• Wal-Mart has taken out life insurance policies on the lives of low-level employees, people in whom they have no insurable interest. The families of these people are not told of the insurance, and Wal-Mart is the beneficiary of the policies. In effect, this is another moneymaking proposition for the chain.

There’s much more, but that’s probably enough to give you an idea of why we don’t much like Wal-Mart’s employment practices.

In the fall of 2002, we picketed the Wal-Mart at the Ledgewood Shopping Plaza. We did not attempt to prevent anyone from shopping in the store; it wasn’t that sort of picket. We did this mainly to educate the customers.

The action that NOW has encouraged on the local level is different. They called for small but consistent pickets/educational events. Instead of a large group going once or twice, they requested that just two or three people go on a regular basis. Toward the end of educating the employees as well as the customers, our national office provided us with material to hand out. We have small, palm-sized cards that present the main objections we have to Wal-Mart’s practices. We also have buttons, little happy faces with frowns on that say, “Wal-Mart always discriminates. We give the buttons only to people who promise to wear them inside the store. We want to be sure that the employees learn about the unfair practices of their company and how they are being used.

Our action takes place at the Wal-Mart at the County Mall just outside of Morristown, a convenient spot for most of our members.

Of course, this is not a Morris County issue. NOW is requesting that all local chapters “adopt” a Wal-Mart. The success of this action will depend upon the number of chapters that participate and the degree of consistency shown. It will also depend, I have to add, upon the amount of press the action may receive.

If you wish to join in this action, please let us know.