Documentary Takes on Treatment of Wal-Mart Workers
WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 – The Wal-Mart smiley face that is usually found darting between low-priced items in company commercials has had to dodge a lot of criticism recently.
Vocal opponents have come down hard on the super retailer, denouncing its business practices-everything from its impact on the environment to its treatment of employees and its effect on small-town America. The latest attack is a documentary chronicling the working conditions of Wal-Mart employees.
The film, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price,” produced by Robert Greenwald, is premiering this week across the country and will hit Merrimack Valley on Sunday.
The buzz has caught the attention of lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) met with Greenwald and Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America’s Future, a liberal advocacy group, to discuss how to improve working conditions for low-wage workers.
“Low cost does not have to mean low wages and low respect for the thousands of workers in the Merrimack Valley and across the country,” Kennedy said in statement to the Eagle-Tribune. “I applaud the community groups and religious leaders who are promoting awareness of Wal-Mart’s abuses by gathering together in Andover.”
Greenwald’s documentary is scheduled for screening at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover on Nov. 20 at 6 p.m.
Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott responded to critics on Oct. 24 by promising to roll out a new heath care plan for employees, reduce the big-box stores’ greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent over the next seven years and encourage Congress to review the minimum wage rate.
Wal-Mart is trying to make health care more accessible to its employees, said Nate Hurst, a Wal-Mart spokesman based in Washington, D.C. This year an additional 100,000 employees will receive medical benefits, Hurst said, bringing the number of employees and their family members covered under the company’s plan to more than a million.
“These negative attacks haven’t created a single job or helped families get health insurance,” he said, adding that last year Wal-Mart created 210,000 jobs and saved American families an average of $2,300, according to independent analysis by Global Insights, an economic consulting firm headquartered in Waltham.
Another independent movie, “Why Wal-Mart Works And Why That Makes Some People Crazy,” scheduled for DVD release Tuesday, holds the opposite view of Greenwald’s film.
“We believe that Wal-Mart, by providing goods to shoppers at the lowest possible price and playing a positive role in the community, has benefited working families far more than any special-interest group,” said the movie’s producer, Ron Galloway, in a statement. “People vote with their feet, and 138 million people per week decide it’s to their benefit to shop at Wal-Mart.”
Hurst said that Wal-Mart had nothing to do with Galloway’s movie.
The Rev. Ralph Galen is one of those who disagrees. Galen’s church, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Andover, is the host of the Sunday night screening of the Greenwald documentary. He is also the secretary of Unitarian Universalists for a Just Economic Community, a national sponsor of the film.
The organization looks at all big-box store employment practices, and, Galen said, “Wal-Mart is the most egregious.”
He said he hopes the film will raise community awareness, citing growing disparities between Merrimack Valley towns in wealth, health care and job opportunities.
“Social justice starts with education,” Galen said. “I’m sure a lot of people in Andover will sleep-walk through this.”
Wal-Mart Watch, a non-profit organization devoted to studying the impact of large corporations on society, said the company has left more than half of its 1.2 million American employees without health care coverage, forcing them to turn to government programs such as Medicaid.
Kennedy and DeLauro sponsored several initiatives designed to help low-income workers, including work safety, pay-scale gender equality and an increase in the minimum wage. A spokeswoman in Kennedy’s office said the senator hopes that the legislation will get support but recognizes that “it’s tough with the Republican leadership.”
One proposed bill, The Employee Free Choice Act, would help foster an atmosphere where workers can choose to unionize without employer pressure.
Wal-Mart’s Hurst said attempts to unionize the company’s employees have made it the target of “smear campaigns.”
“National unions have tried to unionize at local levels, but employees voted it down,” he said. He points to campaign contributions from labor union political action committees as a reason behind the proposed legislation.
The act, according to Kennedy’s statement, would strengthen current labor law and provide for binding arbitration when an employer refuses to reach a first contract.
“We are working hard in Congress to make the Wal-Marts of the world accountable to workers, families and communities,” Kennedy said.
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