On the March 21 broadcast of NBC's Today, co-host Katie Couric introduced a report on
Wal-Mart's expansion of its retail business in China by telling viewers: "It's a company that is as American as mom and apple pie." Couric did not say whether the following practices are also "as American as mom and apple pie."
Child labor violations
In January 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay a $135,540 fine to settle charges brought by the Department of Labor for violations of the youth employment provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act at stores in three states. According to a February 14, 2005, Department of Labor press release, "Wal-Mart allowed teenage workers to operate hazardous equipment resulting in one teenager being injured while operating a chain saw. ... The department's investigation revealed that Wal-Mart employed 85 minors aged 16 and 17 who performed prohibited activities, including loading and occasionally operating or unloading scrap paper balers, and operating fork lifts." A February 12, 2005, New York Times article, had noted that Wal-Mart had "faced previous child labor charges":
In March 2000, Maine fined the company $205,650 for violations of child labor laws in every one of the 20 stores in the state. In January 2004, a weeklong internal audit of 128 stores found 1,371 instances in which minors apparently worked too late at night, worked during school hours or worked too many hours in a day. Company officials said the audit was faulty and had incorrectly found that some youths had worked on school days when, in fact, those days were holidays.
Illegal immigration settlement
In March 2005, Wal-Mart agreed to pay $11 million to settle federal charges that at least 60 of its stores in at least 21 states used illegal immigrants employed by contractors as nighttime janitors. The New York Times reported on March 19, 2005, that "[m]any of the immigrants said they generally worked from midnight until 8 a.m. seven nights a week, cleaning and waxing floors." The Times also noted that "[t]he $11 million payment was four times larger than any other single payment to the government in an illegal immigrant employment case, federal officials said."
Unpaid work
Employees have repeatedly alleged that Wal-Mart -- along with its warehouse-store division, Sam's Club -- has forced them to work without pay. The New York Times reported on June 25, 2002, that in 2000, "Wal-Mart paid $50 million to settle a class-action suit that asserted that 69,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees in Colorado had worked off the clock." In 2002, a federal jury in Oregon awarded back pay to 83 Wal-Mart employees who had been required to work off the clock. Wal-Mart's own website reports that there are currently "more than 40 pending wage-and-hour cases seeking class certification status." The website states that "Wal-Mart's policy is to pay hourly associates for every minute they work," adding that "with a company this large, there will inevitably be instances of managers doing the wrong thing."
Nighttime employee lock-ins
The New York Times reported in a January 18, 2004, article that Wal-Mart regularly locks in nighttime employees in 10 percent of its stores. Wal-Mart vice president for corporate communications Mona Williams told the Times: "Doors are locked to protect associates and the store from intruders." But the Times reported that "[t]he main reason that Wal-Mart and Sam's stores lock in workers, several former store managers said, was not to protect employees but to stop 'shrinkage' -- theft by employees and outsiders." The Times quoted a former Sam's Club manager who said that the policy was also intended to prevent employees from leaving the store:
Tom Lewis, who managed four Sam's Clubs in Texas and Tennessee, said: "It's to prevent shrinkage. Wal-Mart is like any other company. They're concerned about the bottom line, and the bottom line is affected by shrinkage in the store."
Another reason for lock-ins, he said, was to increase efficiency -- workers could not sneak outside to smoke a cigarette, get high or make a quick trip home.
In its June 25, 2002, article, the Times reported that according to Wal-Mart employees, lock-ins "forced many employees to work an hour or two unpaid":
Former employees at stores in California, Louisiana, New York, Ohio, Oregon and Washington said that many evenings when their stores closed, managers locked the front door and prevented workers -- even those who had clocked out -- from leaving until everyone finished straightening the store. Workers said these lock-ins, which aim to prevent theft, forced many employees to work an hour or two unpaid and enraged parents whose school-age children worked at Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart officials acknowledged that employees were sometimes locked in but said the policy was to pay workers for every hour they were.
Denial of lunch breaks
In December 2005, a California jury ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million to employees who were illegally denied lunch breaks. As The Washington Post reported on December 23, 2005, "The jury found that Wal-Mart violated a 2001 state law requiring employers to give an unpaid half hour lunch break to employees who work at least six hours. Workers who are denied the break are supposed to receive an extra hour's worth of pay."
Illegal anti-union tactics
As Media Matters for America has noted, a November 23, 2003, Los Angeles Times article reported that "dozens of times in the last four years, attorneys for the National Labor Relations Board [NLRB] have claimed that the company infringed on the supermarket union's legal right to organize." The Los Angeles Times noted that some of the NLRB attorneys' complaints were thrown out but also pointed to cases in which NLRB administrative law judges (who are independent from NLRB attorneys) ruled, in the Times' words, that:
"Wal-Mart illegally influenced employees with offers of raises, promotions and improved working conditions just before they were to vote on whether to join a union."
"Wal-Mart illegally implied that workers could lose benefits such as insurance and profit sharing if they unionized."
Wal-Mart "managers illegally confiscated union literature, threatened to close down a store if workers voted to join the union, fired several union supporters and failed to promote others."
False "Made in the USA" claims
Despite Wal-Mart's much-publicized "Buy America Program," a December 22, 1992, Dateline NBC investigative report by then-NBC reporter Brian Ross, who is currently ABC News' chief investigative correspondent, revealed instances in which Wal-Mart stores displayed foreign-made products under U.S. flags and "Made in the USA" signs. A December 21, 1992, Associated Press article summarized Ross's report:
Going undercover, Ross's crew also visited what he said was a Bangladesh sweatshop where children were making Wal-Mart clothes. In footage shot inside some Wal-Mart stores, the telecast shows racks full of clothes from Korea, China and other Asian countries under American flags and "Made in the USA" signs.
"The places where some of Wal-Mart's goods are really being made ... are places that don't show up in any of Wal-Mart's commercials," the telecast quotes Seth Bodner, a former U.S. trade negotiator, as saying.
In a December 22, 1992, article, the AP reported that then-Wal-Mart president and chief executive officer David Glass apologized in a press release for the misleading signs and stated: "We have also removed from sale a jacket whose label read, 'Made in Bangladesh' yet shows an American flag."
From the March 21 broadcast of NBC's Today:
COURIC: It's a company that is as American as mom and apple pie: Wal-Mart. But now, the discount giant is making a big push to succeed in a huge overseas market: China. So, can it work?
Here's NBC's chief financial correspondent, Anne Thompson.
Contact: Katie Couric
today@nbc.com
Contact: NBC
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