Wal-Marts Violation of Workers' Freedom of Association

The 209-page report, "Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart's Violation of U.S. Workers' Right to Freedom of Association," is the first comprehensive  documentation of the tactics used to implement Wal-Mart's corporate strategy to shut down workers' efforts to form unions in their stores.  It recommends that the Senate pass the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would  make it more difficult for employers like Wal-Mart to roll roughshod over workers' rights. 

When companies like Wal-Mart violate workers' rights and keep workers from  improving their lives through unions, they are hurting their entire  communities.  After all, the best anti-poverty device in our nation is a  union card.  Workers with a union make 30 percent more than those who don't have one, and are much more likely to have health care and pensions. 

According to the report, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus and tactics.  Wal-Mart  exploits our nation's weak labor laws to create an environment that is poisonous to workers' organizing efforts. For example, workers start their first day on the job with an anti-union themed orientation for each new employee. Wal-Mart continues this aggressive campaign throughout workers' tenures, bombarding them with vicious anti-union propaganda in meetings,  letters and videos.

Wal-Mart has also broken US labor law, and has never received more than a "slap on the wrist," according to the report.  The government found that Wal -Mart eavesdropped and spied on workers, threatened workers with benefit loss if they organize, ordered police to remove union representatives from  parking lots, confiscated union literature, and discriminated against union supporters. 

Wal-Mart clearly doesn't want to have to hear its own workers' voices and  does not want to have to have to engage in collective bargaining with them.   Our nation needs the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing field and give workers a fair shot to bargain with Wal-Mart for a better life.