[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 23]
[House]
[Pages 32000-32001]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




               PLENTY IS WRONG WITH THE WAL-MART PICTURE

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, a drama is taking place about the 
future, not just of America's economy, but the global marketplace. A 
metaphor for this drama is the role that Wal-Mart, the world's largest 
retailer, plays. Since its founding by Sam Walton in 1962, it has grown 
to be larger than the economies of 170 nations.
  By rigorous cost containment and careful attention to detail, it has 
forced suppliers to be competitive and more effective. It has given 
Americans lower prices, and some experts even say has held down 
inflation. What could be wrong with this picture? Well, plenty.
  First of all, there are the costs to communities. It appears that 
communities lose far more jobs with Wal-Mart than they gain. Depending 
upon that community and whether or not those jobs lost are unionized, 
the jobs that they do get are $2 to $10 an hour less than those 
destroyed. Much of the opposition is to the impact that Wal-Mart has on 
the fabric of the communities it operates in, often at the outskirts of 
town, drawing away from the vitality of the main street where 
businesses, slowly, are strangled.
  The impact can even be devastating for its suppliers, as detailed in 
a cover story in this month's Fast Company magazine, discussing the 
impact on Huffy Bikes and Vlasic Pickles, where companies end up being 
squeezed and often cannibalizing themselves. Finally, there are grave 
questions about the treatment of workers in the factories around the 
world that supply Wal-Mart.
  There appears to be a corrosive impact on Wal-Mart itself: It is not 
just anti-union, but blatantly so, firing workers who are sympathetic 
to unions. There is illegal coercion of their own employees who may be 
interested in unions, and illegal roadblocks to people who would 
organize.
  Last June in the Wall Street Journal, there was a story about Wal-
Mart firing workers earning $9.50/hour just because they were at the 
upper end of Wal-Mart's already low pay scale.
  There is strong evidence that the corporate culture that knows every 
detail of its supply chain refuses to correct abuses that have been 
widely reported in its own operation.
  Last year in Oregon, a jury found that company managers had coerced 
hundreds of employees to work overtime without compensation, as Wal-
Mart managers were tampering with time cards, and forcing employees to 
work off the clock. This appears not to be an isolated example. Already 
Wal-Mart has settled overtime suits in Colorado and New Mexico, and 
there are more than 40 other cases pending across the country.
  Equally as distressing was the raid this fall of 61 Wal-Mart stores 
where it appears they were contracting with companies to clean their 
stores who systematically used illegal immigrants. These employees were 
cheated out of overtime by these companies that often failed to pay 
their taxes. A systemic pattern by a company known for insisting on 
detailed, private financial information from its suppliers, but unable 
or unwilling to make sure that its own contractors follow the law. This 
raises huge questions about their 10,000 overseas contractors and 
subcontractors, about whether or not Wal-Mart has complied with its own 
vague code of conduct, especially since Wal-Mart is the only major 
retailer that refuses to allow independent auditing of its factories 
overseas.
  Mr. Speaker, it is time for Wal-Mart to open up to independent 
monitoring abroad, to stop cheating its employees at home, and to 
become a force to lift standards, to make our world a better place.
  To help them, Congress ought to start now investigating the practices 
of America's largest retailer, particularly as it relates to labor and 
employment. Communities should help Wal-Mart by

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not cutting corners and cutting their own throats in competition for 
another store, and instead establish reasonable land use and planning 
regulations for Wal-Mart developments.
  Most important, consumers should begin to consider whether the lowest 
price is worth any cost: to the poor of the world, to suppliers here at 
home, to the health of our main streets, and the abuse of Wal-Mart 
workers, and Americans denied basic organizing rights. There is a Wal-
Mart Day of Action planned next month for January 14. This will give us 
all an opportunity to consider whether the lowest price, regardless of 
its cost, is worth it.

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