Employees reportedly intimidated at meetings to vote for John McCain over Barack Obama
Ottawa (6 Aug. 2008) - A Wall Street Journal report has accused Wal-Mart of meddling in this fall's U.S. election by pressuring employees to vote against Democrat Barack Obama and in favour of Republican John McCain. The company denies the allegation but Wal-Mart employees in seven states say otherwise.
Obama is co-sponsoring a bill called the Employee Free Choice Act, which Wal-Mart vehemently opposes and fears will become law if Obama is elected president in November. McCain opposes the bill, which would it easier for workers to unionize.
The proposed law, supported by a bipartisan coalition in Congress, would level the playing field for workers and employers and help rebuild America’s middle class.
The AFL-CIO says the act would restore workers’ freedom to choose a union by:
- Establishing stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations.
- Providing mediation and arbitration for first-contract disputes.
- Allowing employees to form unions by signing cards authorizing union representation.
"America’s working people are struggling to make ends meet these days and our middle class is disappearing," the AFL-CIO says.
"The best opportunity working people have to get ahead economically is by uniting to bargain with their employers for better wages and benefits. Recent research has shown that some 60 million U.S. workers would join a union if they could," the 13-million-member labour body adds.
"But the current system for forming unions and bargaining is broken. Every day, corporations deny workers the freedom to decide for themselves whether to form unions to bargain for a better life. They routinely intimidate, harass, coerce and even fire workers who try to form unions and bargain for economic well-being."
The Journal said the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain, has held mandatory meetings with store managers and department supervisors to warn that if Democrats win and the bill becomes law, employees will be hurt. Information published by the Journal and also by Wal-Mart Watch notes that employees in seven states have been called to such meetings.
Wal-Mart, which has 1.4 million workers, admits to talking with workers about the bill but claims it was not advocating one way or the other for its passage. Critics refuse to take the company at its word, given its long history of using under-handed tactics to keep its operations union free.
Stewart Acuff, an assistant to AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, says Wal-Mart is guilty in this case of "trying to bully" the entire American political scene and influence the way its employees vote.
Wal-Mart Watch says the situation "demonstrates once again that Wal-Mart intimidates its workers" and says the information reported by the Journal is "consistent" with numerous reports it has received in recent days.
“Whether it is locking them in the company’s stores, pressuring them to keep working even after they have clocked out, or giving them 'instruction' about their vote, Wal-Mart has consistently exhibited unique examples of unethical behavior that often raise legal questions," the group says.
“We have been receiving the reports described in the Journal for the past week. Some of the reports we received were even more egregious than what was described in (the Journal) story. In one case, a worker said they were shown a slide that said 'Obama = union' and then were told why unions were bad....
"All of these tactics seem to be designed to keep workers from demanding better wages, decent benefits or fairer working conditions. Wal-Mart seems willing to do anything to maintain a status quo in which the company pays poorly, refuses to compensate workers for time worked, discriminates against workers and offers poor benefits."
NUPGE
The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has signed a protocol with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) to support and cooperate in the UFCW's campaign to organize workers at Wal-Mart stores across Canada. NUPGE
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