Wal-Mart signifies all that is wrong in America

A snapshot of Georgia's program for uninsured children shows that it's packed with kids of Wal-Mart employees.

A state survey found 10,261 of the 166,000 children covered by Georgia's PeachCare for Kids health insurance in September 2002 had a parent working for Wal-Mart Stores.

That's about 14 times the number for next highest employer: Publix, with 734.

Wal-Mart is the state's largest private employer. But when the top four companies on the list are measured by number of PeachCare children per the number of employees in Georgia, Wal-Mart still dominates.

Wal-Mart, the largest company in the U.S., looks set to pass a new milestone this year: It is well on its way to becoming the biggest business contributor to the 2004 election campaign.

After years of little involvement in federal politics, the Arkansas-based retail giant is currently the largest corporate donor through its political action committee (PAC), having doled out nearly $1.3 million to federal candidates until the end of January, according to Politicalmoneyline.com.

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In late 1999, Senate majority leader Trent Lott, then-Arkansas congressman Jay Dickey and others sat down with the company's management in Bentonville and warned that they needed to find a way to play the Washington game. "We told them they should become a participant in the process before the crises hit," says Mr. Dickey, who lost his bid for re-election in 2002.

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Wal-Mart's political contributions have been spread widely in Congress, with more than 220 members of the House and Senate receiving checks of $1,000 to $17,500 so far this election cycle. About 85 percent of the money has gone to Republicans.

ASK SHOPPERS in Martinez why they shop at the Wal-Mart there and they'll tell you that the prices can't be beat, there's plenty of parking and its one-stop shopping allows them to buy everything from toothpaste to T- shirts.

So why have hundreds of communities across the nation tried to prevent Wal-Mart from moving into their towns? And why, in particular, did the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors pass an ordinance that would ban certain big-box stores larger than 90,000 square feet (the size of two football fields) from unincorporated parts of the county?

Do all these people share some perverse pleasure in forcing consumers to pay higher prices for the food and the goods they buy?

Of course not. The reason is that union members, environmental activists, members of the clergy and elected officials realize that every new Wal-Mart, which brings new jobs and low prices, also comes with hidden costs -- to other retail workers, to small businesses, to smart growth, and most of all, to taxpayers who discover, much to their surprise, that they end up subsidizing the largest corporation in the world.

WOMEN PRESENT EVIDENCE OF WIDESPREAD DISCRIMINATION AT WAL-MART; ASK JUDGE TO EXPAND CASE TO BE LARGEST EVER SEX DISCRIMINATION CASE

Plaintiffs' Motion for Class Certification Seeks Trial for More Than 1.5 Million Current and Former Wal-Mart Employees

"With demeaning attitudes toward women held by managers at all levels of Wal-Mart, it's little surprise that we found women were being paid less and had far fewer chances of getting promoted into management than men," said plaintiffs class action attorney Joseph M. Sellers of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, co-counsel for the women. "Wal-Mart needs to clean up its act. This behavior is more reminiscent of the 1950s than the 21st century."

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More than 100 current and former Wal-Mart female employees, from hourly workers to former district managers, provided sworn declarations in support of the class certification motion. The women, who worked at Wal-Mart Stores in 30 states, detail their personal experiences with Wal-Mart's discriminatory practices, including:

**A female assistant manager in Utah was told by her store manager that retail is "tough" and not "appropriate" for women;
**Another manager in Texas told a female employee that women have to be "bitches" to survive Wal-Mart management, while a Sam's Club manager in California told another woman that she should "doll-up" to get promoted;
**Managers have repeatedly told women employees that men "need to be paid more than women because they have families to support":
**A male manager in South Carolina told a female employee that "God made Adam first, so women would always be second to men";
**A female manager in Arizona was told she got paid less than a less qualified male because she "didn't have the right equipment."
**A female personnel manager in Florida was told by her manager that men were paid more than women because "men are here to make a career and women aren't. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money."
**Over objections from a woman executive, senior management regularly referred to female store employees as "little Janie Qs" and "girls";
**Female managers were required to go to Hooters sports bars as well as strip clubs for meetings and office outings;
**The most senior human resources executive at Wal-Mart approves of Hooters as a place to have Wal-Mart meetings;
**In a photo distributed to Wal-Mart employees in the company newsletter, Jim Haworth, now Wal-Mart Stores CEO, is shown sitting in a chair modeled as a leopard skin spike heel.
**A Women in Leadership group, disbanded by Wal-Mart in the mid-1990s, found that "stereotypes limit opportunities offered to women" at Wal-Mart, such as "men are viewed as replacements, women are viewed as support" and "aggressive women intimidate men";...

Wal-Mart is going down big time which means we will all pay more for everything. Finally the Courts step in under federal fair labor practices.

The only question now is how do we continue to subsidize China's economy?

What if Wal-Mart has to pay a fair wage to their employees will they charge more money for the goods they sell or eat the extra cost?