The National Organization for Women (NOW) wants to wipe the smile off the
Wal-Mart happy face.
By PHIL GARBER , Managing Editor,
Mt. Olive Chronicle, August 15, 2003
also
appeared in The Chatham Courier and The Roxbury Register
Members of NOW plan to picket Wal-Mart stores in Morris County in protest to what the national group claims is the giant retailer's unfair treatment of its women employees.
The protest is an outgrowth of a 2001 lawsuit filed in California by seven current and former female,
Wal-Mart employees. Their lawyers hope to convince a judge that the suit should be expanded into a class action, representing more than 1.5 million current and former female
Wal-Mart and Sam's Club workers around the nation.
"Wal-Mart is now the largest company in the world. Unfortunately, the way they got to be the largest was upon the backs of their female employees and the slaves who work in their manufacturing facilities overseas," Mavra Stark, the president of the Morris County chapter of NOW said in a statement that was issued last week.
Company Response
Wal-Mart is the nation's largest company, and the world's largest retailer. It has more than one million employees working in more than 3,400 stores throughout the United States.
A spokeswoman for Wal-Mart's corporate office in Bentonville, Ark., said the company disputes wage and promotion information presented by the plaintiffs in the lawsuit,
seven former and current female Wal-Mart workers.
"Wal-Mart doesn't tolerate discrimination against women," said spokeswoman Christi Gallagher.
"Wal-Mart's a great place for women."
Gallagher also said because of its size as the world's largest retailer,
Wal-Mart attracts the criticism of many groups with specific interests.
"Because of our size, we have a lot of special interest groups supporting their agendas," Gallagher said. "NOW would fall into that group."
The national office of NOW has asked its chapters around the nation to join its "Adopt a
Wal-Mart" campaign. Stark said the Morris County chapter plans to picket later in the month but has not yet selected the stores.
Wal-Mart has stores in Ledgewood, Hanover Township and its newest Superstore at the ITC South shopping center in Budd Lake. The group demonstrated at the Ledgewood store last fall.
NOW members will distribute yellow buttons, with a frowning yellow face and the words
"Wal-Mart discriminates." The buttons are a take-off on the company's logo of a yellow, smiley face.
"We'll give the buttons only to people who promise to wear them inside the store," Stark said. "We want to be sure that the employees learn about the unfair practices of their company and how they are being used."
Dukes V. Wal-Mart
The lawsuit prompting the demonstration is Dukes v. Wal-Mart, named for its lead plaintiff, Betty Dukes, who still works at a Wal-Mart store in Pittsburg, Calif. She charges the company with sex discrimination in promotions, training and pay.
The motion is supported by 110 sworn statements from women who worked in 184 different Wal-Mart stores in 30 different states,
According to figures compiled by the NOW national office, total earnings paid to male
Wal-Mart employees is about $5,000 more than earnings paid to women, among full-time employees working at least 45 weeks, on the average.
NOW claims Wal-Mart's female employees are paid lower hourly rates than men on the average, even when working in the same job.
Women are disproportionately employed in lower paying hourly jobs, NOW claims. It also claims that in each of the 41 regions at Wal-Mart, the percentage of women among hourly employees was approximately twice their percentage among salaried employees.
"This is true even though it is also true that women have more years employed at Wal-Mart than men overall, in salary and hourly jobs," the NOW statement said. "Women also have higher performance ratings in hourly jobs than men, on the
average.
A relatively small percentage of Wal-Mart employees are eligible for benefit packages because most of them are part-time workers, NOW claims.
The suit's lead plaintiff, Betty Dukes, says in court papers that she's been trying to get promoted from the cashier ranks for nine years. Other women tell stories of management trips to strip clubs and business meetings at Hooters, according to a statement from Equal Rights Advocates, an advocacy group working with one of the plaintiff's lawyers, Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld and Toll.
The lawyers claim statements made by former and current workers show a pattern of discrimination in many
Wal-Mart stores.
Among other claims made by the plaintiffs, a female assistant manager in Utah was told by her store manager that retail is "tough" and not "appropriate" for women.
A 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, according to the statement.
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 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."
The plaintiffs' lawyers will ask a federal district court judge in San Francisco on Sept. 24 to allow every female Wal-Mart employee going back to 1998 to join the suit as a class action. If the judge approves, Dukes v. Wal-Mart will become the largest discrimination suit in history.
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