November 15, 2003<br><br>
      The Wal-Martization of America<br><br>

      The 70,000 grocery workers on strike in Southern California are the front 
      line in a battle to prevent middle-class service jobs from turning into 
      poverty-level ones. The supermarkets say they are forced to lower their 
      labor costs to compete with Wal-Mart, a nonunion, low-wage employer 
      aggressively moving into the grocery business. Everyone should be 
      concerned about this fight. It is, at bottom, about the ability of retail 
      workers to earn wages that keep their families out of poverty. <br><br>
      Grocery stores in Southern California are bracing for the arrival, in 
      February, of the first of 40 Wal-Mart grocery supercenters. Wal-Mart's 
      prices are about 14 percent lower than other groceries' because the 
      company is aggressive about squeezing costs, including labor costs. Its 
      workers earn a third less than unionized grocery workers, and pay for much 
      of their health insurance. Wal-Mart uses hardball tactics to ward off 
      unions. Since 1995, the government has issued at least 60 complaints 
      alleging illegal anti-union activities.<br><br>
      Southern California's supermarket chains have reacted by demanding a 
      two-year freeze on current workers' salaries and lower pay for newly hired 
      workers, and they want employees to pay moTre for health insurance. The 
      union counters that if the supermarkets match Wal-Mart, their workers will 
      be pushed out of the middle class. Those workers are already only a step --
      or a second family income -- from poverty, with wages of roughly $18,000 a 
      year. Wal-Mart sales clerks make about $14,000 a year, below the $15,060 
      poverty line for a family of three.<br><br>
      Wal-Mart may also be driving down costs by using undocumented immigrants. 
      Last month, federal agents raided Wal-Marts in 21 states. Wal-Mart is 
      facing a grand jury investigation, and a civil racketeering class-action 
      filed by cleaners who say they were underpaid when working for contractors 
      hired by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart insists that it was unaware of its 
      contractors' practices. But aware or not, it may have helped to deprive 
      legally employable janitors of jobs and adequate pay.<br><br>
      This Wal-Martization of the work force, to which other low-cost, low-pay 
      stores also contribute, threatens to push many Americans into poverty. The 
      first step in countering it is to enforce the law. The government must act 
      more vigorously, and more quickly, when Wal-Mart uses illegal tactics to 
      block union organizing. And Wal-Mart must be made to pay if it exploits 
      undocumented workers. 
      Unions understand that the quickest way to win this war is to organize 
      Wal-Mart workers. And Wal-Mart's competitors have to strive for Wal-Mart's 
      efficiency without making workers bear the brunt. Consumers can also play 
      a part. Wal-Mart likes to wrap itself in American values. It should be 
      reminded that one of those is paying workers enough to give their families 
      a decent life.


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