New York City Says No to Wal-Mart Store

Wal-Mart in Baghdad, Unions in Manhattan

Diane Taha, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Apr 10, 2007 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."

What is one retail store that can be found in Baghdad but not Manhattan? You guessed it, Wal-Mart has taken the opportunity to seize profit from the U.S.'s long standing occupation in Iraq to expand its corporate blood to the Baghdad Airport, along with McDonalds.

There are currently no Wal-Mart stores in New York, and New Yorkers want to keep it that way. Despite other retail giants' presence in the city, such as Kmart and Target, Wal-Mart is singled out for its especially unjust treatment of its employees along with low wages and stingy health benefits. Unions are the most vocal opponents of the retail giant, effectively thwarting its dream from expanding to the NYC among other cities. Along with Manhattan, unions and political activists in Queens and Staten Island also countered Wal-Mart's attempts to establish stores in those cities. Much of the opposition from unions stems from Wal-Mart's exceptionally low prices that would threaten unionized stores.

The establishment of corporations through imperialism, such as Iraq, is an attempt to not only profit from expansion and low wage labor, but also change the occupied country's society and culture by dominating its economy to suit the interests of the occupier whilst destroying the country's indigenous businesses. Another reason why this is so popular is because the economy is a simple way to occupy a country without the need for a present military base. Moreover, corporations seek labor overseas as an opportunity to violate laws such as the minimum wage and fair treatment of workers.

With approximately 4,000 stores in the U.S., Wal-Mart also has branches in Argentina, Brazil. Canada, China, Costa Rica, United Kingdom, Japan, Puerto Rico, Honduras, and many more including a whopping 889 stores in Mexico. South Korea and Germany have nonetheless, defeated Wal-Mart's efforts to establish corporate blood in their countries. In 2005, overseas textile workers from Bangladesh, China, Nicaragua, Indonesia, and Swaziland filed a suit against Wal-Mart, alleging they had to work overtime with a salary below the minimum wage. The workers also claimed they were physically abused by Wal-Mart contractors and were locked for hours in their factories. Ironically, prior to the incident, Wal-Mart had a code to protect workers overseas but like most codes, Wal-Mart eventually violates them.

Foreign laborers are not the only ones suing Wal-Mart for its crude treatment and low pay. In 2003, a Florida woman won a $7,000 settlement after being fired for complaining about constant schedule changes which made her life unmanageable; a policy which may have to do with Wal-Mart's request that workers be available for 7 days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Last year, Wal-Mart managers attempted to defend themselves to workers against growing opposition of the company from politicians, unions, and bloggers.

Wal-Mart's growing concern about its reputation forced it to resort to other forms of defense. In March 2007, news about Wal-Mart's new intelligence tactics surfaced after Bruce Gabbard, a member of Wal-Mart's Threat and Analysis team, was fired for logging phone conversations and text messages of employees (and in this case, a New York Times journalist). The surveillance comes as Wal-Mart, along with other corporations, attempts to secure their reputation from employees who discuss the company's treatment of workers and keep trade secrets hidden. Wal-Mart's stock, for example, has deteriorated to around $45 from $60 since news of its surveillance and low wage bombarded online news articles. Wal-Mart is vastly becoming the Big Brother of corporate America, hiring ex-FBI and CIA agents to spy on employees and senior executives in the U.S. and abroad.

One might wonder how the government allows Wal-Mart to continue treating its employees the way it does. But Washington is hardly helpful when it, too, operates parallel to Wal-Mart, as in the case of Halliburton and BlackWater USA corporations which failed to protect U.S. workers in Iraq. That is why unions such as the ones in New York are such a helpful resource for combating the successful establishment of corporations which reinforce poverty and exploitation. Now Wal-Mart's chief executive, H. Lee Scott Jr. has given up on opening a branch in New York "it's too hard to make money here" he said to the New York Times, "I don't think it's worth the effort."

Published by Diane Taha

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New York City Says No to Wal-Mart Store

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