-Mart Sucks (and so does Sam's Club)
Published March 2002
by William J. Appel
A Sam's Club representative called the office on February 15 to
ask Metro Justice to join so that our members could shop at their
store. We get such solicitations from them once a year, even though
I continually tell them we are not interested. This time I said
that we do not want anything to do with Sam's Club or Wall-Mart.
The caller asked what I had against them. I replied that I objected
to the manner in which Wall Mart treats its workers. Further, I
said, you sell items made in sweatshops and then hide behind a phony
'Buy American' campaign. The caller wanted to know if I had documentation
for my charge that Wall-Mart sells sweatshop goods. As a matter
of fact I do, I replied, right here in the office (see appendix).
He then asked if I had personally traveled to China and inspected
the places where their goods are made. (Notice the tacit admission
that they sell stuff made in China). I said that I had not, but
the documentation I had was from people that had done so.
His next tack was that Sam's Club and Wall Mart were not the same
entitiy. I replied that both are owned by the Walton family. He
admitted that they were and changed gears again, asking if I knew
how much money Wall Mart (notice how he slips with ease between
discussing the two chains) donated to post-9/11 charities. My response
was that's a specious argument. 'You mean to say I am supposed to
feel better about Wall Mart's exploitation of workers because they
gave some of their ill-gotten gains to charity?' The caller wanted
to continue the discussion, but my heart was beating furiously so
I terminated the conversation.
There are other reasons to detest Wall Mart as well. Wall Mart and
Sam's help to destroy the character of our communities by plunking
their big, ugly stores down on the outskirts of our towns and cities
and driving locally owned stores out of business. I hope none of
you shop at either place. If you are tempted by the cheap prices,
try to remember the hidden costs.
Appendix Wal-Mart lowering standards in China: The TianjinYuhua
garment factory, which in the past did a lot of work for Wal-Mart,
is now steadily losing Wal-Mart's orders to South China factories.
In fact, the Tianjin Yuhua plant is the last factory in Tianjin
holding Wal-Mart orders. All the rest of the work has already been
pulled out.
In its search for even lower wages, no benefits, no regulations,
excessive forced overtime hours seven days a week, and lower taxes,
Wal-Mart is actually lowering standards in China, as it moves its
work to privately-owned sweatshops which are booming in China's
southern coastal provinces. This directly contradicts Wal-Mart's
and other U.S. companies' claim that their presence in China would
increase standards of living, improve working conditions, while
building respect for human and worker rights. In reality, nothing
could be further from the truth.
Source: 'Made in China: Behind the Label'
(1998) The National Labor Committee