Corporate Hall of Shame 2008 - Walmart - Corporate Accountability International - Challenging Abuse, Protecting People - Think Outside the Bottle

Wal-Mart’s ascendance into a world of stratospheric profits has been remarkable. But perhaps what is more remarkable is that taxpayers continue footing the bill for an enterprise that takes most of its profits out of the communities in which they operate.

Left in the wake are flailing small businesses that can’t compete with a price-slashing, subsidized behemoth. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart is increasingly leaning on part-time workers, which means that more of them wind up depending on public dollars for health care coverage. Part-time employees must wait a full year before receiving benefits, and since the majority of workers are short-term, most do not get covered by Wal-Mart.

Who needs health care, really?
Wal-Mart has invested millions of dollars to defeat citizen initiatives that
seek to maintain community zoning standards. The corporation has held fundraisers for, and made gifts to, politicians who later vetoed employee health care legislation – legislation that Wal-Mart actively opposed. And if that wasn’t enough, Wal-Mart has pitted communities against one another to gain tax breaks and subsidies, including $200 million in the last three years according to Walmart Subsidy Watch.

In 2005, Wal-Mart used California’s citizen initiative process in an attempt to pave the way for Wal-Mart to operate in Inglewood, Cali. Despite a $1 million investment by Wal-Mart in the initiative campaign, well-organized citizens voted down the measure by a margin of about 3-to-2. [1]

At odds with homeland security
Wal-Mart has also fought efforts in Congress to tighten U.S. port security, arguing that “examining all containers, of even a fixed percentage of them, could impede shipping and boost costs,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Today only about 5% of the containers entering the US are subject to inspection. And though a far greater volume of cargo moves through the nation’s seaports as opposed to airports, airport security spending outstrips spending on port security by 20-to-1. Wal-Mart and the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), of which Wal-Mart is by far the largest member, have taken the lead in opposing tighter port security.[2]

Corporate snapshot
The first Wal-Mart opened in 1962 in Rogers, Ark. and generated $1 million in first year sales. Today, Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in the world, takes in $1 million every 1.7 seconds, twenty-four hours a day. And every day, a chunk of their windfall profits comes courtesy of taxpayers.[3]

Wal-Mart has now secured more than $1.2 billion in tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing and direct grants from state and local governments spanning the United States.[4]

Wal-Mart has made strides in its health care plan for employees, but an increasing percentage will remain dependent on tax dollars or a second employer for coverage. According to WalMartWatch.com, a campaign of Five Stones and The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, “Citigroup….predicted that ‘Wal-Mart will reduce its ratio of full-time workers to 60 percent over the next year or two, with the remaining 40 percent slated for part-time status. Wal-Mart's proportion of full-time U.S. workers – which currently stands at about 75 percent – could further fall to 50 percent in the future.’” Wal-Mart has acknowledged the likelihood of this impending decrease.

In 2004, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earned a $1.2 million salary, but also pulled in about $22 million in bonuses, stock awards, and stock options. The United Food and Commercial Workers Union points out that, “this $22 million could have reimbursed taxpayers in three states where Wal-Mart topped the list of users of state-sponsored health care programs, covering more than 15,000 Wal-Mart employees and dependents.”[5] In 2007, Scott earned $29.7 million.[6]

Take action

Corporate Accountability International calls upon Wal-Mart to adopt our Standards of Political Conduct for Corporations by ceasing its funding of candidates, campaigns and citizen initiatives and by fully disclosing its lobbying activities throughout the world.

Meanwhile, several other organizations are involved in campaigns to make Wal-Mart a more responsible corporate neighbor:

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) runs a very visible campaign against Wal-Mart to address its labor abuses and other social justice abuses. See www.WakeUpWalMart.com

Five Stones and The Center for Community & Corporate Ethics runs the Wal-Mart Watch campaign: www.WalMartWatch.com

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters runs the Wal-Mart Workers Unite Campaign which focuses on increased labor rights for the Teamsters who work at Wal-Mart distribution centers, Wal-Mart driving units and Sam Clubs stores:
www.teamster.org/divisions/warehouse/walmart/walmartworkersunite.asp

[1] Corporate Accountability International. “Wal-Mart’s Political Profits.” Fact sheet, May 2006: http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/files/pdfs/Wal-Mart's_Political_Profits.pdf