Human Rights Watch Blasts Wal-Mart

Human Rights Watch, which investigates abuses of human rights around the world, said today that Wal-Mart is using many different techniques, both legal and illegal, to prevent its employees from forming or joining a union. By doing this, Wal-Mart is abusing the human rights of its workers.

Carol Pier, a researcher for Human Rights Watch, says, "Wal-Mart workers have virtually no chance to organize because they're up against unfair U.S. labor laws and a giant company that will do just about anything to keep unions out. Wal-Mart is a poster child for what is wrong with U.S. labor laws. Many tactics comport with U.S. law but taken together they create a climate of fear and intimidation."

These are some of the tactics used by Wal-Mart to keep workers from unionizing:

* Restricted the dissemination of pro-union views.

* Threatened to withhold benefits from pro-union workers.

* Eavesdropped on workers with security cameras.

* Interrogated workers about their union sympathies.

* Sent managers to eavesdrop on worker conversations.

* Fires employees it knows to be pro-union.

* Refuses to bargain collectively.

* Gives new-hires anti-union training sessions.

* Gives managers union-prevention manuals.

* Uses a centralized database to track union activity.

Of course, Wal-Mart denies this. Company spokesman David Tovar says, "Wal-Mart provides an enviornment of open communications and gives our associates every opportunity to express their ideas, comments and concerns. It is because of our efforts to foster such an enviornment that our associates have repeatedly rejected unionization attempts."

If anyone believes that, I've got some ocean-front property in Amarillo that I'll sell you real cheap! It's only been about a year since Wal-Mart closed a store in Canada because the employees voted to unionize. I think they thought if they didn't do that, the union would spread to other stores. So they made an example.

Here in the U.S., they are notorious for paying low wages. So much so that more Wal-Mart families are qualifying for poverty-level government health insurance than any other corporation. They do offer a company insurance plan, but with the poor wages they are being paid few workers can afford to buy it.

Human Rights Watch is right. Wal-Mart has taken employee abuse to a new level, and is not about to let any union correct the situation.