Wal-Mart makes top ten list of worst corporations From UNI

Wal-Mart has received the questionable distinction of making the list of the ten worst corporations of 2004. This list of shame has been compiled by Multinational Monitor>, a renowned bi-monthly U.S. magazine which follows the behaviour of multinational companies.

You only have to look at the cover of Wal-Mart’s 2004 Annual Report to know the company is facing trouble unlike any it has had to handle before, Multinational Monitor says, introducing the 'award'. “It’s my Wal-Mart,” asserts the slogan on the cover of the annual report. At the bottom are these claims: “Good Jobs * Good Works * Good Citizen * Good Investment.” Missing is any reference to “Always Low Prices.” What Multinational Monitor refers to is Wal-Mart's ongoing publicity campaign. The growing awareness about the company's bad behaviour and ruthless social dumping starts to hurt.

But instead of changing its behaviour, the Bentonville-based multinational pays big money, trying to paint itself as a good employer, and a good corporate citizen.

These efforts seem to be in vain, however. Reports on Wal-Mart's bad employer behaviour emerge regularly, as do lawsuits by former and present employees. Multinational Monitor states that the company has '... relied centrally on undercompensating employees and externalizing costs on to society'.

One of the most devastating documents for Wal-Mart is a report issued by U.S. Representative George Miller in February 2004. It told how the company is blocking union organizing efforts, paying employees an average $8.23 an hour (as compared to more than $10 for an average supermarket worker), allegedly extracting off-the-clock work, and providing inadequate and unaffordable healthcare packages for employees. According to Congressman Miller's report, a Wal-Mart store with 200 workers can cost federal taxpayers $420,750 a year, which amounts to a subsidy for the company of over $2,000 USD per worker. The report listed some of these expenses: $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families. $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family. $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children. $100,000 a year for the additional Title I [educational] expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of two children. $108,000 a year for the additional federal healthcare costs of moving into state children’s health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an average of two children qualify. The Miller Report is supported by several other studies, which come to the same conclusion - that taxpayers in the United States are indeed supporting this retail giant, which grinds incredible profits for its owner family, but does it at a high cost for its low-paid workers and their families.