The labor rights organization, American Rights at Work, released a video this week of workers turning in a petition signed by more than 60,000 people in support of a formal complaint filed Aug. 15th against apparently illegal electioneering by the multinational retail giant Wal-Mart.
The scandal broke when a Wall Street Journal article earlier this month and subsequent investigations revealed that Wal-Mart had held mandatory employee meetings at which corporate representatives told workers not to vote for Democrats or for Barack Obama.
The formal complaint filed with the Federal Elections Commission accused Wal-Mart of making "prohibited corporate expenditures" to influence the votes of its hourly employees. It was filed jointly by the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations as well as American Rights at Work (ARAW) and WakeUPWalMart.com.
According to the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets, Wal-Mart told employees that the Democrats sought passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, a law that would make it easier for employees to join or organize labor unions in their workplaces, and thus employees should not vote for Democrats.
A recording of the one of the meetings was obtained and reported on by the Wall Street Journal. In the recording, reports the Journal, "the meeting leader, a human-resources manager, began by saying she was going to talk about the company and unions and 'a little bit of politics,' specifically the Employee Free Choice Act. The leader said that the bill almost passed last year."
"If Democrats get the votes they need and elect a Democratic president, they said it will be the first bill presented and that's scary," the Wall Street Journal quoted her as saying.
Employees of Wal-Mart, questioned by the Wall Street Journal and other news outlets, stated that the message was clear: don't vote for Democrats or Barack Obama.
"I am not a stupid person. They were telling me how to vote," the Wall Street Journal article quoted one worker as saying.
The Employee Free Choice Act has already passed in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, but was blocked by a Republican filibuster, aided by Republican presidential nominee, John McCain, in the Senate.
Barack Obama has pledged to sign the bill into law, and favors strengthening workers' rights across the board.
In 2007, internationally respected Human Rights Watch published a report documenting Wal-Mart's systematic violation of workers rights in its stores. According to the report, the company uses unlawful threats of retaliation against employees, spying, and mandatory "captive audience" meetings to instill its anti-union message along with its threats to new employees.
Most of these actions are illegal, but legal sanctions required by current federal labor laws are so minimal that Wal-Mart has little incentive to follow the law, the report stated. Some provisions of the Employee Free Choice Act would provide that incentive.
Other Wal-Mart meeting leaders blatantly lied to the employees about the bill. According to the recording obtained by the Wall Street Journal, one meeting leader said, that if workers join a union, "their wages may be reduced to minimum wage for up to three months before a contract is negotiated, that union authorization cards violate workers' right to privacy by including their Social Security numbers on them and that if a small unit within a store votes to unionize, the entire store will be unionized."
Intentionally deceiving employees about their rights under labor law is itself a violation of labor law.
Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, told reporters that "Wal-Mart seems to be willing to break federal election law in order to stop their employees and all of America's workers from having a fair shot at the American dream."
In a related matter, more than 150 North Carolina workers, this week, joined a union-sponsored public roundtable in Hickory, North Carolina which coincided with a local Chamber of Commerce event there.
The workers affirmed their support for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, which the Chamber of Commerce opposes. The Chamber of Commerce event, which included a number of elected officials, including North Carolina Republican Sen. Elizabeth Dole, made special security efforts to exclude the workers from attending.
A recent public opinion poll showed wide support for passage of the Employee Free Choice Act across the country. Data released by the non-partisan Drum Major Institute for Public Policy this week revealed that almost seven in 10 Americans favor their congressional representatives voting for the bill, including 60 percent of Republicans and 59 percent of independents.
In a statement, Maxwell said, “This new poll reinforces that a clear majority of Americans – be they Democrats, independents, or Republicans – want policies like the Employee Free Choice Act that will help working families struggling in this economy."
