The AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work, Change to Win and WakeUp Wal-Mart filed the request Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. They said Wal-Mart broke federal election law by holding mandatory meetings with its store managers and department supervisors in seven states to tell them to oppose Obama because of his support of the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it easier to join unions. The meetings were first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The meetings were confirmed by other Wal-Mart workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation, but who nevertheless called another organization that probes the retailer, Wal-Mart Watch, to discuss the sessions.
Wal-Mart, the Journal story said, specifically warned managers and supervisors that working and voting for Obama for president is a vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. The act, beaten by a Senate GOP filibuster this year, will come up again in the next Congress.
Federal law lets corporations "communicate express advocacy about federal candidates," such as Obama "only to a restricted class" of employees, the labor groups\' complaint says. That class has to be salaried, not hourly, and it is only "employees who have policymaking, managerial, professional or supervisory responsibilities."
The Wal-Mart store managers and department supervisors, summoned to the meetings about Obama and EFCA, are hourly workers. Even Wal-Mart\'s spokesman calls them "associates" – the corporation\'s name for rank-and-file workers.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which Wal-Mart hates, would level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, including the very "captive audience" meetings Wal-Mart held to preach against Obama. Firms hold those with workers in almost all organizing drives, featuring anti-union harangues with no rebuttals. Workers must attend or face discipline.
The act would not only outlaw those sessions, but it would give workers the choice of a card-check or an election when choosing a union. It also would make it easier to get court orders against companies such as Wal-Mart that routinely violate worker rights.
Wal-Mart, which with 1.4 million workers is the world\'s largest private company, says it talks with workers about EFCA but does not pressure them how to vote on candidates who are for or against it.
Wal-Mart Watch said the Journal story "demonstrates once again Wal-Mart intimidates its workers." The story was "consistent" with many reports it got from Wal-Mart workers in the last week, the organization added. One Missouri supervisor who called flatly said Wal-Mart was ordering them how to vote.
"Some reports we received were even more egregious than what was described in (the Journal) story. In one case, a worker said they were shown a slide that said \'Obama = union\' and then were told why unions were bad . . . All of these tactics seem to be designed to keep workers from demanding better wages, decent benefits or fairer working conditions," Wal-Mart Watch said.
Added Michael Whitney of American Rights at Work: "Unfortunately for Wal-Mart workers, this kind of intimidation is nothing new. It\'s actually part and parcel for Wal-Mart\'s business plan. When Wal-Mart employees stand up for themselves and try to form a union, they face threats, propaganda, discrimination, intimidation, and even firings in retaliation.
"What Wal-Mart is doing for November\'s election is what it, and hundreds of other anti-union companies, do all the time when workers say they want an union: Intimidating them to go against their own self-interests."
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.
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The AFL-CIO, American Rights at Work, Change to Win and WakeUp Wal-Mart filed the request Thursday with the Federal Election Commission. They said Wal-Mart broke federal election law by holding mandatory meetings with its store managers and department supervisors in seven states to tell them to oppose Obama because of his support of the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would make it easier to join unions. The meetings were first reported in the Wall Street Journal.
The meetings were confirmed by other Wal-Mart workers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing retaliation, but who nevertheless called another organization that probes the retailer, Wal-Mart Watch, to discuss the sessions.
Wal-Mart, the Journal story said, specifically warned managers and supervisors that working and voting for Obama for president is a vote for the Employee Free Choice Act. The act, beaten by a Senate GOP filibuster this year, will come up again in the next Congress.
Federal law lets corporations "communicate express advocacy about federal candidates," such as Obama "only to a restricted class" of employees, the labor groups\’ complaint says. That class has to be salaried, not hourly, and it is only "employees who have policymaking, managerial, professional or supervisory responsibilities."
The Wal-Mart store managers and department supervisors, summoned to the meetings about Obama and EFCA, are hourly workers. Even Wal-Mart\’s spokesman calls them "associates" – the corporation\’s name for rank-and-file workers.
The Employee Free Choice Act, which Wal-Mart hates, would level the playing field between workers and bosses in organizing and bargaining, including the very "captive audience" meetings Wal-Mart held to preach against Obama. Firms hold those with workers in almost all organizing drives, featuring anti-union harangues with no rebuttals. Workers must attend or face discipline.
The act would not only outlaw those sessions, but it would give workers the choice of a card-check or an election when choosing a union. It also would make it easier to get court orders against companies such as Wal-Mart that routinely violate worker rights.
Wal-Mart, which with 1.4 million workers is the world\’s largest private company, says it talks with workers about EFCA but does not pressure them how to vote on candidates who are for or against it.
Wal-Mart Watch said the Journal story "demonstrates once again Wal-Mart intimidates its workers." The story was "consistent" with many reports it got from Wal-Mart workers in the last week, the organization added. One Missouri supervisor who called flatly said Wal-Mart was ordering them how to vote.
"Some reports we received were even more egregious than what was described in (the Journal) story. In one case, a worker said they were shown a slide that said \’Obama = union\’ and then were told why unions were bad . . . All of these tactics seem to be designed to keep workers from demanding better wages, decent benefits or fairer working conditions," Wal-Mart Watch said.
Added Michael Whitney of American Rights at Work: "Unfortunately for Wal-Mart workers, this kind of intimidation is nothing new. It\’s actually part and parcel for Wal-Mart\’s business plan. When Wal-Mart employees stand up for themselves and try to form a union, they face threats, propaganda, discrimination, intimidation, and even firings in retaliation.
"What Wal-Mart is doing for November\’s election is what it, and hundreds of other anti-union companies, do all the time when workers say they want an union: Intimidating them to go against their own self-interests."
Mark Gruenberg writes for Press Associates, Inc., news service. Used by permission.