Hightower Lowdown

Wal-Mart, that recidivist
corporate criminal, is back
in trouble with the law.
Jesse James, Bonnie &
Clyde, and Al Capone had
nothing on this notorious
violator of our nation's
laws and moral code of
behavior. It routinely robs
its nearly one million workers,
depriving them of a
fair wage and a fair chance.
For example:
Wal-Mart illegally compels
employees to work an
extra hour or so without
pay after their shift is over.
More than 30 states have
filed class-action suits
against the company for
requiring this "off-the-clock"
work. The largest sex-discrimination
suit ever filed
in U.S. history is also
under way against Wal-
Mart on behalf of nearly a
million women who have
worked there.
Wal-Mart has been sued
more times by federal
authorities for discrimination
against the disabled
than any other corporation.
Wal-Mart has been formally
cited more than 40
times in the past five years
for using illegal tactics to
deny its workers the right
to join a union.
Its latest legal comeuppance
came when the feds
recently raided 60 Wal-
Mart stores in 21 states
and arrested illegal immigrants
working as janitors.
The workers in these
cleaning crews were being
paid far below the minimum
wage, getting as little as $2
a day working for the richest
retailer in the world.
Oh, no, cried Wal-Mart
executives, they don't work
for us, but for the cleaning
contractors we hire, and—
trust us—we had no idea
they were hiring illegal workers
and paying illegal wages!
What a crock. Wal-Mart
is renowned for its elaborate
computer network that
tracks every cost the company
incurs down to the
penny, and for demanding
that its suppliers and contractors
pay the lowest
wages possible. Plus, this
is the third time in the past
five years that Wal-Mart has
been caught pulling this
same crime of using illegal
cleaning crews. Not only
does Wal-Mart know what's
going on, but such exploitation
of workers is integral to
this criminal corporation’s
ongoing profit plan.