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The Georgia State AFL-CIO adopted the following Wal-Mart resolution at the 49th Convention on October 18, 2007. Now more than ever, it is time for Union families to support American workers and jobs so our children can retain what we have struggled to gain for their future.
RESOLUTION XIV
WAL-MART WHEREAS, Wal-Mart is the world’s largest retailer and America's largest private employer, with more than 1.3 million employees and over $12 billion in profits per year; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart and its irresponsible business practices have let America down, and Wal-Mart now threatens American middle-class families more than any other corporation; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart fails to provide company health care to over half of its employees, leaving 46 percent of the children of its workers either uninsured or on public assistance; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart shifts too much of its health care costs onto the American taxpayer, as tens of thousands of Wal-Mart workers are forced to depend on state Medicaid programs, and Wal-Mart leads all companies with the greatest number of employees and/or dependents on taxpayer-funded public health care, in 21 of 22 states reporting; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart cost taxpayers an estimated $1.3 billion in government health care programs nationwide in 2005, including $58,027,172 in Georgia alone, and is projected to cost taxpayers an estimated $9 billion over the next five years; and WHEREAS, in Georgia, over 10,000 dependents of Wal-Mart workers were enrolled in the state PeachCare program, according to the latest data released by the state in 2004, nearly 14 times more than any other employer; and WHEREAS, the average full-time Wal-Mart worker earns $2,000 below the poverty line for a family of four, and it would take 1,000 years for an average Wal-Mart worker to earn what CEO Lee Scott earned in one year; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart has repeatedly broken child labor laws in the United States; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart faces the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history, with over 2 million female employees suing Wal-Mart for gender discrimination; and WHEREAS, up to 10,000 African-American truck drivers are suing Wal-Mart for racial discrimination; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart forces employees to work off-the-clock, and faces 76 wage and hour lawsuits; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart is viciously anti-union, and has been known to fire workers who attempt to organize a union, and close stores or departments when workers exercise their rights; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart abandoned its “Buy American” program and has driven more American manufacturing jobs overseas than any other retailer in American history; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart, if it were its own country, would be China’s sixth largest trading partner, ahead of Germany and England; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart lobbies for free-trade agreements that make it easier for companies to ship American jobs overseas; and WHEREAS, Wal-Mart and its special interest lobby group, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), have gone so far as to lobby Congress against 100% screening of port containers, putting even America’s national security second to their profits; and WHEREAS, rather than heed the call for real change, Wal-Mart has chosen to pursue a path defined by empty rhetoric and publicity stunts while at the same time slashing its labor costs and health benefits; and WHEREAS, the Georgia AFL-CIO is dedicated to improving the lives of working families by bringing economic justice to the workplace and social justice to our nation; THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Georgia AFL-CIO fully supports and will partner with WakeUpWalMart.com in order to change Wal-Mart into a responsible and moral corporation. |
