Illegals employed at Walmart were making $2 a DAY

[UpInArms]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2003-10-23-walmart-arrests_x.htm

excerpt:

The arrests stem from a November 1998 investigation done with the Pennsylvania attorney general's office. That inquiry also targeted store-cleaning contractors and subcontractors used by Wal-Mart.

The cleaning crews did not receive health insurance and were paid below the minimum wage, sometimes as little as $2 a day, a federal official said.

The workers arrested Thursday were released if they had no criminal records, but they must appear later before immigration judges.

Arrests were made in Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia, ICE officials said.

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this is from the very right leaning USA Today - if anyone who reads this story ever spends another penny in Walmart (I haven't for almost 4 years), they should think long and hard about what they are truly supporting:

Slave labor by a nasty slimy corrupt corporation.

[VeniceBeat]

1. What's the Big Deal?

They got free van transportation to and from the plantation and all the food from open packages they could scarf!

F***ing outrageous. When will Americans realize that the Walton Family wants to destroy America?

[Fitzovich]

2. Amen!

Wal Mart is truely an "enemy of the people". We can only hope that this and the other legal actions in progress will force it to abide by the laws of the land. They appear to love to steal from their employees. Why must the nation's largest retail chain need to continually break the law. Why isn't just easier (and cheaper in the long run) to just follow the rules like the rest of must do. I urge everyone to not shop at Wal Mart.

[terrisel]

3. Smokescreen alert

Walmart is far from the only corporate employer that contracts with companies using underpaid illegal workers.

If you boycott Walmart you also need to boycott chicken---who do you think is working in the chicken processing factories ?

The real question here to me is: Why the raid on Walmart ?

Does Walmart not contribute sufficiently to the right political campaigns ?

Are there people in the Department of Justice with conscience who were simply outraged about the $2.00 per day cited in this case ?
Is the $2.00 per day accurate or hype?

I am thinking that perhaps this raid was on-the-level since in was supposedly initiated in 1998 but I far too many of the companies that I deal with have employees that I believe are illegal for me to become outraged about Walmart.

However I don't shop there anyway-just don't want to give any more of my limited dollars to a supercorporation. I try to find the micromarket alternatives and just buy less if the prices are higher.

(I keep wondering if we need these corporations - or if they are costing us more than they are worth).

Hey, did you see the NY times article today on the Chinese company that opened a plant in South Carolina ? I bet they are not hiring illegal immigrants.

I had been wondering where those weird refrigerators in Home Depot (that I looked at but did not buy) came from.......now I know.

[UpInArms]

4. perhaps you might read this

http://www.walmartwatch.com/bad/internal.cfm?subsection_id=110&internal_id=253

Globalizing Poverty Through The World Trade Organization

Bangladesh, Beximco factory--Young women making Wal-mart shirts forced to work from 7:30 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., seven days a week, 87 hours a week

Paid 9 to 20 cents and hour for 80 hours--lunch break is unpaid. And paid less than one-third the legal overtime rate

No health care--No maternity leave

Wal-Mart and Beximco are violating Bangladeshi labor law which sets the workweek at 48 hours and limits overtime to 12 hours a week, while also requiring overtime pay at double the standard hourly rate

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