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Feds: Wal-Mart Execs Knew Workers Illegal
By MARCUS KABEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 27 minutes ago
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. - Senior Wal-Mart executives knew cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants, many of whom were housed in crowded conditions and sometimes slept in the backs of stores, according to a federal agency's affidavit.
The affidavit, unsealed last week, was part of an investigation of Wal-Mart by federal immigration officials that led to the 2003 raid on 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states, and the arrests of 245 illegal workers. The retailer agreed to pay $11 million in March to settle the case, but says top executives neither encouraged nor knew of the practice.
The affidavit was filed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service to secure search warrants for a 2003 raid on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. The INS has since been folded into the bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The document was unsealed Nov. 2 by a U.S. district judge in Fayetteville, Ark. at the request of a New York attorney representing more than 200 former employees in a civil lawsuit against the world's largest retailer.
In the affidavit, investigators said testimony and taped conversations from 2003 showed two executives at Wal-Mart headquarters knew that contractors and subcontractors cleaning its stores in several states employed illegal immigrants from eastern Europe and elsewhere.
The lawyer who asked that the affidavit be unsealed said it shows Wal-Mart knew it had illegal janitors in its stores.
The sworn testimony (in the affidavit) establishes that top Wal-Mart executives conspired with contractors to exploit undocumented immigrants, said James L. Linsey, a New York attorney leading a class-action lawsuit on behalf of former janitors.
Wal-Mart denied there was any incriminating evidence in the affidavit and said the comments by executives that it contained were bits and pieces of information from larger conversations.
As we have maintained all along, no company senior official had any direct knowledge that undocumented workers were working in our stores, Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said in an e-mail to The Associated Press.
According to the affidavit, one cleaning contractor, Christopher Walters, told INS investigators that his company, IMC Associates of St. Louis, had been dropped by Wal-Mart in 1997 after INS raids in the St. Louis area found illegal workers cleaning the retailers' stores.
Walters told the INS that a Wal-Mart vice president, Leroy Schuetz, advised him to set up multiple subsidiaries so that if one of them were found using illegal workers, he could continue to do business with the retailer through the others.
The affidavit said another conversation took place in April 2003 at Wal-Mart headquarters between Steve Bertschy, a Wal-Mart vice president who managed maintenance of all Wal-Mart stores, and two contractors accompanied by an undercover INS investigator.
After one of the contractors repeatedly mentioned that many cleaning subcontractors were known to be using illegal immigrants at Wal-Mart stores, the affidavit said Bertschy commented: And they load them up into one or two apartments and they take a family of five and pay them $1,000 a week, that's probably a dollar an hour if they're there seven days a week and they're not paying taxes because they're not getting paid a fair rate compared to U.S. standards, then they start stealing from the store to make up the difference.
Federal raids later found immigrants crowded into small apartments or trailers in sleeping bags and, in some cases, sleeping in the backs of Wal-Mart stores, carrying their personal belongings from job site to job site.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051107/ap_on_...illegal_workers
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This is not the first time I read such news about Wal-Mart. And it's reasons like these that I don't shop at Wal-Mart. I'd rather pay the extra dollar or two at a store that doesn't exploit cheap labor or treat their employees like garbage.
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Alright, that's it, I'm not applying to work at Wal-Mart anymore.
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^Apply for Costco if you can, they have much higher pay and much better benefits.
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http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20051107/...lmartsplanasham
Wal-Mart's plan a sham
By Paul Blank Mon Nov 7,10:10 AM ET
Wal-Mart's announcements about its health care plan are nothing more than a desperate publicity stunt to salvage a faltering public image. Unfortunately, Wal-Mart's new plan is unlikely to insure one additional worker. Here's why: Wal-Mart refuses to address the fundamental reason half of its workers don't have company health care - extremely high deductibles and strict eligibility requirements. (Related: Our view)
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The cheapest deductible on Wal-Mart's new plan is $1,000 for individual coverage and $3,000 for family coverage. For Wal-Mart workers, many of whom make $12,000 to $15,000 a year, the cost could be as much as 25% of their take-home pay for individual coverage and up to 40% for family coverage.
Second, Wal-Mart has strict eligibility requirements. Unlike managers, who qualify immediately, full-time workers are eligible for health care coverage only after six months, twice the national average. Part-time employees are eligible after two years and are never eligible for family coverage.
In addition, Wal-Mart's health savings accounts shift health care costs from the employer onto the individual and are available only to workers who already have health care. Therefore, by definition, the HSAs don't help any uninsured Wal-Mart workers.
The fact is, despite the company's nearly $10 billion profit last year, more than 600,000 Wal-Mart workers live without company health care. Even though Wal-Mart is the USA's largest corporation, it provides health care to 30% fewer workers than the average company in the S&P 500. And, most disturbing, one of every two children of Wal-Mart workers is either uninsured or relies on public health care.
No wonder Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Susan Chambers admits in a leaked memo, Our coverage is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance.
Behind Wal-Mart's smiley face, senior executives are hatching out new schemes to cut costs at workers' expense. Wal-Mart's internal memo exposes their plan to cut health care costs by dissuading unhealthy or obese people from applying, pushing out more senior workers, shifting to more part-time employees and cutting spousal benefits.
Americans will see Wal-Mart's announcement for what it is - a company desperate to hide its growing moral bankruptcy.
Paul Blank is campaign director of Wake Up Wal-Mart, a project of United Food and Commercial Workers union.
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and i thought the ceo of walmart was a philanthropist. what a freakin joke...
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and i thought the ceo of walmart was a philanthropist. what a freakin joke...
I thought the CEO died in a plane crash recently
