Biggest civil rights lawsuit in history
Wal-Mart charged with sex discrimination
By Sue Davis
On Sept. 24 a U.S. District Court judge heard
arguments on turning a case charging Wal-Mart with sex
discrimination into a class-action lawsuit. If the judge
decides in favor, the case would become the big gest
civil-rights lawsuit in history--involving 1.6 million current
or former female workers. Should Wal-Mart lose, it would have
to stop its sexist practices, pay millions of dollars in
compensatory wages back to 1998 and adjust wages going
forward.
Six female Wal-Mart workers in different cities filed the
lawsuit in 2001. They charge that the world's biggest private
retail corporation paid them on average $1,400 less than male
co-workers and that they were overlooked or denied promotions
because of their sex.
Statistics show that women make up 65 percent of the current
Wal-Mart sales force, but only 33 percent of managers. Only
after the lawsuit was filed did the company begin posting job
openings so all workers could apply.
Though she struggled for seven years for a promotion,
plaintiff Christine Kwap noski didn't get one until after the
lawsuit was filed. She can document that she earned a nickel an
hour more thana male counterpart who had half her experience.
Lead plaintiff Betty Dukes, who's worked for Wal-Mart since
1994, says: "I saw a lot of men advancing; opportunities did
not seem to be there for me. It's beyond my store in
Pittsburgh." (Contra Costa Times, Sept. 25)
It's no secret that anti-union Wal-Mart is ruthless in its
pursuit of profit. The number of lawsuits it has lost--for
discriminating against African American men and people with
disabilities, for example--is huge. In fact, the National
Organization for Women has a Web page detailing cases, and Web
sites like www.walmartwatch.com track the company's many unfair
labor practices.
No matter how bad Wal-Mart's record may be, paying women
less than men for comparable work is standard operating
procedure under capitalism. Depart ment of Labor statistics for
2002 show that median weekly earnings for all women were $530
compared with $609 for men. Earnings specifically for African
American and Latina women are even lower.
But don't think the bosses cut a better deal for women
managers and professionals. On the contrary, the gap between
men's and women's earnings widens as the rungs of the corporate
ladder get higher. Managerial and professional men were paid on
average $1,058 per week in 2002 compared with $756 for
women.
The case against Wal-Mart holds huge potential. A victory
could be used by unions, women's organizations and
social-justice groups to demand equal pay for all women
workers. What's needed to win such a victory are mass
demonstrations before and during the trial. There's nothing
like the workers' righteous anger to frighten the likes of
Wal-Mart's billionaire owner Sam Robson Walton into paying
up.
Reprinted from the Oct. 30, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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