Wal-Mart's Great Leap Forward

Wal-Mart, having saturated the United States with over 3,600 stores, has set its sights on China -- and, according to Ralph Nader, "using this Communist regime as its labor enforcement arm to drive down wages and benefits in the U.S."

November 29, 2004, 2pm PST | Michael Dudley

Wal-Mart's recent agreement to allow its Chinese workforce to unionize is highly disingenuous, says Nader. Chinese unions are state-controlled, so will actually operate as an efficient enforcement mechanism.

It is tactics such as these that are allowing Wal-Mart to wreak such havoc with standards of living around the world -- and raiding taxpayers' pocketbooks in the process. One recent study found that the social supports necessary to feed and shelter the children of the employees from "one 200-person Wal-Mart store could cost federal taxpayers over $420,000 per year. These costs include subsidized lunches, health insurance and housing assistance, federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, among other examples of Wal-Marts freeloading."

Thanks to Michael Dudley

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Wal-Mart Ways

Published on Monday, November 29, 2004 in Common Dreams