WAL-MART: F'in Evil
I just got back from PJA's screening of Robert Greenwald's new documentary, WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Prices and I am genuinly shocked. I have been solidly in the WAL-MART is evil camp for some time what with their notorious sex discrimination, practice of locking undocumented workers in stores over night, and general loathing for America's rudimentary labor laws. This documentary wraps all that and more up into a gorgeous little package.
As a film it is a little rough but you stop caring once you realize that you jaw has been on the floor for most of the film in total shock at the kind of stuff this company does.
The two examples that struck home with me touch on WAL-MART's complete disregard for surrounding communities. First was the story of a woman in North Carolina who uncovered WAL-MART's practice of storing large palletes of chemicals in their parking lots that were breaking open and leaking into the drinking water. After months of wrangling with the company, consent decrees from the Justice Department, and every other step imaginable it took a hard hitting news report on the local news to scare a local manager into properly covering the pollutants.
WAL-MART also apparently has a problem of crime in their parking lots. They invest heavily in indoor security but only put cameras outside the store as part of their routine practice of monitoring and preventing union activity. Because there is no staff assigned to watch these cameras except as part of union busting campaigns a number of kidnappings, murders, and sexual assualts have been caught partially on unmonitored film. The number of crimes the film discussed was astronmical and, as is true in most of the situations, a leaked internal memo revealed that the company has know about this problem and determined that remedies, like have staff patrol the parking lot, is simply too costly.
Sadly, the film was too far along to discuss the recent revelation about the internal WAL-MART memo that acknowledged the prohibitive cost of their health plan for workers and then reccomended hiring part-time workers who are ineligible for health care, firing workers with expensive medical conditions, and not hiring the elderly for positions where they can get healthcare. This memo is a perfect addition to the case made by this film.
In short, go see this movie, get involved in local efforts to stop WAL-MART's growth, and don't ever shop at one again, ever ever!
Who is this guy?
Leave a comment