Follow Delauro, boycott Wal-Mart

This spring, the yearly tradition of Mother's Day falls on May 8. This is, of course, the day after finals end, giving you absolutely zero time to buy your mom a gift before you return home for the summer.

As you quickly try to find the right present to show your filial love this Mother's Day, I only ask that you obey the request of Connecticut Rep. Rosa L. Delauro (D-3rd district), and boycott Wal-Mart.

Delauro has called for this nationwide boycott in support of a federal class-action lawsuit against the mega-merchant, which alleges Wal-Mart has and continues to discriminate against its female workers. Filed on behalf of the company's 1.6 million current and former female employees, the suit contends female workers consistently earn 5 to 10 percent less than males doing the same job and that women unfairly make up only 33 percent of managers despite comprising 72 percent of the company's work force.

Outside of these overwhelming statistics, Wal-Mart's unlawful practices are also evidenced by countless employee complaints against discriminating managers. According to walmartvswomen.com, a web site featuring 1992 Miss America winner Carolyn Sapp donning a pantsuit and angrily crossing her arms in front of a Wal-Mart, there have been myriad discriminatory incidents across the country. In Utah, for example, a female assistant manager was told the retail industry is too "tough" and not "appropriate" for women by her boss. In Arizona, a female employee was told she "didn't have the right equipment" to get pay equal to that of a less qualified male co-worker. Outrageously, a male manager in South Carolina even said, "God made Adam first so women would always be second to men," to a female underling.

In light of this blatant discrimination, shown by the aforementioned lawsuit, statistics and repulsive quotes, I wholeheartedly support Delauro's call for a boycott. To shop at Wal-Mart, an institution that has clearly slighted its female workers, for Mother's Day, a holiday meant to honor the nation's female parents, would be counterintuitive. How, after all, could one give women proper recognition by shopping at a store that refuses to properly recognize women's accomplishments?

However, Mother's Day isn't the only time of the year you should refuse to shop at Wal-Mart. If you look at this nefarious company's track record, you'll find a host of reasons to hate and boycott Wal-Mart every single day of the year.

One reason to loathe Wal-Mart is that, in its past, the company has knowingly employed illegal immigrants in many of its stores. In October 2003, the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided 61 Wal-Marts, arresting more than 300 illegal immigrants employed as janitors. These employees were hired, with the approval of company executives, because Wal-Mart knew the aliens were unable to demand safe working conditions, employee rights and fair pay because of their illegal status. Unquestionably, this is a reprehensible business practice which not only exploits these illegal immigrants but also denies both naturalized and American-born citizens job opportunities.

However, it's not just women and illegal immigrants that get the shaft from Wal-Mart - it's almost everyone. On the whole, Wal-Mart keeps virtually all of its non-management employees in complete poverty. As of spring 2004, the average Wal-Mart employee earned $8.50 per hour. This amounts to a meager $14,000 a year, leaving a family of three $1,000 below the government-defined poverty line. Such a low wage provides an unacceptable standard of living and denies store employees their right to adequate heath care, as fewer than half of Wal-Mart employees can afford even the least-expensive health care package offered by the corporate giant. Clearly these employees need a union so they can fight for a fair wage. Yet they are without one, as the company has repeatedly fought off unionizing by firing pro-union employees.

Besides slighting employees, Wal-Mart's low wages also have a negative effect on the surrounding communities which must pay for welfare to support the company's impoverished workers. According to a report by the House Committee on Education and Workforce, the average 200 employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an estimated $420,000 in welfare. Seeing as the company has 1.2 million American employees, this totals about 2.5 billion taxpayer dollars each and every year. Without question, this is a problem. That $2.5 billion should be coming from Wal-Mart's coffers in the form of fair wages, not from the community and government.

Aside from financially burdening the communities it infests, Wal-Mart also limits consumers' choices by driving out almost all competition. According to an Iowa State University study, the state lost 555 grocery stores, 298 hardware stores, 293 building supply stores, 269 apparel stores and 161 variety stores during the first decade after Wal-Mart set up shop in Iowa. In other words, Wal-Mart's low prices simply bankrupt local businesses, take money out of the community and slowly homogenize the nation. Local middle-class shopkeepers lose out, while affluent corporate executives reap enormous profits by breaking poor people's backs. Quite literally, Wal-Mart is the anti-Robin Hood - taking from the lower and middle-classes and giving to the rich.

One final reason to hate Wal-Mart is its political sway. According to a report from the Center for Responsive Politics, Wal-Mart was the second-highest contributor to the 2004 federal election campaigns, with 85 percent of its funding going to the GOP. This immense political power invites corruption, as Wal-Mart undoubtedly uses it wealth to buy government protection to ensure that it can continue its abuses and reap larger profits. This is utterly despicable.

Quite frankly, I detest Wal-Mart, Sam Walton, the word "Roll-back" and those damn blue vests. When Wal-Mart finally opened one of its stores in my hometown of Avon I shuddered. I didn't, and still don't, want this monstrosity destroying my charming small town. I'm absolutely disgusted by its reprehensible business practices, it's willingness to sell guns in my peaceful neighborhood and the funky smell that lingers in the store (furthermore, I'm sort of unnerved by any store that sells both caulk and cucumbers).

Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do as a single consumer. Even if I refuse to buy from Wal-Mart, I remain helpless to stop their immoral business practices as the masses will still buy into the low prices and that ironic smiley face. Only if everyone supports a giant boycott, like that advocated by Delauro, will anything change. We need to support Delauro, and other similar efforts or Wal-Mart's evil will only perpetuate.