Last week, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation, paid 11 million dollars to settle a complaint that it used illegal aliens to clean some of its “super centers.” Wal-Mart never admitted any wrongdoing and instead claimed that the illegal immigrants were hired by “contractors” who had essentially pulled the wool over the company’s eyes. These workers complained of working well over eight-hour shifts and of even being locked inside the building overnight. Wal-Mart is often put on a pedestal in the business world because it is brutally effective at making money and eliminating competition. Countless business school students have given presentations singing its praises. There is nothing inherently wrong with succeeding in capitalism. However, the way Wal-Mart does it is brutal, inhumane and immoral. To shop at Wal-Mart is to support a company whose social justice compass is entirely out of whack. The main complaint against the smiling land of low prices is that workers make very low wages and have almost zero chance of ever being able to form a union. The low wages that Wal-Mart pays and its fight against unionization is well documented in Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickel and Dimed. In Canada last week, a major unionization effort, thanks largely to company intimidation, failed. Mind you, regulations make it easier to unionize in Canada than in the U.S. Here in the States, butchers at one Wal-Mart recently unionized successfully. Then they closed the meat counter, put the workers in other jobs, and eventually fired/drove them out of the company. Wal-Mart is also facing a major class action lawsuit regarding claims of massive discrimination by female employees. Wal-Mart and other so-called “big box” stores cannibalize local business. Because of its much admired efficiency and low-overhead, Wal-Mart can simply afford to railroad competition out of town. You don’t want to be the little guy in Wal-Mart’s shadow. Wal-Mart is so controversial that in New York City, public outrage stopped the first store from entering the five boroughs. (This for a city with plenty of other “big box” retailers and a Home Depot to boot.) In California, Wal-Mart heavily outspent the competition in order to win a referendum in California. If they won they would have opened the first L.A. Wal-Mart. They didn’t because the people rose up against Goliath. Here at Fairfield, we are poor college students. However, we are also Jesuit students being taught that social justice matters. To continue to admire Wal-Mart as it bullies America is simply outrageous. You need not travel to distant lands to promote social justice. It is time to stop shopping at Wal-Mart. It is time for conservative professors here to realize that they are championing an immoral company that goes against what the United States should stand for. It is time for Campus Ministry to preach and educate about this issue. Most importantly, we need to support local businesses and our community. Pay a little more for toilet paper because it means better jobs for our neighbors.
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