[PEN-L:32600] the Wal-Mart campaign

["Ian Murray" <seamus2001@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wednesday, November 27, 2002, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
Workers tell Wal-Mart's darker side
By The Associated Press



PORTLAND - Testimony in the first of 39 class-action lawsuits to go to trial
against Wal-Mart has shown a sharp contrast between actual working
conditions and the retailer's heavily advertised image of happy, smiling
employees.

Carolyn Thiebes, who works at a Wal-Mart store in Salem, testified that when
her department failed to meet company expectations, her boss singled out the
personnel manager by hanging a red bandanna near her door for a month for
co-workers to see.

Managers also circulated a trophy, sculpted in the form of a donkey's rear
end, called "the horse's ass award," Thiebes said.

"It was humiliating," Thiebes testified in tears last week to open a
wage-and-hour lawsuit against the company. "That trophy was given so many
times... anytime a department failed."

She and four other employees testified that reprimands created an
environment of fear that compelled them to work off the clock - without
pay - to finish assigned tasks. The pressure worked, they said, because
Wal-Mart often built stores in communities that offered residents few
alternative jobs.

But the tactics also have made the store a target of unions and advocacy
groups, who picketed stores last week in 100 U.S. cities, including
Portland, to call for better wages, health benefits and working conditions.

Experts said the management approach arises out of a corporate culture
forged by company founder Sam Walton, who, in his drive to keep prices and
costs low, put the company's fortunes above all else.

"While I can't say it's a great way to spread a message, it sends a clear
message - if my department's hurting the performance of the store,
ultimately I'm hurting the performance of the stock and my retirement," said
Hal Koenig, associate professor of marketing at Oregon State University's
College of Business.

A Wal-Mart spokesman, Bill Wertz, declined to comment, citing last week's
order of U.S. District Judge Garr King that all parties to the lawsuit
refrain from speaking with the media during the trial.

The $218 billion company employs 1.3 million worldwide, operates 3,300
stores in the United States and made $6.7 billion in 2001. Its aggressive
expansion plans during the next five years call for hiring 800,000 more
workers, giving the company a work force larger than the U.S. military.

Thiebes and Betty Alderson filed suit against Wal-Mart in 1998, alleging
violation of federal and state wage and hour laws. More than 400 Oregonians
from 24 stores have joined the class-action complaint.

Thiebes was personnel manager in charge of payroll at Wal-Mart stores in
Salem and Dallas. She testified that she routinely docked overtime hours
from workers' paychecks, at least once at the direction and in the presence
of her managers.

One group of customer-service and snack-bar workers in both stores worked
without pay beyond the regular 40-hour work week so often, Thiebes and
Alderson testified, that they became known as the "Over 40 Club."

Wal-Mart's attorneys acknowledged in court that employees occasionally
worked after clocking out. But they contended workers did so by choice, in
violation of company policy.

In opening statements last week, Rudy Englund, an attorney for the company,
spent several minutes describing an atmosphere at Wal-Mart of trust,
sharing, teamwork and integrity.

Attorneys for the workers described a different situation, which they called
the "Wal-Mart dilemma." Top store managers, they said, routinely gave lower
managers and workers too much to do while reprimanding them for claiming
overtime or leaving work undone.

To avoid losing their jobs, the attorneys said, workers clocked out, then
returned to complete their tasks. Daniel Corey, a former lawn and garden
department manager for Wal-Mart in Pendleton, said he worked off the clock
because he had few options.

"Because it's such a small community, jobs aren't that good there," Corey
testified. "You held on to your job. I feared losing my job. I feared
getting fired."