Public Employee Press

Media Beat
Book Review:
Fighting for women’s rights at Wal-Mart

Betty Dukes is the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit charging Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest employer, with sex discrimination in pay and promotions.

The giant retailer recognized the energy and dedication of the 52-year-old African American clerk — until she applied for promotion to management and crashed into a glass ceiling. When she complained, she was demoted.

Over 100 women working at Wal-Mart joined Ms. Dukes in the suit, which charges that an “old boys” network controls advancement. The largest class-action suit in history, it covers 1.6 million women employees.

Liza Featherstone presents their story in “Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers Rights at Wal-Mart.” The 282-page $25 book — available in the union library — tells how they give their all for Wal-Mart, only to see junior men who have contributed less race up the management hierarchy.

Wal-Mart projects an image of a family-friendly company whose workers are valued “associates.” Wal-Mart managers often justify paying men more on the grounds that they provide for families and women less because of their family responsibilities. Women make up more than two-thirds of Wal-Mart’s workers, but only 1/3 of its managers. The firm’s deep-rooted sexist culture includes meetings at Hooters restaurants and persistent segregation of entire departments.

Featherstone points out that even if all the discrimination ended, most Wal-Mart workers would still live in poverty, needing food stamps and Medicaid to survive. Wal-Mart specializes in labor law violations such as abusing undocumented workers, locking employees in at night, denying overtime pay — and gets goods from overseas sweatshops. As industry leader, it depresses pay and benefits for most retail workers.

Unions have yet to succeed in organizing Wal-Mart workers, whose blind loyalty may well result from intimidation. So Liza Featherstone’s new book is not just a necessary primer on one company’s excesses, it is a must-read for anyone interested in the future of the labor movement.

— Ken Nash
DC 37 Education Fund Library, Rm. 211