DOING SOMETHING ABOUT WAL-MART
Danny Glover, AlterNet
The renowned actor describes how Wal-Mart puts children
around the world at risk -- and tells how we can help hold
the megastore accountable.
http://www.alternet.org/story/22246/Look into the faces of America's children. There you will find America's future. That's why all of us -- teachers, mentors and parents -- work our hardest to teach, to inspire, to motivate, to instill values that we believe will make their lives better and our nation a better place. It's not easy. But it is the most valuable contribution we can make.
I know. As a kid, I was a hard case to crack, to reach. But my teachers, and my parents, persevered. They taught me a sense of social justice that won't quit. But there's a threat looming that, as parents, teachers, mentors, we can't ignore. We may be living in a time when the generation now in school will, for the first time in our country's history, be worse off than the previous generation.
While there are no doubt many reasons for this threat, there's one that we can do something about. It's the corrosive, drive-to-the-bottom approach some rogue corporations take toward the people they employ. Wal-Mart, the world's -- and this country's -- largest employer uses tactics that are shocking.
Wal-Mart puts kids around the world at risk. It requires its suppliers to import goods from China and other impoverished nations where young people work horrendous hours for little pay. In this country, it was found guilty in April of violating child labor laws. Wal-Mart exposed 85 of its own employees under 18 to dangerous machinery such as chain saws, cardboard balers and forklifts. It got a light fine, a slap on the wrist. Now it faces the largest class action discrimination suit in history--for how it treats its female employees.
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