The Women of Wal-Mart

[Guest guest]

A gender discrimination lawsuit offers a glimpse inside the nation's

largest private employer and its treatment of women. It ain't pretty.

 

http://www.alternet.org/rights/19901/

 

The Women of Wal-Mart

By Geri L. Dreiling, AlterNet

 

Posted on September 16, 2004,

http://www.alternet.org/story/19901/

 

When Melissa Howard joined the Wal-Mart store in New Castle, Ind., in

1992, she received a blue vest, a red, white and-blue nametag, six

bucks an hour, and the title of " electronics department manager. "

Howard hoped to climb the corporate ladder, accept greater

responsibility and take home a fatter paycheck.

 

So she worked diligently and her performance evaluations reflected

that: the reviews rated much of her work as " exceeds expectations, "

the top ranking allowed. Howard says that in the space set aside for

her comments, " I wrote that my long-term goals were to work my way up

the ladder to store manager, district manager and ultimately regional

manager. "

 

After several years at Wal-Mart, Howard became a store manager,

joining a small group of women who held that title. Not only was she a

store manager by 1999, she was asked to open a brand new Supercenter

in Bluffton, Ind. " The Supercenter was the up-and-coming thing, "

Howard says. To be asked to open one meant " prestige. " She likened it

to the difference between driving a Ford and a Cadillac. " It was just

a major accomplishment. "

 

She was now on the top rung of responsibility inside a store, yet she

wasn't earning the top salary. That honor went to two men who reported

to Howard as co-managers at the Supercenter. One man with no Wal-Mart

work experience, she claims, was making $15,000 more a year and

getting three weeks of vacation, a perk Howard only got after seven

years at Wal-Mart. The other man, Howard says, was " hired off the

street for $10,000 more than I was making. "

 

Although the store opening was successful, Howard's own career was

headed for trouble. In March 2000, some stores in her district were

experiencing high shrink and inventory was disappearing because of

theft or sloppy paperwork. She was told her Supercenter wasn't a

problem, but a store she'd managed months earlier was struggling with

inventory loss.

 

Several managers, district managers and loss prevention managers were

summoned to the corporate offices in Bentonville, Ark., for a meeting.

On the trip, some of the men decided to stop at a roadside strip club.

Despite her instincts, Howard says she felt it best to go into the

club rather than sit alone in a dark parking lot off a highway.

 

" I tried to ignore the show, but at one point, " Howard says in an

affidavit, " I was approached by one of the strippers and District

Manager Kevin Washburn proposed that he pay one of the strippers $50

to have a 'threesome out back' with me. "

 

Shocked, she refused. But she didn't complain to higher-ups at

Wal-Mart. Managers, she alleges, routinely went to strip clubs during

annual meetings. Moreover, she says, the last time she objected, in

1994, to what she felt was belittling treatment from John Waters, a

regional vice president, she was told she needed to learn to " take the

shit and let it roll. "

 

In any case, the return trip wasn't much different. There was another

stop at a strip club in Missouri and, she says, some of the men

planned to visit a massage parlor.

 

Two months later, Howard realized that lap dances, massage parlors and

invitations to a threesome would be the least of her problems. That's

when John Waters was named as her new district manager. (He'd been

demoted from regional vice president.) " At our first meeting, he made

a point of telling me, in a less than friendly tone, that he

'remembered' me, " claims Howard.

 

On June 16, 2000 she says he called her and told her she needed to

step down. Howard drove 30 miles to meet with him. In an affidavit,

Howard recalls: " He told me that a woman should not be running a

Wal-Mart store and that I 'needed to be home raising my daughter.' He

instructed me to step down 'voluntarily' and to tell my employees at

the morning meeting that having this new Supercenter was too stressful

for a single parent and that I needed to take a break. "

 

Though her store was " running in the black " – unusual for a new

Supercenter – she says Waters wanted her out. If she didn't quit, she

alleges that he told her he'd make her life " hell. "

 

" I had no choice but to step down, " Howard says.

 

He also wanted her out of his district. She was assigned to a

co-manager position in a store 120 miles away. Meanwhile, she claims

the regional personnel manager told her to stay away from her old

Supercenter; her presence in the store was undermining the new store

manager's " ability to succeed. "

 

Soon after, Howard says Waters accused her of having sex with an

employee, something forbidden by Wal-Mart's anti-fraternization rules.

She vehemently denied the claim. The company investigated and cleared

her of any wrongdoing.

 

By late summer of 2000, Howard felt battered: She had stepped down as

a store manager, left the Supercenter she'd worked hard to open, been

assigned a two-hour commute, and endured a humiliating investigation

into her sexual conduct.

 

Howard was no longer able to take the shit and roll with it. " I knew

at that point that I had to leave Wal-Mart, " she says. And so she did.

 

" Retail is for Housewives "

 

Less than a year after Howard resigned, a gender discrimination class

action lawsuit was filed against Wal-Mart in San Francisco federal

court. It claims that Wal-Mart discriminated against female employees

and that women were paid less than men in similar positions, even with

higher performance ratings and more seniority. And it claims that

women weren't promoted to in-store management positions as often as

men and when they were, they waited longer to advance.

 

In short, it says that Wal-Mart has two career ladders – a

well-paying, far-reaching one for men and a limited, lower-wage one

for women. Affidavits filed in court by women allege that:

 

* Women with years of experience and good work records were

repeatedly passed over for promotions in favor of men with little or

no experience.

 

* Women seeking advancement were treated differently than men;

they were asked to work night shifts for two years as assistant

manager before being considered for store manager or were asked to

show they could repeatedly lift 50-pound bags of dry dog food.

 

* Women working in personnel were fired when they complained that

men were consistently paid more than women for the same job.

 

* Some women were told men were being paid more because men had

" families to support " or that " men are here to make a career and women

aren't. Retail is for housewives who just need to earn extra money. "

 

The plaintiffs also compiled compelling statistics: Among cashiers and

greeters, 65 percent were women; among salaried assistant managers, a

more modest 35 percent were women; among co-managers, less than 25

percent. And among store managers, only 14 percent were women. And

they filed expert testimony that there is a clear record of

under-promoting women in " nearly every geographic region, " and that

the women of Wal-Mart are paid less than men nationwide. For hourly

employees, the wage gap is $1,100 and among salaried jobs, women make

$14,500 less than men. Statistics are the backbone of a request for

class action status; in this case, the class could mean 1.6 million

women, making it the largest such suit ever certified.

 

Wal-Mart's response has been somewhat predictable: The numbers are

flawed because comparisons should be made store-by-store or within

each department of each store, and not company-wide. And incredibly,

Wal-Mart, a company that critics charge routinely uses its sheer size

to get what it wants, argues that the big class of plaintiffs makes

the case unmanageable. In other words, Wal-Mart was suggesting a size

cap on class-action lawsuits.

 

U.S. District Court Judge Martin J. Jenkins didn't buy it. In his

opinion handed down in June, he wrote, " Insulating our nation's

largest employers from allegations that they have engaged in a pattern

and practice of gender or racial discrimination - simply because they

are large - would seriously undermine these imperatives. "

 

Jenkins handed the women a significant victory, granting class action

status for all women working at any Wal-Mart retail store in the U.S.

since December 26, 1998 who have been, or might be, subject to the

alleged discriminatory pay and promotion practices.

 

Wal-Mart immediately released a statement: " Let's keep in mind that

today's ruling has absolutely nothing to do with the merits of the

case. Judge Jenkins is simply saying he thinks it meets the legal

requirements necessary to move forward as a class action. We strongly

disagree with his decision and will seek an appeal. "

 

When we contacted Wal-Mart for this story and submitted written

questions as asked, we received no response.

 

The dog food bag test

 

When Claudia Renati took a job in 1993 as a membership team leader for

Pace Membership Warehouse, Inc., in Roseville, Calif., her family

needed the paycheck. She'd been working in real estate when the market

dropped off. Her husband was out of work for a year because of a

job-related injury. The work meant regular income and, she hoped,

advancement opportunities.

 

Soon after she started, Wal-Mart bought Pace and converted the store

to a Sam's Club, and " they made you believe that it was even so much

easier and a much better organization that you could, that anybody

could, move up and be in management and move on to running your own

club if you wanted to, " Renati says.

 

The reality proved different for her. For several years she appealed

in vain to Wal-Mart's management for a promotion. She says she had

above average or exceptional evaluations, no disciplinary action, and

time records that were " squeaky clean. " But it was never good enough

to get promoted. " There was constantly a barrier, " she claims.

 

In 1994, after the regional sales manager left the company, Renati was

put in charge of " running the region and doing all the ads and

marketing programs. I completed all the tasks of a Regional Sales

Manager for two years without the proper title or pay. "

 

Yet, when she approached the director of operations about a promotion,

Renati says she was told that she couldn't have it because she hadn't

completed the management training program. When she asked about

entering the program, she alleges, " He told me that I would have to be

willing to sell my house and move to Alaska. "

 

Wal-Mart has a policy of requiring people to move around the country

if they want to move up in the company. But with a husband who had 30

years invested in his job, Renati says moving wasn't a real option so

she remained the marketing team leader. By 2000, she had trained

approximately 20 marketing managers, " all of whom were male and many

of whom never went through the training program. "

 

But then Wal-Mart violated its own policy, she says, when several men

in her store climbed up the management ranks without moving - to

Alaska or anywhere else. A meat cutter became a general manager, a

floor team leader was promoted to general manager, a team leader

became a merchandise manager. And she watched a number of management

training candidates filter through Sam's Club. The candidate profile,

Renati claims, is " usually a white male between 27 and 35. "

 

In 2000, while out for six weeks for knee surgery, Renati says she was

told that her department was being combined with another and that a

man would head the new department. Her job was being eliminated. Her

new post was as a meat wrapper. But while out on sick leave later that

year, she was replaced by a man and moved to the membership desk.

 

There, she got a not-so-pleasant surprise. " I discovered that my

supervisor at the membership desk was someone whom I had previously

supervised for six years, " she says. Fed up, she quit.

 

Then, in 2001, she was asked to return and sell credit at the

membership desk. When she asked about promotional opportunities, she

was told she'd be given a chance. She signed up to work.

 

In 2002 she asked to become the photo manager, but a male cashier with

six months of experience got the job. When she approached the

operations director and explained that she'd spent nine years at Sam's

Club and had little advancement, she says he asked if she could stack

50-pound bags of dog food. She could not.

 

" He told me there was nothing he could do for me because before I

could become a manager, I would have to be Floor Team Leader and that

requires stacking 50-pound bags of dog food, " Renati claims.

 

And yet she knew of several male managers who didn't have to be a

floor team leader first or were not required to pass the 50-pound dog

food bags test.

 

In 2002, Renati quit a second and final time. She says of Wal-Mart and

Sam's Club: " It is run by good old boys. They make and break their

money off the backs of the women employees. "

 

Pro-subsidy, anti-union

 

Ironically, founder Sam Walton's rules for building a business retail

include valuing " associates " and sharing rewards. Last year, Wal-Mart

generated $265 billion in revenue and had about $9.1 billion in net

income. Today there are 5,000 stores in 10 countries, including

Argentina, South Korea and China. When Walton died in 1992, he was

second only to Bill Gates for title of the world's richest man.

 

The impressive growth has come at a high price. In May, Good Jobs

First, a nonprofit research center that promotes corporate and

government accountability, released a report showing Wal-Mart received

more than one billion dollars in subsidies from local and state

governments, including sales tax rebates, free or reduced-priced land,

tax-increment-financing, state corporate income tax credits and

property tax abatements. The study was partially funded by the United

Food and Commercial Workers International Union.

 

Labor unions have their own fight to pick with Wal-Mart. Although the

UFCW recently won accreditation and the right to represent employees

in a Quebec Wal-Mart, it has yet to successfully organize in the

United States. In 2000, meat cutters in a Jacksonville, Texas store

voted to organize and shortly after that the company announced it was

closing the department. Wal-Mart's official position on unions is: " We

do not believe there is a need for third-party representation. "

 

Represented or not, workers have leveled other charges against

Wal-Mart. The company has been hit by a wave of class action suits

alleging that it requires its employees to work " off the clock, " a

violation of the Fair Labor Standards and Practices Act. Wal-Mart is

also being sued in several courts over its practice of taking out life

insurance policies on Wal-Mart employees. Under the company's

Corporate-Owned Life Insurance program, the company – not the

employee's surviving family – is financially compensated if the worker

dies. Wal-Mart settled lawsuits in Texas and New Hampshire but others

are pending.

 

And last month, the Labor Center at the University of California at

Berkeley released a report claiming that Wal-Mart's low wages and

inadequate benefits in California cost the state $86 million a year in

state aid.

 

But eclipsing them all is Dukes et al. vs. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the

class action gender discrimination suit that includes women like

Melissa Howard and Claudia Renati. This is a case that could do

serious damage to the company. In its annual report released before

the class certification ruling earlier this summer, Wal-Mart warned

that if the class is certified, a settlement is reached, or it loses

the case, " the resulting liability could be material to the Company,

as could employment-related injunctive measures, which would result in

increased costs of operation on an ongoing basis. "

 

The fight goes on

 

Melissa Howard and Claudia Renati have found there is life beyond

Wal-Mart. Howard is a customer relations specialist in Indianapolis

making less than what she did when she stepped down as a Supercenter

store manager. A single mom, Howard says " it has not been the easiest,

but I did what I had to do. "

 

Renati is now the executive director of Lincoln Arts, a nonprofit

public arts organization in Lincoln, CA. Says Renati: " This is the

21st Century, this is not the 1950s coming out of World War II. " Women

" need to be recognized as being intelligent, smart individuals who can

run an organization – because I do here. "

 

Since the case was filed in 2001, Wal-Mart has made a few changes –

some substantive, some in public relations. It scrapped the " tap on

the shoulder " method for deciding who gets to join the

management-in-training program and has set up a formal application

process. The company opened a diversity office which is supposed to

help it " recruit and promote from all segments of society, " according

to its annual report. And it launched a PR campaign touting Wal-Mart

as a great place for advancement and a good paycheck.

 

That's not what Debra Smith hears these days. A staff attorney with

the San Francisco-based Equal Rights Advocates, one of the firms

representing women in the lawsuit, Smith says that current Wal-Mart

employees who are involved in the suit are " very scared. "

 

Says Smith: " I have several who call me once a month or once a quarter

who tell me about the latest incident that they're afraid is going to

get them terminated and they feel they're being set up for termination. "

 

And some of those stories may end up in the court file as the case

moves towards a trial.

© 2004 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/19901/