Wal-Mart's Good (and Bad) Sides

By Liza Featherstone

June 10, 2005

Bright Lights in Edison

» More

Most Read

Issues »

People often ask, Is there a good side to Wal-Mart? Sometimes there is: Opposition to Wal-Mart in a community can invigorate progressive politics and expose entrenched politicians as vision-free hacks. That's what happened last week in Edison, New Jersey, where progressive Wal-Mart opponent Jun Choi handily defeated incumbent Mayor George Spadoro, whom voters held responsible for a proposed (unpopular) Wal-Mart store, in the city's Democratic primary last Wednesday. Choi will face Republican and Independent opponents in the November election. But in this heavily Democratic town, it's likely that he'll become mayor.

Seed of Scalia

Now back to Wal-Mart's downsides: coziness with the far right and a vicious disregard for the laws of the land. On Friday, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported that Rickey Armstrong, who was fired from Wal-Mart's Dallas optical plant in March, will file a whistleblower claim with the Department of Labor, alleging that he was dismissed for reporting wrongdoing at the plant. That same week, the paper reported that Wal-Mart had hired Eugene Scalia, spawn of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to defend the company in whistleblower cases, including a Labor Department complaint filed by Jared Bowen, a Wal-Mart vice president who was fired in April after reporting former vice chairman Tom Coughlin's funny expense accounts. Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, workers can't be fired for exposing company wrongdoing. Interestingly enough, Eugene Scalia served as solicitor general in the Bush Administration's Department of Labor, where he tried to drastically weaken such protections for whistleblowers. (If he'd had his way, whistleblowers would have been protected from retaliation only if they disclosed information to a member of Congress. How many workers have a politician on their speed-dial?) After Scalia left the Labor Department, then-Acting Solicitor Howard Radzely--a Bush appointee--reversed Scalia's decision.

About Liza Featherstone

Contributing editor Liza Featherstone's work has appeared in The Nation, Lingua Franca, the San Francisco Bay Guardian, the New York Times, the Washington Post and Ms. She is the co-author of Students Against Sweatshops: The Making of a Movement (Verso, 2002) and author of Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Worker's Rights at Wal-Mart (Basic, 2004). She is a Ralph Shikes Fellow at the Public Concern Foundation. more...
Most Read

Issues »

Most Emailed

Issues »

Popular Topics

Blogs

» Campaign 08

Bail Out or Slush Fund? | Pork may be the least of our worries. History suggests we should watch for buying votes.
Laura Flanders

» The Beat

Troopergate Conclusion: Palin Abused Her Office | "I find that Governor Palin abused her power," writes investigator in a report released Friday night by GOP dominated Alaska Legislative Council.
John Nichols

» The Dreyfuss Report

Thirty Years' War in Afghanistan | It might be unwinnable -- or it just might take several decades. A sober look at that other war.
Robert Dreyfuss

» Editor's Cut

The Woman Greenspan, Rubin & Summers Silenced | How Brooksley Born might have helped us avert this financial meltdown
Katrina vanden Heuvel

» The Notion

Is the Second Superpower of the Cold War Going Down? | The Soviets were bankrupted by an Afghan War that wouldn’t end. Now, is it our turn?
Tom Engelhardt

» Capitolism

Expert Failure | How the elites failed us.
Christopher Hayes

» Act Now!

S. Dakota Goes After Choice (Again) | Meet the Rev. Steve Hickey. He believes that S. Dakota has been chosen by God to upend Roe v. Wade.
Peter Rothberg

» And Another Thing

Are You the Very Model of a Modern Vice-President? | Sarah's not the only one with a special skill.
Katha Pollitt