Wal-Mart business practices affect all working families.  It is the largest private employer in the U. S. -- with more than a million employees -- as well as the largest shipper, warehouser, and retailer.  In fact, Wal-Mart is the world's largest corporation, raking in approximately $600 million daily and $220 billion annually in revenue.

Wal-Mart's attacks on workers threaten the entire labor movement.  The company is dragging wages and benefit levels back to nineteenth century standards.  Wal-Mart workers are paid $2-$3 and hour less than union members who perform similar jobs.  The company's health plan is so expensive, and its eligibility requirements so restrictive, that two-thirds of Wal-Mart workers can't afford to participate in the company plan.  Wal-Mart fully admits that the majority of its workers are forced to rely on public assistance or a spouse's health benefits to attain medical care.  It is estimated that the company shifts approximately a billion dollars a year in health costs to taxpayers and responsible employers.  Wal-Mart workers have no defined benefit pension plan and must invest 85 percent of their 401(k) contributions in Wal-Mart stock.

Most Wal-Mart stores are built non-union.  The company puts relentless pressure on its suppliers to reduce their prices resulting in wage and benefit cuts, as well as alterations in work rules, for their workers.  Wal-Mart lead the coalition of retailers who urged the west coast dock owners to demand concessions from the longshoremen.  The company's economic clout is so extensive that Wal-Mart is an invisible third party sitting at bargaining tables across the country.  Simply put, Wal-Mart is a corporate outlaw.  It violates human rights and is viciously ant-union.  The NLRB has issued over 40 complaints against the company in more than 25 states for illegally denying workers their right to support and form a union.  Wal-Mart faces an ever-increasing number of lawsuits for discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, and race.  Lawsuits regarding illegal pay practices -- changing time records and forcing employees to work off the clock -- are mounting.  Wal-Mart buys products from countries where human rights abuses are rampant and sweatshops and child and force labor are common.

That smiley face icon belies the actions of this corporate bully.