03/11/2005

Associated Press

A Washington Education Association charity has begun a boycott of Wal-Mart because of the company's "exploitative labor practices," the president of the state teacher's union says.

The move was made last week after numerous teachers asked the union to either change the Children's Fund policy or distribute information about Wal-Mart's labor practices, WEA president Charles Hasse told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which reported on the boycott Friday.

The decade-old fund reimburses teachers around the state for purchases of coats, shoes and other emergency items for disadvantaged students up to a maximum of $100 per recipient annually.

In a membership newsletter, Hasse wrote that the boycott stemmed from Wal-Mart's "exploitative labor practices (that) have added to public assistance burdens in our state and across the nation."

Exceptions will be granted for teachers in isolated areas that lack other shopping options, Hasse said.

"We're not going to have some student go without a coat if that's the only place it could be purchased," he said.

Since the policy took effect, Hasse said, he has received more than 200 responses from teachers who supported it 20 to 1.

"It was interesting to see the intensity of feeling around this," he said.

Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest private sector employer with 1.2 million workers, spent $40 million in the last fiscal year on educational efforts, including scholarships, teacher awards and a national literacy hot line to link callers with local resources, spokesman Dan Fogleman said.

"We understand the value of an education, and we strongly support it," Fogleman said.

WEA's boycott amounts to "allowing a political battle to trump its charitable intentions," said the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative research group in Olympia that has received funds from Wal-Mart and has frequently tangled with the union.

"Wal-Mart can be the best place to go for bargain shopping," said Michael Reitz, a foundation legal analyst. "If the mission of the Children's Fund is to help children, then it shouldn't matter where the teachers are purchasing goods."

Richard Gilham, a fourth grade teacher at Olympic Elementary School in Chehalis, said Wal-Mart was hard to beat on selection and price for such items as CD players, batteries and other classroom items.

"If I'm spending WEA's resources, I'm going to try to get the best buy I can for my dollar, and if Wal-Mart is that place it's probably the best use of those funds," Gilham said.

Fogleman defended the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain's employment practices, saying more than half of its hourly workers have company-paid medical insurance and an average pay of $10.14 an hour statewide, compared with a national average of $9.68.

Wal-Mart critics have cited a grand jury investigation following raids in October 2003 that showed hundreds of illegal immigrants employed by outside contractors were cleaning its stores.

In June a federal judge certified as a class-action a lawsuit accusing Wal-Mart of discriminating against female employees, the largest workplace bias case in U.S. history.

After meat cutters at a store in Texas voted to form a union in 2000, the company shut down its meat cutting operations nationwide but maintained that the action was unrelated to the vote. Last month, the company announced the closure of a store where workers voted to unionize in Jonquiere, Quebec.

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Information from: Seattle Post-Intelligencer, http://www.seattle-pi.com/