walmart-asda

SUPER-markets

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 15, 2007 - 15:30.
in

'The wages I get are not enough to cover the cost of food, house rent and medicine,' said Mohua in a factory supplying Asda and Tesco. Her colleague Humayun said, 'with my earnings it is difficult to meet living costs.'

Mohua and Humayun are amongst the better-paid sewing maching operators who earn more than average - in the region of £16 per month. Yet even this equates to just 5p an hour over the 80-hour week they regularly have to work.

(From Fashion Victims, by War on Want)
  • According to the Guardian, the eight directors who run Tesco earned £26m between them in 2003-2004.

1,371 violations

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 8, 2007 - 01:04.
in
One internal audit of 25,000 employees in 128 Wal-Mart stores in the USA found 1,371 violations of child labour laws, including minors working too late, too many hours a day and during school hours. It also found 60,000 instances where workers were forced to work through breaks, and 16,000 where they worked through meal times. A 2002 lawsuit in Texas estimated that Wal-Mart short-changed its employees $150 million over four years in missed breaks.

20-hour shifts

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 8, 2007 - 00:58.
in

Factories scramble to complete Wal-Mart orders on time, something that can only be achieved through excessive overtime.The result is that workers can be forced to work 18 to 20.5-hour all-night shifts stretching from 8am to 2am, 3am or even 4.30am the following day. As one Chinese labour official explains: 'Wal-Mart pressures the factory to cut its price, and the factory responds with longer hours or lower pay... and the workers have no options.'

— War on Want

, Asda Wal-mart - the alternative report

Asda Wal-Mart

pay stays the same

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 8, 2007 - 00:11.
in

Even where wages are rock-bottom,Wal-Mart insists that its suppliers drive prices ever lower. Qin, a factory worker in China, explains: “In four years they haven’t increased the salary.” Isabel Reyes, a garment worker in Honduras, tells the same story:“There is always an acceleration... the goals are always increasing, but the pay stays the same.”

— War on Want

, Asda Wal-mart - the alternative report

Cutting costs at any cost

a mere $17.5 million

antarchi's picture
Submitted by antarchi on July 8, 2007 - 00:08.
in

[Wal-Mart's] CEO Lee Scott was paid over $17.5 million in total during 2004. This is roughly a thousand times the annual average for workers in Wal-Mart’s 3,600 US stores, where wages range from $7.92 to $9.68 an hour.

— War on Want

, Asda Wal-mart - the alternative report

Asda Wal-Mart

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