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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2008)
Wal-Mart violated workers’ rights more than 2 million times, judge says Carpenters throw area standards picket The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters conducted an area standards picket against general contractor Gray Purcell July 24 at SE 28th and Ankeny in Portland. The condo project is the same site where a nonunion crane operator damaged an electrical line, knocking out power to about 8,000 homes and businesses in the neighborhood. Police were called to the July 24 picket with threats of arrest for trespassing. Carpenters organizer Cliff Puckett said the general contractor has set up chain link fences and entrance gates for the project right to the street line, leaving no room for pickets. “Purcell says we can’t be on their property, and the police say they’ll cite us for being in the street. It’s a tactic they’re using to make it more difficult for us to picket,” Puckett said. The Carpenters stood their ground when police suggested they picket across the street from the jobsite. “That’s not fair to the homes and businesses. We could get sued,” Puckett said. “If Purcell puts a gate in the street, that’s where we have to be. They can’t take away our federal rights to picket a jobsite.” After much discussion, a compromise was reached as to where pickets could and couldn’t be. Office and Professional Employees #11 family members get scholarships College students Erin Farquhar and Sarah Caird have won scholarship awards through the Office and Profes- sional Employees Howard Coughlin Memorial Scholarship Fund. Each student received the top award of $6,000, to be disbursed over two years in increments of $3,000 Q each year. Farquhar is the daughter of Dennise Farquhar, a Local 11 member em- ployed at Lower Columbia Longshore Federal Credit Union. Caird is the daughter of Local 11 member Kirby Caird, who works at NW Natural. Quest Investment Management, Inc. • Serving Multi-Employer Multi-Employer Serving Trusts for for Over Twenty Years Trusts Twenty Years } Cam Johnson Cam Johnson Adrian Adrian Hamilton Hamilton Doug Goebel Goebel Doug Garth Nisbet Greg Sherwood Greg Sherwood Monte Monte Johnson Johnson Bill Zenk Zenk Bill Pat Worley One SW SW Columbia St., Suite 1100, Portland, OR 97258 One 1100 Portland, 503-221-0158 503-221-0158 www.QuestInvestment.com www.QuestInvestment.com AUGUST 1, 2008 By BARB KUCERA Workdayminnesota.org HASTINGS, Minn. (PAI) — In what may well be a world record, Wal- Mart, the world’s largest retailer, known for its anti-worker and anti-union stands, broke labor law more than 2 million times over a six-year period by denying workers time for breaks and forcing them to work “off the clock” for no pay, a Minnesota judge ruled. Dakota County District Judge Rob- ert King ordered the retailer to pay wronged workers $6.5 million in back pay. In addition, Wal-Mart faces fines as high as $2 billion for the wage-and- hour violations. King’s ruling culminated a seven- year legal battle by four former Wal- Mart workers who filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of 56,000 current and former employees who worked at Min- nesota Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores between Sept. 11, 1998, and Jan. 31, 2004. His ruling echoes similar judgments against Wal-Mart for break- ing wage-and-hour laws in other states, including Oregon, California, Col- orado and Pennsylvania. Those work- ers have also won millions in back pay. “I was treated like so many of my co-workers,” said Nancy Braun of Rochester, Minn., one of the four plaintiffs. “There was just too much work to do and never enough time to do it. There just wasn’t enough time in the day to take the breaks we were enti- tled to.” Judge King found Wal-Mart repeat- edly and willfully violated Minnesota labor laws or its contract with its em- ployees on the issues of contractual rest breaks, statutory meal breaks, shaving time from paid rest breaks, and failure to maintain accurate records. He also found Wal-Mart was aware its employees were not receiving breaks to which they were entitled. “In essence, they (Wal-Mart) put their heads in the sand,” King stated. Minnesota law requires every em- ployer to provide its employees with a sufficient time to eat a meal. Wal-Mart wouldn’t let them eat. King stated: “No time to eat a meal is not a sufficient time to eat a meal.” He found Wal-Mart violated the meal break law alone 73,864 times. The judge ordered a second phase of the trial to begin Oct. 20 to allow a jury to determine the amount of puni- tive damages and the amount of statu- tory penalties to be imposed against Wal-Mart. Minnesota’s wage-and- hour laws allow for a penalty of up to $1,000 for each violation. If the jury awards the full $1,000 penalty for each of the 2 million violations, the award could be in excess of $2 billion. “This first award from Judge King is just the beginning,” said William Sieben, one of the attorneys represent- ing the workers. “This award only re- imburses these employees for compen- sation they should have already re- ceived from Wal-Mart. The next phase of the trial will be to punish and penal- ize Wal-Mart for willfully violating the rights of these 56,000 people whose average wage was under $10 an hour.” In testimony that began last Sep- tember, attorneys presented mountains of evidence — everything from payroll records, tax records, and company re- ports to memos and e-mails. Wal-Mart keeps voluminous records on all its stores on a computer larger than the one in the Pentagon. Attorneys for the workers were able to use the com- pany’s own records against it. The United Food and Commercial Workers, which has been trying for years to organize Wal-Mart, lauded Judge King’s ruling. “Wal-Mart’s vio- lation of wage-and-hour laws is part of a pattern that includes union-busting, employment discrimination and child labor infractions,” said UFCW Local 879 of South St. Paul. 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