Wal-Mart Denounces UC Berkeley Labor Center’s Study As Biased & Flawed.

Wal-Mart released information about the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s recent study, “Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart Jobs” – revelations that the company believes discredit the center’s recent study.

In addition to releasing the information that raises serious questions about the objectivity of the Labor Center study, Wal-Mart representatives said it would be filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the UC Berkeley Labor Center.

“It’s disingenuous of the Labor Center’s researchers to tout their study as a fair, balanced assessment of Wal-Mart’s impact on California taxpayers,” said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Cynthia Lin. “Information shows the Labor Center, dubbed a ‘union think tank,’ has strong ties to organized labor, which has long targeted Wal-Mart. It would be a huge disservice to the people of California for us not to set the record straight on this.”

The following information has been brought to the company’s attention in the days following the study’s release:

1) Ties to organized labor: The majority of the Labor Center’s advisory board are union leaders representing such groups as the Alameda County Central Labor Council, Contra Costa Building Trades, Sacramento Labor Council, and San Mateo County Central Labor Council. In fact, some of these labor representatives have been quoted attacking the company in previous newspaper reports.

2) Funding sources: While the Labor Center denies receiving funding for this particular study, it does not dispute it receives funding from unions. Further, the Labor Center openly supports union causes, as has been documented in previous newspaper reports.

3) Lack of objectivity: Not once did the Labor Center’s researchers contact Wal-Mart for statistical information or to even verify the information they had. It also should be noted that in their own report and bibliography they cite Dr. Richard Drogin as a source. What they fail to explain in their report is that Dr. Drogin is the expert hired by the plaintiffs in the gender discrimination lawsuit pending against Wal-Mart.

4) Media Reports: Various publications, including the Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register and City Journal have published pieces showing the Labor Center’s affiliations with labor unions. (Note: The Labor Center, according to its own website, is a product of the UC Institute for Labor Employment, or ILE, which is referenced in these publications.)

-Orange County Register editorial (2002): “There’s nothing wrong with organized labor establishing an institute to promote unionization and liberal political positions. But there is something wrong with forcing all California taxpayers to fund such blatant and partisan advocacy — hardly academic independence at a public institution. Here’s a program that ought to go, even if the state weren’t submerged in red ink.”

– City Journal (2003): “The California State Legislature founded the ILE a couple of years ago, at the unions’ urging, for the ostensible purpose of conducting research on the state’s economy and working people. In its brief history, however, it has used money granted to it by the cash-strapped state—including $4 million this year—to sponsor such dubious and partisan projects as training local union workers to dig up dirt on major property owners and investors, studying ways to organize young workers in California’s supermarket industry, and researching how best to fight the privatization of welfare services.”

“Frankly, much of this information was brought to our attention by third parties who could not sit idly by and watch this biased study be accepted at face value,” said Lin.

Wal-Mart also challenged the inaccurate information presented in the study by providing the following facts and information.

1) Wages and benefits:

Wal-Mart offers a broad range of benefits, including health care coverage, 401(k) plans, profit sharing, store discount cards, performance-based bonuses and life insurance. Wal-Mart offers health care benefits to both full-time and part-time people.

In most cases, annual wages for Wal-Mart associates are significantly greater than those paid by other non-union retailers, and virtually identical to those of unionized grocery workers. In fact, Wal-Mart’s average hourly wage in the United States is more than 90 percent above the federal minimum wage. In California, Wal-Mart’s average hourly wage is $10.37.

More than 90 percent of Wal-Mart associates are covered by health insurance, approximately 50 percent through the company’s medical insurance plan. Another 40 percent choose to have coverage through other sources such as a spouse, parent, retirement plan or Medicare. It’s important to note that two thirds of Wal-Mart’s associates are either seniors or students working their way through college, or workers providing a second paycheck for their families.

Approximately 40 percent of the people who join Wal-Mart indicate they had no health care coverage at all before joining the company. Some economists believe that Wal-Mart actually reduces the taxpayer burden for public assistance because without Wal-Mart, at least some workers would be on unemployment benefits, while others would depend on other types of public assistance.

2) Wal-Mart’s economic impact: Wal-Mart has a significant positive impact on the California economy in a variety of ways, including:

Wal-Mart collected and remitted $650 million in sales taxes to the State of California last year. Wal-Mart also paid more than $46.5 million in corporate income taxes to the state, $31 million in property tax payments, $10.5 million in California state unemployment tax. In addition, the company withheld and remitted $18 million in California Income Tax, and $9.5 million in California State Disability Tax.

A recent Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation study said the potential savings to consumers in Los Angeles County would be $1.7 billion annually, with the entry of Wal-Mart Supercenters, once Wal-Mart reaches 20 percent market share.