by James Parks, Nov 16, 2007

Everywhere you look these days a new supermarket or big-box retailer is putting up a huge building and promising to create jobs. But the reality is that big-box stores such as Wal-Mart do more harm than good.

Hundreds of thousands of union, human rights and community activists on Nov. 17 will protest abuses by big-box retailers. The International Day of Action Against Supermarkets and Big-Box Retailers is being sponsored by a global coalition of groups, including United Students Against Sweatshops and the workers’ rights group, STITCH.

Across the globe, people will demand that large corporations respect human rights, workers’ rights, communities and the environment and that governments introduce new rules to curb supermarket power. Click here to learn more about the Day of Action.

There are many reasons to protest the growth of big-box retailers and supercenters such as Wal-Mart. Recent reports show big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target, Tesco and others transform family-supporting, middle-class retail jobs into lower-paying jobs that often leave workers unable to pay bills.

The difference in overall compensation, including wages and benefits, can be ”as much as $8 an hour,” according to an October 2003 report prepared for the city of Los Angeles.

In fact, for every $1 wage cut, the local economy loses a total $2.08 as less money circulates through the local economy.

Another report shows Wal-Mart stores contribute to higher local poverty rates by driving independent retailers out of business and lowering wages for workers.

We’ve noted that the sourcing policies of companies like Wal-Mart bear a lot of the responsibility for the problems in China’s toy factories.

At Labor Is Not a Commodity, Tim Newman of the International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) writes that retailers such as Wal-Mart put so much pressure on suppliers to produce cheap goods that health, environmental and labor protections get brushed aside.

Wal-Mart is the nation’s top importer of Chinese-made products. The Economic Policy Institute (EPI) reports the giant retailer’s reliance on cheap goods made in China has cost this country nearly 200,000 jobs since 2001.

The U.S. trade deficit with China reached a whopping $233 billion last year, and imports for Wal-Mart alone accounted for $27 billion—11 percent of the growth in the U.S. trade deficit with China since 2001.

In several cities in California, workers will hand out handbills showing the link between Wal-Mart and the recently recalled toys from China. Click here to find out about activities in your community for the Day of Action.

In Atlanta, Memphis, Tenn., and Seattle, hundreds of activists will deliver letters to Wal-Mart stores also demanding justice for workers at the TOS Dominicana factory in the Dominican Republic. Wal-Mart is the largest customer for the factory, which is owned by Hanes Brands Inc..

The Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) reports that workers in the factory have been verbally harassed, forced to work overtime (often without pay) and denied the freedom to form a union. Click here to read the full WRC report.

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