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Wal-Mart is finally getting some of the comeuppance it earned a long time ago. (For the record, I do not shop at Wal-Mart on principle: The conglomerate is destroying mom-and-pop America.)
Federal immigration officials arrested about 250 allegedly illegal workers on Thursday in 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Officials also raided the chain's headquarters in Arkansas, where boxes of documents and tape recordings were hauled away as part of a wide criminal investigation said to involve violations of immigration laws that Wal-Mart executives had personal knowledge of.
Those arrested were mostly from Eastern Europe, and they worked in crews that clean Wal-Mart stores. Others were from Central America and Asia. One official said the arrests were significant and were "aimed at companies that are employing illegal workers and increasing their profit margins by violating our immigration laws."
Because profit margin is an end unto itself, many American companies use independent contractors. In the case of Wal-Mart, the system works like this: The giant retailer uses about 100 contractors to clean about 1,000 of its U.S. stores. Because the work is hard, nasty and pays next to nothing, contractors have a hard time hiring American-born workers. Even legal immigrants stay away. The contractors, therefore, hire undocumented workers who are happy to find any kind of work, who tend to keep their mouths shut.
The Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, which brought other labor-related action against Wal-Mart several years ago, reports that the company pays some workers less than the $5.15-an-hour minimum wage and that many never have received overtime after working 55-hour weeks. Some workers were paid as little as $2 a day, and none received health insurance. Vacation was unheard of.
In all their naivete, or disingenuousness, immigration experts told the New York Times that the arrests of so many immigrants at Wal-Marts nationwide indicate that these laborers have come to play a significant role in America's economy.
Well, of course.
Such workers have played a significant role in the U.S. economy for generations. Many businesses, in fact, depend almost exclusively on undocumented workers to keep their profits soaring.
Until now, the third-party contractor system has cushioned employers from legal blame when illegal workers are rounded up. As is the case with Wal-Mart, employers pretend they do not know their contractors are hiring undocumented help.
When pushed for a response about the company's use of illegals, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said: "No, we did not know. Our understanding was that these third-party agencies had only legal workers."
Williams' response is mystifying in light of the fact that immigration agents raided several Wal-Mart stores in 1998 and 2001 for hiring undocumented labor. Then, about 100 immigrants were arrested. Authorities say they have direct evidence that Wal-Mart executives knew full well that their contractors were breaking the law.
Retailers such as Wal-Mart represent only one industry that relies on the contractor system. By far, agriculture is the worst abuser. Although Florida, my home state, was not a target of the Wal-Mart crackdown on Thursday, it would be at the top of the list if federal agents raided the state's farms and groves and corporate headquarters.
Almost all of Florida's vegetable and citrus growers rely on subcontractors, often called crew chiefs, to hire and transport farm workers. Some contractors provide substandard, expensive housing for the workers. As it does with Wal-Mart, this system absolves growers of responsibility for the workers' welfare.
Needless to say, farm workers are the lowest of the low in American labor. A handful of other writers and I have been trying for decades to bring the agricultural contractor problem to the attention of lawmakers. Because too many elected officials and other movers and shakers are in bed with agribusiness, legislation benefiting farm workers remains illusory.
In Florida, some of our most powerful elected officials have been farmers or hailed from farming families. I know because I have gone head-to-head with a few of them.
If federal immigration officials have a mind to, they should raid the fields and groves of the Sunshine State. Wal-Mart's 250 arrests will pale in comparison to the numbers here. I will bet a week's salary that the arrests would be in the thousands.
Here is my plea to federal immigration agents: Come on down.