Sonoma County NOW's Newsletter
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR WOMEN
OF SONOMA COUNTY
January 2006
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Program MEETING
Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Join us for dinner at 5:30 PM and meeting 6:30-8:30 PM
Film: Wal Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices
Join us as we prepare for an informational picket at Wal Mart in opposition to its discrimination against women and low wages with no benefits.
NOW has received many complaints regarding the workplace environment and employment practices at Wal-Mart stores, distribution centers, and regional and corporate offices. NOW has worked with the producers of this documentary, which is a poignant, visual portrait of the effects of Wal-Mart on the country, our families, and our economy.
NOW has considered the extensive public record of cases files against Wal-Mart and found the allegations disturbing. They include sex discrimination in pay, promotion and compensation; wage abuse; exempting contraception coverage in insurance plans, violation of child labor laws and the American with Disabilities Act; and discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. Lawsuits have also been filed regarding firing pro-union workers, eliminating jobs once workers have joined a union, and discouraging workers from unionizing. Workers in the Oakland store have recently won their lawsuit, which alleged that they are forbidden to take any breaks. In addition, Wal-Mart refuses to dispense Preven, the "morning after" pill at all or, in some stores, - birth control pills to unmarried women.
Consistent with the goals of NOW's Women Friendly Workplace Campaign, in 2002, NOW declared Wal-Mart a "Merchant of Shame." Wal-Mart's dismal record contradicts the worker-friendly image it projects to the public.
Wal-Mart is the nation's largest retail establishment and the fifth largest provider of pharmaceuticals. Despite recording $10 billion in profits, Wal-Mart has made it clear it will not change on its own. Only we have the power to make Wal-Mart provide basic compensation to its workers.
On Saturday, January 21 at 12 noon, we will conduct an informational pickets at Wal-Mart stores in Rohnert Park and Windsor. Join NOW to demand changes in Wal-Mart's unfair and anti-woman practices. Be there!
For additional information, go to www. now.org/issues/wfw or WakeUpWalMart.com or call Karen Carter, NOW's Wal-Mart Coordinator at 542-1309.
Round Table Pizza
1003 Guerneville Road (behind the Men's Wearhouse), Santa Rosa
