Wal-Mart to Review All 1.1M U.S. Workers

AP/ABC News ^ | 10/24/03 | AP Staff

[Pro-Bush]

Wal-Mart to Review All 1.1M U.S. Workers
Wal-Mart to Review All 1.1 Million U.S. Employees After Allegations It Knew of Illegal Workers

LITTLE ROCK Oct. 24 — Wal-Mart Stores Inc., stung by allegations that it knew contract cleaning services used illegal workers, said Friday it would review all of its 1.1 million U.S. workers and fire any that aren't legally employed. The move came a day after federal agents arrested 245 illegal workers in a 21-state sweep of 60 Wal-Mart stores and the company's headquarters.

Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that they gathered recordings from wiretaps that indicate Wal-Mart executives knew the company's subcontractors used illegal workers.

Though contract cleaning crews were the focus of the sweep, Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said Friday that about 10 Wal-Mart associates in Arizona and Kentucky were among those arrested.

"These are people who used to be part of the outside cleaning crew, and when we took that in-house, these folks were simply hired on as employees," Williams said. "They got caught up in the immigration sweep."

Wal-Mart began moving toward using its own workers to clean floors at its stores about a year ago.

John Shewairy, a spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Washington, D.C., would not reveal the names of companies that contracted with Wal-Mart. Williams, citing privacy issues, said Wal-Mart would not name the companies either.

Shewairy did say the workers came from 18 nations and included 90 people from Mexico, 35 from the Czech Republic, 22 from Mongolia and 20 from Brazil. The government initially said it had arrested about 300 people, but Shewairy said Friday the number turned out to be lower.

Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the United States, pledged to cooperate with investigators.

The company instructed store managers Thursday to preserve all relevant documents in case immigration agents want to review them. Agents left with several boxes after searching the office of a mid-level executive at Wal-Mart's Bentonville headquarters.

Williams said Friday that Wal-Mart has still not heard from the government that it is a target of an investigation. "No one at Wal-Mart has been subpoenaed," she said.

"We are doing a very thorough investigation with our own stores so we understand what happened and make sure that if we need to take pro-active, corrective steps, we will do that," she said. "If we find workers that are undocumented we would terminate them immediately."

The law enforcement sources said the investigation grew out of earlier probes of Wal-Mart cleaning crew contractors in 1998 and 2001.

Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer, uses more than 100 third-party contractors to clean more than 700 stores nationwide, Williams said.

Maria Stephenson, an immigration lawyer in New Orleans, said a company hiring a subcontractor would not likely be held responsible if the subcontractor hired illegal aliens. She also said a company does not have to verify a prospective worker's documents.

"You don't have to call the (Department of Motor Vehicles) and verify that this person actually has a driver's license," she said.

Shewairy said the immigration agency does routine audits of companies throughout the country, checking I-9 forms that each U.S. worker is required to fill out.

"When there is information that companies employ illegal aliens, we initiate our investigations," Shewairy said. An employer can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants or failing to comply with the I-9 regulations.

Shares in Wal-Mart fell 59 cents to close at $58.11 in trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Wal-Mart is not the first big company to be targeted in an immigration investigation. Six managers at Tyson Foods in Springdale, one town away from Wal-Mart in Bentonville, were charged in an immigrant-smuggling case in 2001.

One defendant shot himself to death a few months after being charged, and two managers entered guilty pleas early in the case. A jury acquitted the poultry company and three other managers.

[HarleyD]

"Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that they gathered recordings from wiretaps that indicate Wal-Mart executives knew the company's subcontractors used illegal workers."

Yeah, and half the homes in Beverly Hills have illegal workers as well. We'll see if they raid any of those.

While I think they need to solve this problem, the government seems to be going after Wal-Mart. It's interesting they don't wish to give the name of the company out that directly employed the illegal workers. Just Wal-Mart which hired the companies that hired the illegal workers.

[Coeur de Lion]

Why are they going after Wal-Mart? I'm no fan of Wal-Mart, but it's apparent that they can get a lot more in fines by going after Wal-Mart then what they can get if they went down to the local Home Depot and arrested all the "day workers." No money in that, but they'd get a higher yield in the number of illegals they can snag.

[Pro-Bush]

I smell a big fat racist rat here. The illegals caught at Wal-Mart by the INS were all Whites of eastern European orgin.

They are not a big enough voting block yet... :\

[Ribeye]

Or maybe they'll end up in the incredibaly cheap canned "beef" dog food they have at Wal-Mart.

C'mon..no "meat" is $0.39 for 2lbs.Not even lips and a**holes!

(In Chuck Heston voice) "Wal-Mart dogfood...IT'S PEOPLE!!)

[Pro-Bush]

Walmart is anti-union, so it is logical that pressure from big labor unions like the AFL/CIO are behind this. They have real deep pockets for lobbying and making things happen.

[Qwinn]

"They are not a big enough voting block yet... :\"

Incorrect. They are a voting bloc that is likely to vote Republican. That is why they are being expelled.

Qwinn

[Pro-Bush]

Walmart the first to get busted...no accident for sure.

[JNB]

My opinion is if a farmer needs illegal labor to make ends meet, they deserve to go bankrupt.

[Peace will be here soon]

"Law enforcement officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity that they gathered recordings from wiretaps that indicate Wal-Mart executives knew the company's subcontractors used illegal workers."

---

I thought this was a bit interesting. But they only busted a few hundred illegals. There has to be more here.

[Paulus Invictus]

I laughed today when the spokesman for the PR firm that W-M hired to handle this debacle said, "Wal-Mart has a history of being an 'all American Company'." Say what? They no longer "Buy American" but buy almost anywhere else, but mostly from the Chicoms. Where does the "All American" label come from? It's from the imagination of the W-M management and major stockholeders, the Walton family. Poor old Sam Walton would not recognize his company now.

[Paulus Invictus]

Well, we kids did the job. I picked strawberries for months in the summer and liked the pay too! It was 5 cents a basket and all the berries we could eat. Kids of my generation were taught the value of labor very early and never failed to do the picking jobs when they were offered. Kids now would refuse to be that long away from the mall, even if you could pry their cell phones away from their ears.

[HarleyD]

With all the illegals pouring into California and Arizona why would the INS spend its time bugging the offices of Wal-Mart and conducting a 21-state sweep which net mostly illegal immigrants from Europe? This is nothing more than a political move pure and simple.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

I am going to print up a Tee shirt with I N S on the front
and the great wall-mart of china on the back.

I will then wear it to the local walmart.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Wal-Mart buys everything possible made by the Chinese and then hires illegal aliens to work in the stores. Way to go Wal-Mart, always thinkin about what's best for your fellow Americans! We salute you for your wonderful patriotism.

[TheDon]

Everybody has an axe to grind against the successful. A regular bonfire of the vanities. Microsoft, Martha Stewart, Wal-Mart. The unions, for one, definitely hate Wal-Mart.

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

This is nothing but a federal PR campaign unless Wal-Mart bigwigs go to prison. A fine for Wal-Mart could come out of petty cash and never be missed.

[FITZ]

Good --- maybe next time I'm in a Walmart, I'll hear some of the employees speaking English. Especially the announcements ---- recently they've all gone to Spanish --- but this might convince them to turn it around a little.

[FITZ]

which net mostly illegal immigrants from Europe?

According to this article they weren't mostly from Europe. They were from a variety of places ---- only 35 from Europe.

[Pro-Bush]

bump! ....You're right, I remember when the background music was in english, it will be nice to hear it again.

[FITZ]

I might just drop into a Walmart to see if they're all going out of their way to look, act, and speak American for a change. I might feel like I'm back in my own country.