Thursday, May 22, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Wal-Mart accused by women

Discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart supported in rally

Former Miss America Carolyn Sapp speaks Wednesday near the Wal-Mart at Charleston Boulevard and Faircenter Parkway. She joined about 40 women gathered to support a class action lawsuit against the retail giant for alleged sexual discrimination. Photo by Clint Karlsen.

A rally against Wal-Mart with 1992 Miss America Carolyn Sapp was cut short Wednesday when Las Vegas police arrived.

About 40 women wearing cardboard "Anti-Wal-Mart" tiaras and sashes gathered to gain support for a pending lawsuit against the retail giant for alleged sexual discrimination.

A police officer who arrived at Fairview Center told organizers he was called to check on a "protest" at the shopping center owned by Houston-based Weingarten Realty Management Co. A woman with Weingarten who would not give her name said she was not notified of the rally beforehand and called police.

One of the attorneys in the employment discrimination lawsuit confirmed the group was told to end the rally, which was held near the Wal-Mart store in the redeveloped shopping center on Charleston Boulevard.

During the rally, Sapp unveiled a TV ad and Web site, walmartvswomen.com, that is part of a campaign to turn the lawsuit into a class action case that would represent as many as 1.5 million current and former female Wal-Mart employees.

"Wal-Mart, the largest corporation in America, pays women less than they pay men," Sapp said. "We're here to take a stand, to have a voice," she said.

Wal-Mart officials say the lawsuit represents isolated incidents and is not representative of the company.

"In a company as large as Wal-Mart, there are going to be some knuckleheads who make bad decisions, but that's not Wal-Mart," said Mona Williams, vice president of communications. "That's not reflective of Wal-Mart and when we find out about these bad decisions, we deal with these people." Marc Grossman, spokesman for the event, said the rally was not part of a union organizing campaign against Wal-Mart although he acknowledged that United Food and Commercial Workers contributed funds.

Bernadine Brooks, a Las Vegas resident who joined the lawsuit about two years ago, said she worked nearly 10 years for Wal-Mart in Louisiana and Texas.

"I started at the bottom and I stayed at the bottom," Brooks said. "I saw many men come and go. They just walked over me. I love Wal-Mart and gave them everything. Unfortunately, they didn't give anything in return."

She said the last straw was when she applied for support manager after eight years with the company and the job was given to an 18-year-old boy just out of high school.

Three-quarters of the Bentonville, Ark., retail chain's 1 million employees are female but women hold less than one-third of managerial positions, according to the lawsuit.

Among testimony and documents cited by women in the lawsuit are those revealing that senior Wal-Mart managers used and endorse the use of demeaning stereotypes of women in the work place.

A hearing date on the lawsuit has been set for July 25.

Inside the nearby Wal-Mart, several women employees talked about the protest.

"I'm happy with my job. I have no problems and I've been here 6 1/2 years," one of the workers said when asked about the lawsuit's merits.

Responding to Brooks' charge of being turned down for promotion, the worker said, "Maybe she wasn't qualified."

The New York Times reported earlier this year in a study commissioned by the plaintiffs' lawyers that full-time women hourly employees working at least 45 weeks at Wal-Mart made about $1,150 less per year than men in similar jobs, a 6.2 percent gap.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.