The Wal-Mart 22

Jonathan Tasini
November 07, 2005

Jonathan Tasini is president of the Economic Future Group and writes his "Working In America" columns for TomPaine.com on an occasional basis. His blog Working Life chronicles the labor movement and other issues affecting American workers.

Last week, I attended the screening of Robert Greenwald’s new film, “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price.” It is a great piece of investigative work that gives voice to the people and communities Wal-Mart has destroyed. You have to see it (or buy your own copy here). During the movie, I caught myself thinking: If you want to know why the Democratic Party will continue to be the minority party in the country, look no further than the raft of Democratic operatives and elected representatives who do the bidding of Wal-Mart.

Let’s start by looking at what I call the Wal-Mart 22: The 22 Democrats who, on June 24, voted against an amendment to the 2006 fiscal year labor appropriations bill (offered by Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut). This bill barred any spending of money by the Department of Labor to implement the part of the deal the department had made with Wal-Mart calling for advance notice of inspections any time the DOL planned to investigate Wal-Mart. This is the deal that was recently heavily criticized by the department’s inspector general.