The woman who is taking on Wal-Mart

[dArKeR]

When Betty Dukes signed on as a check-out counter assistant at Wal-Mart, the world's biggest supermarket company, it was for five dollars an hour and the chance of moving up through the company ranks. "I thought I'd move forward quickly. I thought I'd get promoted and get good pay rises," she says.

She got neither. Instead she got the last thing she was looking for: a starring role in an $8-billion legal battle that could change the face of corporate America and earn her a reputation as the new Erin Brockovich.

Last week a San Francisco judge ruled that Dukes and 1,5-million current and former employees at Wal-Mart could proceed with a lawsuit alleging that the company discriminated against female employees, bypassing them for promotion and paying them less than their male counterparts. It is the largest civil rights case in US history.

"Am I scared of what we are taking on? Fear can hold anyone back -- but not me," says Dukes, who has worked at a Wal-Mart in Pittsburg, California, since 1994.

http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3.asp?ao=117830

'Betty Dukes' doesn't show up in the DU so I'm posting LBN.

[arikara]

1. Good luck to her!

Great story.

:D

[struggle4progress]

2. Wage-slaves, unite!

<snip>
In one corner stand some of the lowest paid, least protected workers in America. In the other corner stands Wal-Mart, an American institution with a million employees, an annual turnover of $254-billion and profits of $8-billion.
<snip>

Thanks for posting this!