Unions Seek Probe of Wal-Mart Over Election Law

Several of the country's most prominent labor groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. violated federal election laws by holding meetings with employees in which managers discussed the impact of electing Democrats on legislation that would make it easier for workers to unionize companies, including Wal-Mart.

In a letter to be delivered as early as Thursday, the labor groups are asking the Federal Election Commission to determine whether the company "made prohibited corporate expenditures" by organizing meetings across the country to warn employees that a Democratic president would back legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which the company opposes. The groups say such statements amount to advocating the defeat of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the November election.

Companies aren't permitted under federal election law to expressly advocate to hourly employees the election or defeat of specific candidates. The complaint cites as its source an Aug. 1 front-page article in The Wall Street Journal that reported the Bentonville, Ark., retailer held meetings with thousands of store managers and department supervisors across the country to discuss the legislation.

The labor groups are also expected to submit petitions with 60,000 signatures requesting an investigation. American Rights at Work, a worker advocacy group, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations and WakeUpWalMart.com, a labor-backed group, are filing the complaint.

Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said the company's policies are clear and that anyone representing the company and telling associates how to vote were "wrong and acting without approval."

"We welcome the FEC looking into this, because we are confident they will find what we have known all along, that we did nothing wrong," Mr. Tovar said.

Legal experts said election-law complaints against employers are rare but that the complaint against Wal-Mart merits consideration. "I think it's going to be a case that the FEC is going to have to take seriously," said Joseph M. Birkenstock, a Washington attorney specializing in election law. The key to the case will be "exactly what was said" at meetings, he said.

Meanwhile, new details are emerging that show Wal-Mart managers leading the meetings are spreading inaccurate information about the Employee Free Choice Act, according to a digital recording of a Wal-Mart meeting made by a Wal-Mart employee and reviewed by the Journal.

In the hour-and-a-half meeting, held for managers in a Southern state, the leader tells employees that their wages may be reduced to minimum wage for up to three months before a contract is negotiated, that union authorization cards violate workers' right to privacy by including their Social Security numbers on them and that if a small unit within a store votes to unionize, the entire store will be unionized.