Laura Flanders reports on the Dukes v Wal-Mart suit before the US supreme court. Video: GRITtv The US supreme court heard oral arguments Tuesday on what could be the largest class action civil rights suit in US history. Or it could be the case that stops class action history in its tracks. Monster megastore Walmart is challenging a lower court's decision to permit women employed at thousands of Walmart stores to join together to contest alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotion practices.
"This has been a ten-year process," says plaintiff Edith Arana. What keeps the women of Dukes v Wal-Mart going, she says, is the belief that something bigger than them is at stake. (Walmart revised the form of its name a few years back.) Says Arana:
"I know what happened to me and it's not just me. The women of this lawsuit are the poster children for the all the women who couldn't do this, and they each have families and names and faces."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/mar/31/wal-mart-us-supreme-courtSupreme Court Weighs Massive Lawsuit Accusing Retail Giant Wal-Mart for Sexual Discrimination Against Female Workers
http://www.democracynow.org/2011/3/31/supreme_court_hears_weighs_massive_suithttp://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2011/march/video/dnB20110331a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:46:56