ACSBlog: The Blog of the American Constitution Society

The retailing behemoth Wal-Mart is reeling from the sudden public availability of videos capturing 30-years of its internal meetings and events.

In 2006, Wal-Mart severed its longtime relationship with Flagler Productions, a Kansas-based video production company. The company, which claims a contract was never signed between it and Wal-Mart, has struggled to stay in business. One way it has survived is by offering for sale videos of Wal-Mart’s internal meetings and other events that it recorded during its 30 years of working for the company. Much of the interest in the videos, according to the Associated Press, has sprung from plaintiffs lawyers pursuing claims against the retailing giant, such as employment discrimination cases. 

Brad Seligman, a lead attorney in a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart for discrimination against women says, “Once in a while you come upon documents that are helpful in a case. What’s amazing about this is that this company has a video record going back many years showing senior management in at times fairly candid situations.”

One clip aired by ABC News shows Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton in the late 1980s telling the board of directors that there were not enough women in management. Other clips show a Wal-Mart lawyer decrying labor unions as “blood-sucking parasites” and an executive meeting where male managers are frolicking in drag.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Daphne Moore complained to The Associated Press that it never intended the videos for public consumption and that it was examining its legal options.