The cost of low prices, always

Ah, justice.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. must pay $172 million in damages and compensation to about 116,000 current and former employees for denying meal breaks, a California jury ruled on Thursday.

Concluding the class-action court challenge against the world's biggest retailer in Alameda County, California, near San Francisco, a local jury held that Wal-Mart had broken a state law governing breaks for meals.

The four plaintiffs who launched the lawsuit in 2001 had claimed Wal-Mart had failed to pay hourly employees for missed or interrupted meal breaks.

"What was compelling for the jury was that we put a lot of evidence before them of memos by Wal-Mart from seven years ago that concluded they had been breaking the law," said Jessica Grant, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. "Instead of taking steps to solve the problem, Wal-Mart concealed it."

The jury ruled Wal-Mart must pay $57.2 million in compensation and $115 million in punitive damages. The ruling applies only to current and former Wal-Mart employees in California.

Wal-Mart faces similar lawsuits in over 30 states, said Grant, whose firm is pressing two of the court challenges, one in Maryland and the other in Massachusetts, on behalf of 80,000 class-action plaintiffs.

Hopefully this will make it harder for people to silence their conscience in favor of saving a tiny bit of money. For everyone who cares about American workers enough to proudly display "Buy American" stickers on your vehicle, click here to get your "Boycott Wal-Mart" stickers.