June 29, 2025
Mark Balentine, 52, filed the class action lawsuit against the retail giant.
Mark Balentine, a 52-year-old former employee at a distribution center once run by Schneider Logistics, a third-party contractor for Walmart, filed a class action lawsuit against the retail giant the week of June 27. The suit follows 2019 allegations that Walmart’s background check policies disproportionately harmed Black workers.
According to In These Times, the Arkansas-based retailer has previously faced criticism for using warehouse acquisitions from third-party companies as a tactic to undermine unions. Chris Williams, an attorney with the National Legal Advocacy Network, originally filed the complaint in 2019 with both the Illinois Department of Human Rights and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. At the time, Williams estimated that Walmart’s background check policies may have negatively impacted as many as 100 to 200 Black workers.
Per a recent report from the Economic Policy Institute, the South’s anti-worker policies both undermine job quality and depress worker power, in particular, those of Black and Latinx workers, lessons which the Arkansas-based Walmart has likely extrapolated to other locations.
In addition, it is notoriously difficult to prove racial discrimination in the temporary staffing industry, despite lawsuits accusing temp agencies of discrimination against Black workers by making them submit criminal background checks which other workers don’t have to comply with.
As Balentine told the outlet, the company was dismissive of him. Per his complaint, laid off workers were given “$250 and a slice of pizza”and told they could reapply in 60 days, but Balentine feels as though that response is inhumane.
“They told me to ‘roll the dice and try again,’” Balentine said. “And I was like, ‘this is my life.’”
Walmart countered this in a statement they released via email through a spokesperson, Kory Lundberg, saying that the company has provided those affected by their criminal background check policy “a meaningful opportunity to put the record in context.”
Lundberg continued in the email, “Retaining as many existing employees as possible has always been the goal of our transition at the Elwood distribution center, and we hired hundreds of those workers. We understand the importance of providing second chances and our background checks include a thoughtful and transparent review process to help ensure everyone is treated fairly.”
According to Lundberg, some of the candidates with criminal records “were offered a position after a personalized review of their offense,” but Lundberg did not respond to the outlet’s inquiry to clarify what he meant by that before their article was published.
Balentine said that his fight isn’t really for him, but is for younger workers with criminal records that will inevitably try to enter the workforce.
“I’m looking out for the person behind me The 17-year-old that’s getting in trouble today and who sees what happens to me and then he decides, ‘What’s the point in changing? They aren’t going to give me a chance anyway,’” Balentine told In These Times.
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