Wal-mart Chief Defends Closing Unionized Store

[FWAAA]

I don't know about shutting down the entire store. If the auto dep't had voted in favor of organizing, wouldn't Wal-Mart have just devised some mumbo-jumbo to support the closure of the auto dep't? Or would it have had to close the entire SuperCenter?

On the lawsuit question, I assume the employees would have a better shot under US labor law (alleging some kind of retaliatory closure) than they would against the company. Courts are loathe to second-guess management of profitable companies for micro-decisions like closing one store.

 

[whlinder]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/215514_walmart11.html

Wal-Mart off the school-supply list
Union won't repay teachers for items bought at discounter

By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

When it's time to pick up supplies for her third-grade classroom, Jennifer Strand would prefer to steer clear of Wal-Mart.

The teacher is convinced the retail giant isn't paying workers a fair wage, but in the northeastern Washington town of Colville -- population 5,000 -- the only other option is a small stationery section in the local grocery store.

So Strand became a reluctant Wal-Mart shopper -- venturing in from time to time to pick up supplies and emergency items for disadvantaged students, such as coats and shoes. She'd get reimbursed through the Washington Education Association's Children's Fund, a decade-old charity that provides up to $100 per student each year.

Not anymore.

Taking a bold political stand, the state teachers' union last week declared the fund off-limits to Wal-Mart purchases.

In a newsletter distributed to teachers, association President Charles Hasse cited Wal-Mart's "exploitative labor practices (that) have added to public assistance burdens in our state and across the nation."

Hasse said yesterday that the action followed repeated suggestions from teachers to either change the policy or distribute information about the company's labor practices.

Hasse said he's received more than 200 responses from teachers around the state, who were 20-1 in favor of eliminating Wal-Mart reimbursements. "It was interesting to see the intensity of feeling around this," he said.

Objections to the change stemmed primarily from concerns that teachers in rural areas would have no alternative to Wal-Mart.

In the absence of other shopping options, Hasse said, exemptions will be considered on a case-by-case basis. "We're not going to have some student go without a coat if that's the only place it could be purchased."

The Children's Fund provides about $50,000 a year to teachers around the state, according to Hasse.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dan Fogleman yesterday refuted the unfair labor practice accusations. He said 86 percent of Wal-Mart hourly employees have medical insurance, and more than half of them are covered by the company. The company's average wage for hourly "sales associates" is $10.14 in Washington state, Fogleman said, compared with the national average of $9.68.

He said the company spent $40 million last fiscal year on educational initiatives, including scholarships, teacher awards and a national literacy hot line that connects callers with resources in their communities.

"We understand the value of an education, and we strongly support it," he said.

The association's new policy also was slammed by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a conservative research organization in Olympia that frequently has clashed with the association.

The foundation, which has received funding from Wal-Mart, issued a press release this week accusing the education association of "allowing a political battle to trump its charitable intentions."

Michael Reitz, a legal analyst at the foundation, said the association's stand is ironic.

"On the one hand, the WEA claims that teachers are not being paid enough, but then they're forcing teachers to go to more expensive retailers, because Wal-Mart can be the best place to go for bargain shopping," he said.

"If the mission of the Children's Fund is to help children, then it shouldn't matter where the teachers are purchasing goods."

Richard Gilham agrees.

A fourth-grade teacher at Olympic Elementary School in Chehalis, Gilham has bought CD players, batteries and other classroom items at Wal-Mart. For selection and price, he said, Wal-Mart is hard to beat.

"If I'm spending WEA's resources, I'm going to try to get the best buy I can for my dollar, and if Wal-Mart is that place, it's probably the best use of those funds," Gilham said.

Roger Kinney, a marketing and business teacher at Burlington-Edison High School in Skagit County, said he's angry with the association for "dishing around in areas that they don't belong."

Kinney believes the association's opposition is a show of solidarity for other unions that have so far eluded certification at any Wal-Mart store.

"I think the unions know that Wal-Mart is a huge market for them, and there's a lot of money to be tapped from that market," he said.

Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, the nation's biggest private-sector employer with 1.2 million workers, has been held up as the poster child of unethical labor practices. The company faces a grand jury investigation following raids in October 2003 that uncovered hundreds of illegal immigrants, employed by outside contractors, cleaning its stores.

Last June, a federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit, the largest workplace-bias lawsuit in U.S. history, alleging discrimination against female employees.

After meat cutters at a Texas store voted to form a union in 2000, the company shut down its meat-cutting operations nationwide, saying the move was unrelated to the vote. Last month, the company said it would close a store in Jonquiere, Quebec, that voted in August to unionize.

In an effort to stanch the public relations disaster, Wal-Mart in January held what company officials dubbed "Facts Day," launching with great fanfare a new Web site with information about the company and an advertising campaign extolling the benefits of working at Wal-Mart.

"We put our critics on notice that we were going to tell the truth, that we were going to set this misinformation campaign backward by bringing forth facts, the unfiltered truth about our company," Fogleman said.

Marlene Olveda remains unconvinced.

A Spanish teacher at Columbia River High School in Vancouver, Olveda lauded the association's move and said she refuses to shop at Wal-Mart, as do many of her colleagues.

"One of my students has an 80-year-old grandmother who works there and has no benefits," she said. "There are so many other places we could be spending our money other than Wal-Mart. Granted, they have lower prices, but it's because they're predatory."

 

[Furloughedagain]

Wal-Mart's sins are our own
Friday, Mar 11, 2005

By Jack Moseley

Has Arkansas-based Wal-Mart become the Great Satan of American commerce that must be fought - pardon the expression - like the devil to save the saintly residents of places like Chicago, New York and Los Angeles from economic corruption?

That's what some residents and some officials of those places contend, not to mention merchants in quaint little villages across this land who battle the corporate giant in the name of preserving small-town and neighborhood diversity, prevailing wages and identity.

I grew up in a small Louisiana community that boasted four independent grocers, a butcher shop, four clothing stores, a five-and-dime, three drug stores (all with soda fountains), a bar or two and a pool hall, two furniture stores, a hardware store, plus several eateries and assorted other family owned businesses. The last time I went home only one private pharmacy remained, and the druggist told me it too would simply close its doors when he retired.

But out on the highway, Wal-Mart is booming. Sometimes the parking lot is so full that overflow customers have to park in a nearby pasture. "Always low prices" packs the place.

Nostalgia is beautiful, but let's face it - it does very little to stretch a hard-earned dollar. America simply is not going back to a simpler time of poodle skirts, sock-hops and the glories of small-town America in the 1950s. Our culture has been forever changed and Wal-Mart helped that happen, for better or worse.

The older I become, the more I like to fondly recall the good old days, but somehow I still manage to face the present and appreciate how much better life in this country really is today. And Wal-Mart has helped make American life better, whether we want to admit it or not. Let's look at some of the criticisms of the world's biggest retailer.

Yes, they force small businesses out when they come to town, but even mom and pop appreciate and take advantage of the low prices and convenience of one-stop shopping. That includes even the union members who gripe that Wal-Mart underpays its employees.

That's another myth that Wal-Mart now is aggressively fighting. A higher percentage of its employees work full time (74 percent) than those employed by competing retailers (20 to 40 percent). Wal-Mart's workers average just under $10 an hour, which is on par with other retailers in both cities and smaller markets.

Big city politicians simply are grandstanding when they oppose Wal-Mart providing local jobs that unemployed residents would love to have them.

It's a fact that retailing pays less than the national average wage, just as auto manufacturers pay workers well above that same average. For tens of thousands of men and women, Wal-Mart provides employment that might otherwise not be available in hometowns across this country. And it gives tens of millions of dollars to local school organizations and charities, just like mom and pop operators used to do.

Another complaint about the retail giant is that it indirectly supports communism and China by importing so much of its low-priced merchandise from there. Because it does import from China and a host of other places around the globe, Wal-Mart is able to keep 1.2 million Americans employed.

Writing in The New York Times recently, Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's labor secretary, noted the following: "... isn't Wal-Mart being punished for our sins? After all, it's not as if Wal-Mart's founder Sam Walton and his successors created the world's largest retailer by putting a gun to our heads and forcing us to shop there." Yep, we're the ones buying all that stuff from China and assorted other spots around the globe. If we're so offended, why do we buy that stuff?

If Wal-Mart is the devil of commerce, then most of us are his little imps doing his bidding by shopping with him. Yes, Wal-Mart has its flaws and social warts, but it's not nearly as black with sin as its detractors claim.

Mostly, the retailer has been an engine of change in a changing culture and it is no more solely responsible for the decline of small-town businesses than the people who deserted all those nice little shops to buy for less at the Supercenter.

 

[diogenes]

Ahhhh, furloughedagain, you have hit upon the human condidtion.

Everybody complains about the government, but nowhere near enough citizens stay informed and engaged to deserve better government.

Everybody complains about Enron and Arthur Anderson, but stands mute while the regulatory agencies that oversee accountability are defanged.

Everybody complains that Johnny can't read. Can't his parents, and if so, what is the hold up?

Everybody complains about WalMart, but nearly everybody shops there.

There is a line in Moseley's article that triggers a question.

"Another complaint about the retail giant is that it indirectly supports communism and China by importing so much of its low-priced merchandise from there. Because it does import from China and a host of other places around the globe, Wal-Mart is able to keep 1.2 million Americans employed."

Wonder how many Americans would have decent jobs if we did NOT import from China, i.e. the manufacturing jobs had stayed in the U.S.?

Nice post.

"As for me and my house," we will not shop at WalMart.

 

[Furloughedagain]

Wal-Mart's status as a giant legitimate

BY JOHN SEMMENS

Wal-Mart is the world's largest business. Its $250 billion in annual sales makes it bigger than legendary giants such as Exxon, General Motors and IBM. How did Wal-Mart get so big?

In a market economy, success goes to those businesses that best serve consumer needs. Businesses must persuade customers to hand over money in exchange for the merchandise. Customers are completely free to ignore the offerings of any business.

We are all consumers, and consumers like bargains. Wal-Mart's basic strategy has been to guarantee low prices.

The sheer size of Wal-Mart attests to the success of its strategy. It is accurately interpreting consumer needs and efficiently serving them. This is what we want businesses to do.

But what about the methods Wal-Mart uses to achieve its goal of low prices? Critics say Wal-Mart exploits its employees by paying poverty wages and forcing them to work unpaid overtime. Wal-Mart also is accused of squeezing vendors, forcing them to lay off U.S. workers and ship their jobs to foreign "sweatshops."

Anyone who understands economics knows these claims are without merit. No one is forced to work at Wal-Mart. Employment contracts are voluntary agreements between consenting parties. The wages, benefits and conditions at Wal-Mart must be as good as or better than those elsewhere because otherwise people wouldn't choose to work at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart can't squeeze vendors, compelling them to accept deals they would prefer to refuse. Sellers would like to get as high a price as possible for their wares, and buyers would like to get as low a price as possible. Both have to settle on a mutually agreeable price.

If some of Wal-Mart's suppliers choose to manufacture products overseas, that is because doing so lowers costs. Wages demanded by workers in places such as Bangladesh are lower than in the United States, but they still must be sufficient to lure workers from alternative occupations. As bad as these "sweatshop" wages and working conditions might appear, they obviously are cherished by those who endure them in other countries, where the alternatives often pay much less and can be physically demanding or dangerous.

From an economic perspective, Wal-Mart is a major force in promoting prosperity for consumers, employees, shareholders and suppliers. The company helps consumers get more for their money, provides jobs and offers a great expansion of choices of consumer goods for consumers in small communities.

Wal-Mart's "lowest price" policy is stimulating its suppliers and competitors to be more efficient, which requires higher productivity. Higher productivity is the key to prosperity. By encouraging international trade between the U.S. and less-developed countries, Wal-Mart is helping put these countries on the path to higher standards of living.

Wal-Mart is doing all these good things with a profit margin of less than 4 percent. To call Wal-Mart a "corporate criminal," as an article in the Jan. 3 issue of The Nation does, is libel. Wal-Mart is a model of success that should be emulated, not reviled.

 

[diogenes]

Wal-Mart's status as a giant legitimate

BY JOHN SEMMENS


But what about the methods Wal-Mart uses to achieve its goal of low prices? Critics say Wal-Mart exploits its employees by paying poverty wages and forcing them to work unpaid overtime. Wal-Mart also is accused of squeezing vendors, forcing them to lay off U.S. workers and ship their jobs to foreign "sweatshops."

Anyone who understands economics knows these claims are without merit. No one is forced to work at Wal-Mart. Employment contracts are voluntary agreements between consenting parties. The wages, benefits and conditions at Wal-Mart must be as good as or better than those elsewhere because otherwise people wouldn't choose to work at Wal-Mart.


On the first point, the fact that W@alMart has lost some lawsuits regarding OT would indicate otherwise.

On the second, once WalMart has displaced local business, where else does one go to work?

 

[aafsc]

Ahhhh, furloughedagain, you have hit upon the human condidtion.

Everybody complains about the government, but nowhere near enough citizens stay informed and engaged to deserve better government.

Everybody complains about Enron and Arthur Anderson, but stands mute while the regulatory agencies that oversee accountability are defanged.

Everybody complains that Johnny can't read. Can't his parents, and if so, what is the hold up?

Everybody complains about WalMart, but nearly everybody shops there.

There is a line in Moseley's article that triggers a question.

"Another complaint about the retail giant is that it indirectly supports communism and China by importing so much of its low-priced merchandise from there. Because it does import from China and a host of other places around the globe, Wal-Mart is able to keep 1.2 million Americans employed."

Wonder how many Americans would have decent jobs if we did NOT import from China, i.e. the manufacturing jobs had stayed in the U.S.?

Nice post.

"As for me and my house," we will not shop at WalMart.

[post="256186"][/post]​

I will not shop at wal-mart either. An IAM publication did a story on the horrid working conditions that the Chinese workers endure. These are companies that sell their products to Wal-mart. It tells of 16 hour days 6 days a week for very little pay and the people sleep in cheap company dormitories in the factory. There are many people in one room. I refuse to support this by buying from Wal-mart.

 

[whlinder]

Wal-Mart leaves bitter chill

JONQUIERE, Quebec -- The baby buggies are all gone. In electronics, only "Le Gros Albert" and a few other leftover DVDs remain. A few pairs of pink boots are left in the shoe department. Over in household goods, red and yellow liquidation tags dangle beside thin skillets as Wal-Mart prepares to close.

The retailing behemoth, whose $10 billion annual profits are based on low prices, low expenses and its relentless pace of store openings, announced it will shut the doors here May 6 after workers voted to make this the first unionized Wal-Mart in North America.

The closure will leave 190 bitter employees out of work, the town uneasy over the future of unions, and the mayor angry at the company. Supporters of organized labor also say it serves as a warning for workers at other Wal-Mart stores who might contemplate defying founder Sam Walton's sharp distaste for unions.

"It's like we are digging our own grave," said store employee Nathalie Dubois, 38, a single mother with no other job to go to, as she helped pack up the store.