Worked up over Wal-Mart
April 8, 2004
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter Advertisement
Now that Wal-Mart has lost a round in California, Chicago could become the next battleground in the war between the retail giant and its opponents.
Residents of the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood voted ovewhelmingly Tuesday to reject Wal-Mart's plans to move into their community. And the arguments, pro and con, that were aired in Inglewood are the same ones being aired in Chicago's City Council -- and the same ones that have followed the nation's largest retailer as it spread throughout the United States.
Last week, the City Council ignored the wishes of the local alderman and put off consideration of a zoning change that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build its first Chicago store on the site of the old Ryerson steel plant, 8301 S. Stewart. Zoning for a West Side store, at 1657 N. Kilpatrick, is still stuck in committee over the objections of Ald. Emma Mitts (37th).
Mayor Daley on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for Wal-Mart and expressed confidence that it would ultimately gain entry into the Chicago market in a way that appeases organized labor.
But the mayor said he has no plans to broker the agreement because he doesn't want to "muscle" the City Council. Daley denied that his hands-off stance has anything to do with the fact that his brother's law firm, Daley & George, represents Wal-Mart on the stalled deal for a West Side store.
"It's up to the City Council," he said. "...They'll be able to work this out. I have confidence."
What wrong with Wal-Mart? And what's good about it? Here's the debate:
Contributing: City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman
The Good
Wal-Mart (TWU) provides jobs in low-income and downtrodden communities. Wal-Mart (TWU) said that while an average union (airline) grocery store employs 70 workers, one of its supercenters employs 400 to 500. Wal-Mart is the country’s largest employer, employing more than 1 million. It netted $256.3 billion in sales in 2003, and has grown into the country’s largest grocer, taking in $82 billion from food and drug sales last year.
Wal-Mart (TWU) keeps the price of goods (Labor) low, helping customers (employers)to get the most for their dollars.
Wal-Mart (TWU) has healthy profits, so it benefits investors. The retailer more than doubled its sales and profit in less than five years, from 1998 to 2003.
u Wal-Mart keeps its stores wholesome by refusing to sell CDs and DVDs with parental warning stickers and removing racy magazines that shoppers deem offensive.
Wal-Mart (TWU) keeps (real unions) retail competitors on their toes. Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway Inc., the parent company of Chicago’s Dominick’s grocery chain, didn’t have to name Wal-Mart when he said in a financial filing April 5 that “massive, non-union, often well-capitalized retailers are carving out ever-larger slices of the consumer’s food budget.”
Burd argued that unless conventional supermarkets win labor concessions, “the neighborhood supermarket and the high-paying jobs it provides will become relics of history.”
Wal-Mart (TWU) helps low- and moderate-income (wealty) people live the American dream by selling goods at bargain-basement prices (seeing a higher ROI).
u Wal-Mart (TWU) provides opportunities for people with less than a college education. The retailer said it promotes more than 9,000 hourly associates each year into salaried jobs, and most of the jobs do not require a college degree.
Wal-Mart (TWU) said it contributed more than $5.5 million in Illinois last year to various causes. Wal-Mart associates and customers in Illinois raised another $2.2 million in fund-raising last year.
Wal-Mart (TWU) sets the standard for other (unions)retailers in using (Concessions)cutting-edge technology to cut costs, essentially forcing its competitors to do likewise.
Former Wal-Mart Chief Information Officer Bob Martin is credited with building in-house software systems in the early days so manufacturers could see how their products were selling inside each store.
Wal-Mart’s latest technology initiative is to require its suppliers to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on pallets and cases of certain goods. Wal-Mart announced in June 2003 that it expected its top 100 suppliers to adopt the technology, starting this year. Wal-Mart will start its first RFID field trial later this month, in which eight of its suppliers will tag cases and pallets of select items.
The Bad
Critics say Wal-Mart (TWU) destroys mom-and-pop retailers (good paying jobs). . A study by Deloitte Research concluded that big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart contribute minimally to local property and sales tax coffers, because they take sales away from existing retailers.
Allegations have arisen that Wal-Mart (TWU) mistreats its workers. The New York Times has reported that Wal-Mart locked employees into some of its Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores overnight, presumably to prevent robberies and employee theft; hired janitorial companies that used illegal immigrants as labor; and shortchanged workers by docking their time sheets.
Wal-Mart (TWU) said when a criticism is valid, it uses it as an opportunity to (promise but not actually)improve (or blame the Presidents council or the members). The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer says it follows all laws and regulations, and gives at least one manager in each store a set of keys to unlock the doors.
The AFL-CIO says Wal-Mart shifts costs to taxpayers, communities and other employers because it pays wages that are below the federal poverty line for a family of three or more, forcing workers to rely on government-subsidized programs. A typical Wal-Mart sales associate earned $8.23 per hour, or a yearly $13,861, in 2001.
Wal-Mart (TWU) insists that its wages are competitive. A spokeswoman for the retailer said Wal-Mart associates in the Chicago area make $10.77 per hour and work about 36 hours a week. Three-fourths of the workers are full-time, the spokeswoman said. In addition to wages, Wal-Mart has historically contributed 4 percent of an associate’s wages to a combined profit-sharing and 401(k) account each year.
Unions allege that Wal-Mart has designed a system in which its low-wage workers get no pensions and cannot afford its health insurance coverage. Wal-Mart counters that more than 90 percent of its “associates” are covered by health insurance, including 50 percent who choose Wal-Mart’s medical insurance plan. Wal-Mart said its plan provides coverage for catastrophic illnesses, its coverage has no lifetime limit, and it pays two-thirds of the cost of its health care coverage.
Wal-Mart controls a rapidly increasing share of the business done by major U.S. consumer products companies.
Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese goods, which critics charge contributes to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States.
April 8, 2004
BY SANDRA GUY Business Reporter Advertisement
Now that Wal-Mart has lost a round in California, Chicago could become the next battleground in the war between the retail giant and its opponents.
Residents of the Los Angeles suburb of Inglewood voted ovewhelmingly Tuesday to reject Wal-Mart's plans to move into their community. And the arguments, pro and con, that were aired in Inglewood are the same ones being aired in Chicago's City Council -- and the same ones that have followed the nation's largest retailer as it spread throughout the United States.
Last week, the City Council ignored the wishes of the local alderman and put off consideration of a zoning change that would have allowed Wal-Mart to build its first Chicago store on the site of the old Ryerson steel plant, 8301 S. Stewart. Zoning for a West Side store, at 1657 N. Kilpatrick, is still stuck in committee over the objections of Ald. Emma Mitts (37th).
Mayor Daley on Wednesday reaffirmed his support for Wal-Mart and expressed confidence that it would ultimately gain entry into the Chicago market in a way that appeases organized labor.
But the mayor said he has no plans to broker the agreement because he doesn't want to "muscle" the City Council. Daley denied that his hands-off stance has anything to do with the fact that his brother's law firm, Daley & George, represents Wal-Mart on the stalled deal for a West Side store.
"It's up to the City Council," he said. "...They'll be able to work this out. I have confidence."
What wrong with Wal-Mart? And what's good about it? Here's the debate:
Contributing: City Hall Reporter Fran Spielman
The Good
Wal-Mart (TWU) provides jobs in low-income and downtrodden communities. Wal-Mart (TWU) said that while an average union (airline) grocery store employs 70 workers, one of its supercenters employs 400 to 500. Wal-Mart is the country’s largest employer, employing more than 1 million. It netted $256.3 billion in sales in 2003, and has grown into the country’s largest grocer, taking in $82 billion from food and drug sales last year.
Wal-Mart (TWU) keeps the price of goods (Labor) low, helping customers (employers)to get the most for their dollars.
Wal-Mart (TWU) has healthy profits, so it benefits investors. The retailer more than doubled its sales and profit in less than five years, from 1998 to 2003.
u Wal-Mart keeps its stores wholesome by refusing to sell CDs and DVDs with parental warning stickers and removing racy magazines that shoppers deem offensive.
Wal-Mart (TWU) keeps (real unions) retail competitors on their toes. Steve Burd, CEO of Safeway Inc., the parent company of Chicago’s Dominick’s grocery chain, didn’t have to name Wal-Mart when he said in a financial filing April 5 that “massive, non-union, often well-capitalized retailers are carving out ever-larger slices of the consumer’s food budget.”
Burd argued that unless conventional supermarkets win labor concessions, “the neighborhood supermarket and the high-paying jobs it provides will become relics of history.”
Wal-Mart (TWU) helps low- and moderate-income (wealty) people live the American dream by selling goods at bargain-basement prices (seeing a higher ROI).
u Wal-Mart (TWU) provides opportunities for people with less than a college education. The retailer said it promotes more than 9,000 hourly associates each year into salaried jobs, and most of the jobs do not require a college degree.
Wal-Mart (TWU) said it contributed more than $5.5 million in Illinois last year to various causes. Wal-Mart associates and customers in Illinois raised another $2.2 million in fund-raising last year.
Wal-Mart (TWU) sets the standard for other (unions)retailers in using (Concessions)cutting-edge technology to cut costs, essentially forcing its competitors to do likewise.
Former Wal-Mart Chief Information Officer Bob Martin is credited with building in-house software systems in the early days so manufacturers could see how their products were selling inside each store.
Wal-Mart’s latest technology initiative is to require its suppliers to use radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on pallets and cases of certain goods. Wal-Mart announced in June 2003 that it expected its top 100 suppliers to adopt the technology, starting this year. Wal-Mart will start its first RFID field trial later this month, in which eight of its suppliers will tag cases and pallets of select items.
The Bad
Critics say Wal-Mart (TWU) destroys mom-and-pop retailers (good paying jobs). . A study by Deloitte Research concluded that big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart contribute minimally to local property and sales tax coffers, because they take sales away from existing retailers.
Allegations have arisen that Wal-Mart (TWU) mistreats its workers. The New York Times has reported that Wal-Mart locked employees into some of its Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores overnight, presumably to prevent robberies and employee theft; hired janitorial companies that used illegal immigrants as labor; and shortchanged workers by docking their time sheets.
Wal-Mart (TWU) said when a criticism is valid, it uses it as an opportunity to (promise but not actually)improve (or blame the Presidents council or the members). The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer says it follows all laws and regulations, and gives at least one manager in each store a set of keys to unlock the doors.
The AFL-CIO says Wal-Mart shifts costs to taxpayers, communities and other employers because it pays wages that are below the federal poverty line for a family of three or more, forcing workers to rely on government-subsidized programs. A typical Wal-Mart sales associate earned $8.23 per hour, or a yearly $13,861, in 2001.
Wal-Mart (TWU) insists that its wages are competitive. A spokeswoman for the retailer said Wal-Mart associates in the Chicago area make $10.77 per hour and work about 36 hours a week. Three-fourths of the workers are full-time, the spokeswoman said. In addition to wages, Wal-Mart has historically contributed 4 percent of an associate’s wages to a combined profit-sharing and 401(k) account each year.
Unions allege that Wal-Mart has designed a system in which its low-wage workers get no pensions and cannot afford its health insurance coverage. Wal-Mart counters that more than 90 percent of its “associates” are covered by health insurance, including 50 percent who choose Wal-Mart’s medical insurance plan. Wal-Mart said its plan provides coverage for catastrophic illnesses, its coverage has no lifetime limit, and it pays two-thirds of the cost of its health care coverage.
Wal-Mart controls a rapidly increasing share of the business done by major U.S. consumer products companies.
Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese goods, which critics charge contributes to the loss of manufacturing jobs in the United States.
