Two Christmases ago, Walmart was inundated with complaints and bad press about carrying products that were dangerous. Chief among those concerns were products that contained dangerous levels of lead. You see Walmart's business model is based on selling their goods for the cheapest price possible. Often that means pressuring their manufacturers to cut corners or use the cheapest factories around. The result is products that are tainted with lead, contain other harmful material, or are physically dangerous.

While the fervor has died down, Walmart hasn't stopped carrying dangerous products because their business model hasn't changed. As evidence, today the state of California has asked several companies to remove several products from their shelves because they contain dangerous levels of lead. On the list, are the Kids Poncho and MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes which are sold at Walmart.

Walmart might have cheap prices, but often there is a hidden cost behind that price tag. The hidden cost of an unsafe product, of environmental degradation, of sweatshop labor, or of labor abuses.

Here is an excerpt from the article from the Los Angeles Times:

California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown issued a safety warning Tuesday, alleging that seven toys and other products tested by the Center for Environmental Health this month contained illegal levels of lead.

...Other products that the center says have abnormal amounts of lead are the Kids Poncho and MSY Faded Glory Rebecca Shoes, both sold by Wal-Mart; Reversible Croco Belt sold by Target; Dora the Explorer Activity Tote sold by TJ Maxx; and Paula Fuschia Open-Toed Shoes sold by Sears

There's an interesting story involving Walmart that is getting some national attention today. Rick Sanchez, who has a show on CNN every week day at 3, is covering a story about a young African American woman, Heather Ellis, who switched check out lines at her local Walmart store, apparently to join her cousin, and sparked a racially charged disturbance. Walmart called the cops and Health Ellis claims they were unduly harsh, using racial slurs and unnecessary violence. She is now facing a trial that could put her in jail for 15 years, accused of assaulting police officers, resisting arrest and disturbing the peace. Ellis also claims that she was hassled by Walmart employees before they called the police. You can read the full story from the AP here.

That this incident happened at Walmart is not really that shocking. For whatever reason, Walmart has a recent history littered with violent altercations between guests and security guards, and often involving police. Their extreme tactics with shoplifters have resulted in harsh injuries and, in a few cases, death. Walmart also has a history of racial insensitivity. Despite their official PR messages, their corporate culture seems to be lacking tolerance for minorities. Walmart sued for discriminating against African American truck drivers, there was a case where Walmart employees mocked a Muslim woman, and just last week a gay couple was accused of shoplifting and banned from the store for life despite Walmart and the police admitting they did nothing wrong. Finally, it seems that Walmart's security team could have dealt with a simple line cutting. If elementary school teachers can keep kids in line on a regular basis, shouldn't security guards keep rational adults from fighting with one another?

We encourage you to call in to Rick Sanchez's show at 877-742-5751 or send him a message on twitter (@ricksanchezcnn) with your thoughts on this case.

With Thanksgiving looming, and Black Friday (the busiest shopping day of the year) coming on its heels, it's worth remembering the terrible tragedy that happened on Black Friday last year. In its eagerness to get to the "door buster" deals, a crowd outside a Walmart literally busted a door, surged in to the store, and killed a temporary employee in the process. His name was Jdimytai Damour and he died sheltering a pregnant woman from the oncoming throng. The aftermath of the event was upsetting as well. There were no consequences for anyone. Walmart struck a deal with the local district attorney, giving the community $1.5 million and offering an insulting and paltry $400,000 to all the victims of the stampede (the Damour family and several other individuals who were injured).

The only discipline Walmart received was from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration which hit Walmart with a 'serious citation' and a fine of $7000.

This article, over at the Southtown Star reminds us all of what happened last year, it is well worth a read:

Wal-Mart gets off easy in 'Black Friday' death

Only 10 days remain until Black Friday.-- All year, Wal- Mart has been busy, busy - occupied with damage control, lawsuits and district attorneys, making sure the bordering-on-poor American consumer will not let last season's incident in which a Wal-Mart worker was trampled to death stop her from living better by spending the little she has at the world's largest retailer.--
Jdimytai Damour, 34, died Nov. 28 after a mindless herd pressed heavily on the glass door of the Valley Stream, N.Y., store, breaking it off its hinges moments before the 5 a.m. opening, with the crush of shoppers stampeding over Damour and injuring other workers.

Damour, a 6-foot-5-inch, 270-pound temporary employee, was hired for the holidays. The bargain-hungry mob knocked him to the floor amid broken glass and trampled him. He died not long after of asphyxiation.

Video of the incident shows emergency workers attempting to save his life with CPR as shoppers continue to stream hurriedly past in pursuit of bargains. A pregnant employee also was injured along with several others.--

I'm writing to ask all Wal-Mart addicts to behave this year. And to recap what's happened since the Black Friday tragedy.--
Let's see: No criminal charges were filed against any of the approximately 2,000 people in the crowd even though the culprits are on video. Manslaughter might be messy in court when committed by a frenzied mob.

But don't think Wal-Mart got off easy because it's the biggest retailer in the world. No, no. The U.S. Department of Labor really cracked down.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration conducted an inspection and found that the New York store "fail(ed) to implement reasonable and effective crowd management principles," including training that was "inadequate" to accommodate the advertised "Blitz Friday" that offered cheap-o electronics for all.

OSHA slapped Wal-Mart with a "serious citation" and the maximum fine of $7,000. Uh, no, I'm not missing any zeros. That's seven thousand dollars. Wal-Mart Stores promised to implement a crowd management plan for its New York stores and went to work consulting with big-event security firms.--

Meanwhile, the deceased employee's family sued for wrongful death, and Wal-Mart put out statements saying Damour had been part of the Wal-Mart family. Touching.--

The retail supergiant then cut a no-prosecution deal with the district attorney, promising beefed-up Black Friday crowd control along with generous contributions to the community - $1.5 million worth of local generosity and $400,000 in compensation to the victims of the incident.--

Next week, things will be different. While the special sales will commence at 5 a.m. Nov. 27, as in the past, the stores will have been open since 5 p.m. Thanksgiving night. This is intended to create a flow of customers rather than a ravenous pack.--
I hope the plan succeeds and that no one gets hurt.--

As Wal-Mart shoppers again seek cheap goods and to contribute to their future unemployment risk, let's remember that it's people who trample linebacker-sized door guys - not the global corporations that work all year to offer awesome, 32-inch flat-screen TVs for less than $400.

This story from the LA Times is not directly about Walmart, but it's worth a read anyway. It details the problem associated with workers who don't have paid sick leave and may be disciplined for taking time off of work when they get sick. The Senate is currently working on a bill that would provide paid sick leave for most employees in the country which is not only a great relief for many working folks, but really good public policy to boot. It will help folks out who really shouldn't be working and help to stem the spread of the flu and other contagious viruses. Of course it is unfortunate that companies aren't doing this on their own. You would think that businesses, especially retailers like Walmart, would want to make it a point to not spread the flu among their employees, not to mention their customers.

Of course it should come as no surprise that Walmart's policy strongly encourages employees to come to work sick through demerit points and loss of wages. We wrote about their policy here. We're also working with Moms Rising on this issue, and you can go sign their petition and send Walmart a demerit badge for their terrible sick day policy.

Read the full story from the LA Times here.

Recently we told you about the community that Walmart is trying to displace to build another store. Here is our friend Al Norman's take on it:

Wal-Mart Walking on Sunshine

As many as 70 elderly and disabled residents of Palm Springs, Florida, may soon be evicted to make way for another Wal-Mart superstore.

The hapless residents of Sunshine Village are watching as the sun goes down on their mobile home park. This homestead of predominately low-income older people has been around for decades on 10th Avenue North. But this week, the Palm Springs Land Development Board voted unanimously to rezone 17 acres of land from residential to commercial, to pave the way for the 11th Wal-Mart within ten miles of Palm Springs.

A developer called Cornerstone Palm Springs LLC, which owns Sunshine Village, warned residents about a year ago that the property was up for sale. The site is reportedly slated for a 175,000 square foot Wal-Mart supercenter. There's already a Wal-Mart supercenter only 4 miles away in West Palm Beach, and two more supercenters roughly 7 miles from the site.

The developer can't just toss these old folks out on the street, however. Florida law requires that the residents of Sunshine Village receive at least six months notice of eviction, and be given some relocation costs. Cornerstone Palm Springs told the Palm Beach Post that it's going to cover all the relocation costs for the families being evicted.

But the Sunshine Village Neighborhood Association is not going to sink slowly in the west. The group has approached the Legal Aid Society of Palm Beach for help, and an attorney for the Society told the Post, "We don't think it will be possible to move them. There's not a lot of places for these folks to rent."

Cornerstone apparently has informed the mobile home owners that Wal-Mart wants to move in when they move out. In fact, the developer will have a site plan ready to submit in December. The Village Council voted last winter to amend its comprehensive land use plan to accommodate a shopping center---so the project has been in the works for almost a year. Within months, Wal-Mart could literally be walking on Sunshine.

Wal-Mart targets mobile home parks, because local officials are often anxious to level these 'eyesores', and move the residents out of the area. The homeowners, who are stigmatized as "trailer trash," are marginalized politically, and have no clout in town. One reader of the Palm Beach Post submitted the following comment on Sunshine Village:

We need to get rid of all these low rent trailer parks. They bring in the worst kind of people. A lot of illegals will be living in these rusted out old trailer parks. Palm Beach county should take a vote on closing all trailer parks...Keep the migrants where they belong. Out in the fields picking my tomatoes.
Last August, Wal-Mart displaced 40 families from a mobile home park in Marion, North Carolina. In February of 2009, 15 homeowners lost out to a Wal-Mart supercenter in North Vernon, Indiana. Around Christmas of 2006, 80 residents in a mobile home park in Berlin, Wisconsin saw their homes rezoned from residential to commercial. In January of 2006, 54 families in the Monticello Mobile Home Park in West Asheville, North Carolina, were forced to relocate to make room for a 180,000 square foot Wal-Mart superstore. In 2003, 122 residents in a mobile home park in St. Petersburg, Florida were displaced by Wal-Mart. The world's largest retailer swallows up trailer parks whole, and spits out the people who live there.

Not all of these attempts by big box stores to push mobile homeowners off the map have been successful. Residents in Santa Rosa, California, and Hood River, Oregon, for example, beat the big boxes and kept their homes. But more often than not, mobile home property owners like Cornerstone sell out the families that have depended on them for decades. It's hard for landowners to resist the lure of Wal-Mart's top dollar. The owners of Sunshine Village will surely "live better" when Wal-Mart pays them millions for their little corner of this village.

The village of Palm Springs, population around 14,000, only covers a two and a half square mile area. It won't be easy for these elderly and disabled residents to move their mobile homes. Many of the homes might not structurally survive any relocation at all.

The Village Council in Palm Springs will take its first vote on rezoning on November 13th. If they vote down the rezoning, the elderly and disabled residents of Sunshine Village won't have to move.

Ironically, Palm Springs likes to call itself "A Great Place to Call Home." Readers are urged to email Karl Umberger, the Palm Springs Village Manager at kumberger@villageofpalmsprings.org with the following message:

Please let the Village Council know that I am appalled that any community would toss out dozens of elderly and disabled residents from their homes just to make way for another Wal-Mart like the 11 you already have within 10 miles of your Village. How can the Village---which says it's 'A Great Place To Call Home'---evict these low-income people to make way for a Wal-Mart? Where are these folks supposed to live? Urge the Council to 'Save Sunshine Village,' and tell Wal-Mart to find land that isn't already somebody else's home.

Walmart's appetite for growth is insatiable. With about 4000 stores in the US alone and many more around the world, Walmart is huge and growing fast. Walmart is especially targeting China, India, and Mexico abroad for growth, and large cities domestically for growth. Of course that is not stopping the giant retailer from going after its more traditional locations. Many communities fight back when Walmart tries to steamroll its way in to town, but we haven't heard of of a case where Walmart would actually displace an entire community. But that is exactly what they are doing in one Florida community.

If Walmart gets its way, it will complete replace a mobile home community, forcing its 60 residents to move. The article is short on details, but we have to imagine that most of these folks aren't too happy about having to move. Here's the article from the :

Walmart has some strange habits. First, many stores like to forces customers to show receipts before they leave, even though customers don't have to. This has lead to several unpleasant, and even violent, encounters. Second, Walmart aggressively goes after some shoplifters (sometimes so aggressively that they cause serious injury and death) while ignoring others. They even have a policy (that may have changed, we haven't been able to figure out their current policy) not to prosecute anyone under the age of 18 for shoplifting, or anyone stealing anything under $25.

While these policies seem a bit strange and contradictory, they don't explain what happened recently in Michigan. It seems that a gay couple and their two adopted children were shopping at their local Walmart and when they went to leave, a Walmart employee asked if they had bought Bic lighters. They said they had and handed them to the employee who then demanded to see the receipt, which was also handed over. At that point, the couple was accused of shoplifting (which they had not) and the employee demanded that they go back to their detention room. When the couple refused to go for fear of what might happen behind closed doors, the store called the cops who, without asking questions, put both men in separate squad cars and handed the two children over to Walmart who put them in their detention room.

After Walmart, and the cops, had review the security tapes, they determined that the men had not stolen anything. Instead of apologizing for putting the family through a traumatic experience, Walmart informed the family that they were banned from any Walmart store for life for being "uncooperative".

The whole story is really worth a read because it is just so unbelievable. It is entirely unclear why this happened. Many are suggesting that the family was singled out because they were gay. We don't know if that is the case, but it certainly seems that Walmart treated these particular customers far harsher than usual.

You can read the full story here. It is well worth a read.

I don't know a Walmart executive who couldn't use more pieces of flair.

Luckily, MomsRising.org is on the case. They are calling on Walmart to amend its unfair sick day policy through a new online petition, and there is a creative twist. Sign the petition on their site and your letter will be given to Walmart HQ, along with real demerit badges for Walmart's executives.

Don't let your favorite Walmart executive go without: send them a badge of shame today!

One of the best ways to stop the spread of the flu (like H1N1) is for sick people to stay home. But Wal-Mart gives employees "demerits" that can lead to termination if they call in sick!

We think the real demerits should go to Wal-Mart for their bad sick days policy, which risks making the public sick and their employees sicker.

Give Wal-Mart a "Demerit Badge" by signing the petition today! We'll deliver your signatures, along with real demerit badges, to Walmart executives to call them out for their terrible sick days policies.

Sign the petition:

Wal-Mart: Stop your policy of giving employees demerits for taking sick days. It's bad for your employees, your customers, and for public health.

Last month, Walmart Senior VP Ken Senser issued a company-wide memo on flu season 'preparedness.' His memo claims "the wellbeing of our associates... is a top priority," and offers guidance on how to "plan ahead" in case the flu virus strikes.

Be prepared for illness: know the company's sick day policy, the memo advises.

Of course, there is a catch-22 here. Walmart's sick leave policy boils down to a simple formula: if you get sick, you find trouble. Each sick day taken by a Walmart employee results in a "point" (demerit), enough of which will get you fired.

Walmart's sick policy results, as this week's NLC report shows, in a culture that pressures employees to work while ill. This isn't just grossly unfair, it's unbelievably stupid. Given the rapidly expanding H1N1 pandemic, steering sick workers out of bed and into the aisles is a catalyst for spreading sickness among employees and customers alike.

Which genius in Walmart management could possibly think this is a good idea? Ken Senser.

Here's a little background on Walmart's spymaster turned health "advocate." Before Mr. Senser was concerned with influenza, he was spying on employees and activists alike as Walmart's security chief. His crowning acheivement came when company operatives planted a long-haired employee in an "Up Against the Wal" activist meeting. The bugged employee transmitted audio from the meeting to a surveillance van circling eerily outside.

Senser's department also spies on employees who are suspected of violating company policy. His investigators have tailed executives across Central America, for example, to out them publicly for extramarital affairs. This is the guy entrusted with safeguarding the wellbeing of Walmart's 1.4 million U.S. employees. Bizarre.

His de facto role, it would seem, is safeguarding Walmart's $13 billion in yearly profits. By any means necessary.

Senser is known for bare-knuckle enforcement of policy. Unfortunately, Walmart's rigid attendance rules are not productive for anyone. Not even Walmart's top shareholders. It's simply a recipe for spreading disease among employees and members of their communities.

At least some government officials are looking out for Walmart's employees. HR 3991 could cause Walmart to reconsider its policy by requiring large employers to give 5 days paid leave to sick employees.

It might well be called the "Walmart Swine Flu Bill"--with policy enforcers like Ken Senser, Walmart is unlikely to make productive changes to its sick policies until regulations force it to.

When you get sick, do you take the day off? You should, especially if you have the flu or other viruses that are easily spreadable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agree, but Walmart, through its corporate policies, are not heeding that advice. In fact, a new mini report from the National Labor Committee shows that Walmart employees regularly come to work sick because they can't afford the loss in wages or because they are afraid of being fired for taking 'too many' sick days. The whole report is worth a read, but here are a few key pieces:

But it is Wal-Marts policies on sick leave that are the problem. Wal-Mart has a punitive point (demerit) system that punishes workers who cannot come to work because they are ill or their children need care. Associates who miss a day due to sickness (or for any other reason) will receive a one point demerit, along with the loss of eight hours wages. Moreover, employees who “have more than three absence occurrences in a rolling six-month period…will be disciplined.” (“Attendance/Punctuality Policy (PD-52) New York,” January 2008.) Workers with four absences in any six-month period—no matter what the reason—will be disciplined. A fifth occurrence—like a sick day—will result in “active coaching” by management, and a sixth occurrence” will activate a “Decision Day,” when an “associate” can either be terminated or put on a year-long trial period, during which a worker can be fired for any infraction, no matter how insignificant. During this year-long probation the worker cannot receive a promotion.

Wal-Mart must immediately end its punitive point system, which gives workers demerits that can lead to firing for taking a sick day, while also docking their wages. More than any other Wal-Mart policy, it is the point system and loss of wages which routinely drives employees to work no matter how sick they are, including if they are suffering flu-like symptoms...

...The vast majority of current Wal-Mart employees are too terrified to speak openly and on the record, or even to name their stores for fear of retaliation. "Everyone knows you have to be quiet," as one associate put it, "We cannot talk. Everyone is afraid and will never say anything critical" of Wal-Mart. A senior Wal-Mart employee agreed: "Fear and need will keep things as they are."

It's not a huge surprise, really. We hear from workers every day who can't take sick time. But as flu season rolls around, and as H1N1 adds an additional level of concern, it's time to take a look at Walmart's policy again. Not only is this bad policy in general, bad for the workers and bad for the customers, it is potentially bad financially for Walmart. If, instead of going to work when they have the flu and getting seriously ill, Walmart allowed their workers to take a few days off and get better, perhaps Walmart's work force would be more efficient and they wouldn't have to pay so much in health care costs.