From The Tonight Show with Jay Leno last night:

“Wal-Mart says they plan to open 90 stores in China by the end of next year. 90 stores. Well, that makes sense. I guess they figure they might as well open stores in China. That's where all the stuff is made.”

There have been a few news stories over the past couple of days describing some of Wal-Mart's new tactics as they try to enter into communities that don't want them there. Among these tactics are full page advertisements in local newspapers as well as glossy fliers mailed out to residents' homes.

But Wal-Mart's big-money tactics do not guarantee them a victory, as witnessed in a couple of other articles. For example, a planning comission in Monroeville, PA agreed to postpone consideration for a proposed Wal-Mart until Wal-Mart provides more details on how it will manage traffic and stormwater.

A group in Portsmouth Township, MI recently filed a lawsuit, seeking to have a judge overrule the Planning and Zoning Board's "arbitrary and capricious" approval of a plan for a proposed Wal-Mart and issue an injunction preventing the construction of the store.

There are community fights like these going on every day across the country. Today, we are launching a new tool to help communities work together and communicate with each other as you try to protect your communities from the ills of Wal-Mart.

Please visit our brand new Wake-Up Forum today and get in touch with other Wake-Up Wal-Mart supporters in your area and all across the country:

http://forum.wakeupwalmart.com

Another update in the Wal-Mart whistleblower story:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. sued former vice chairman Tom Coughlin on Wednesday, seeking to void his multimillion-dollar retirement package amid company allegations that he misspent the company's money before resigning from its board of directors.

The world's largest retailer had previously disclosed in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it was terminating Coughlin retroactively for "gross misconduct." The lawsuit, filed in Bentonville, home to Wal-Mart headquarters, seeks to formally sever the pact.

To continue reading this article, click here.

Wal-Mart has issued yet another about-face after the public was made aware of Wal-Mart's wrongdoing. It is clear that Wal-Mart is on the defensive, doing all that they can to improve their public image.

First, Wal-Mart used Nazi imagery in an advertisement in May, used to denigrate Wal-Mart's opponents. Initially, Wal-Mart claimed ignorance, saying that they hadn't approved the ad. Then they admitted that Wal-Mart had reviewed the ads and raised no objections. Then of course they were forced by public pressure from people like you to issue an apology advertisement.

In June, Wal-Mart officials at a store in West Virginia told their employees that they had to agree to work any shift, any day that they were asked, or they would be fired. Once again there was public uproar, and once again Wal-Mart flip-flopped, and the very next day, said that this was not a Wal-Mart policy.

Wal-Mart's newest attempt to run away from criticism can be found in an article by the Associate Press. As we reported yesterday, a columnist for the Pensacola News Journal wrote a column on June 19th that was critical of Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart's response was to ban the sale of the Pensacola News Journal from their stores. Randy Hammer, executive editor at the Pensacola News Journal, wrote an op-ed yesterday about the incident which included the following:

"When we stop listening to people on the other side of the fence, when we try to silence and even punish people for thinking differently than we do and raising facts and figures we don't like, well, we won't be red, white and blue anymore."

"Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated spokeswoman Sharon Weber says that the company should not have removed the newspapers from the store. She says they should be available by the end of the week."

From the Pensacola News Journal comes an interesting piece:

[...]here's what Mark wrote:

"I like Wal-Mart prices the same as the next shopper, but there's a downside, too. Many Wal-Mart employees lack the fringe benefits and insurance that makes the difference between existence and a good quality of life. Yet, we customers pay a surcharge from a different pocket — subsidizing health care for Wal-Mart employees who can't afford it."

Mark then described how Friedman's book pointed out that more than 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees are in a Georgia health-care program, which costs the state's taxpayers nearly $10 million a year. Mark also pointed out that a New York Times report found that 31 percent of the patients at a North Carolina hospital were Wal-Mart employees on Medicaid.

Mark's column really wasn't about Mr. Walton's store, but about Pensacola and how we're becoming a Wal-Mart kind of town, "cheap and comfy on the surface, lots of unhappiness and hidden costs underneath."[...]

Wal-Mart is a company that wraps itself in red, white and blue.

I might understand it if Wal-Mart said I ought to fire Mark because what he said wasn't accurate. But that isn't the case. Mark accurately reported that there are 10,000 children of Wal-Mart employees in a health-care program that is costing Georgia taxpayers nearly $10 million a year.

Shouldn't we talk about that?

When we stop listening to people on the other side of the fence, when we try to silence and even punish people for thinking differently than we do and raising facts and figures we don't like, well, we won't be red, white and blue anymore.

That's why Mark still has a job and you can't buy a Pensacola News Journal at Wal-Mart anymore.

To continue reading this article, click here.

It was shocking when Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott admitted that "In some of our states, the public program may actually be a better value [than Wal-Mart's health care options]..."

It is also stunning to know that Wal-Mart’s health care plan fails to cover over 600,000 employees.

But in an article in Sunday's Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Wal-Mart vice president for federal and international public affairs Ray Bracy was quoted as saying: "Yeah, we have a lot of people on state rolls. We wish it wasn’t so."

Wal-Mart, a company with $10 billion in profits, doesn't have to wish it wasn't so. They can make it so.

Make Wal-Mart care about health care. Sign up today to be a citizen co-sponsor of Fair Share for Health Care legislation by clicking here.

From the Arkansas Democrat Gazette:

"Wal-Mart has a business model that has a broad, negative impact on our society," says Paul Blank, a 29-year-old veteran of Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign and director of the union’s anti-Wal-Mart drive. Blank contends the Bentonville-based discounter drives down wages and benefits across the retail sector, discriminates against women, coerces manufacturers to relocate overseas, takes advantage of illegal-immigrant labor and violates childlabor laws. This isn’t just a public-relations campaign, he and other union officials say. It is an attempt to turn anti-Wal-Mart sentiment into a broad-based social movement, using some of the Internet-based techniques pioneered in 2004 presidential campaigns, especially those of Dean and Arkansan Wesley Clark. The war room is filled with workers from those campaigns, as well as some from Massachusetts’ Sen. John Kerry’s failed presidential bid. Books about Wal-Mart line shelves, mirroring a political campaign’s research into its opponent. Quotes from Sam Walton and other members of the Walton family are posted in some offices.

To continue reading this article, click here.

From AsianWeek.com:

Many see Wal-Mart threatening the Asian American economic base of small businesses...

[...]Wal-Mart’s practices have caught the eye of Congress and the ire of local politicians like Jun Choi, mayoral candidate for Edison, New Jersey.

Choi’s campaign has included an anti-Wal-Mart platform. “Blue collar jobs will be lost and small businesses ... owned by Asians will be threatened,” Choi said. “It’s safe to say that Wal-Mart has a negative effect on Asian Business owners. I disagree with Wal-Mart’s corporate philosophy in not providing health care benefits and acceptable wages for a state, which has the highest median household income in the U.S. It would be very tough for families to survive.” Choi is now trying to reverse a decision to let Wal-Mart into his town.

[...] “Wal-Mart believes in featuring real-life people in their advertisements,” Bill Imada, chairman and CEO of IW Group says. “Many consumers have told us that they like the fact the people are real people. Some of them have accents. Some are a bit shy. But the nice thing about the people in Wal-Mart’s ads is that it reflects people who truly appreciate what they find at Wal-Mart.”

The advertising campaign has received mixed reviews and is targeted only to Asian immigrants rather than addressing the Asian American community as a whole.

“We’re excited about our campaign,” Wal-Mart’s Senior Communications Manager Linda Blakely said. “Our goals were two fold. We wanted to acknowledge and thank our Asian American shoppers and also extend an invitation to Asian Americans who have not been to our stores.”

I'd say that Wal-Mart's goal in this new advertising campaign is actually not two fold, but simply another big-money attempt at the brainwashing of a community that has obviously been hurt by Wal-Mart's business practices.

To read the rest of the article, click here.

From the Jackson Sun:

U.S. Rep. John Tanner has come under fire by a liberal government watch group that has accused the Union City Democrat of voting in Wal-Mart's favor because of a campaign contribution from the retail giant.

The Campaign for America's Future ran a full-page ad Wednesday in The Jackson Sun about ''a sweetheart deal'' it said the Bush Administration cut with Wal-Mart after the corporation violated child labor laws.

I assume Rep. Tanner understands the meaning of the phrase "congressional oversight." When backroom deals get made between high-priced corporate lawyers and lobbyists and a Bush administration willing to give unprecented access to special interests, the people still have a seat at the table.

To read the full article, click here.

From Reuters comes an article titled "Ex-employee sues Wal-Mart for defamation:"

A former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employee sued the world's biggest retailer for defamation on Thursday after Wal-Mart released documents accusing the man of helping another former executive misappropriate company funds.

Jared Bowen, who filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Wal-Mart earlier this year, said Wal-Mart had called him "a liar, a thief and a fraud" in documents it released last week in response to Bowen's whistleblower suit.

To continue reading this article, click here.

From The Neighborhood Retail Alliance in NYC comes the following:

The Post also reports that the company has yet to find suitable sites (disingenuously, we might add). As Mia Masten says, “We still don’t have a site … But we are still interested,” This is, of course, poppycock since the Richmond Valley location on S.I. is very much theirs and the developer has been trying to negotiate a site plan that accommodates the views of City Planning as well as Wal-Mart. In typical big box fashion, neither the store nor the developer wants to publicly be identified with the site before they are ready to go full speed ahead.

To read the rest of this article, click here.

Coming out of Tennessee, we see that more Republicans have joined the battle to make Wal-Mart pay its fair share for health care. Here is an excerpt from WATE 6 in Knoxville:

KNOXVILLE (WATE) -- During WATE's TennCare town hall meeting Tuesday night, state Sen. Tim Burchett (R-Knoxville) said Wal-Mart shares some of the blame for the TennCare crisis.

"A large percentage of their employees are on TennCare and I'd like to see them use some of their profits to support some of their people, and things like that," Burchett said.

We also learn something very interesting from a Wal-Mart employee who was interviewed for this story. Wal-Mart spokespeople claim that the company "does not encourage associates to apply for public assistance, nor does Wal-Mart design plans to be subsidized by it."

But according to Scotty Hurst, a full-time employee at Wal-Mart who is covered by TennCare, Wal-Mart does encourage associates to stay on public assistance if they are already on it:

"I was wanting to, but since I've already got it, they say it's the same thing," Scotty said.

To continue reading this article, click here.

To sign on to co-sponsor Fair Share for Health Care legislation, click here.

It's Wal-Mart's big money vs. the community again in a story from NY1:

Wal-Mart isn't giving up its fight to open up a store in New York City – and the retail giant is taking its campaign straight to the public.

According to the New York Post, Wal-Mart plans to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on newspaper, radio and television ads aimed at gaining support for building a store somewhere in the five boroughs.

The ads tout local landmarks in each borough - then go on to say that the only thing missing is "everyday low prices."

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart scrapped plans to build a store in Rego Park, Queens.

In addition, plans to build a store on Staten Island have already met opposition.

In an article from the Times Reporter (OH), we learn that Wal-Mart is trying to almost halve the amount of property taxes they pay for a store in New Philadelphia. As the article mentions, about 70% of the property taxes go to the school district, meaning Wal-Mart is trying to leave this school district with significantly less funding. So much for Wal-Mart being a good corporate citizen. Here is an excerpt:

Representatives of Wal-Mart again are asking Tuscarawas County officials to dramatically lower the amount of property taxes the company pays for its New Philadelphia retail store.

The New Philadelphia City School District is challenging the request, which is similar to one made by Wal-Mart for tax year 2001.

An attorney for Wal-Mart asked the county Board of Revision Monday to lower the value of the store to $4,910,000, according to county Auditor Matt Judy, who is a board member.

The county lists a fair market value for the property at 223 Bluebell Dr. NW at $8,642,910. That value was determined as of Jan. 1, 2004, during the reappraisal process, and taxes are based on 35 percent of the market value.

Wal-Mart currently pays $113,712 annually in property taxes. Generally, about 70 percent of that amount, or $79,598, goes to the school district, Judy said. State law requires any school district that faces a loss of at least $17,500 annually to be notified.

To continue reading this article, click here.

I just came across a story out of Belleville, IL, highlighting the huge amount of taxpayer dollars that are used to subsidize the development of Wal-Mart stores. I think the best quote of the piece comes from an environmental attorney who represents a group of citizens opposed to the $19.8 million incentives package being offered to the developer:

" Giving tax breaks to the largest corporation on earth seems counterintuitive."

This is a point that needs to be raised: why are taxpayers giving millions of dollars to develop new stores for Wal-Mart, a company with $10 billion in profits?

To continue reading this article, click here:

From the Associated Press:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has applied to establish a Utah industrial bank that would process credit card, debit card and electronic check transactions from its retail locations, the bank's chief said.

The world's largest retailer now uses a third-party processor for the transactions. Handling the work itself would save a significant amount of money, Alan Whitchurch, the bank's president and chief executive, said Monday He declined to say how much money would be saved.

Wal-Mart's application with the Utah Department of Financial Institutions follows five years of attempts to get into banking. Previous plans to buy financial institutions in California, Oklahoma and to partner with a bank in Canada were unsuccessful.

To continue reading this article, click here.

Last week, Hawaii became the second state in the country to put into law the health care disclosure act which will expose the true cost of Wal-Mart's health care abuse. The act is similar to the Health Care Accountability Act introduced federally last month by Sen. Kennedy, Sen. Corzine and Rep. Weiner and requires the state to disclose which businesses have employees receiving taxpayer funded public health care assistance.

Although the governor of Hawaii vetoed this important legislation, the people won when the Hawaii legislature overrode the veto last week. The bill still remains in 25 other state legislatures. We need your help to keep the pressure up to make Wal-Mart care about health care.

Sign up to be a citizen co-sponsor of Fair Share for Health Care legislation today.

From the New York Times:

JIM SINEGAL, the chief executive of Costco Wholesale, the nation's fifth-largest retailer, had all the enthusiasm of an 8-year-old in a candy store as he tore open the container of one of his favorite new products: granola snack mix. "You got to try this; it's delicious," he said. "And just $9.99 for 38 ounces."

Some 60 feet away, inside Costco's cavernous warehouse store here in the company's hometown, Mr. Sinegal became positively exuberant about the 87-inch-long Natuzzi brown leather sofas. "This is just $799.99," he said. "It's terrific quality. Most other places you'd have to pay $1,500, even $2,000."

But the pièce de résistance, the item he most wanted to crow about, was Costco's private-label pinpoint cotton dress shirts. "Look, these are just $12.99," he said, while lifting a crisp blue button-down. "At Nordstrom or Macy's, this is a $45, $50 shirt."

Combining high quality with stunningly low prices, the shirts appeal to upscale customers - and epitomize why some retail analysts say Mr. Sinegal just might be America's shrewdest merchant since Sam Walton.

To continue reading this article, click here.

Statement by Paul Blank, WakeUpWalMart.com’s campaign director on the startling new revelations from Wal-Mart’s gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes vs. WalMart Stores, as evidenced in a Bloomberg article today.

According to internal documents and depositions, Wal-Mart was warned that it may have a discrimination problem and chose to do nothing about it. Wal-Mart formed a diversity committee in 1996, but, instead of implementing the committee's recommendations, Wal-Mart disbanded the panel. Two years later, Wal-Mart's gender discrimination problem actually got worse.

In fact, an internal Wal-Mart document entitled, "Minority/Gender Pay Analysis" dated July 21, 2000 specifically states, "Generally, average salaries for female and minority males are below the overall average pay for most jobs. *Average pay increases for minority males and females are generally below overall average income ratio across most jobs."

This led Jeffrey Reeves, a former vice president for personnel at the company's Sam's Club unit in a January 2003 deposition, when asked about whether or not management wanted to seriously address diversity, to state, "I would say a lot was lip service."

"Today, we are stunned by Wal-Mart's blatant disregard for women and minorities. Wal-Mart's greed caused more than 1.6 million of its female employees to suffer. Wal-Mart needs to stop paying, in its own employee's words, "lip service" to its discrimination problems and tell the American people the truth."

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Wal-Mart has ignored or disbanded the findings of an internal investigation. In 2000, for example, an internal Wal-Mart audit found "extensive violations of child labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals." In just one week, the audit found 1,371 violations. Wal-Mart chose to stop the audit and as a result children suffered. Just 3 weeks ago, Wal-Mart was fined once again for repeated child labor violations in Connecticut.

"Wal-Mart wants to ignore serious problems at the expense of women, children and our country. The American public is going to hold Wal-Mart accountable for the high cost we all pay for Wal-Mart's $10 billion in profit."

Here is a very incriminating piece of evidence from a Bloomberg article that is sure to shift the public opinion further against Wal-Mart:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. took no action on internal warnings seven years ago that it was falling short in promoting women, documents in a federal sex-discrimination lawsuit show.

The world's largest retailer didn't carry out the 1998 recommendations of a diversity task force and disbanded the panel, according to company memos, reports and depositions filed in the case. Two years later, Wal-Mart had a reduced percentage of female managers.

The chain of events may lead Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal- Mart to settle the lawsuit out of court to avoid paying damages as the result of a trial, say employment lawyers not involved in the case. Losing at a trial may cost the company as much as $10 billion for back pay, punitive damages and raises, says California employment lawyer Morris Baller, 60, who isn't connected to the Wal-Mart lawsuit.

To continue reading this article, click here.

From the Island Packet (SC):

The Beaufort County Education Association has joined a growing national campaign to tell the public about what it calls Wal-Mart Stores' anti-public education and anti-worker activities.

Bernadette Hampton, president of the association, sent information about the campaign to all association members in late June. The association is a local affiliate of the National Education Association.

[...]

The campaign, which is called "Wake Up Wal-Mart," was launched in April 2005 by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. Paul Blank, the campaign's director, said that it has about 64,000 supporters. The National Education Association, the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations also have endorsed the campaign.

Faced with the prospect of a Wal-Mart just outside of our downtown our Council voted unanimously to send a letter to the City of Portland opposing the construction of a Wal-Mart. We have spent years and millions as a region with the understanding that a transit center for light rail would be built on that site, the construction of a Wal-Mat would eliminate this potential.

We have also spent millions working to redevelop our downtown and open up our riverfront with the hope someday of attracting a niche grocery store and retail outlets. This plan would severely reduce the potential to attract and develop our downtown.

Jim Bernard
Mayor of Milwaukie, OR

Here is the letter I sent to the Mayor of Portland:

Dear Mayor Potter,

The City of Milwaukie, after hearing from many residents from Milwaukie and Portland, has several concerns regarding the proposed construction of a Wal-Mart store at Southeast Tacoma Street and McLoughlin Boulevard. The facility would be built on the border between our two cities adjacent to neighborhoods and streets we hold in common. This particular site has been identified as a future light rail station and park and ride to serve the transit needs of both our cities. We have all invested time and money in working with our citizens to gain local support for these transit projects. In addition, we have been studying and planning for the expansion of industrial uses in the area adjacent to the proposed Wal-Mart site. These plans will be jeopardized by this proposed project.

The City of Milwaukie has been working very hard to rebuild its downtown and protect and enhance our taxpayer investments in this community. As part of revitilization efforts in our city, we are researching the opportunities of attracting a full-service grocery store in our downtown along with mixed commercial, small business and residential developments. A Wal-Mart superstore sited just a mile from our downtown at Tacoma Street and McLoughlin Boulevard will have serious consequences toward those efforts. If businesses must compete with Wal-Mart, they'll choose to locate elsewhere.

The City of Portland and the City of Milwaukie have recently completed a collaborative multi-year and multi-million dollar reconstruction of Johnson Creek Boulevard. A significant portion of Wal-Mart shoppers would travel the Boulevard and other neighborhood streets adding to the already overburdened capacity of those residential roads. In particular, the Ardenwald and Sellwood Neighborhoods would experience first-hand the negative impacts of increased traffic volumes, diminished neighborhood livability, reduced property values, and displaced local businesses.

The City of Milwaukie is open for business, even big-box business, when they are remotely located from our downtown. Our goal for our City is to create a thriving and lively downtown core for our community through the establishment of smaller, locally owned and operated businesses.

Thank you, Mayor Potter, for your prompt attention to this matter. We are ready and willing to work with you to address this threat to neighborhood livability and small business development in our communities. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jim Bernard
Mayor

From The New York Times:

Bentonville, Ark. -- Two black truck drivers have filed federal lawsuits against Wal-Mart Stores in Arkansas, arguing that the company discriminated against them by denying them jobs because of their race. Lawyers who filed the suits are seeking class- action status.

The discrimination claims are the latest employment-related legal problems confronting the company. It is in the process of contesting a sex discrimination class-action suit filed in 2001. And in March, Wal-Mart agreed to pay a record $11 million to settle accusations that it employed hundreds of illegal immigrants to clean stores.

A Wal-Mart spokesman said the firm would not comment on the lawsuits.blockquote>

Wal-Mart is right when it says, “In addition to the court of law, there is a court of public opinion.” And public opinion has turned decidedly against Wal-Mart. We offer document B:

From The Lebanon Daily News (PA):

Wal-Mart real-estate manager Jeff Doss also spoke about an oft-cited remark by company founder Sam Walton that Wal-Mart would not build stores in towns if the residents did not want them — a matter that Doss said is often brought up at these types of hearings.

“Were that the case,” he said, “we’d never build a store anywhere.”

To read the full article, click here.

Wal-Mart is right when it says, “In addition to the court of law, there is a court of public opinion.” And public opinion has turned decidedly against Wal-Mart. We offer document A:

From the Boston Globe:

Nine minority customers say they were racially profiled while shopping at a Wal-Mart store in Avon.

In a lawsuit filed in US District Court in Boston yesterday, the consumers alleged they were followed, searched, humiliated, and in some cases, detained by greeters at the store after entering the retail center in 2002 or 2003.

''You cannot single people out because of race or ethnicity," said Barbara J. Dougan, an attorney at the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights. ''It is illegal and it is ludicrous and counterproductive. You catch shoplifters by looking at behavior and not at race or ethnicity."

Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said the company investigated the cases and found no evidence of discrimination.

''Despite that, we did reinforce our zero tolerance for discrimination with all of our associates in the store," he said. ''Part of the greeters' role is to watch out for shoplifters."

The lawsuit, brought by one white consumer and nine minorities, including three African-Americans, several West Indians, and a Mexican shopper, alleges that Wal-Mart employees illegally detained the minorities until police arrived and searched bags or stopped them as they were leaving.

Rather than deal with the facts behind the astonishing allegations by several of the Wal-Mart whistleblowers, Wal-Mart has launched an all-out offensive to discredit these people personally.

When is Wal-Mart going to stop engaging in the politics of personal destruction and release the truth to the American people about whether or not Wal-Mart had an illegal anti-union slush fund (as the former Vice-Chairman of their company claims), whether or not they illegally fired a whistleblower who brought the Coughlin affair to light, or whether or not they fired an executive because he had uncovered serious international labor standards violations in a Wal-Mart factory in Latin America.

Wal-Mart is right when it says, “In addition to the court of law, there is a court of public opinion.” And public opinion has turned decidedly against Wal-Mart. But, instead of addressing the substantive issues behind Wal-Mart’s declining image, Wal-Mart would rather hire 11 new high-priced Washington lobbyists and pay millions of dollars on PR firms and ‘image’ ads.

The truth is - Wal-Mart can’t spin its way out of the truth and no amount of money can gloss over the facts. Until Wal-Mart changes its practices, not its PR, we will continue to fight for our America.

Link to article from the Morning News on the whistleblower story is here.

After an NBC Dateline expose on Wal-Mart sweatshops in Bangladesh, an article in the Washington Post over the weekend criticizing Wal-Mart's corporate culture, and a variety of other serious troubles, how does Wal-Mart respond?

Instead of answering some very important questions, they use their former FBI spies to dig up old college transcripts of a fired executive for a dog-and-pony show. With all this spying going on, our question for Wal-Mart is: who is playing Tom Cruise in this version of "The Firm"?

From an Associated Press article:

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores Inc. says a fired vice president who claims he deserves whistle-blower protection had falsified college transcripts to get hired at company headquarters in 1996.

The company released a copy of a transcript that Jared Bowen submitted when he was under consideration for a home-office job in 1996, as well as a copy of what Bowen's lawyer said was an accurate transcript. The altered transcript showed A's and B's, while the accurate one showed many F's, D's and C's.

Wal-Mart claimed that the forgery showed that Bowen couldn't be trusted.

"This forgery was not some quick lie blurted out in a moment of panic," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mona Williams said Thursday. "It was deliberate, premeditated and crafted for his own gain."

To read the entire article, click here.

Recently, the Washington State Education Association (WEA) adopted a policy that teachers would no longer reimburse school employees for charitable items purchased from Wal-Mart (unless Wal-Mart is the only retail operator in their area). The WEA charity offers an easy way for school employees to help students who come to class without coats, jeans, shoes, boots or other basic school supplies.

Retail workers and others in Washington state have praised the WEA for its leading role in educating the public about Wal-Mart's failing record for our children, our communites and our country. United Food and Commercial Workers leaders presented the WEA Children’s Fund with $6,500 in contributions at WEA’s Board of Directors meeting on June 10 in support of the charity’s stand against Wal-Mart’s harmful employee practices.

UFCW International Vice President Geralyn Lutty said, “The policy adopted by WEA regarding not providing reimbursement for items bought at Wal-Mart is commendable. We know that Wal-Mart is not good for Washington and threatens the future of all our children.”

In addition to the decision by the Children’s Fund board to discontinue payments for Wal-Mart purchases, WEA members at the Association’s annual convention in May voted overwhelmingly to recommend that school employees do not shop at the retail giant.

The National Education Association (NEA) Executive Committee has also recently endorsed the Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign, stating that "the company has drained billions of dollars from public coffers -- money that could otherwise fund schools."

It is time to send Wal-Mart Back-to-School. To sign the pledge, click here.

Dave Schmitz, UFCW Local 1001 Pres, Sharon McCann, UFCW Local 1105 Pres, and Geralyn Lutty presenting the checks on behalf of all of the locals to Dave Scott, Vice Pres of WEA at their Executive Board meeting.

In a bizarre story today, we learn that citizens of Yelm, Washington have been banned for the past five months from mentioning big-box retailers (especially Wal-Mart) at town council meetings:

A speak-no-Wal-Mart policy in town council meetings is getting a challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union.

Aaron H. Caplan, an ACLU lawyer in Seattle, has written Yelm Mayor Adam Rivas and council members that the group believes it is unconstitutional to prohibit any mention of Wal-Mart or big-box stores in general at council meetings.

The policy has been increasingly restrictive over the past five months. No one who signs up to talk about big-box stores, much less Wal-Mart, at a council meeting is allowed to talk, anyone who mentions either is told to sit down.

One can only guess the motivation behind the stifling of citizens from airing their views, but considering Wal-Mart has applied for a building permit in Yelm, I can only guess that the Wal-Mart war chest has been opened once again and is being used to silence Wal-Mart critics.

What does Wal-Mart do when a community tells them they are not welcome? Well according to The Miami Herald, they hire an ad firm (coincidentally one of President Bush's ad firms) and blitz the community with campaign literature until they get their way:

Wal-Mart is using glossy color brochures in an effort to persuade hostile neighbors that they really do want to live next to a new Supercenter at the corner of Miramar Parkway and Flamingo Road.

The brochures were custom-made for Miramar by a Texas firm that has also worked on ad campaigns for President Bush.

So far in Miramar, hundreds of residents have turned out at city meetings to protest the proposed store, saying it would bring more traffic, and even attract crime and hurt property values. Homeowners have started an anti-Wal-Mart website and held a protest at the proposed site.

But the company's mailers tell a different story, promising a stronger tax-base, good jobs with benefits, and one-stop shopping for everything from groceries to garden supplies.

The glossy fliers show a smiling mother and daughter hugging, as the child's ponytail swings in the sunshine. An African-American father and son fishing. A senior couple embracing as the wife holds a flowerpot.

Wal-Mart will stop at nothing to continue their expansion. It was witnessed in Flagstaff, AZ, where Wal-Mart dumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into a campaign, which included using Nazi imagery to denigrate their opponents. And now it is seen in Florida. Arm yourselves with the facts, your community could be next.

Our strategy is simple - empower people to change Wal-Mart from the bottom-up. The American people are the only force powerful enough to change the largest corporation in the world.

It really is that simple. But how are we going to do it? We are going to build an army of grassroots supporters, like yourself, from every state in this country who believe in our vision for America - a vision that includes paying workers living wages, not poverty-level wages; providing workers affordable, comprehensive health insurance, not leaving 600,000 workers without company provided health care; respecting communities, not contributing to congestion and sprawl; respecting people, not discriminating against 2 million female workers or abusing child labor laws; and, sourcing products domestically, not purposefully shipping American jobs overseas.

The first step in building our movement for change is to sign up all of your friends, neighbors, and co-workers. The next step is to help us build community coalitions - a network of supporters and allies - in every community in America. With this localized volunteer organization at all 3,700 Wal-Mart locations, we will succeed in forcing Wal-Mart to become a responsible corporate citizen.

Help us build our grassroots supporters into a powerful force for change in every community in America. Please adopt a specific Wal-Mart store in your community today:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/finder/

In just a short amount of time, you have built our movement to more than 62,000 supporters in all 50 states. Now, we need to continue to grow our campaign and begin to organize our supporters around each Wal-Mart location.

No corporation, not even Wal-Mart, can defeat an organized army of volunteers in every community in America. You are helping us build the most powerful force for social change in American history.

Just last week, you held more than 124 house parties in 38 states to educate citizens about our “Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care” campaign. The legislation you helped introduce in the U.S. Congress is gaining steam and even a leading Republican lawmaker in Idaho endorsed your legislation.

Your actions are beginning to shake the foundations of Wal-Mart, and elected officials, corporate CEO’s, Wall St. analysts and media outlets are taking notice. You are building a campaign not just to change Wal-Mart, but to build a better America.

To get more involved and learn about activities you can engage in on the ground in your community, please sign up to adopt a Wal-Mart today, and help us change Wal-Mart one community at a time:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/finder/

By joining together right now, we can Wake-Up Wal-Mart to our vision for America putting our people and our communities first.

Wal-Mart and their supporters tend to be on message, repeating the same tired themes and excuses for their failings. I found a piece today written by Moira Herbst that I think exhibits a series of great rebuttals to these oft-repeated themes. Here’s a sampling.

Wal-Mart defense #1:

When our critics cry, “a company with $10 billion in profits can do better,” it sure sounds like we should. But with sales of $285 billion last year, Wal-Mart earned a return of 3.6 percent – as compared to 8.5 percent for Exxon-Mobil. Seen another way, retailing’s more labor-intensive business model means that in 2004 Wal-Mart earned roughly $6,000 in profit per associate; Microsoft, by contrast, earned $143,000 per associate. For General Motors, the number was almost $12,000." - Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, 2/23/05

Why is Mr. Scott comparing Wal-Mart to Exxon-Mobil, Microsoft, and GM, instead of using other retail examples? Well, because it's not necessarily retail that is more labor intensive, it's Wal-Mart's business model. Here is a quote from Herbst's piece:

A 2004 Business Week study ran the numbers to test Costco’s business model against that of Wal-Mart. The study confirmed that Costco’s well-compensated employees are more productive.

The study shows that Costco’s employees sell more: $795 of sales per square foot, versus only $516 at Sam’s Club, a division of Wal-Mart (which, like Costco, operates as a members-only warehouse club). Consequently Costco pulls in more revenue per employee; U.S. operating profit per hourly employee was $13,647 at Costco versus $11,039 at Sam’s Club.

The study also revealed that Costco’s labor costs are actually lower than Wal-Mart’s as a percentage of sales. Its labor and overhead costs (classed as SG&A, or selling, general and administrative expenses) are 9.8% of revenues, compared to Wal-Mart’s 17%.

Wal-Mart defense #2:

“For example, there are some who say that Wal-Mart’s wages and benefits have some kind of negative impact on wages across the board. That’s just plain wrong. Here are the facts:

Wal-Mart’s average wage is around $10 an hour, nearly double the federal minimum wage. The truth is that our wages are competitive with comparable retailers in each of the more than 3,500 communities we serve, with one exception -- a handful of urban markets with unionized grocery workers.

This is only common sense. If Wal-Mart weren’t an attractive place to work, we wouldn’t find ourselves, as we typically do, with thousands of applications for the hundreds of jobs we create when we open a new store.
-Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, 2/23/05

Competitive wages at comparable retailers, Mr. Scott? Well, Costco is a competitive retailer, with only about 18% of their workforce unionized, and we learn from Herbst’s piece that:

Costco CEO Jim Senegal has said: “We pay much better than Wal-Mart. That’s not altruism. It’s good business.”

Chief Financial Officer Richard Galanti explained: “From day one, we’ve run the company with the philosophy that if we pay better than average, provide a salary people can live on, have a positive environment and good benefits, we’ll be able to hire better people, they’ll stay longer and be more efficient.”

[…]

By compensating its workers well, Costco also enjoys rates of turnover far below industry norms. Costco’s rate of turnover is one-third the industry average of 65% as estimated by the National Retail Foundation. Wal-Mart reports a turnover rate of about 50%.

Also, Lee Scott claims that Wal-Mart, the largest private employer in the U.S., doesn’t have an effect on industry wages. Again, Herbst disagrees:

Though only about 18% of Costco’s total workforce is unionized, union representation creates a ripple effect and helps determine labor standards in all stores. The Teamsters represent about 15,000 workers at 56 Costco stores in California, New York, New Jersey, Maryland and Virginia. Workers are covered by West coast and East coast contracts, negotiated in February and April of last year. “The agreements lock in wage and benefits packages that are the highest in the grocery and [discount] retail industries,” said Rome Aloise, chief IBT negotiator for Costco and Secretary-Treasurer of Local 853 in San Leandro, Calif.

Costco passes on similar compensation packages to its non-union workers; the contracts act as templates for other stores’ employee handbooks.

“The union contracts raise the bar and set the standard for all employees,” explained Aloise. “Still, while the company extends wage and pay raises to non-union employees, only union members enjoy benefits like seniority-based promotions, a grievance procedure and minimum hours for part-time workers,” he added.

To read the rest of Moira Herbst’s article, click here.

To read the text of Lee Scott’s speech where the above quotes were taken from, click here [PDF].

An excellent op-ed from The Seattle Times about how to protect your community from the ills of Wal-Mart:

PORTLAND — Nothing I have written in the past three years has drawn the response of a Feb. 17, 2004 column deploring the Wal-Marting of America. I still get e-mails from people who have seen it on various Web sites, usually asking how to stop a Wal-Mart in their town.

My answer is simple: Organize.

It is possible to beat the Wal-Mart lawyers and shortsighted local politicians who see immediate property taxes but ignore the long-term flight of local businesses.

The Arkansas behemoth is having trouble right now in Oregon, where a combination of land-use laws, neighborhood activists and a few farsighted politicians are placing hurdles in the expansion path. Wal-Mart isn't on its knees, but it has some bloody shins.

More:

The key to opposition is organization on multiple fronts.

Neighborhood organization is essential. In the Portland area, each proposed Wal-Mart has generated Web-based neighborhood opposition, linked to other groups with similar issues. Petitions are circulated, rallies and fund raising planned. In Portland's Westmoreland neighborhood, the local True Value Hardware generated more than 500 signatures in less than two weeks, just from walk-in customers.

To continue reading this article, click here.

What is your community doing to keep Wal-Mart out?

From MSNBC:

A union crusade against America's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has the potential to not only hurt the company’s balance sheet and alter Americans’ shopping habits, but also to change the course of the 2006 and 2008 campaigns.

Americans cast their votes not just on Election Day but every day, by deciding where to spend their money. And the United Food and Commercial Workers Union is urging Americans to not spend their money at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has successfully fought the union's efforts to organize its workforce.

Now the union has recruited strategists from the 2004 Howard Dean and Wesley Clark campaigns, and they are mounting a crusade that goes beyond the usual union tactics, such as the boycott or shareholder resolution expressing disapproval of a company’s policies.

Paul Blank, who served as political director for the Dean campaign, is running the "Wake-Up Wal-Mart” campaign, and Chris Kofinis, a strategist for the Clark campaign, is the effort's communications adviser.

To continue reading this article, click here.

By Caroline Vernon, a Wake-Up Wal-Mart Leader for Change

On Friday, many local organizations, in coordination with the Wake-Up Wal-Mart Campaign and Democracy For America, organized and demonstrated against the Davenport Wal-Mart on Elmore St, in an effort to raise public awareness about the fact that large corporations like Wal-Mart are contributing to America’s health care crisis. We are calling on all citizens to join our campaign to Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care.

At last count, 51 people joined together to protest this unfair treatment by the world’s largest corporation. United, with one voice, we said Wal-Mart should pay it’s fair share for health care instead of shifting the burden to the American taxpayer. Supporters of this effort will also be writing and lobbying our Iowa/Illinois Governors and other statewide political leaders to adopt the Fair Share For Health Care Bill, legislation designed to address the problem of large employers failing to provide affordable healthcare options, and to ensure that state taxpayers do not help subsidize the health care of large and profitable corporations. In Iowa, Senator Joe Bolkom has proposed a similar bill that would require the state to annually report on which companies’ employees seek public assistance, so the state could pressure the companies to increase health benefits.

Wal-Mart has failed to provide healthcare for more that 52% of its 1.3 million workers. In at least 12 states Wal-Mart has more workers who rely on public health care than any other employer. According to a survey by the Iowa Department of Human Services, Wal-Mart tops the list of employers who pay their staff so little that they can’t afford to pay for health insurance, but also qualify for Medicaid (to be eligible, a family of four must have an annual income of under $22,000). As of October 2004, as the second largest employer in Iowa, Wal-Mart has 845 employees in Iowa receiving Medicaid. By contrast, the largest employer, Hy-Vee, has 361 employees on Medicaid. I find it to be completely disingenuous that a corporation that earned $10 billion dollars in profits last year, is unable to provide affordable healthcare benefits to its workers, most of whom earn so little that they qualify for the State Medicaid program.

Prior to our demonstration I issued a full media advisory about the upcoming event, yet only KWQC Channel 6 showed up to cover it. I’m left to wonder if our local media even believes that this is a newsworthy issue. Fortunately, Bayside Multimedia International, Inc., a brand new local production company was there to film the event. The policy of Bayside Multimedia is to promote and defend the widest possible ambiance of “free speech” expression, consistent with US Constitutional principles developed under the first amendment. Thank you Bayside Multimedia for your contribution to this cause!

I would also like to thank Cathy Bolkom and Karl Rhomberg for advertising our event on AM 1270 - Progressive Radio’s new Saturday morning show from 9 to 9:30, “Conversations with Cathy & Karl”. Thanks a lot and congratulations on the debut of your new show. Great job!

Local groups involved in the campaign and demonstration include Democracy for the Quad Cities, QC Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, QC National Organization of Woman, and Progressive Action for the Common Good - Corporate Reform, Health Care, and Media forums. I would like to send out a special thank you to Dick Fallow with QC Federation of Labor for all of his creative contributions to this campaign. It was Dick’s idea to create a gimmick in order to attract attention as well as stay uniform in our effort to speak with one voice on this issue. Every participant was given a yellow frowny-face with a thermometer sticking out of its mouth, meant to reflect that grassroots pressure will continue to rise on Wal-Mart, until they choose to be socially responsible to the citizens and the communities in which they operate.

Other signs read, “Honk if you are for Healthcare” and “Rolling back the Benefits” as well as our campaign slogan, “Wake-Up Wal-Mart - Make Wal-Mart Care About Healthcare”. The entire event lasted about 2 hours - we received a lot of positive feedback from the many passers-by.

Local groups involved in this effort as well as other important issue forums can be contacted through:

qcprogressiveaction.org

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Not so long ago, Wal-Mart was the little company out of Arkansas bringing huge selection and lower prices to rural communities that were, on the whole, pretty happy to see Sam Walton's store arrive.

Wal-Mart no longer can keep the low profile its founder preferred. Not even the late Sam Walton could have ignored the very public battering coming from critics who accuse the company of everything from gender discrimination to damaging the environment, from shortchanging and exploiting its employees to destroying competitors and sending jobs overseas.

Those critics say it's high time to put Wal-Mart on the hot seat.

"As you become bigger, the negative impact of a bad policy becomes even more profound," said Paul Blank, spokesman for Wake-Up Wal-Mart, an advocacy group that was launched this spring and receives funding from the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

To continue reading this article, click here.

What is going on at Wal-Mart?

First, we learn that Wal-Mart has hired former CIA and FBI officials to work for the company.

Then, the Vice Chairman of the company, Tom Coughlin, resigns alleging he set up an illegal anti-union slush fund to spy on workers.

Now, the New York Times reveals this morning that Wal-Mart hired a security official to spy on James Lynn, the company official who was cracking down on apparel factories in Central America.

Mr. Lynn says he was terminated because he told Mike Duke, president of the Wal-Mart stores division, that “…working conditions at the factories were terrible and violated the rules and regulations of Wal-Mart.”

Not to mention that Dateline NBC just did a hidden camera investigation exposing the truth about Wal-Mart’s exploitation of sweatshop labor in 3rd world countries. Or, when confronted about those violations a Wal-Mart spokesperson said international labor violations were “common.”

Wal-Mart’s systematic pattern of spying and alleged illegal activity is disturbing and wrong. For too long, Wal-Mart has sacrificed the wages and health care of its employees for profit, but to sacrifice people’s human rights and dignity is un-American. Wal-Mart’s spying must cease and desist immediately.

Until Wal-Mart changes, we will continue to expose the truth about the high cost we all pay for Wal-Mart’s false prices.

From the New York Times, we learn that Wal-Mart is in more trouble over yet another fired whistleblower. At least they are keeping their new lawyer, Eugene Scalia (the same lawyer who helped craft the very law he is defending Wal-Mart against) busy:

A former Wal-Mart executive responsible for inspecting apparel factories in Central America has sued the company, accusing it of firing him for being too aggressive about finding workplace violations, like locked exits and mandatory 24-hour shifts.

The executive, James W. Lynn, said he upset Wal-Mart officials by complaining vigorously about apparel contractors that fired pregnant workers and about one company official who, according to several inspectors, was corrupt and treated substandard factories leniently.

In a lawsuit filed two weeks ago in state court in Arkansas, where Wal-Mart Stores is based and Mr. Lynn lives, he asserted that he was terminated in 2002 "for truthfully reporting the abysmal working conditions in Central American factories utilized by Wal-Mart and for refusing to comply with Wal-Mart's demand that he certify factories in order to get Wal-Mart's goods to market."

To continue reading this article, click here.