The Campaign for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ) put together a report on Vinyl a month and a half ago (we wrote about it here), and now they've got a whole campaign going. The gist is this: Vinyl is dangerous, toxic stuff and now that we know, retailers should do something about it (ideally they should stop selling it). In their report all the retailers they talked to had plans to deal with this dangerous material. The only retailer that wouldn't talk to CHEJ? You guessed it, Wal-Mart. CHEJ has a petition they're going to deliver to Wal-Mart and you should sign it. They've also got a fun little video about PVCs and the danger they pose. Check it out!

Watch Sam Suds, their animated video, here

Sign the petition here

Using Wal-Mart as the prime example of why something needs to be done, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) sent a letter to the House of Representatives urging them to support The Paycheck Fairness Act. The act aims to rectify the difference in wages between men and women preforming the same job. The letter uses the Dukes vs. Wal-Mart class action law suit (the largest gender discrimination suit in history) to show how important this legislation is. We completely agree, something needs to be done. Wal-Mart has a long history of discrimination. We know, both from law suits like Dukes, and from the many Wal-Mart employees we talk to, that often Wal-Mart does not treat its employees fairly. Legislation is one way of combating such awful behavior. We will also continue to push Wal-Mart to change their ways through grass roots organizing, educating consumers, and direct actions.

Below is the letter that went to the House. We encourage you to call your congressperson and tell them you support HR 1338, The Paycheck Fairness Act.

To All Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

Dear Representative:

On behalf of the 1.3 million members of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), I urge your support for H.R. 1338, The Paycheck Fairness Act. This important legislation will provide more effective remedies to victims of sex discrimination in the payment of wages. H.R. 1338 amends the Equal Pay Act (EPA) by revising remedies for and enforcement of prohibitions against sex discrimination in the payment of wages.

Over forty years ago President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, making it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women who perform substantially equal work. At the time of the enactment of this landmark legislation in 1963, women earned 59 cents to every dollar earned by men. Although enforcement, as well as other civil rights laws, has helped to narrow the wage gap, significant disparities remain and need to be addressed. Currently, women in the United States are paid only 77 cents for every dollar earned by men. For example, Wal-Mart was recently sued by women employees who claim the company discriminated against them by systematically denying them promotions and paying them less than men. The lawsuit, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, has expanded to include more than 1.6 million current and former female employees. It has been certified as the largest sexual discrimination class action lawsuit in U.S. history.

Stories like those of the women workers at Wal-Mart are happening too frequently. Equal pay for equal work is the foundation of equality in the workplace. Wage discrimination undermines the economic security of America’s working families today and their retirement security tomorrow. American workers and their families cannot afford paychecks that are shortchanged just because the workers who earn them are women. The Paycheck Fairness Act proposes concrete steps to respond to the ongoing injustice of wage discrimination. The UFCW strongly urges your support of H.R. 1338. Thank you for your attention to this important issue and please feel free to contact us for additional information.

Last week, Wal-Mart reached an agreement with the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) in two Chinese cities to provide its workers with an 8 % annual raise this year and next year. At first this sounds pretty good but if you look at the political and economic context in which this agreement was negotiated, it turns out that Wal-Mart's workers are getting a pretty raw deal.

To provide some background, I should first note that yes, Wal-Mart's Chinese employees are represented by a union. However, the ACFTU is quite different from unions in the United States and other democracies. Firstly, the ACFTU is the only official, state sponsored union federation in China and it is illegal to form independent unions. Activists who attempt to form independent unions suffer harsh repression and have repeatedly been jailed. Furthermore, the ACFTU does not engage in strikes or other traditional union tactics because according to the China Labor Bulletin, an NGO based in Hong Kong, strikes in China are effectively illegal. According to the International Herald Tribune the Chinese government has been pushing to expand the ACFTU and establish its presence in foreign-owned companies in recent years. Labor activists like Robin Munro, research director of the aforementioned China Labor Bulletin, believe that the push to expand the ACFTU is basically an effort by the government to gain firmer control of increasingly militant Chinese workers, who have staged numerous illegal strikes and protests. In an interview with the Tribune, Munro stated:

"They [the Chinese government] are afraid that public protests or strikes might get out of hand. Hence the big drive to impose unions and provide greater union coverage. I think this is seen as a way of crisis management."

The recent agreements reached by the state-controlled ACFTU and Wal-Mart are their first collective bargaining agreements, which provide workers in Shenyang and Quanzhou with 8% raises in 2008 and 2009. Unfortunately for the workers, China is currently experiencing severe inflation, much like we are in the United States. According to the China Labor Bulletin,

Inflation nationally [in China] has been consistently above eight percent this year, reaching 8.5 percent in April, with food prices in April increasing by 22.1 percent year on year

As such, the entire wage increase received by Wal-Mart employees will likely be eaten away by inflation and if current trends continue, they could actually end up worse off next year than they are now. Further, being relatively low wage employees, Wal-Mart workers in China will be especially hurt by rapid food inflation.

Moreover, Wal-Mart's collective bargaining agreement with the ACFTU only covers workers at its retail outlets and excludes workers in manufacturing, who make the vast majority of products sold at both Wal-Mart's in China and in the United States. Working conditions at many of Wal-Mart's Chinese suppliers are particularly atrocious and they have made no legitimate effort to improve them.

Wal-Mart apparently does not see the contradiction between its business model which relies so heavily on Chinese labor and its utter disregard for the dignity of the Chinese people. Wal-Mart, the World's largest retailer and the largest importer of Chinese goods in the United States, can and must do better.

Undoubtedly you've heard about the myriad of lawsuits Wal-Mart is facing for systematically denying its workers breaks, forcing them to work off the clock, and falsifying time cards to squeeze just a little more profit from their beleaguered associates. You've probably also heard that recently a Minnesota judge ruled that Wal-Mart broke the law more than 2 million times in that state alone. Now, Arkansas Business tells us that Wal-Mart didn't just break the law, they knew they were breaking the law, were warned they were breaking the law, and still made a conscious decision to do so. Their decision was, no doubt, motivated by the greed and desire for profits that has poisoned their brand.

We were not shocked by the news that Wal-Mart was aware of its gross violations and kept on breaking the law, but we were appalled. Following is a statement from Wake Up Wal-Mart:

For Immediate Release July 29, 2008

WAL-MART KNEW IT WAS ABUSING WORKERS, BUT CHOSE TO BREAK THE LAW ANYWAY

A recent article from Arkansas Business reveals that not only did Wal-Mart deny its workers breaks at stores across the country, but also that Wal-Mart managers and executives received complaints and an audit revealing the widespread problem and chose to ignore it. A judge characterized Wal-Mart’s response to documentation of these problems, saying they “put their heads in the sand.”

“WakeUpWalMart.com has known all along that such a widespread problem was a matter of corporate culture and company-wide policy,” said Meghan Scott, spokesperson for WakeUpWalMart.com. “Wal-Mart knowingly denied its employees breaks so that it could make a greater profit. Its managers and executives ignored audits and reports showing abuse of federal law to protect their bottom line. It is one of the most flagrant examples in Wal-Mart’s long tradition of putting profit over people.”

Read the full article from Arkansas Business here.

A large coalition of groups working to keep Wal-Mart from coming to their community (including local Wake Up Wal-Mart activists) have gathered more than enough signatures (more than 10% of the registered voters) to put an initiative on the ballot in the 2009 election. Residents will vote on a ban of grocery stores over 90,000 square feet that is specifically aimed at keeping a Wal-Mart out of their town. The petition drive went so well that organizers are asking people to stop collecting signatures because they do not want to go over the 15% threshold which would force an expensive special election.

We will wait to see how the citizens of Ventura vote next year, and we offer a well deserved congratulations to the coalition of activists working to keep their community the way they want it: free of economically destructive stores like Wal-Mart.

Read the full story from the Ventura County Star here, or below:

Voters to get initiative against Wal-Mart

Backers of an initiative aimed at blocking Wal-Mart or a large grocery store from opening in Ventura say they have collected enough signatures to put it before voters, and they have instructed supporters to stop gathering more to avoid a costly special election.

"We were told a special election could be as much as $400,000 and we thought, Whoa, that's not good government,'" said Ed Lacey, a local attorney and spokesman for Livable Ventura, one of half a dozen citizen and union groups backing the measure. "We don't want to put the city and taxpayers in that spot."

The initiative would keep the world's largest retailer from opening in Ventura by banning any new store selling groceries that is larger than 90,000 square feet.

Big grocers could face special conditions if they decided to move into an existing but vacant store.

Proponents, who filed initiative papers in January, initially set their sights on the Nov. 4 election, hoping to strike before Wal-Mart tries to replace a shuttered Kmart on Victoria Avenue with a store of its own.

But a tight timeline — they needed 8,903 verified signatures by May — proved too demanding.

Relying on volunteers and paid gatherers, proponents say they now have collected more than 10,000 signatures, although some likely will be disqualified because they do not belong to registered voters in Ventura.

Supporters, however, are confident that they have more than the 5,936 signatures, or 10 percent of Ventura registered voters, needed to qualify for the next regular city election in November 2009.

That ballot will feature races for four seats on the City Council, among other items, at an estimated cost of $125,000 because expenses are shared with the county, City Clerk Mabi Plisky said.

If supporters collected and submitted signatures from 15 percent of registered voters, the city could be required to hold a special election.

That could cost $300,000, not counting necessary staff time, Plisky said.

A Wal-Mart spokesman called the effort disappointing and said the company's three other stores in the county — a Wal-Mart and Sam's Club in Oxnard and a Wal-Mart in Simi Valley — had more than 4 million visitors last year and generated some $1.8 million in sales tax revenues for those communities.

Time to raise more money

The initiative's authors cast Wal-Mart as a "behemoth" with "predatory practices," and worry that it would hurt local businesses, add low-wage jobs in a community without affordable housing, worsen traffic and alter Ventura's reputation as a quaint beach town.

Proponents have instructed volunteers to stop all signature gathering this week. They plan to submit the signatures next week.

Waiting until next year's election allows supporters to raise more money, add to their army of volunteers and expand their education efforts, including more door-to-door campaigning, supporters said.

Forcing taxpayers to spend $300,000 for a special election also could embolden their critics, who point to the potential windfall of sales tax revenue from a Wal-Mart store and the potential chilling effect that the measure could have on attracting other businesses.

"We don't want Ventura to have less (city) services because we forced a special election," supporter Das Williams said.

Coalition support

The initiative specifically targets large grocery stores but not all big-box outlets. Lacey said it would not ban a large electronics store like Fry's or Best Buy, or a department store.

The coalition supporting the measure includes the Tri-Counties Labor Foundation, United Food and Commercial Workers, the Stop Ventura Wal-Mart Coalition, Livable Ventura, Ventura County Working People's Alliance and the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy.

The Ventura City Council voted in January to limit the size of multistory stores at the Kmart site and along Victoria Avenue to 100,000 square feet, despite pleas by the coalition to lower the number to 90,000 square feet.

Nontaxable grocery items

The proposed initiative would prohibit any new "super store" greater than 90,000 square feet that devotes more than 3 percent of its sales floor to nontaxable grocery items.

Companies wanting to use existing stores such as the Kmart site also could face greater scrutiny and possible conditions if it's proven that the new store would pay low wages, increase demand for affordable housing, add traffic and negatively affect other businesses.

Wal-Mart has not filed a formal application to replace the Kmart building, which it controls, but presented a conceptual plan to build a 150,000-square-foot store with groceries when it last met with city leaders.

From the El Paso Times

The Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, a civil rights group in El Paso, Texas has just launched a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

According to the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project, Wal-Mart stores:

"lack safe and accessible pathways for people with disabilities" from the bus stops and parking lots to the stores.

As a result:

"Inaccessible businesses [like Wal-Mart] are sending the message that people with disabilities and their business are not welcome."

Wal-Mart just can't catch a break! This is yet another lawsuit against Wal-Mart, of which there are dozens
alleging violation of everything from civil rights to labor laws. We hope that Wal-Mart is brought to justice and the Paso del Norte Civil Rights Project and every organization with a legitimate grievance against Wal-Mart win their cases.

Starting today, supporters of WakeUpWalMart.com and local elected officials will hold press conferences throughout the country to launch a new campaign “Give Workers a break, not Wal-Mart.” The national effort will call on local officials and candidates at the local, state and federal level to side with workers, not Walmart.

As part of the launch of this new campaign, local WakeUpWalmart.com supporters, elected officials and candidates for office will gather outside Walmart stores to speak out about how the world’s largest retailer stands to profit from John McCain’s tax plan while working Americans continue to struggle in this tough economy. Supporters of WakeUpWalmart.com will hand out flyers to tell Wal-Mart customers how the retail giant stands to save billions under John McCain’s tax plan.

Elected officials, community leaders and candidates will also sign the “Give Workers a Break, Not Wal-Mart Pledge” which calls on John McCain, as well as local and state governments to demand that Wal-Mart end its irresponsible and immoral business practices.

John McCain has a history of supporting tax breaks for corporate America and the super rich over middle-class Americans, particularly in recent years. Wal-Mart, the richest and most powerful company in America, and the ultra-rich Walton family have benefited significantly from McCain's tax cuts and stand to profit even more if McCain is elected president:

In 1999, McCain voted for $792 billion in regressive tax cuts, including special tax breaks for the steel, timber, and oil industries.

In 2006, McCain voted to extend the Bush tax cuts on capital gains and dividends. According to Citizens for Tax Justice The tax cut cost the federal government $70 billion dollars and over two thirds of the benefits went to the richest 1% of Americans.

In 2006, McCain voted to permanently repeal the estate tax, which effects only the wealthiest 1% of Americans. According to Public Citizen, the Walton Family, with a net worth of over $80 billion, would save a staggering $32.6 billion if the estate tax were repealed.

Furthermore, under his current tax plan, Wal-Mart would receive an estimated $1.5 billion in tax breaks from just one aspect of John McCain’s tax plan.

Wal-Mart is already profiting from our nation's economic downturn. Now is not the time to give Wal-Mart even more tax breaks but to tell John McCain and politicians around the country to give workers a break, not Wal-Mart.

While most of the media naturally focused on the speeches by Senators Barack Obama and John McCain at last week's NAACP convention in Cincinnati, Sprawl-Busters founder Al Norman says that Wal-Mart was the subject of the most intense debate. In the end, the NAACP passed a resolution calling on Wal-Mart to address several aspects of its socially irresponsible business model. Here's the full text of NAACP Resolution #14:

Oppose Wal-mart and Other Retailers Unfair Labor Practices Resolved: That the NAACP will challenge Wal-Mart and other retailers to overcome any of their practices that are inconsistent with the highest standards of Labor and Civil Rights, to ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for Women, people of color and other minorities, and work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart's and other retailers negative impact on issues like the environment and local businesses, and establish a 'Buy American' program that annually increases the percentage of 'Made in America' goods purchased by Wal-Mart and Other retailers to help protect American Jobs.

Norman points out that Wal-Mart has donated extensively to the NAACP as a PR move to improve its image among the African American community. The NAACP should be commended for taking a strong stand against Wal-Mart's terrible business practices despite this fact.

According to the NAACP, African Americans contribute $700 billion to the American economy every year. The NAACP, and all Americans for that matter, are right to demand that giant corporations like Wal-Mart behave responsibly in exchange for profiting so handsomely from American workers and consumers. Until Wal-Mart cleans up its act, I hope more and more organizations follow in the NAACP's footsteps in calling on Wal-Mart to do better.

After a few incidents with unwanted "guests" at a hotel that will remain unnamed, our booth is live and attracting tons of attention at Netroots Nation.

People have been stopping by few seconds to take a jab (literally) at "The Mac", our celebrity greeter. If you can't quite make out our team's t-shirts, it's actually an artist's interpretation of the famous McCain-Bush bear hug... a perfect representation of the budMcCain and Walmart.

If you're at Netroots, stop by our booth to say hello--we might have some goodies for you. :) Until then, check back for more updates from Netroots Nation.

KSL TV, a station in Salt Lake City, Utah, has just reported a tragic story about Jessie Scott, an eighteen-year old high school graduate and former 4.0 student who has been in a coma since April 30th, after ingesting pain medication which was wrongly labeled. Where was the prescription for the medication filled? You guessed it, Wal-Mart. According to KSL:

The label clearly indicates one teaspoon every four hours, and that's exactly what Laurie [Jessie's mother] did: She gave Jessie one teaspoon in a cup.

But instead of five milligrams, attorney David Olsen says, "The dosage she gave was 20 times what was ordered. [It was] 100 milligrams instead of five. That's because it was undiluted."

As a result,

it was a potentially lethal dose.

Wal-Mart's negligence has reached new heights in this truly horrific case. Our thoughts and prayers are with Jessie and his family.

Hi all, we just wanted to write and apologize for not blogging more in the last week or so. We've been busy getting ready for Netroots Nation, an exciting conference of some of the best progressive bloggers out there. The team is all heading down to Austin for the conference, which is this weekend, and there will be some exciting blog posts live from the conference. Keep an eye out for pictures of McCain on this blog and around the blogosphere. We've also been preparing for the start of a new campaign to tell John McCain and other political leaders to side with workers, not Walmart. You may see an ad up near you soon. Keep your eyes peeled, and thanks for all you do!

-The Team,
WakeUpWalmart.com

This is, and forgive the pun, the latest viral video about Walmart floating around the web these days. You may have seen it before, it's been around for quite some time, but this version is updated to include 2007 stores as well. In short, it shows a map of the US with green blips for every new Walmart store built from 1962 to 2007. It is a pretty incredible video, so go watch it.

Yesterday, Walmart released its numbers for June sales. They were one of the few companies that not only did well, but did better than last year. Their sales were up 5.8% from last year, the most in three years. WakeUpWalmart.com has release the following statement in response to this news:

Statement from WakeUpWalmart.com

Walmart is profiting from Americas economic downturn

For Immediate Release
July 10, 2008

CONTACT: Meghan Scott
202-721-8014
202-538-0362

At a time when gas prices are soaring, jobs are being lost, wages are stagnating, and hard working American families are struggling to get by, Walmart announced that its sales for June are up 5.8% from last year. It’s just another reminder that what’s good for Wal-Mart is bad for America, something its Chief Financial Officer as much as admitted when he said "tough times are actually a good time for Wal-Mart." While Walmart is no doubt celebrating its increased sales and the billions it will rake in this year, the rest of the country is struggling to get by. Instead of celebrating, Wal-Mart should make real changes to support its workers that would make our country, and our economy, stronger.

When Walmart set out to redesign their logo, one imagines that they were going for a new look, something to update their image and distract people from their greedy ways of doing business. One also imagines that, since Walmart is a massive corporation oft in the public eye, they were going for something pretty bland and basic, and generally not easy to mock or distort or photoshop in to something embarrassing. After all, they're a mega-retailer that is just starting to figure out the web, not some new fangled website or blog that needs catchy graphics. It turns out, however, that Walmart has failed at the modest task of creating an unmockable, bland logo.

As soon as the logo came out there was a lot of buzz about what the new logo meant or symbolized. Some suggested that it was supposed to look organic, others that it was simply boring. But what has created the most discussion is that Walmart's new 'sunburst' logo reminds many readers of a picture of (excuse the language) a drawing of an asshole in Kurt Vonnegut's book Breakfast of Champions shown to the right.

Here are some of the blogs that have been talking about the connection to Walmart's new logo and Vonnegut's picture:

This New Walmart Logo Looks AWFULLY Familiar [Consumerist]

What's missing from Wal-Mart's new logo? [AdFreak]

Walmart's New Logo [Dead Programmer's Cafe]

Walmart is the newest inductee to Corporate Accountability International's Corporate Hall of Shame. More than 10,000 votes were cast and Walmart got 15% of all votes, beating out Exxon Mobil, Halliburton and Countrywide among others. They join Blackwater and Archer Daniels Midland as inductees this year. Walmart was inducted "for displacing local businesses, failing to cover employees under the corporation’s health plan, and opposing legislation that would increase homeland security." An apt description, though we would add weakening Americas economy by sending jobs overseas, abusing foreign workers and wantonly using sweatshop labor, and paying workers poverty wages. So congratulations to Walmart, they've earned this one.

Here's the Hall of Shame 2008 site where you can read voter's comments, see the vote breakdown and more.

Two stories today highlight a major issue with Walmart's corporate culture and, more importantly, the danger of the corporation to its customers.

The first story comes from Kansas where Renee Smith was assaulted in a Walmart bathroom. Apparently several people saw her purse being stolen, including a Walmart employee, but no one did anything to stop it. The most upsetting part of this story though, is that after the assault, she went to a security officer in the store and pointed out the woman who stole her purse, but they didn't do anything about it. Instead, they simply let the thief leave the store. It is appalling, but it seems pretty clear that Walmart's security don't really care about preventing crime, unless it involves significant monetary loss for the store.

So what exactly does Walmart's security care about? The second story answers that. According to The Morning News, Walmart won a permanent gag order against Bruce Gabbard, a former security employee who spoke to the media after he was fired. He revealed that in his job he spied on reporters, infiltrated groups critical of Walmart (like this one), and spied on employees, vendors, and consultants.

Yes indeed, this is Walmart helping you live better at its best. It is well documented that crime is an issue at Walmart. Walmart stores, and their parking lots in particular are often a hotbed of crime, but Walmart continues to focus not on preventing these crimes (which would be quite easy) but on spying. Getting mugged is apparently Walmart's idea of you living better.

Another victory against Wal-Mart! The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review reports that town supervisors in the community of Moon, Pennsylvania voted to block the construction of a new Wal-Mart last week. About 70 town residents attended the supervisors' meeting, where they expressed concern that Wal-Mart would increase traffic congestion and drive local stores out of business. Further, in order to build in Moon, Wal-Mart requested that they be exempt from numerous local laws:

As part of its development plan, Wal-Mart requested nine deviations from township requirements, including those of the University Boulevard "overlay district," which imposes strict rules for business development. The requests included reducing the size of a minimum yard setback of 35 feet to 10 feet, and waiving a requirement to build sidewalks on its side of University Boulevard

In the end, town officials decided that Wal-Mart was not above the law and rejected their plan.

It's great to hear that the town of Moon valued the wishes of its citizens, as well as the interests of local businesses, over the false convenience offered by the proposed new Wal-Mart store. Congratulations Moon, Pennsylvania! You showed the world that average Americans can stand up to the World's largest retailer and win!

Wal-Mart is at it again. According to Bloomberg.com, Wal-Mart has lost another discrimination lawsuit. Patrick Brady, who has cerebral palsy, was hired in 2002 as a Pharmacy Clerk at the Centereach, New York Wal-Mart.

[He was] transferred on his second day to a job picking up garbage and collecting shopping carts in the parking lot because a manager said he was too slow.

The judge ruled the jury was justified in concluding Wal- Mart recklessly or willfully disregarded the requirements of the law. He said the move to a less prestigious job could be considered a demotion and the initial transfer caused Brady emotional distress.

The judge ruled that Wal-Mart would have to pay $900,000 in damages. This amount is down from a $7.5 million verdict awarded by a jury. A judge cut the $5 million in punitive damages the jury had awarded to the maximum allowable $300,000 under the ADA.

Just last month, we posted an entry on another situation in which Wal-Mart had to pay a pharmacy worker $250,000 for wrongfully firing her because of her gunshot wound. Before that, a man was fired from his Wal-Mart job for nothing less than using his wheelchair at work.

So I guess there are some exceptions when Daphne Moore, Wal-Mart's spokeswoman, says, "We believe in respecting the dignity of every individual and do not tolerate any form of discrimination."

Happy Independence Day!

In celebration of our nation's Declaration of Independence, many Americans are likely planning barbecues, parties, and all kinds of festivities this long weekend. When you head out to the store to buy food, party favors, and depending on what state you live in, fireworks, it would be great if everyone did their best to patronize good, patriotic companies that support America's economy and put our nation first. With that said, here are some facts to keep in mind when stocking up this weekend:

- Over 70% of the products on Wal-Mart's shelves come from China and if Wal-Mart were an individual economy, it would be China's 8th largest trading partner.

- Repeated studies have demonstrated that Wal-Mart drives small shops out of business, destroying communities.

-Wal-Mart, despite earning over $12 billion in profits last year, has benefited from billions of dollars in subsidies from state and local governments throughout the country.

Does a company that absuses taxpayer subsidies, drives small firms out of business, and gets over 70% of its products from China sound like a patriotic company to you? We certainly don't think so and we hope you keep that in mind this Fourth of July.

Here's our statement on the ruling from Minnesota:

Walmart again forced to pay for exploiting workers

For Immediate Release
July 2, 2008

CONTACT: Meghan Scott
(866) 253-1350

A Minnesota judge has ruled that Walmart must pay $6.5 million in back pay to 56,000 employees because it forced them to work off the clock and through lunch breaks. Walmart is currently facing 76 lawsuits across the country for such behavior, and has already been forced to pay $172 million in a suit in California. They were cited for more than 2 million violations of labor law and a jury could force them to pay $1,000 for each violation, or $2 billion.

The following statement is attributed to Meghan Scott – campaign director for wakeupwalmart.com.

“Walmart’s slogan claims to help its customers “live better,” but at a time when hard-working families are struggling, Walmart continues to cheat and exploit its employees.”

“It is shameful that a company with more than $11 billions in profits feels it can break the law. It is even more shameful that at a time when families are financially struggling, Walmart CEO Lee Scott continues to allow this type of exploitation and mistreatment. Walmart and CEO Lee Scott need to start playing by the rules and stop denying workers the pay and benefits they have earned.”

Voting is now open for Walmart vs. Countrywide; it's time to send Walmart to the finals. It's a close race on the other side of the bracket, the winner of Walmart vs. Countrywide could go on to face either Comcast or Diebold. If they win, they'll get the "Golden Lucky Shit" award, which is described as, "Made from genuine plastic and coated with genuine golden plastic, just like many of the companies' products." We think it'd be particularly appropriate for Walmart, given all the dangerous plastic, lead tainted stuff they've sold recently. So go vote!

Wal-Mart was forced to deal with the penalties of exploiting its workers when a judge in Minnesota ruled in favor of the employees. According to theNew York Times, the judge found Wal-Mart guilty of over 2 million labor violations. According to the article, some of these violations include: failure to give workers promised rest breaks at least 1.5 million times, having employees take in-house training while off the clock, and failing to keep records for 325,188 shifts, or 13 percent of shifts.

According to the article,

Under the ruling, Wal-Mart faces the greatest liability for violating Minnesota law by deducting several minutes from workers’ pay when they took rest breaks for 16, 17 or 18 minutes, when Wal-Mart said they were entitled to 15-minute breaks. Under Minnesota law, employers are barred from deducting minutes from a worker’s pay so long as the break lasts less than 20 minutes.

Judge King found that Wal-Mart had committed that statutory violation 1.5 million times; the company is subject to a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each of those violations.

That alone would cost Wal-Mart up to $1.5 billion dollars. This is a another example of how Wal-mart extorts its workers to make a profit.

Wal-Mart has a legendary reputation for cutting costs. The Behemoth from Bentonville would like you to believe that they're willing to do absolutely anything to ensure that their products are the lowest price possible. For the most part, its true. To keep prices down, Wal-Mart gladly squeezes its food suppliers, even when they're reeling from high fuel costs, exploits its workers in the United States, and sources most of its products from sweatshops in China, where workers endure subhuman conditions.

However, there is one area where Wal-Mart refuses to cut costs and where, in fact, Wal-Mart is more spendthrift than any other company in the Southeastern United States. That, my friends, is executive compensation. According to a recent report from the Associated Press, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott earned $29.7 million in total compensation last year, more than any other CEO in the Southeastern U.S. According to their official figures, full time Wal-Mart associates make, on average, $10.84 per hour, or about $19,000 a year (Wal-Mart considers 34 hours a week to be full time). Thus, Lee Scott earned a whopping 1,551 times the average Wal-Mart employee in 2007. Yikes! In comparison, the average American CEO made $10.8 million last year, or 364 times that of the average American worker, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.

Wal-Mart has been resorting to numerous publicity stunts recently to revive its sagging reputation, including the announcement of a new logo. If they really want the public to see them as something other than the ultimate symbol of corporate greed, Wal-Mart could begin by reducing the unconscionable gap between Lee Scott's salary and that of the average Wal-Mart worker. Until they do so and until Wal-Mart truly changes its business model and becomes a better employer, the American people will continue to see it for what it is: an irresponsible colossus with a fancy PR machine.

In the wake of a poll that shows Walmart's reputation is still in decline despite their vast PR efforts to turn their image around, Walmart will soon release a new logo, complete with new colors, a sunburst instead of a star, and a new spelling of its name (Walmart instead of Wal-Mart). It's not terribly surprising given how much money and effort Walmart has put into PR, advertising, and generally making you believe that they're a brand new company...nothing at all like they used to be with the abusing workers and not paying them very much and not giving them health care. Of course it's easy enough to see through the new orange logo to what is still going on at Walmart. They still pay far below a living wage, they still offer sub par health care and scant benefits, and they still send tons of jobs overseas. We're sure their new logo won't change the way they do business anymore than changing their slogan did.

Here is some of the coverage of the new logo:

Wal-Mart Plans New Logo to Update Image

Wal-Mart Stops Hyphenating

Wal-Mart revamping its U.S. store logo