It's a slow moving competition, but Consumerists' Worst Company in America is on to the second round, and Wal-Mart made it easily. Their next competition is Citibank, but we're not worried, we're pretty sure they'll go all the way.

After yesterday's front page Wall Street Journal story about Wal-Mart dropping Flagler Production, we thought we'd share some of the footage we've found. In case you didn't read the story, Flagler Production taped all of Wal-Mart's events, meetings, and the like for around 30 years. Then, out of the blue, Wal-Mart fired them. This sent the company reeling and so Flagler offered to sell Wal-Mart all of the videos. Wal-Mart claimed no one would want the videos and offered to buy them for a vastly reduced price. Flagler rejected their offer and now Wal-Mart is regretting their decision. So here then, is a video we put together during the incredibly sad case surrounding Debbie Shank:

Corporate Accountability International is running their annual Corporate Hall of Shame contest, and voting is open now. Wal-Mart is once again one of the nominees for this notorious post, and we think they'll win hands-down. Check out the info page they have on Wal-Mart and cast your vote today!

Not surprisingly, people don't seem to like that Wal-Mart is getting away with skirting their taxes. They don't stand to benefit, no matter how much Wal-Mart claims they are passing the saving on to you. People are smart enough to realize that the money Wal-Mart is stealing from state taxes are going to thier monumental profits, not to the consumer. Here's a good opinion piece about the tax loop hole in Virginia from The Daily Press

Thanks to Del. Timothy Hugo (R-Centerville) and his Republican-dominated subcommittee for helping Wal-Mart remain profitable. Because of the inaction of the subcommittee that he chairs, the Wal-Mart conglomerate retains the opportunity to pay rent to itself and write it off as an expense, thus avoiding a large tax payment to the state of Virginia. As noted in the article, Wal-Mart and other large companies have been astute enough to legally take advantage of this flaw in Virginia's and most other states' laws.

Unfortunately, as an infrequent shopper at Wal-Mart, I am unable to reap the benefits of the resulting lower prices passed along to the consumers, as touted by the Wal-Mart lobbyist, Kelly Hobbs.

I do have one question for Hobbs: Is it true that Wal-Mart has increased prices in stores in Vermont, New York and West Virginia to compensate for the additional corporate state tax it has to pay to those states since they have closed the loophole? Or, are they sharing in the $6 million cost-savings that Wal-Mart realizes in Virginia, thus helping keep everybody's prices low? If so, residents of those states owe us Virginians a hearty "thank you."

Six more states either have closed, or are in the process of closing, this tax loophole — six more states that can thank Virginia for the cost-savings their consumers reap along with the added corporate tax revenue in their state coffers.

Even though the Roehm affair has closed with a whimper, and Ms. Roehm buckled under the weight of Wal-Mart's massive legal team, her presence in the headlines just serves as a reminder of all the damning Wal-Mart scandals that have irreparably tarnished the company's reputation.

With that in mind, we decided to put together a quick rundown of some the most outrageous of recent Wal-Mart scandals. Fake blogs and grassroots movements, surveillance vans, wired "agents" recording opposition groups... we couldn't make this stuff up. Seriously, who needs John Grisham when we have Lee Scott?

So, check out the rundown, read the articles, and when you're done, tell us your "favorite" Wal-Mart scandal.

The Spy Scandal

Remember Bruce Gabbard and Kenneth Senser? The two members of WMTs ominously titled "Threat Research, and Analysis" dept. were involved in intercepting text messages and/or phone calls from NYT reporter Michael Barbaro, part of a bid to discover the source of documents given to groups like us.

This was just part of a disturbing, broad-based effort to monitor not only Wal-Mart employees, but Wal-Mart opposition groups. At one point, Wal-Mart actually infiltrated an "Up Against the Wal" meeting using a surveillance van and a man posing as an activist while wearing a wire. Frankly, I can't believe that kind of behavior is legal.

The Flog

Last year, the blog "Wal-Marting Across America" made its debut, painting a suspiciously upbeat picture of Wal-Mart and its employee morale. It purported to be the travelogue of "Jim and Laura," a couple traveling the country by day, and parking at Wal-Mart by night. According to BusinessWeek, the first blog post "features a black-and-white photograph and humbly says: 'We are not bloggers, but since our lives have always been more journey than destination we are explorers at heart…. We figured we'd give it a go.'"

Perhaps "entrepreneurs at heart" would be more accurate. It was revealed later that their vehicle and expenses were paid for by Wal-Mart.

Nazi Advertisements

In 2005, a full-page ad appeared in an Arizona newspaper with a black & white image of Nazis burning books. The ad, placed on behalf of a group fighting proposed restrictions on supercenters, was funded, and apparently approved by Wal-Mart. Bloomberg reports:

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company helped fund the ad by giving between $280,000 and $300,000 to five-month-old Protect Flagstaff's Future, said Chuck Coughlin, a consultant to the group and the designer of the ad.

Wal-Mart "reviewed all the ads before they ran," said Coughlin, president of public affairs firm Highground Inc. in Phoenix. "They did not raise an objection."

Later, Wal-Mart was blasted by the media and Congress for selling t-shirts with Nazi emblems on the front

Rolling Back Taxes

Wal-Mart has been called "America's Tax Deadbeat", and with good reason. Shortly after Good Jobs First released its report on Wal-Mart's aggressive property tax reassessment tactics, The WSJ reported that Wal-Mart could owe up to $2.5 billion in unpaid taxes.

Wal-Mart paid financial giant Ernst & Young over $2 million to draft a state tax minimization strategy which the consultants described as "very aggressive," and "with considerable risk," as the WSJ reports.

Companies often assert that tax savings are simply happy byproducts of transactions pursued for other business reasons. But documents from the North Carolina case indicate that Wal-Mart, from the outset, had one primary purpose: cutting its state income taxes

Ironically, Wal-Mart has consistently used the promise of tax revenues as a selling point in reluctant host communities.

What's your take?

From The Huffington Post, an opinion piece by Robert Elisberg:

A successful freelancer once explained to me that he regularly tells companies who balk at paying his price, "If you think I'm expensive, wait until you work with amateurs." Lower-quality work will invariably cause big problems and much more money spent correcting them.

But this isn't just a reality for all business. It's the way of all life.

This is far more basic than Economics 101. It's nothing more than a wise saying everyone learned in grade school.

You Get What You Pay For.

Usually, that's said with a shrug and a wistful smile. But then, we generally don't expect the payment to be made with people's lives.

Save money by not doing required repairs on a bridge. It collapses, causing devastation and death. The original price to fix the bridge was $3 million. The financial cost only of replacement and economic upheaval is an estimated $500 million.

Save money by cutting $65 million from required maintenance on levees. They're breached, wiping out a major American city and killing 1,577 people.. The cost of rebuilding the levees is $10 billion. Rebuilding the city is an additional $53 billion.

Save money by having your toys made cheaply overseas. Toxic paint is found in 21 million products for children, in three separate recalls.

Save money by importing on pet food more cheaply from overseas. Contaminated food kills over 17,000 pets.

Save money on toothpaste by importing it more cheaply from overseas. Products with a poisonous chemical is distributed to hotels.

Save money on automobile tires by importing them more cheaply from overseas. Over 450,000 faulty tires that can fall apart were recalled.

These aren't isolated incidents. This is a pattern.

You do get what you pay for. Wal-Mart might love to advertise with that little smiley-face knocking the prices down, but when they had to remove those toys with toxic paint from their shelves, remember: a frown is just a smile upside-down.

The manufacturing problem for all those recalls was caused elsewhere, in China. But someone had to hire them. And someone had to cut government costs for inspecting them.

There are many dirty fingers. When Wal-Mart strong-arms its suppliers to under-price everyone else, those suppliers are forced or choose to go overseas where there is cheap labor and cheaper consumer protection. And other retailers are pressured to follow, or do so happily.

Companies can insist they're just giving the public what it wants, low prices. And that's a wonderful argument until reality kicks in and you stock your stores with toxic toys, toxic pet food, toxic toothpaste and exploding tires. Surveys show that customers tend to not want those things.

Everyone likes low prices. Spending less. Saving money.

But you get what you pay for.

It's not Economics 101. It's Life 101. Here's another basic, wise saying: pennywise and pound foolish. But this is pennywise and pound insane.

And it holds true in everything. Including the crass political tactic that anyone who wants to raise taxes is just a "Tax and Spend Liberal" and irresponsible and evil and smells bad. Well, Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty (R) played that card and vetoed a transportation bill because it would have raised taxes. His way collapsed a bridge.

There are apparently 79,427 bridges considered inadequate in the U.S., and the cost to repair them all is estimated at $9.4 billion every year, for 20 years. That's $188 billion. Think that's a lot? Nah, it's peanuts. Chump change. If the cost to the economy of this one Minnesota bridge is $500 million, then the potential damages for all those inadequate bridges is $40,000,000,000,000,000. (That's "$40 quadrillion" but it's a word so large to be meaningless. It's so large it sounds like you're an eight-year-old making up words.)

Fun with Math: to pay that scary $188 billion national bridge repair, you'd only have to shut down the Iraq War 2-1/2 years early. Or just have taken 2-1/2 years looking carefully for those pesky WMDs before shock-and-awing. The bridges would be paid for by now. Not suggesting a plan, of course, but merely putting things in perspective.

If something is important to you, you find the money.

That is, unless you're too cheap and don't mind the risk of flooding a city, killing pets or poisoning the nation's children. Is that a cheap shot to take? Perhaps. But it's less cheap than not minding the risk of flooding a city, killing pets or poisoning the nation's children.

But then, you get what you pay for.

With sales flagging, Wal-Mart has made several recent attempts to appeal to a broader, more affluent customer base. The chain has replaced much of its clothing stock with newer, trendier fashions, eliminated layaway, and has made cutbacks in some traditional departments, like fabrics and crafts. Have these changes estranged traditional Wal-Mart shoppers?

Check out the article from MSNBC and discuss.

Even though most parents are still focused on shopping for their kids' back-to-school items, Carrie Munns is already thinking about Christmas.

That in itself is not unusual. What is unusual is that, instead of pondering what toys she should buy at her local Wal-Mart, the 43-year-old mother of two is wondering how she's going to play Santa Claus this year without the layaway option she had relied on.

"It'll be less, let me put it that way," she said. "They won't get as much."

Long after most mainstream department stores eliminated layaway plans, Wal-Mart continued to offer the old-fashioned service, which appeals mainly to consumers who either don't have credit cards or already are carrying high credit card debt. But that ended last year when Wal-Mart eliminated the layaway program, leaving many customers seething about the change -- and fretting about what to do this holiday season.

The move is especially jarring to some families because it has come amid other changes Wal-Mart has made, including cutting back on fabric departments and stocking more trendy clothes, as the discounting titan tries to appeal to a broader swath of shoppers, including more upscale consumers. Those changes, some longtime shoppers say, has made them feel like the store is less interested in catering to its traditional and loyal market of family shoppers on tight budgets.

"I always believed that they're always trying to give us the lowest prices and they're not for the rich man, you know?" said Jennifer Reynolds, a 28-year-old mother of four who used to depend on layaway for her children's school uniforms and holiday gifts. "I just can't believe that they would get rid of layaway and say, "Here, well, here's a credit card.' "

Reynolds was, in fact, so angered by the decision that she started an online petition aimed at restoring the service, and sent two e-mails to Wal-Mart. She said the company never responded, although she continues to hear from other Wal-Mart shoppers disappointed by the change.

Layaway programs allow people to make a down payment on an item and then pay off the rest over a set period of time before taking it home. The system is still offered by rival Kmart, although most large retailers have long since gone exclusively to more modern payment forms including credit and debit cards, citing the cost and hassle of managing layaway programs.

Linda Brown Blakley, a spokeswoman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, said the company decided to stop offering layaway because fewer people were using it and it was costing the company more.

Blakley also said more people now have access to other financing options, such as credit cards, than when layaway first started. For customers without credit cards, she said the company simply tries to offer the best value.

Patricia Edwards, an analyst with investment firm Wentworth, Hauser and Violich who owns shares in Wal-Mart, remembers visiting a Wal-Mart on the day after Thanksgiving a couple years ago and being surprised to see that the longest line in the store was for the layaway department.

From a financial perspective, she said, allowing shoppers to put items on layaway instead of buying them outright is a big risk because some people will never pay them off. That leaves Wal-Mart stuck with merchandise it could have sold during peak demand times but instead has to offer at clearance prices.

On the other hand, Edwards noted, the decision to end layaway was a blow to many loyal Wal-Mart customers.

"It hasn't helped reputationally, and it hasn't helped especially with their core (low-income) customers," she said.

Reynolds, who lives on the military base in Fort Hood, Texas, said she still shops at Wal-Mart about once a week, but she's stopped doing her grocery shopping there and also has noticed that some other items are now cheaper elsewhere.

Wal-Mart has recently acknowledged that many of its most loyal customers are being pressured by high gas prices and other costs, and it has lowered prices on some items.

Reynolds bought some school uniforms at Wal-Mart this year, although she said she also scoured garage sales and secondhand stores. For the coming holidays, she's thinking of putting items on layaway at her local Kmart instead of shopping at Wal-Mart.

Munns doesn't have that option, because there isn't a Kmart in her community of Horn Lake, Miss., and the other big department and toy stores there don't offer layaway, either. She said she and her husband have been trying to put money away in a savings account for the holidays, but she worries it won't be enough for the pricier items her 6-year-old and 13-year-old will want for Christmas.

Munns goes to Wal-Mart for her groceries, and she likes the convenience of also being able to pick up other items at the Supercenter. But she said she's been disappointed by changes she's seen at the store over the past few years, including poor customer service and boxes in the aisles.

She also has cut back on buying clothes at Wal-Mart, because the store has started stocking trendier clothes that don't appeal to her.

"I'm 43 years old. I can't wear pants that (hang) off your hips and shirts that show your belly button," she said.

Wal-Mart has conceded that it has had problems with its push toward trendier items, and it has blamed apparel difficulties for contributing to weakness in some store sales.

As part of its push to broaden its appeal, Wal-Mart also recently finished remodeling many of its stores. While shoppers have welcomed the cleaner stores and better signage, some remodels and new store openings have angered longtime customers because they included replacing fabric departments with areas featuring party supplies.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Tara Raddohl said that she didn't know exactly how many stores no longer have fabric departments and that the company is still evaluating the project. But in general, she said, fabric has been a declining business for the company, and officials have been happy with sales in stores where it has replaced those items with party supplies.

Edwards, the analyst, said adding party supplies was probably a smart decision in the more urban areas where sewing has become less common. But in rural communities, where sewing is more popular and Wal-Mart may have been the only place to buy fabric, such a change doesn't necessarily make as much sense.

In Joan Jennings' retirement community of Bullhead City, Ariz., Wal-Mart was the only store where the many older women could buy quilting, sewing and craft supplies. Now, she said, the only options are to drive nearly two hours to Las Vegas -- a trek that's difficult for many retirees or to ask someone in another part of the country to send supplies by mail.

Jennings, who is 70, has started asking her daughter in California to buy fabrics she uses to make clothes for her grandchildren, doll's outfits and other items. With the added cost of shipping, she said her projects have become more expensive.

She scoffs at the idea of ordering fabric over the Internet instead.

"Most of these older women don't even have computers," she said. "I have a computer, but I probably wouldn't it order online, either. I'd want to look at it."

Yesterday, Consumerist leaked "what appears to be an internal" Wal-Mart PowerPoint presentation detailing its classification of the "Shopper Universe" into three core segments. The New York Times reported on this "new" strategy last week.

The Consumerist leak shows all 29 slides from the PowerPoint. Lots of great nuggets in the internal presentation. Like that fact that Wal-Mart's "price value shopper" loves playing dominoes and reading "Better Home & Garden." Or that Wal-Mart's "brand aspirational shopper" is an image-conscious, computer un-savvy Fox Sport Net watcher.

But, what struck me the most was the lack of information about the largest growing segment of the "Shopper Universe," the "Conscientious Objector." The slides don't provide much information about this shopper, but I have a pretty good idea of what this shopper looks like: A moral shopper who believes in affordable health care, liveable wages and ethical business practices.

What about you? Are you a "Conscientious Objector"? What is your profile?

On Friday, our campaign, along with 30 members of Congress including Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama, challenged Wal-Mart to put America’s security first by publicly reversing its opposition to strengthening our nation’s port security.

Unfortunately, Wal-Mart’s silence means America’s ports may be left vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

That is simply unacceptable to us and every American.

So, this week, our campaign will be announcing a full-scale television advertising campaign to pressure Wal-Mart to do the right thing and help protect America.

But, before we launch, we wanted to give you a sneak peek. Check out the new TV-ad and be sure to forward it on to all of your friends.

CNNMoney.com releases its "101 Dumbest Moments in Business," and Wal-Mart earns its 2006 Grand Prize:

1. Wal-Mart

Because if there's anything America loves, it's a politician...

In an attempt to put a smiley face on its tarnished image, Wal-Mart hires heavy-hitting public relations firm Edelman, which sets about using tactics derived from political races to reverse public perceptions of the giant retailer.

Dubbing its campaign "Candidate Wal-Mart," the firm trumpets all manner of new Wal-Mart initiatives: improved employee health-care benefits, higher starting pay levels, new stores in downtrodden neighborhoods, reasonably priced organic foods, and a flat $4 fee for hundreds of generic prescription drugs.

As a result, candidate Wal-Mart quickly becomes, well, the most popular politician since Spiro Agnew. By year's end Wal-Mart suffers its first quarterly profit drop in a decade, sees same-store sales decline in November's run-up to the crucial holiday shopping season, and suffers a series of public relations gaffes so stunning that it lands six spots in this year's edition of the 101 Dumbest Moments.

You can view 6 of Wal-Mart's Dumbest Moments of 2006 here.

The Rev. Joe Phelps, Pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky, wrote this op-ed in today's Courier Journal.

I accepted a unique invitation to appear in a 30-second "Wake Up Wal-Mart" commercial. It will appear across the nation on major television networks this Thursday and Friday.

"Wake Up Wal-Mart" (wakeupwalmart.com) is a national campaign that challenges the country's largest retailer to clean up its act on multiple fronts, particularly in matters that adversely affect its 1.4 million employees.

Why would a minister appear in such an ad campaign?

I accepted the chance to speak to millions of Americans because of my pastoral role of evangelist — one who announces the message of God's agenda as seen in the life of our Savior, Jesus.

The Bible is full of God's passion about the livelihood and welfare of workers, their families, and their communities. At the same time, God also expresses grave concern for employers who exploit their workers. For the God of the Bible, words like peace and truth aren't abstract ideals; they are to be lived out in how we interact with God and each other, not just on Sunday, but every day.

And so my long-standing concerns about Wal-Mart as an employer, a community leader, and a global force prompted me to join those trying to "Wake Up" (the campaign's name) the retail giant to do the right thing. I want Wal-Mart to honestly review if their profit-making has deteriorated into greed and exploitation.

I also want to "wake up" the American consumer, especially those with Bible values, to the reality that our buying power has real power to effect a lot of people around the world. Everyone wants lower prices, but not at the expense of neighbors who work for Wal-Mart, or people around the world who make their products. Our purchasing choices are the crucial link in granting companies like Wal-Mart our tacit permission and our financial support to continue practices that exploit the young, the vulnerable, and the working poor.

There are two sides to the Wal-Mart debate, of course. Google "Wal-Mart defense" and you'll find plenty of opinions about how Wal-Mart is good for workers and for our country. Wal-Mart has a major marketing initiative, backed by millions of dollars and a staff of 70, to convince consumers that it is a benevolent corporation. Their arguments remind me of the lawyer reacting to Jesus' instruction to love your neighbor, "But wanting to justify himself, he asked Jesus, `And who is my neighbor?'"

On the other side is a vast collection of data from workers, consumer watch organizations, and investigations that reveals a pattern of exploiting workers in order to cut costs and hike profits.

Those who care will weigh the arguments on both sides, pray, discern and act.

In the ad I ask, "Would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart?" It's admittedly a haughty- sounding question, but one that must be asked. I don't claim to know the answer for everyone. I do, however, think it is a question worth posing.

Some will be offended by the question, or at least by its implication, especially if they draw different conclusions from the evidence. Or if they are staunch supporters of unfettered capitalism. Or if, like me, they've shopped at Wal-Mart in the past with no guilt about finding a desired product at a low price — especially if its the only store in town, as is often the case in small towns across America.

Others will be annoyed at the idea that there are connections between the store's low prices, the effect of their employment practices in America, and the effect on the overtime worker in China who earns $3.45 a day making Wal-Mart products.

Still others will wonder why a minister would worry about Wal-Mart's business practices instead of sticking to the task of saving souls.

A century old Baptist in my church's stained glass windows faced a similar challenge. Walter Rauschenbusch concluded that it was hypocritical for the church to try to save the souls of factory workers if it didn't also support living wages for the workers' families. For him, the two were intrinsically connected.

For me, the answer to "Would Jesus shop at Wal-Mart?" is: Probably not at the present, not with its current business practices. I believe it is an insult to God to say we believe the Golden Rule, "do unto others as you would have them do unto you," and then purposely ignore the implications of our shopping choices. What we buy matters to others and to God.

And so in the ad I ask viewers to "search your own heart." For me, once I know, I have to say no — especially at Christmas, when we recall Mary's song at the news that she would bear the Savior.

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly.

Your heart may be at peace with shopping at Wal-Mart. Each of us must follow the Spirit's leading. I'm not qualified to tell you what the Spirit says to you. I can only bear witness, wherever I can, to what the Spirit says to me.

Joe Phelps is Pastor of Highland Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky.

Today, we launched our latest "Hope for the Holidays" campaign initiative, "America, Pray for Wal-Mart to Change," with coordinated candlelight vigils in 10 states, a new television ad, "Search you Heart," and the release of a letter signed by 131 evangelical ministers.

The Baptist Center for Ethics, WakeUpWalMart.com, and evangelical leaders from across the county have joined together in calling on Wal-Mart to change inot a responsible and moral business.

Evangelical leaders, such as Robert Parham (Executive Director of the Baptist Center of Ethics) and Tony Campolo joined together in sending a message to Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott:

Dear Mr. Scott,

We write you as moral theologians with grave concerns about Wal-Mart’s corporate practices-practices that conflict with our commitment to pro-family values.

The Christian prophetic witness teaches that justice is the highest family value for any society-protection for the fatherless, security for the single mother, honesty in the marketplace, fairness for the weakest one in society, respect for the elderly.

The Hebrew prophet Micah said that God required justice (Micah 6:8). The prophet Amos said that God wanted justice to flood the land (Amos 5:24). The prophet Isaiah said that God wanted his people to seek justice (Isaiah 1:17). Jesus told community leaders that they were neglecting justice (Luke 11:42).

The biblical witness also teaches responsibility-parents are responsible for children (Deuteronomy 6:4-9) and employers are responsible for fair wages for their employees (1 Timothy 5:18). Jesus said, “From everyone to whom much has been given, much will be required; and from the one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded” (Luke 12:48).

Despite Wal-Mart’s last minute donations to support its anti-family, anti-employee agenda, the American people gave a strong rebuke to the Bush/Wal-Mart right wing agenda.

Just take a look at a few of the candidates who received last-minute funding from Wal-Mart and lost:

- In October, Wal-Mart gave $10,000 to Tom Kean, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in New Jersey. Bob Menendez, the Democratic candidate, defeated Kean.

- In October, Wal-Mart gave $5,000 to Michael Steele, the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Maryland. Congressman Ben Cardin, the Democratic candidate who joined the WakeUpWalMart.com national bus tour, defeated Steele.

- In October, Wal-Mart gave $2,500 to Senator Mike DeWine, the incumbent Republican Senator in Ohio. Congressman Sherrod Brown, the Democratic candidate who joined the WakeUpWalMart.com national bus tour, defeated DeWine.

These are just a few examples where the American people won and big corporations like Wal-Mart lost.

If this election proves nothing else, it is the fact that the American people want change, they want corporations to be held accountable and they want an agenda that protects American jobs, fights for health care for all and gives workers the respect and dignity that they deserve.

Everyday Low Wages

Mayor Richard M. Daley of Chicago wielded the first veto of his 17-year tenure this week - and the City Council supported him - striking down Chicago’s short-lived plan to force behemoth retailers like Wal-Mart to pay higher wages and benefits.

In this round, Mr. Daley, the retailers and local Wal-Mart suppliers argued that mandating higher compensation would do more harm than good by driving business and employment opportunities away from low-income neighborhoods.

But the choice - between no jobs or low-wage jobs - is probably a false one. Wal-Mart and other mega-retailers, like Target and Home Depot, need market share. With suburban areas saturated, cities are the logical places to grow. Wal-Mart especially needs more American consumers, having recently pulled the plug on unsuccessful attempts to expand in Germany and South Korea. It is currently planning to expand in Santa Fe, N.M., where local laws require higher wages than the company normally pays.

Another argument propounded by Wal-Mart is that paying higher wages would compel the company to raise its prices, hurting low-income consumers. Wage gains do not automatically lead to higher prices. They could be absorbed by higher productivity or by a narrowing of profit margins. Given Wal-Mart’s profits, the company could improve its wage structure and still beat the competition.

The Chicago ordinance raised legal and technical questions. If Mr. Daley had not wielded the veto, it would surely have faced a court challenge. But proponents of living wages have the moral high ground, and are increasingly finding a political voice. Chicago hasn’t heard the last of them, and Washington hasn’t either.

Interesting editorial from the Sunday Times (UK).

On Wall Street: Dominic Rushe: What appalls Wal-Mart will improve America

AMERICANS used to say “What’s good for General Motors (GM) is good for America”. These days Wal-Mart is the corporate body against which the country’s health is most often measured.

The giant retailer is the largest single private employer in the US. It employs 1.7m people and accounts for $8.90 of every $100 spent in an American retail store. Last year Wal-Mart had sales of $316 billion (€250 billion). What affects Wal-Mart, affects America.

But unlike GM in its heyday, Wal-Mart is a divisive company. Millions love its low prices, millions hate the way it gets them.

Last week the company lost its fight against a proposal in Chicago to up the minimum wage that could have a significant impact on a move to raise the wage across America.

Read more about why Rushe believes, "What’s good for America may not be good for Wal-Mart" below the fold.

The measure requires retailers with more than $1 billion in annual sales and stores of at least 90,000 sq ft to pay workers at least $10 an hour in wages plus $3 in fringe benefits by mid-2010. The current minimum wage in Chicago’s state of Illinois is $6.50 an hour and the federal minimum is $5.15.

The median hourly wage for a retail salesperson in the Chicago metropolitan area in 2005 was $9.41, according to the US Department of Labour’s Bureau of Labour Statistics. So the proposal isn’t so far off base.

But Wal-Mart never gives up without a fight. The company is appealing (pause for laughter).

“This vote sadly puts politics ahead of Chicago’s working men and women. It sends a message that Chicago is closed for business, closed for development and closed for job creation,” said Wal-Mart.

But there are other cities with living wage laws including San Francisco and Washington. Both look pretty much open.

The Chicago bill is one of several that Wal-Mart and other large retailers are fighting across the country. So far none has passed into law. Earlier this month a federal judge struck down a Maryland ruling that increased the minimum wage.

The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA), a trade group that sued to overturn the Maryland law, is fighting to overturn a similar law passed by Suffolk County on Long Island, New York.

“The ordinance . . . is a clear disincentive for more than a dozen retailers impacted by it to locate or expand their operations in the city of Chicago,” the RILA president, Sandy Kennedy, said in a statement last week.This is not a worry shared by Wal-Mart rival Costco. The average hourly wage of employees of the warehouse club operator is $16. After three years a typical full-time Costco worker makes about $42,000. The company also picks up 92% of its workers’ health insurance.

Costco is the largest warehouse club operator in the US, beating the Wal-Mart-owned Sam’s Club into second place. A 2004 Business Week study found Costco employees sell 50% more per square foot of sales space, and contribute to profits almost 25% higher than Sam’s Club.

If he’s watching, and he is, Lee Scott, Wal-Mart’s chief executive seems unconvinced. In a speech last year, the world’s most powerful retailer characteristically tackled the GM analogy head on.

“Critics believe that Wal-Mart should play the role General Motors played after the second world war . . . [and] establish the post-world war middle class that the country is so proud of. The facts are that retailing doesn’t perform that role in the economy. Retailing doesn’t perform that role in any country,” he said.

That may have been true in the past, but as the country’s largest employer does Wal-Mart have the clout to destroy America’s middle class?

The tide may be turning against Scott. Republicans anxious about midterm elections and their unpopular president are warming to a rise in the minimum wage. The $5.15 minimum has not been raised since 1997 and a $2 increase is being considered. If passed it will further weaken Wal-Mart’s case.

What’s good for America may not be good for Wal-Mart.

In the upcoming edition of the magazine Mother Jones, Economic Policy Institute economists Jared Bernstein and Josh Bivens write an intriguing op-ed on Wal-Mart's need to more fairly share its profits with its workers.

Their article comes in response to the recent debate surrounding the Chicago minimum wage ordinance. In the article, Bernstein and Bivens seek to address this fundamental question:

Can Wal-Mart do better by its workers and still profitably offer its trademark 'everyday low prices'?

Their answer is clear:

The $13 an hour total compensation cost mandated by the Chicago ordinance is roughly a 20 percent raise over what Wal-Mart claims to pay its employees. A raise of this size could be financed through a combination of Wal-Mart allowing its profit margin (after-tax profits divided by sales) to fall from its current 3.6 percent to 2.9 percent and by raising its prices 0.7 percent -- less than a penny on a $1 pair of socks.

In short, our findings suggest that Wal-Mart and Chicago can help each other. The store can expand its market share in a major American city while offering Chicago consumers low-priced goods. At the same time, it can more fairly share its profits with its workers, without sacrificing its price advantage.

Read the entire op-ed here.

Last month, Wal-Mart announced plans to build a Neighborhood Market on the northeastern corner of Desert Foothills Parkway and Marketplace Way in Ahwatukee, Arizona. Like many other communities across the country, Ahwatukee citizens have organized against the proposed Wal-Mart.

The Arizona Republic discusses why:

Ahwatukee's arguments against Wal-Mart - that it pays sub-living wages, prices employees out of health insurance and attracts crime ... - echo those of nearly identical battles waged from Chandler and Gilbert to Idaho, California and Maryland...

"I don't like everything they stand for. Therefore, I will never set foot in a Wal-Mart," said Sandi Salvo, 57, at the May 30 meeting...

At the local meeting, John Chiazza, a veteran of four separate fights to keep Wal-Mart out of Gilbert, asked the question that local communities across the country are asking:

As to why Wal-Mart draws ire in a way other chain stores don't, he said, "I think it's their image. Instead of going into neighborhoods and putting out businesses . . . why not funnel your money into creating a better image? Why not pay your people?"

Yesterday, Wal-Mart posted same-store sales reports for the month of March. Robin, a blogger for The Writing On The Wal, discussed Wal-Mart's endless excuses for low numbers over the past year:

We’ve heard the cold weather blamed for bad numbers. We’ve heard the weather and Fathers’ Day blamed for the bad numbers. We’ve heard the Fourth of July blamed for the bad numbers. We’ve heard the price of gasoline blamed for the bad numbers. It’s always something - as long as that something has nothing to do with WalMart’s well-deserved reputation as the leading exploiter of the American worker, danger to the American economy and all-around bad actor. This month is no exception.

Sales are down, down, down. What’s to blame? If you guessed a late Easter, rising fuel prices AND the weather, you win the WalMart Trifecta!

Weak WalMart sales are now Jesus’ fault? Well in defense of Catholicism, let me point out that in 2004, Easter fell on April 11, only five days earlier than it does this year and WalMart’s monthly same-store sales figures for that March were 6%.

I can deal with the weather excuse and the Fathers’ Day excuse and the rising gas prices excuse and the our-customers-are-too-poor-to-buy-stuff excuse - even though I have a feeling quite a few of them are finding their way over to Target and CostCo. But shame on you, Walmart, for waging War on Easter. That’s unseemly even for you.

Click here for the whole post.

The first measurement of American public opinion on real estate issues reveals strong opposition to Wal-Mart in local communities. From the February 22nd release by Business Wire.

The Saint Index(C), a new survey by the Hingham, MA-based Saint Consulting Group, confirms Americans' love-hate relationship with Wal-Mart. Even as the global company revs up a campaign to protect its reputation, and despite Wal-Mart's undeniable popularity among consumers, almost two-thirds of those surveyed (63%) said that they would oppose a Wal-Mart store if one were proposed in their community.

[...]

According to The Saint Index, only landfills, quarries, power plants, and casinos generate more vehement community opposition than large retail stores. However, respondents singled out Wal-Mart as particularly unwelcome.

Industry leaders agree: it's time to clean up dirty gold. From NoDirtyGold.org

NEW YORK CITY -- For the first time ever, eight of the world's top jewelry retailers have pledged to move away from "dirty" gold sales and are calling on mining corporations to ensure that gold is produced in more socially and environmentally responsible ways. The retailers, which are the Zale Corp., the Signet Group (the parent firm of Sterling and Kay Jewelers), Tiffany & Co., Helzberg Diamonds, Fortunoff, Cartier, Piaget, and Van Cleef & Arpels, are being praised by the No Dirty Gold campaign today in a full-page ad in The New York Times, timed to coincide with Valentine's Day, one of the biggest jewelry-buying holidays in the United States.

Notably absent from the list of companies calling for change is Wal-Mart which, with $2.6 billion in annual sales, is the largest jewelry retailer in the US. Yet another blow to the company's battered public image.

Sign the petition at NoDirtyGold.org and help put an end to unsustainable, unconscionable mining practices.

As elected officials across the country debate Fair Share Health Care legislation, newspapers this weekend have been full of fair share discussions. From Virginia to Washington state, editorial boards, journalists and, most importantly, citizens are highlighting the need to hold large corporations accountable.

As the issue heats up in Washington state, this weekend's Seattle Times published the thoughts of some local citizens in a Letters to the Editor section titled "Discounting health." Here is one excerpt:

I work in a public-district hospital. Many of the patients and families I work with on a daily basis aren't insured. Many of them work but can't afford coverage from their employer. That means that their employers are dumping the cost of providing their care onto us, the taxpayers.

Now we've learned that it costs Washington taxpayers $12 million per year to provide health care to Wal-Mart employees.

Wal-Mart made a $10 billion profit last year. We shouldn't be giving it this handout. As a taxpayer, I am outraged that I'm paying to help Wal-Mart get a competitive edge over other employers by helping pay for its health-care benefits.

As a health-care worker, I believe that working families deserve basic, preventative care. Otherwise, they put off getting care, which leads to higher costs later on.

The system isn't working. We desperately need the Fair Share health-care bill to pass.

— Bill Hickey, Shoreline

Across the country in Virginia, the Fredricksburg, VA Free Lance Star's weighs in on the issue with Sunday's editorial, "States must follow Maryland's lead on Wal-Mart health benefits:"

Taxpayers who don't want to give big companies a free ride, unions and other organizations that represent the interests of working families--and even some Wal-Mart consumers--also pushed for reform. An amazing 66 percent of Marylanders supported this bill.

When customers register outrage about the unfavorable practices of their favorite brands, positive changes occur.

McDonald's replaced its plastic foam packaging with more environmentally friendly paper products.

Nike was forced to address sweatshop labor conditions in its shoe-manufacturing facilities.

And Starbucks began selling "fair-trade" coffee that properly compensated coffee plantation workers and small farmers.

Wal-Mart, too, can be required to become a better corporate citizen. With $256 billion in profits last fiscal year and 1.6 million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart's labor-relations model sets far-reaching standards.

The company's willingness to suppress pay and benefits, disregard labor regulations regarding break time and other working conditions, and squash employee efforts to form unions, has a devastating social impact.

When the world's largest employer applies this model to its workforce, it has a hand in legitimizing these practices--and enabling its vendors and rivals to follow suit.

As a result, competition fueled by the violation of workers' rights creates a race to the bottom.

Maryland's "Wal-Mart" law sets a floor for employee benefits among rival businesses. By doing so, the cost of health care benefits will no longer be a variable employers can use to increase profitability.

Maryland is pointing the way. We must demand that our democratic beliefs about fair play, justice and equality be extended to workplaces.

Click here to read entire article.

What are your thoughts on this issue this weekend?

Floridians now have a chance to join Americans across the country calling for fair share health care legislation. Fair Share Health Care state house bill 813 and state senate bill 1618 bring Florida into the national debate.

In today's Miami Herald, Fred Frost outlines some of the key reasons to support the Florida bills. Here are three of them:

1. Fair Share is good for businesses that do the right thing

2. Fair Share is good for working people and all taxpayers

3. Fair Share has strong public support

Continue reading for more about these three reasons...

1. Fair Share is good for businesses that do the right thing: "If you're a businessperson who does the right thing and provides health insurance for your employees, you pay dearly for the businesses that don't.

Not only are they tilting the competitive playing field, unethically cutting their costs, undercutting you and putting you at an unfair disadvantage. You and your employees also pay higher health-insurance premiums to cover care for those companies' employees. That is because healthcare providers, when serving workers with no insurance, have to raise their fees to cover their own shortfall. The bottom line is that you and your employees get hit with much higher bills."

2. Fair Share is good for working people and all taxpayers: "Of course, their employees are the main victims. Most Americans understand that healthcare should be a right -- but these workers have nothing of the sort. Although they do the best they can to make ends meet, millions live in fear that they or family members will get sick because there is no way they can pay for a doctor or hospital.

A large number of those who are paid below-poverty wages, through no fault of their own, have to rely on Medicaid or other state programs when they become ill.

That means that if you're a taxpayer, you pick up the tab every time a business doesn't pay its fair share for healthcare and pushes its employees onto these public-funded programs. The tab is colossal. The Commonwealth Fund estimates that taxpayers are paying $21 billion to cover workers whose employers don't provide health insurance.

3. Fair Share has strong public support: "Not only does the idea make good sense; it has enormous popular backing. In a recent Lake Research poll, 83 percent of Americans said that they support requiring large, profitable companies either to provide health insurance for their employees or pay a percentage of their payroll into a healthcare fund."

Read the entire article here.

From Editor & Publisher:

At the National Newspaper Association (NNA) convention Friday, community newspaper publishers unloaded on a Wal-Mart spokesperson, complaining that the world's biggest retailer wrecks their advertising base, shuns their local organizations, almost never advertises in their paper -- and then wants front-page coverage when it presents a check to charity.

When a Wal-Mart opened in her town of Forney, Texas, The Forney Messenger's Judy Griffin told the convention that the store took out four full-page ads to promote the grand opening in her weekly.

"Since then, we have got absolutely nothing," Griffin said. "How is it that we were good enough to get people to your opening, but not good enough anymore? (Wal-Mart managers) are out there by themselves, and they could care less about us or our community. All we ever get from them are e-mails with news releases that tell us how good [they] are."

Griffin and other newspaper owners and publishers directed their remarks at Mona Williams, Wal-Mart's vice president of corporate communications, who spoke at the NNA convention as part of what she called a "dialogue" the retailer wants with community papers.

In her remarks, Williams repeatedly said Wal-Mart recognized the "importance" of community newspapers.

Just as often, she cautioned that she was not saying anyone in the convention ballroom would be getting more advertising from Wal-Mart.

"I'm not saying there will be more ad dollars, but we will continue the dialogue," she said.

Williams' appearance is part of a new charm offensive by the retailing giant, whose reputation has taken a beating in the past year. A key executive was accused of embezzlement, and several grassroots campaigns against building Wal-Mart stores in Chicago, California, Florida, and elsewhere have gotten a fair share of publicity. Even an attempt to get better PR backfired badly.

NNA President Mike Buffington, who introduced Williams at the convention, fired off an angry open letter to Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott last January after he was contacted by a public relations agency telling him that Wal-Mart executives were "available for interviews" to "set the record straight on Wal-Mart."

"Why is it that community newspapers in America are good enough to help you fend off critics with free PR, but we're not good enough for your paid advertising?," he wrote. "You can't have it both ways. Based on a number of previous conversations I've had with newspaper publishers and editors across America, I don't think you will find very many who are willing to give you the requested free PR space to fend off attacks from your corporate critics. I believe my view is one held by many newspaper publishers: If Wal-Mart wants to communicate valuable information about itself to our readers, then you can purchase our valuable advertising space to do it.

"Anything less is just an insult to the community newspapers of America," added Buffington, who is editor of The Jackson Herald weekly in Jefferson, Geo.

From Business Week, we learn more about Wal-Mart's "secret spin strategy," aimed at making Wal-Mart's negative impact on it's employees, our communities, and America appear to be positive:

In August, seven media-savvy professionals from Edelman, a Chicago public relations firm, flew to Bentonville, Ark., for an unusual assignment. Although they remain on Edelman's payroll, the PR experts, some of them seasoned veterans of political campaigns, now run a new office deep in the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ).

Dubbed "Action Alley," the office -- as well as a similar one in Washington, D.C. -- acts as the nerve center of the world's largest retailer's campaign to soften its public face. Backed by Wal-Mart's own publicity staff, the team responds within hours to any new blast of criticism.

SWEET CHARITY. The troops also try to spin positive stories about the corporate giant. As they sat facing one another around three tables arranged in a U shape one day in mid-September, Hurricane Katrina was still high on the agenda. Action Alley had scored a bull's-eye after just weeks on the job when it garnered widespread national publicity about Wal-Mart's efficient relief efforts following New Orleans' devastation.

Now the team was deep in follow-up, making press calls guided by talking points scrawled on the felt-marker boards lining the perimeter of the room: "EOC," for emergency operations center, which earned so much praise for coordinating the company's disaster response. Plus, "associate stories," referring to the experiences of individual employees during the storm, and "donation-partnership," meaning stories about Wal-Mart's charity.

If you, like us, believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change," please add your name today:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/benton/

Today, the Benton County Daily Record refused to publish a full-page advertisement paid for by WakeUpWalMart.com. The advertisement was a copy of an open letter sent to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, by WakeUpWalMart.com. The letter extended an offer by WakeUpWalMart.com to create a new working partnership and listed “six demands for change.”

Although the advertisement was paid for and accepted for publication on Friday, September 9th, this afternoon, Monday September 12, a representative from the Daily Record contacted WakeUpWalMart.com and informed the group the ad would not run as scheduled on Tuesday, September 13th. The representative of the newspaper stated that the open letter to Lee Scott was “defamatory to Wal-Mart” but refused repeated requests to explain what specific language or phrases in the letter were defamatory.

Officials at the Daily Record also refused to address questions as to whether or not our group was being unfairly targeted. Messages left by the group with the paper’s general manager, Jeff Jeffus, were also not returned.

“Why was our Wal-Mart Ad refused? Our genuine hope with this open letter was to offer Lee Scott an olive branch, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to build a new working relationship to improve the lives of millions of Americans everyday. Evidently, the Benton County Daily Record believes asking Wal-Mart to do the right thing everyday is ‘defamatory,’ said Paul Blank, Campaign Director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The text of the open letter is available below.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT

Mr. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott,

In the wake of the terrible tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart helped ease the suffering of many Americans. This crisis brought out the best in Wal-Mart and we applaud your hurricane relief efforts. We hope Wal-Mart’s response to Hurricane Katrina represents a turning point.

Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?

We believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change.”

1) Living Wage. Pay all Wal-Mart workers a fair living wage so they can support their families.

2) Affordable Health Care. Provide all workers comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage so they can care for their families and no longer be forced to rely on taxpayer-funded public health care.

3) End Discrimination. Ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for women and people of color in your workforce at all levels through a stringent and independent monitoring process.

4) Zero Tolerance on Child Labor. Adopt a zero tolerance policy and institute an independent monitoring program to stop the exploitation of child labor in the United States and abroad.

5) Buy American. Establish a “Buy America” program that annually increases the percentage of “Made in America” goods purchased by Wal-Mart so as to help protect American jobs.

6) Respect Communities. Work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart’s negative impact on issues like traffic, sprawl, the environment, and local businesses.

As you stated recently, "When you do the right thing, good things accrue to you." We agree. Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. We hope you will view our “six demands for change” as a sincere effort to form a new partnership for change.

In the end, we are not your enemy. Our goal is to be your partner in making Wal-Mart a better business. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how we can help Wal-Mart grow and prosper in new ways. But, make no mistake about it, if Wal-Mart refuses to change for the better, we will continue to build this broad-based social movement into one of the most powerful forces for change the nation has ever seen.

Wal-Mart has an incredible opportunity - right now - to work with us to better the lives of all your workers, to set a new standard for corporate America, to be a better business, and to build a better nation. We hope you will and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

WakeUpWalMart.com - America’s Campaign to Change Wal-Mart.

P.S. This November we, along with a broad coalition of community organizations, will be launching Wal-Mart Week, November 13th - 19th, to highlight Wal-Mart's negative impact on America. You can go to www.walmartweek.com and learn more about the actions we will be taking and the movie being released. Our hope is that by then, instead of highlighting Wal-Mart’s failures, we can stand together and celebrate a new day at Wal-Mart - a day when real change improved the lives of millions of Americans.

Today, WakeUpWalMart.com, America’s campaign to change Wal-Mart, released a dramatic open letter to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart. The letter applauds Wal-Mart for its response to Hurricane Katrina and calls on Wal-Mart to meet with WakeUpWalMart.com and establish a new partnership for change.

Given the new standard set by Wal-Mart to do the right thing, the letter highlights “six demands for change” and extends the first offer to build a true working partnership between WakeUpWalMart.com and Wal-Mart in order to better the lives of their workers, their families, and millions of Americans - everyday.

“Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. Our 'six demands for change' are a sincere effort to help Wal-Mart become a better business. The question is: will Wal-Mart now work with us to improve the lives of workers who live in crisis everyday,” said Paul Blank, campaign director, WakeUpWalMart.com.

The open letter will be published tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13th, in the Benton County Daily Record, the hometown newspaper of Wal-Mart’s headquarters.

The open letter presents Wal-Mart with the first “list of demands.” As the letter states, “Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?”

The “six demands for change” include: paying their workers a living wage; providing affordable health care to their workers; and, increasing the percentage of “Made in America” goods sold at Wal-Mart stores.

“We have offered this list of demands to Wal-Mart as an olive branch in the spirit of wanting real change. Our sincere hope is that Wal-Mart will work with us to improve the lives of others and to make this nation a truly better place everyday. We, and America, await their answer,” added Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The letter also officially announced the launch of WalMartWeek.com - the new website will highlight many of the activities and events, such as the national release of the movie, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, scheduled to be released during “Wal-Mart Week,” November 13-19. WakeUpWalMart.com and a broad coalition of partners from all across America will use this week to raise public awareness about the negative effects Wal-Mart has on their workers, the community, and the nation and to officially launch our holiday campaign.

In the letter to Scott, WakeUpWalMart.com states that they hope by “Wal-Mart Week” the two groups and the nation will able to celebrate the many changes Wal-Mart has undertaken to improve the lives of its workers and to better the nation.

Please read the open letter to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, below:

AN OPEN LETTER TO WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT

Mr. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott,

In the wake of the terrible tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart helped ease the suffering of many Americans. This crisis brought out the best in Wal-Mart and we applaud your hurricane relief efforts. We hope Wal-Mart’s response to Hurricane Katrina represents a turning point.

Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?

We believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change.”

1) Living Wage. Pay all Wal-Mart workers a fair living wage so they can support their families.

2) Affordable Health Care. Provide all workers comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage so they can care for their families and no longer be forced to rely on taxpayer-funded public health care.

3) End Discrimination. Ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for women and people of color in your workforce at all levels through a stringent and independent monitoring process.

4) Zero Tolerance on Child Labor. Adopt a zero tolerance policy and institute an independent monitoring program to stop the exploitation of child labor in the United States and abroad.

5) Buy American. Establish a “Buy America” program that annually increases the percentage of “Made in America” goods purchased by Wal-Mart so as to help protect American jobs.

6) Respect Communities. Work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart’s negative impact on issues like traffic, sprawl, the environment, and local businesses.

As you stated recently, "When you do the right thing, good things accrue to you." We agree. Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. We hope you will view our “six demands for change” as a sincere effort to form a new partnership for change.

In the end, we are not your enemy. Our goal is to be your partner in making Wal-Mart a better business. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how we can help Wal-Mart grow and prosper in new ways. But, make no mistake about it, if Wal-Mart refuses to change for the better, we will continue to build this broad-based social movement into one of the most powerful forces for change the nation has ever seen.

Wal-Mart has an incredible opportunity - right now - to work with us to better the lives of all your workers, to set a new standard for corporate America, to be a better business, and to build a better nation. We hope you will and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

WakeUpWalMart.com - America’s Campaign to Change Wal-Mart.

P.S. This November we, along with a broad coalition of community organizations, will be launching Wal-Mart Week, November 13th - 19th, to highlight Wal-Mart's negative impact on America. You can go to www.walmartweek.com and learn more about the actions we will be taking and the movie being released. Our hope is that by then, instead of highlighting Wal-Mart’s failures, we can stand together and celebrate a new day at Wal-Mart - a day when real change improved the lives of millions of Americans.

In a move that CA State Sen. Gloria Romero called a sign of democracy in action, citizens in Rosemead, CA have gathered signatures to demand the recall of the Mayor and a councilmember who voted to approve a Wal-Mart project in the community.

From the Pasadena Star News:

Wal-Mart opponents are expected to announce today that they have gathered more than enough signatures to start the recall of two Rosemead councilmen who voted for a project proposed by the retailer.

A news conference is being held at 10 a.m. at Rosemead City Hall, in which members of Save Our Community will hand over petitions containing 4,758 signatures to the Rosemead city clerk to begin the verification process.

The petitions demand the recall of Mayor Jay Imperial and Councilman Gary Taylor.

"The recall can't stop the Wal- Mart project, but since they have to do a revised environmental impact report, they might be facing a different council and a much better-informed public,' said the group's founder, Larry Bevington.

Imperial, who was elected in 1978, and Taylor, elected in 1974, could not be reached for comment.

The signatures will be counted and submitted to the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk office, which has 30 days to validate the signatures.

If the signatures are valid, the Rosemead City Council will be notified. Then, the city has two weeks to order a special election, which must be held no fewer than 88 days and no more than 125 days after the issuance of the order, Rosemead City Clerk Nancy Valderrama said.

Statement by Edward J. McElroy, President, American Federation of Teachers, on the "Send Wal-Mart Back to School" Campaign:

Faced with a grassroots campaign to educate the public about the true cost of shopping at Wal-Mart, the giant retailer could change the way it does business. It could end its abominable treatment of its workers and its violations of child labor laws. It could quit forcing states to pick up the tab for its employees' healthcare. It could stop demanding property tax subsidies that force communities to cut school budgets.

But Wal-Mart didn't take any of those steps. Instead, it issued a press release/advertisement touting its 25-cent crayons as an example of how the company supports communities. Wal-Mart just doesn’t get it.

Once again, Wal-Mart chooses to ignore the fact that it has repeatedly failed America from breaking child labor laws to providing unaffordable health insurance to their employees.

In a day when nearly 2000 teachers, students, and leaders all over this nation raised important issues about Wal-Mart’s failing record, Wal-Mart once again failed to respond with any real actions that would address these serious and valid concerns. Instead, Wal-Mart needlessly attacked the teachers who raised these important issues.

The truth is this. All of America, our workers, our families, our communities, and - most importantly - our children, have paid the price because Wal-Mart chooses to exploit them and ignore the best of American values. As any American would agree, Wal-Mart’s so-called “low prices,” and all the 25-cent crayons in the world, should never justify the immoral decisions by this company to exploit children, American taxpayers, and its 1.3 million workers.

In fact, the only “internal problem” that exists is in the boardroom of Wal-Mart’s headquarters where CEO Lee Scott and other executives consistently fail to do what is right. Clearly, it is truer today than ever before that its time to “Send Wal-Mart Back-to-School.”

Statement by Paul Blank, WakeUpWalMart.com Campaign Director

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.

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.