BRONX TOWN HALL MEETING TAKING OFF!!

Some "critics" are questioning our passionate efforts that encourage responsible employers... We question why the richest and largest employer in the world refuses to provide Health Care to it's employees... At our town meeting we will discuss the effects Wal-Mart has on entire communities throughout the world. Also how Wal-Mart target specific communities such as the Bronx. Many seats are being RSVP'd so email us walmartfreenyc@yahoo.com to RSVP yours as soon as possible.

Here is the WakeUpWalmart Flyer, If you'd like any of our flyers sent to you email walmartfreenyc@yahoo.com.

Wal-Mart defeats Maryland, but not Chicago

Recently defeated legislation that would require big box stores to provide health care to employees was passed yesterday afternoon when the Chicago City Council passed legislation requiring "big box” stores, like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour by 2010, along with at least $3 an hour worth of benefits. The ordinance, imposing the requirement on stores that occupy more than 90,000 square feet and are part of companies grossing more than $1 billion annually, is the first in the country to single out large retailers for wage rules.
Read the NYT Report

Come Join us for a special night

Bronx Town Hall Meeting on Walmart and the Need for Responsible Development and Employers in The Bronx

&

19 States, 35 Cities WakeUPWalmart Bus Tour Kickoff

Please Join U.F.C.W. Local 1500, R.W.D.S.U., U.F.C.W. Region One, WakeUpWalmart, Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition and many other Bronx Community Groups

for a Special Evening

Featuring:

Reverend Markel Hutchins

Democracy for America Chairman Jim Dean

New York City Clergy Members

Tuesday August 1^st, 2006 7:00 P.M.

CHURCH OF OUR LADY OF REFUGE
290 EAST 196TH STREET
BRONX, NEW YORK 10458-3506
Tel. 718 367-4690
Off the Grand Concourse between Bainbridge and Briggs Avenues

*Check either the 5 Train or 2 Train*

*Refreshments will be served*

For more information contact Pat Purcell at 973-583-9651 or Ed Lynch at 646-280-8377

Wal-Mart Bill Defeated

Marylands "Fair Share Act" was defeated this week when Judge J. Frederick Motz dismissed the bill for what he calls a bill that "didn't really provide health care to anyone" The law would require any private company which employed more than 10,000 workers to spend the minimum of 8% of its salary expenses on Health Insurance...OR write a check to the state for the difference.

The bill primarily targets Big Box Stores failure to provide Health Insurance to its large amount of employees. Earlier this year WakeUpWalmart released a report which analyzed the amount of Tax-Payer money that goes towards Wal-Mart workers health care (due to Wal-Mart not providing Health Care and employees using State provided health insurance) The New York State amount was $65 Million Dollars.

Although the Bill was defeated it did pressure Wal-Mart to improve its Health Care situation and is a definite step in the right direction. Read the NYT Editorial on the decision

Wal-Mart steps toward NYC: Step 1: White Plains

Wal-Mart will open a store in a nine-story building in downtown White Plains tomorrow, an urban model that the retailer hopes someday will work in New York City.

Last month, the nation's largest retailer opened another store just seven miles from Manhattan in Kearny, N.J., as part of its strategy to encircle the city with stores.

The director of corporate affairs for Wal-Mart in the Northeast, Steven Restivo, said the new stores were part of a strategy to increase Wal-Mart's presence in the tri-state area. He said that more announcements of area openings are expected this fall.

We all must work together to stop Wal-Mart from entering our unique city, please stay active, sign up for email updates and check our sites for more information on what we are going to do to put a stop to this.

Read the NY SUN ARTICLE HERE

Wal-Mart: Your Next Mission Eliminate Small, Local Banks

As if destroying small local business wasn't enough for the worlds worst and largest employer, they are now targeting small banks. As you know last year when Wal-Mart applied for a bank charter in Utah, they continually pledged that they would not open it's own branches.
Now local bankers are growing extremley weary of what they call "a wedge to allow Wal-Mart to begin branch banking and eliminate local banks"
Read the entire report here : Chicago Tribune Report

Wal-Mart's New Theft Policy

Wal-Mart annouced they will no longer prosecute first-time shoplifters who steal merchandise worth less than $25, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing company documents which were leaked as The New York Times reported.

Wal-Mart said the change would allow it to focus on theft by professional shoplifters and its own employees, who together steal the bulk of merchandise from the chain every year, rather than the teenager who occasionally takes a candy bar from the checkout counter, according to the report.

The report said it may also serve to placate small-town police departments across the country who have protested what the company has called its zero-tolerance policy on shoplifting. Employees summoned officers whether a customer stole a $5 toy or a $5,000 television set - anything over $3, the company said.

At some of the chain's giant 24-hour stores, the police make up to six arrests a day prompting a handful of departments to hire an additional officer just to deal with the extra workload, the Times added.

The changes in Wal-Mart's theft policy are described in 30 pages of documents that were provided to The New York Times by WakeUpWalMart.com.
Check out WakeUpWalmart for the leaked document.

Wal-Mart Forces employees to search for Bombs in Store

Managers at local Quebec Wal-Mart forced employees to search the store after it received a bomb threat.

Some 40 nervous employees searched the store for an hour last Thursday, said Mailie Fournier, a former employee of the store. They were accompanied by six police officers.

Several employees, whose jobs don't include security, found the experience traumatic, said Mr. Fournier.

The incident prompted Quebec workplace health and safety board to investigate.

Wal-Mart said it simply wanted to help police conduct the search.

According to police, the store didn't violate any laws and only had an obligation to evacuate the store if a suspicious object was found.

Customers in the store about 60 kilometres east of Montreal were, nonetheless, asked to leave the premises.

Although nothing was found, this a prime example of how Wal-Mart treats their 'associates'. This is one of the most ridiculous stories of Wal-Mart's antics I have ever encountered. Putting employees directly in harms way.

New Logo

WAL-MART BRONX COMMUNITY MEETING

Here is the WMFNYC Flyer for this weeks Bronx Community meeting....
Feel free to click on it and print it out to hand out to local residents.... If you have any questions regarding the meeting please email Fedele1500@aol.com or edwinelynch@aol.com

Wal-Mart Workers Seek Pay for Missed Breaks

From Bloomberg News

June 27, 2006

Lawyers for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. workers who won a $172-million verdict involving missed meal breaks in December asked a judge Monday to order the retailer to pay for missed rest breaks and urged the appointment of an independent monitor to ensure that it complied.

One of every 10 Wal-Mart employees in California isn't being paid for missed breaks, violating a state law that requires they get an extra hour of wages, attorney Jessica Grant said at a hearing before Judge Ronald Sabraw in Alameda County Superior Court in Oakland. Wal-Mart knew as far back as 1998 that workers couldn't take breaks because of understaffing, so the company stopped requiring them to clock in and out of rest periods to conceal evidence, she alleged.

Wal-Mart denies the claims.

An order in favor of the workers might force Wal-Mart to keep records on rest breaks, reinstate audits and pay for monitoring, while providing ammunition for employees in other cases.

Wal-Mart attorney Vineet Bhatia told Sabraw that an injunction wasn't needed because the company already complies with California labor laws, which don't require employers to make workers clock in and out of rest breaks. Data from the workers that show 360,000 breaks were missed don't specify whether employees chose not to take them or were coerced, he said.

"The proper way to prove it is to show there was actual management coercion," Bhatia said. "In every one of those 360,000, it was equally likely that it was the associate's decision not to take the break."

Wal-Mart shares rose 13 cents to $48.07.

Auto department union bid denied at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores said a labor board blocked a union from organizing staff in the auto department at a British Columbia outlet because it can't be separated from the rest of the store.

The United Food and Commercial Workers sought to organize 10 employees in the Tire Lube Express department of a store in Cranbrook, Wal-Mart said in a statement Tuesday. Targeting them as a separate unit was "inappropriate," British Columbia Labour Relations Board Chairman Brent Mullin said in a June 30 ruling.

The company currently has a single unionized store, in Quebec.

Wal-Mart not scared of Coca-Cola

Wal-Mart has always held a reputation for intimidating retailers (no matter who they are) to sell their products at a certain price, and Coca-Cola is no different. and flexing their muscle they intimidated one of the most powerful and successful retailers on the planet Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola, fearing Wal-Mart would launch its own sports drink to rival the beverage giant's Powerade if it didn't agree to the retailer's new distribution terms, caved under the pressure and altered its own century-old supply system, a published report said Thursday.
Read the Entire CNN Story Here

Wal-Mart Hazmat Demo

On Friday, after our round table event in the Bronx, Members of local unions, community groups, and WMFNYC activists demonstrated at Wal-Mart in Uniondale. The Event was part of a nation-wide protest against Wal-Mart and their irresponsible practices. Read the entire Newsday article here

WAL-MART ROUND TABLE

WE ARE SPONSORING A WAL-MART ROUND TABLE CONCERNING WAL-MART AND THE BRONX, HERE IS THE FLYER WE HAVE BEEN SENDING OUT. THE ROUND TABLE WILL TAKE PLACE ON FRIDAY, JUNE 2ND.

Wal-MartFreeNYC

Dear Friends:

I would like to please ask you to attend an important roundtable conversation regarding

“Wal-marts Entrance into the Bronx

and the Community Response.”

If you are unable to make the meeting, I would ask that you please send a designated representative. This is a very important meeting.

When: Friday, June 2^nd from 9:OO AM to 11:00 AM.

Where: CUNY Hostos Community College,

120 East Walton Avenue (149^th Street, 1 block off the

Grand Concourse) Ask for the Savoy Room

Breakfast will be served.

We will be discussing the role of labor, community groups, business organizations, immigrant rights groups, religious leaders, elected officials and other interested parties in keeping the Bronx Wal-Mart Free.

We will also be updating you on Wal-Marts Campaign to infiltrate the Bronx. They have been throwing the money around seeking to buy support from many organizations.

This is a very important meeting. We want it to be an active and lively conversation. I promise no long boring speeches. We need the input of all of you.

Please R.S.V.P. to either Pat Purcell at 1-973-583-9651 or Ed Lynch at 646-280-8377.

Event Sponsors

Wal-MartFreeNYC U.F.C.W./R.W.D.S.U. NYC JwJ

Note: If you would like to be a sponsor of our efforts, please let me know. We would love to list you as a supporter of the campaign. There is NO financial commitment. All we ask for is your brains, enthusiasm and commitment.

Study confirms: Wal-Mart contributes to Poverty

Study finds Wal-Mart contributes to poverty
A study focused on the effects of Wal-Mart stores on poverty rates found that an estimated 20,000 families nationwide have fallen below the official poverty line as a result of the chain's expansion. Wal-Mart Stores Inc., based in Bentonville, Ark., ranked No. 5 on the St. Louis Business Journal's most recent list of the area's largest employers. As of Dec. 31, Wal-Mart employed 13,005 people in the St. Louis metro area.

The study -- Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty -- written by Stephan Goetz, a professor of agricultural and regional economics at Pennsylvania State University, and Hema Swaminathan for the International Center for Research on Women, was published in the latest issue of Social Science Quarterly.

WAL-MART SENDS THREATS TO COMMUNITY ...

WAL-MART APOLOGIZES FOR THREATENING ITS NEIGHBORS

* Wal-Mart apologizes for threat (The Orlando Sentinel) (CLICK FOR FULL ARTICLE)
Wal-Mart officials said Tuesday that they are apologizing to homeowners in Putnam County who received a letter from a company representative that threatened the use of eminent domain if they did not sell their property to the company. For several months, Wal-Mart has faced opposition to a planned 800,000-square-foot distribution center just over the Volusia County line. Last week, after several residents complained about the letters.

* Click here to read "Shameless: How Wal-Mart Bullies Its Way Into Communities Across America."

After reading these articles you must ask yourself, Do you want Wal-Mart in YOUR community??
This is unacceptable, Wal-Mart continues to strive on taking advantage of communities, we must continue to put an end to their inhumane tactics.

Wal-Mart Crime Reports released...

An amazing new webpage has been released allowing viewers to access crime reports for their local Wal-Marts. The site www.walmartcrimereport.com, allows you to enter any zip code throughout the United States and the closest Wal-Mart Crime reports are available. Check out the webpage it is a great way to find out how Wal-Mart yet again hurts communities.

The study and statistics were released in NY on Tuesday May 9th...

May 10, 2006 -- Rep. Anthony Weiner and Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum yesterday joined food-service workers to warn that if Wal-Mart comes to the Big Apple, the store will be a crime magnet.

The Retail, Wholesale & Department Store Union released a survey of 551 Wal-Mart stores showing there were a total of 148,331 police calls there in 2004.

It was a protest "supported by elected officials who claim they care about the city's working class," said Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mia Masten.

WAL-MART KEPT OUT OF QUEENS...AGAIN

Due to non-stop work done by
community leaders, New York City Council Members, and members of WMFNYC, Wal-Mart has been kept out of Queens...Wal-Mart who was attempting to sneak into what used to be a 'CALDOR' in Queens, has now been kept out due to the resilient efforts by many activists throught the five boroughs. The NY SUN did a great write up located here:

http://www.nysun.com/article/30832

Basic Wal-Mart Fact Sheet

• Revenue in year ended Jan. 31: $312.43 billion, making it the world's largest retailer.

• Profit: $11.23 billion.
• More than 5,700 stores, including Wal-Mart and Sam's Club warehouses.
• About 1.7 million employees, whom the company calls "associates."
• Headquarters: Bentonville, Ark.
• History: The first Wal-Mart Discount City opened in 1962, although founder Sam M. Walton had operated variety stores going back to 1945 in Arkansas. The first Sam's Club opened in 1984, and the first Supercenter, combining groceries and merchandise, opened in 1988. Since 1992, the company has ventured overseas, including Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Germany and the United Kingdom.