Sweatshop, Warehouse, Walmart: A Worker Truth Tour comes to NYC

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Thursday, we're bringing together workers from multiple points in the Walmart supply chain to tell how the world's biggest retailer keeps workers in a cycle of low wages, no voice on the job, and dangerous working conditions. Speakers will include a Walmart associate, a warehouse worker, and a Bangladeshi garment worker.  Join us! RSVP and more info on Facebook!

From Walmart Watch:

Walmart wants to open stores in New York City. The company is spending a lot of money to change the debate from the real issue, which is how it treats its associates and creates poverty-level jobs throughout its supply chain. As the world’s largest retailer, how Walmart impacts workers across the globe is a good preview of what kind of jobs it is going to try to bring to NYC.

Three workers representing different links in the Wal...mart supply chain will be appearing in New York on Thursday, March 31th as part of Sweatshop, Warehouse, Walmart: A Worker Truth Tour.

Robert Hines worked until very recently in a Chicago-area warehouse that supplies Walmart.

Cynthia Murray works in a Walmart store in Laurel, Maryland.

Aleya Akter is a young woman from Bangladesh who has worked in garment factories since she was nine years old, sewing the clothes sold in U.S. Walmart stores.

Kalpona Akter is a former garment worker and director of the Bangladesh Worker Solidarity Center who was imprisoned after a Walmart subcontractor brought falsified complaints against her.

These three workers would like to share with the community what it is like to work for Walmart, whether directly on the company’s payroll like Cynthia or indirectly for a shipper or supplier like Robert and Aleya.

For more information, visit sweatfree.org/walmarttour2011 or call 212.631.0886

Tour sponsors include Making Change at Walmart (a campaign of the United Food and Commercial Workers), Jobs with Justice, International Labor Rights Forum, United Students Against Sweatshops, and SweatFree Communities.

Week in Wal-Mart News

Wal-Mart continues to test their Latino thread of stores, hoping it will spark more U.S. expansion.

It's official a Wal-Mart will be built on a Civil War battle field.  But Preservationists say that the Wal-Mart Civil War battle is not over yet.

Wall Street Journal looks at Wal-Mart's international growth and sales compared to the U.S.  Wal-Mart operates 3,615 stores internationally and 4,258 in the United States.

Wal-Mart also spent $2.6 million lobbying in the 2nd quarter.

Wal-Mart, messes up sales tax in second state, makes another false claim in new Ad...

A national Ad group has told Wal-Mart Stores yesterday that it should stop running TV ads claiming customers can save $700 a year by shopping its stores. This is not the first time Wal-Mart has been told to stop making claims like these in advertisements.

Wal-Mart has also named a new diversity officer.

Wal-Mart is also having yet another 'sales tax mishap', overcharging customers, this time in Missouri. If you remember this was previously an issue in Connecticut.

Lee Scott, the former chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, called on attendees at the CIES World Food Business Summit here on Friday to join the Global Social Compliance Program to help ensure that suppliers are adhering to local wage and environmental regulations.


Why Wal-Mart needs the Employee Free Choice Act.

Supermarket News: "Wal-Mart denies interest in reported Manhattan sites"

Image via Wikipedia

Despite Supermarket News reporting this morning that Wal-Mart has declined interest in the Circut City and Virgin Megastore sites, Wal-Mart did acknowledge their continued interest in the "Jewel" of retail, New York City.

Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Applebaum called the move opportunistic:
"We don't need Wal-Mart to take a advantage of an economic crisis to sneak into New York and drive down standards and wages," he said.

He's right, the last thing this city needs is for Wal-Mart to continue to take advantage of the recission. Reports have surfaced in the past few weeks of their strategy to take advantage of the recession in order to "sneak" into cities, they've done so in Chicago and now California.


NYC Rumors

Gothamist: "Reverend Billy to send Wal-Mart back to lake of hellfire"

Sign the letter to the new Wal-Mart CEO

Today, Wal-Mart has a new CEO. Mike Duke has the historic opportunity to turn the page, and finally start doing things the right way at Wal-Mart. Sign our open letter of support to Wal-Mart workers, outlining what their new boss can do – starting today – to let them live better, too. We’ll be posting the letter on our website, and sending it to every employee that we talk with -- and we'll make sure to send Mike Duke a signed copy as well.

Follow this link to sign the letter: http://action.walmartwatch.com/page/s/mikeduke

Bruce Springsteen: "It was a mistake." (Doing business with Wal-Mart)

Image via Wikipedia

In the New York Times Sunday Bruce Springsteen expressed his regret on having his new album for sale exclusively at Wal-Mart.

“given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.” He added, “It was a mistake...."

You can read the entire piece here.

Wal-Mart Daily News...Bruce Springsteen regrets business with Wal-Mart

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Bruce Springsteen regrets the deal he made with Wal-Mart....

Bruce Springsteen calls his exclusive Wal-Mart deal a "mistake"...“given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.”

Netflix, the Web's No. 1 video rental service, and Wal-Mart are being accused in a class-action lawsuit of unfairly setting prices for their rental services.

More violence at Wal-Mart.

A woman was found dead at Wal-Mart in Albany.

The value of his Wal-Mart holdings went up $30.9 million to $202.6 million.

Image via WikipediaLee Scott scores again, even in a 'recession', a CNN Money Blog analyzes how bad CEO's did in the market, then they look at Lee Scott...

Wal-Mart continues world domination, acquiring over 58% of a Chilean supermarket.

Weekly Wal-Mart News, Tax loopholes close, Lee Scott for Universal Healthcare and a new private label line.

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeYesterday Lee Scott addressed the National Retail Federation in New York City, urging cooperation to solve the nations health care crisis.

Lee Scott, the outgoing chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores, asked business leaders to embrace such initiatives as universal health care, renewable energy and immigration reform during a presentation to attendees at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show here yesterday.

He [Lee Scott], also sees a new consumer mindset.

Local retailers throughout China are teaming up to battle Wal-Mart.

The recession finally hits Wal-Mart.

The first Wal-Mart neighborhood market opened in Virginia...They also opened one in Florida today.

Wal-Mart also continues to violate Connecticut state tax laws, even after promising to comply.

The Animal Defence League of Canada is celebrating a "major victory" after Wal-Mart Canada agreed to pull a type of Chinese-made slippers that contained real rabbit fur from its shelves.

Another Wal-Mart Tax loophole may come to an end, this time in West Virginia.

The UFCW is gearing up for their Wal-Mart battle in Canada.

More info on Wal-Mart's new private label line "the Wal-Mart Great Value line"

And if that's not enough Wal-Mart news, they're also on the verge of setting up shop in Russia.

Wal-Mart still not good for NYC

A study released yesterday by the non-profit Fiscal Policy Institute shows that retail is the industry sector that employs the biggest chunk of the 1.3 million low-wage workers in this city -- that is, workers earning less than $13 per hour. Nearly half of these 176,000 low-wage retail workers earn less than $10 an hour, and the majority lack health insurance.


This re-affirms our belief that Wal-Mart's business ethics and practices are not good for our city. There is more to life than cheap underwear.

Happy Holidays everyone.

Headlines...

Image via Wikipedia
Wal-Mart refused to allow a Salvation Army Volunteer to ring his holiday bell inside the store in the midst of a blizzard.

Wal-Mart may try to open a second Chicago store...

An Arab- and Muslim-American man filed a $12 million lawsuit Thursday against a Wal-Mart store that caters to his community -- saying employees discriminated against him and fired him because of his background.

About 150 workers at a Wal-Mart store here became the ninth group of Canadian Wal-Mart employees to be granted union certification, the United Food and Commercial Workers Union said Thursday.
Read more of this story

It's only Tuesday...

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeAnd here is what Wal-Mart has accomplished this week:

NYSUT and the state Labor-Religion Coalition are sounding the alarm over a recent report that links a popular school-uniform clothing line sold at Wal-Mart to a Bangladeshi factory that forces its workers to labor in extreme sweatshop conditions.

Wal-Mart has also finally come clean and fessed up to charging illegal taxes in Connecticut.

It keeps getting better for Wal-Mart Stores Inc., they were ordered to pay up to $54.25 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that alleged the discount giant cut workers' break time and allowed employees to work off the clock in Minnesota.

Moscow News picked up the death on Black Friday story.

The Seattle Times writes the audio accounts leading up to Damour's death.

Yet the shoppers don't stop, Wal-Mart, adding to its counter-trend achievements this year by posting the highest earnings among retailers, $13.7 billion. The profit is more than earnings projections for the next three companies' combined,

Headlines...

Greetings,


We haven't had a legitimate update in about a month, but here's what's been going on in Wal-Mart world....

Massachusetts has been deprived of $600M in unpaid fines by Wal-Mart.

They've pulled the plug on their DRM music system. Leaving all customers who tried to buy music legally confused...

They just announced today, they  will close 20 stores and cut its work force by about 350 in Japan.

Somehow they're selling illegal wood, smuggled in from Russia, as toilet seats.  Reported by the New Yorker.

Wal-Mart stores will now strictly focus on customer experiences.

They're also being sued for a variety of violations in NJ.
 
The Illinois Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Wal-Mart in federal court on behalf of a Rockford woman who claims she was fired because she had epilepsy.


They were also paying employees in store vouchers as payment in Mexico


"Always Low Prices" isn't always a good thing for Wal-Mart, apparently. The discounter was warned by Puerto Rican authorities on Thursday that it was selling milk too cheaply on the island.



Thats just one month. wow.