WalmartNYC.com Promotes Report: NYC Store Would Lower Wages

Here's something you don't see everyday, Walmart telling the truth.

The ingenious website www.walmartnyc.com which claims to promote real New Yorker opinions, is promoting a report from ABC News which covered NYC Public Advocate's Bill de Blasio's report that if a Walmart were to open in NYC retail wages would suffer.  Here's a screen shot from WalmartNYC's newsroom:

via: www.walmartnyc.com

We love how the logo above reads, "Helping NYC Save Money and Live Better", while they source studies that argue they'll lower retail wages.

Link: http://www.walmartnyc.com/2011/01/13/report-nyc-walmart-jobs-would-lower-wages/

Thanks, Walmart!

Update: The New York Politicker picked up the story also here: http://www.observer.com/2011/politics/wal-mart-website-inadvertently-brags-store-would-lower-wages

Rally to Keep Job-Killing Wal-Mart Out of NYC

RSVP on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=190233140990413

ABOUT WALMART FREE NYC
 
Walmart Free NYC is a coalition of workers, small business owners, community leaders, clergy and elected officials who are committed to increasing economic opportunities, preserving local businesses, and creating more jobs in communities across New York’s five boroughs.
 
 
WALMART IMPACT STUDIES
 
“The Impact of an Urban Wal-Mart Store on Area Businesses: An Evaluation of One Chicago Neighborhood’s Experience.” Davis, Julie, David Merriman, Lucia Samayoa, Brian Flanagan, Ron Baiman, and Joe Persky, December 2009. Center for Urban Research and Learning Loyola University Chicago.
Available online at http://luc.edu/curl/pdfs/Media/WalMartReport21010_01_11.pdf.
 
“The Effects of Walmart on Local Labor Markets.”  David Neumark, Junfu Zhang, and Stephen Ciccarella. October 2005. Public Policy Institute of California.

Available online at: http://www.businessweek.com/pdfs/2005/david_neumark.pdf


“The Effect of Walmart on Businesses in Host Towns and Surrounding Towns in Iowa.” Kenneth Stone. Iowa State University. November 1988.
Available online at: http://www2.econ.iastate.edu/faculty/stone/Effect%20of%20Walmart%20-%201988%20paper%20scanned.pdf
 

UFCW Coalition Launches New Wal-Mart Campaign,

“Nobody wants an economy where workers earn wages that can’t support a family. Nobody wants an economy where people who go to work everyday and work hard have to turn to public assistance for basic needs." 

-UFCW International President Joe Hansen, announced a new national comprehensive American values-driven agenda to hold Walmart accountable to its workers, our communities and the planet.

The UFCW announced a campaign challenging Wal-Mart to change its corporate practices for the sake of the economy and the communities in which it operates.

"We want to see some real change," said Patrick J. O'Neill, international vice president of UFCW in today's Washington Post.  You may watch the new advertisements here. Or Below

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 close to unionizing in Miami, Florida

Image by anonymonk via Flickr

Breaking news from Miami,
Miami may have the first Wal-Mart to unionize in the United States.

Walmart Workers for Change, a new campaign claiming to represent thousands of the Bentonville, Ark.-based mega-retailer’s 1.3 million associates across the United States, the campaign has employees in over 100 stores in 15 states who have signed union representation cards, alleging a lack of respect from the company, in addition to low wages and inadequate benefits as reasons to become unionized.

Check their new video here.

Chicago's Wal-Mart super-center is now back on the table.

Exon Mobil overtakes Wal-Mart Stores to top the Fortune 500.

UFCW steps up organizing efforts at Wal-Mart.

More Wal-Mart's around the country are showing signs of organizing.

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"

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 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

Building Blocks Project

Image via WikipediaWe're currently involved with developing a website to backbone a campaign geared towards taking action against the current Supermarket crisis throughout the five boroughs. The project is called the 'Building Blocks Project'. Here's a quick synopsis of Local 1500's project, if you would like to get involved just follow this link and sign up!

The lack of affordable and quality food available to consumers through traditional Supermarkets has reached crisis levels. Communities are affected both economically and with health related problems. Good jobs are being lost due to store closings, and we are failing to create new jobs through new supermarket development. Diabetes, obesity and heart related illnesses are at epidemic levels.

Through our Building Blocks Project, we intend to form a long-term coalition of labor unions, healthcare professionals, hunger and nutrition advocates, food access experts, elected leaders, community activists and faith-based leaders to ensure that all communities have the basic Building Blocks of good food, good jobs and good health. When a community is built upon this foundation, it produces positive results for all residents of New York State.