Re: Walmart is such an odd duck but...

On Jan 21, 6:27 am, cg <cgrams7@{removethis}yahoo.com> wrote:
...that makes it an interesting company.

What will Walmart's social critics have to say about this?

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Walmart is the largest grocer in the U.S. That means when the company
talks about dramatically cutting down on sodium, sugars, and other
unhealthy elements in its food products, we should all listen. The
company has already committed to doubling sales of produce from local
farms, and this week, Walmart announced its most  sweeping food
commitment yet: a program that will eliminate industrial trans fats in
all packaged food products that Walmart sells, slash added sugars by
10 percent in key categories of food products, and cut sodium by 25
percent in key categories of food products--all by 2015.

Walmart defines "key categories" as grain products, meats, dairy,
condiments, snacks, and packaged prepared foods for sodium; and grain
products, dairy, condiments, fruit drinks, and canned fruit for sugar.

<http://www.fastcompany.com/1719180/walmart-reveals-details-of-quest-t...>
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http://www.democraticwings.com/democraticwings/archives/womens_rights/1318.php

Wal-Mart’s benefit plan – welfare and food stamps
------------------------
CG = a graduate of the WalMart War Room

http://tbogg.blogspot.com/2005/11/dropping-your-standard-of-living-as.html

The Good Goliath
By JOHN TIERNEY
Published: November 29, 2005

Wal-Mart has been one of the most successful antipoverty programs in
America.

Oh, Jeebus:

California Assemblywoman Sally Lieber, who represents the 22nd
Assembly District and is a former mayor of Mountain View, was outraged
when she learned about the sex-discrimination charges in Dukes v. Wal-
Mart, and she smelled blood when, tipped off by dissatisfied workers,
her office discovered that Wal-Mart was encouraging its workers to
apply for public assistance, "in the middle of the worst state budget
crisis in history!" California had a $38 billion deficit at the time,
and Lieber was enraged that taxpayers would be subsidizing Wal-Mart's
low wages, bringing new meaning to the term corporate welfare.

Lieber was angry, too, that Wal-Mart's welfare dependence made it
nearly impossible for responsible employers to compete with the retail
giant. It was as if taxpayers were unknowingly funding a massive
plunge to the bottom in wages and benefits -- quite possibly their
own. She held a news conference in July 2003, to expose Wal-Mart's
welfare scam. The Wal-Mart documents -- instructions on how to apply
for food stamps, Medi-Cal (the state's health care assistance program)
and other forms of welfare -- were blown up on poster board and
displayed. The morning of the news conference, a Wal-Mart worker who
wouldn't give her name for fear of being fired snuck into Lieber's
office. "I just wanted to say, right on!" she told the assemblywoman.

Wal-Mart spokespeople have denied that the company encourages
employees to collect public assistance, but the documents speak for
themselves. They bear the Wal-Mart logo, and one is labeled "Wal-Mart:
Instructions for Associates." Both documents instruct employees in
procedures for applying to "Social Service Agencies."

Most Wal-Mart workers I've interviewed had co-workers who worked full
time for the company and received public assistance, and some had been
in that situation themselves. Public assistance is very clearly part
of the retailer's cost-cutting strategy. (It's ironic that a company
so dependent on the public dole supports so many right-wing
politicians who'd like to dismantle the welfare state.)

Lieber, a strong supporter of the social safety net who is now
assistant speaker pro tempore of the California Assembly, last year
supported a bill that would require large and midsized corporations
that fail to provide decent, affordable health insurance to reimburse
local governments for the cost of providing public assistance for
those workers. When the bill passed, its opponents decided to kill it
by bringing it to a statewide referendum. Wal-Mart, which just began
opening Supercenters in California this year, mobilized its resources
to revoke the law on Election Day in November, even while executives
denied that any of their employees depended on public assistance.

In addition, I guess Tierney never reads the rest of the NY Times
editorial pages:

Southern California's supermarket chains have reacted by demanding a
two-year freeze on current workers' salaries and lower pay for newly
hired workers, and they want employees to pay more for health
insurance. The union counters that if the supermarkets match Wal-Mart,
their workers will be pushed out of the middle class. Those workers
are already only a step - or a second family income - from poverty,
with wages of roughly $18,000 a year. Wal-Mart sales clerks make about
$14,000 a year, below the $15,060 poverty line for a family of three.

Wal-Mart may also be driving down costs by using undocumented
immigrants. Last month, federal agents raided Wal-Marts in 21 states.
Wal-Mart is facing a grand jury investigation, and a civil
racketeering class-action filed by cleaners who say they were
underpaid when working for contractors hired by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart
insists that it was unaware of its contractors' practices. But aware
or not, it may have helped to deprive legally employable janitors of
jobs and adequate pay.

This Wal-Martization of the work force, to which other low-cost, low-
pay stores also contribute, threatens to push many Americans into
poverty. The first step in countering it is to enforce the law. The
government must act more vigorously, and more quickly, when Wal-Mart
uses illegal tactics to block union organizing. And Wal-Mart must be
made to pay if it exploits undocumented workers.

Unions understand that the quickest way to win this war is to organize
Wal-Mart workers. And Wal-Mart's competitors have to strive for Wal-
Mart's efficiency without making workers bear the brunt. Consumers can
also play a part. Wal-Mart likes to wrap itself in American values. It
should be reminded that one of those is paying workers enough to give
their families a decent life.

If Tierney weren't already a known Butt-boy for Big Bidness we would
swear he was a graduate of the WalMart War Room.


.

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