What do you mean you don't want a WalMart

[KipWellsFan]

I hate to break it to ya but paying someone 40 grand a year to stock shelves or ring up a few DVD's is not going to happen nor should it.  If someone wants a high paying job then let em go to college or trade school and learn something that is in enough demand for a commensurate salary.

Nuke I do agree that those type of jobs do not deserve big money but I think that have to look beyond your borders at this one. Why doesn't Wal-Mart manufacture their clothing in America?

 

They really are one of the biggest labour law abusers out there.

 

http://www.ufcw.org/press_room/fact_sheets...sweat_shops.cfm

 

US Sweatshop Conditions

 

In October 10, 2002, the National Organization for Women (NOW) reported that the Maine Department of Labor ordered Wal-Mart to pay the largest fine in state history for violating child labor laws. The Department of Labor discovered 1,436 child labor law infractions at 20 Wal-Mart chains in the state.

[Texsox]

Nuke I do agree that those type of jobs  do not deserve big money but I think that have to look beyond your borders at this one.  Why doesn't Wal-Mart manufacture their clothing in America?

Because almost no one manufacturers textiles in the US. The textile industry went from the northeast down to the border regions, then overseas. When was the last time you spent more money to buy US?

 

To be competitive, I know of one manufacturer who cuts the cloth in the US, sends the materials to Honduras for sewing, then re-imports them to the US. It is the only way they can remain competitive and sell to Victoria Secrets. They use to cut here and truck it 18 miles away to Mexico for sewing, but that became too expensive.

 

The key to clothing manufacturing is the Gerber cutters. A great cutter can make you a lot of money. So that remains in the US, also, where they can maintain properly some very complex pieces of equipment.

 

I have seen estimates that clothing prices would almost double is they were sewn fully in the US.

 

The reality for my geographical area was this. We lost some manufacturing jobs in the process, we picked up fewer, but higher paying logistical and supply chain jobs, along with transportation and warehousing jobs.

 

Sewing is about the most basic of skill used in the manufacturing process. Almost anyone can be trained in a matter of hours to run a sewing machine. If WalMart suddenly only stocked made in the US clothing, people would beat a path to Target, Penny's, K-Mart, etc. We all want lower prices.

 

I was part of a group that worked to find jobs for the sewers who were out of work when Levi's, Dickies, Converse, Hagger, and a few others left the area. What we found was people with 20 years experience, zero to limited English speaking skills, who had sewn the same pocket on the same jeans for 20 years. They did not have 20 years experience, they had 1 year experience repeated 20 times. These are not jobs we necessarily want in the US. These people are toast if the plant closes. And they will when their Levi is selling for $40 and Wrangler is selling for $30.

[LowerCaseRepublican]

They are trying to build a second Wal-Mart here in Urbana which has caused quite an uproar.

 

Jim Hightower, former Texas Agriculture Commissioner and now political writer, wrote in his book "Thieves in High Places" the following things about Wal-Mart that boiled my blood.

 

The owners of one of America's premiere retail corporations is comprised of five of the ten richest people in the world, all from the same family. Their personal wealth eclipses $100 BILLION dollars. Last year the companies CEO was paid a cool $11.5 million, more than the annual salaries of 765 of his employees combined! The company's profits are over $7 BILLION annually. In these difficult economic times how do they do it?

 

- This company runs ads featuring the United States flag and proclaims "We Buy American". In 2001 they moved their worldwide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importer of Chinese goods in the US, purchasing over $10 BILLION of Chinese-made products annually. Products made mostly by women and children working in the labor hell-holes China is famous for.

 

- Their average employee working in the US makes $15,000 a year, $7.22 per hour!

 

- These employees gross under $11,000 a year.

 

- The company brags that 70% of their employees are full time, but fails to disclose that they count anyone working 28 hours a week or more as full time.

 

- There are no health care benefits unless you have worked for the company for two years.

 

- With a turnover rate averaging above 50% per year, only 38% of their 1.3 million employees have health care coverage. -In California alone it's estimated that the taxpayers pay over $20 million annually to subsidize health care benefits for these employees who get none from this behemoth corporation.

 

- According to a report by PBS's "Now" with Bill Moyer, their managers are trained in what government social programs are available for these "employees" to take advantage of so that the company can pass on those costs to you and me. It allows them to not only keep their $7 BILLION in annual profits, but to do so by substituting benefits they refuse to provide with benefits paid for with taxpayer dollars.

 

- This company holds the record for the most suits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from "Business Week" (not exactly the bastion for supporting Labor) said, "I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law." They had to pay $750,000.00 in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled! The judge was so incensed that he also order them to run commercials admitting their guilt.

 

- The National Labor Relations Board has issued over 40 formal complaints against the corporation in 25 different states in just the past five years. The NLRB's top lawyer believed that their labor violations, such as illegal spying on employees, fraudulent record keeping, falsifying time cards to avoid paying overtime, threats, illegal firings for union organizing etc., were so widespread that he was looking into filing a very rare national complaint against the company.

 

- Nearly 1 MILLION women are involved in the largest class-action suit every filed against a corporation. Although women make up over 65% of this corporations work force only 10% of them are managers. The women who have become store managers make $16,400 a year LESS then the men.

 

- The corporation took out nearly 350,000 life insurance policies on their employees. They did not tell the employees and then named the corporation as the beneficiary. They are now being sued by numerous employees, and although the corporation has stopped this practice of purchasing what is known as "Dead Peasant Policy's", a company spokesperson stated, "The company feels it acted properly and legally in doing this."

 

- They force employees to work after ordering them to punch out. In Texas alone this practice of "wage theft" is estimated to have cost employees $30 million per year. Wage theft or "off-the-clock" lawsuits are pending in 25 states. In New Mexico they paid $400,000.00 in one suit and in Colorado they had to pay $50 MILLION to settle one class-action case brought against them. In Oregon a jury found them guilty of locking employees in the building and of forcing unpaid overtime.

 

- With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing." They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up and they can charge whatever they want.

 

- Locally owned and operated businesses put virtually all of their money back into the community which helps keep the local economies vibrant. This corporation sucks the money out of the local community, decreases wages and benefits and ships the profits out of state.

 

- This company doesn't buy locally or bank locally. They replace three decent paying jobs in a community with two poorly paid "part- timers".

 

- In Kirksville, Missouri when this company came to town, four clothing stores, four grocery stores, a stationary store, a fabric store and a lawn-and-garden store all went under. Eleven businesses are now gone.

 

http://www.anti-walmart.com/badwalmart/index.html also has a link to a lot of different government and reports etc.

[cwsox]

- With 4,400 stores they practice "predatory pricing." They come into a community and sell their goods at below cost until they drive local businesses under. Once they have captured the market the prices go up and they can charge whatever they want.

 

 

That is one of the most unethical and illegal practices ever but very time consuming sndf thus costly to prove in court and their profit margin is such they can easily afford the occasional law suit that is a burden on those who have lost their businesses.

[kapkomet]

That is one of the most unethical and illegal practices ever but very time consuming sndf thus costly to prove in court and their profit margin is such they can easily afford the occasional law suit that is a burden on those who have lost their businesses.

And car manufacturers, other retail stores, airlines, hell, name me an industry, don't do this? I hate to say it but welcome to globalization. You can't possibly escape this sort of practice in the "I want the cheapest price possible while still getting good quality" environment the first world countries have now immersed themselves in. If you think ANY multinational company doesn't do this in any shape or form, I have a piece of oceanfront property in Nebraska to sell you too.

 

So the question becomes, how do you minimize the impact of this sort of thing?

[Mathew]

That is one of the most unethical and illegal practices ever but very time consuming sndf thus costly to prove in court and their profit margin is such they can easily afford the occasional law suit that is a burden on those who have lost their businesses.

Our town's new Safeway is doing that and it's sad, because the local grocery store has been open downtown since 1945, floated the town when the mine closed, by allowing people to run accounts ect.

[Mathew]

Very relevant on this subject I as a city councillor was involved in a bylaw which resticts the size of retail stores in the remaining commercial land in town. Thus preventing such a scenario from taking place unless such a bylaw ammendment was proposed. The big box stores, though convienient would be an incredible detriment to the downtown's survival and the survival of most small retail in town. I take exception to the inference that local politicians would base such a decision on campaign contributions, I assure you that I have yet to meet someone in that position that wasn't deeply concerned and dedicated to their community. Surely there are bad one as in every thing but I expect most, nearly who put themselves forward for public office don't do so for the wrong reasons.

[Texsox]

According to a report by PBS's "Now" with Bill Moyer, their managers are trained in what government social programs are available for these "employees" to take advantage of so that the company can pass on those costs to you and me. It allows them to not only keep their $7 BILLION in annual profits, but to do so by substituting benefits they refuse to provide with benefits paid for with taxpayer dollars.

 

Is the government program that is bad, or the fact that WalMart assists their employees from finding and utilizing these programs?

 

I partcipated in a conference on Child Care options for employees. It was discovered that in my area there are 7 different subsidized programs run on a private, local, state, and federal government level.

 

Child Care was identified as one of the biggest hurdles for poor people in improving their lives. This is especially true for single moms.

 

Human Resource Managers reported:

 

*Employees who turned down $1 per hour pay raises so they would not lose their child care benefits. Turns out there was a different program that would have helped this person, the employee and the HR Mgr. had no idea it was out there.

 

*Employees who remain single to avoid losing their benefits.

 

Most of the top HR managers had no clue all of the programs that were out there to help their employees. The two companies that did seem to be able to help?

Ticketmaster and WalMart.

 

I spend a lot of my work time helping small and medium size companies be competitive. It is my job to point them towards programs that can help.

 

I give advice along the lines of "build that new facility over there and qualify for an enterprise zone tax break. Hire from this pool and qualify for a welfare to work credit, employ these people and they qualify for a federal job re-training program." Am I doing something wrong by publicizing these government programs?