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Wal-Mart to bring questionable oversight to U.S. warehouses

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 17:30:00 +0000

Following an unprecedented wave of strikes throughout its U.S. supply chain at the end of last year, Wal-Mart has introduced a new plan for audits of labor conditions in its U.S. distribution centers. As Josh Eidelson highlighted Thursday for the Nation, the plans, which are similar to audits in place for Wal-Mart's distribution centers overseas, have been widely panned by labor groups.

Reportedly poor, unsafe working conditions in the retail giant's U.S. warehouses led last year to repeated strikes and threats of legal action by subcontracted workers. According to Eidelson, however, labor groups are unimpressed by Wal-Mart's response -- namely that Wal-Mart would employ the system it uses to monitor international distribution warehouses to monitor U.S. ones. The move seems particularly striking in the wake of a deadly fire in one of Wal-Mart's Bangladeshi distribution centers in which 112 workers died. Via the Nation:

Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club pulling smoked salmon over listeria fears

Fri, 28 Dec 2012 18:38:00 +0000

Retail giant Wal-Mart is pulling packages of smoked salmon from stores in 42 states over concerns about listeria contamination, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The fish recall is for "Cold smoked salmon in 12-ounce twin packs – which are vacuum-sealed with a cardboard sleeve – and 1.25-pound bundles under the brand 'Paramount Reserve.'” So far no illnesses have been reported according to Wal-Mart. The recall is an escalation of an earlier recall.

A Miami subsidiary of Multiexport Foods Inc. produced the fish in conjunction with Tampa Bay Fisheries.

According to the paper, "The listeria monocytogenes bacteria – which can cause fatal infections in the elderly, the young and those with weak immune systems and lead to fever, nausea and diarrhea in other victims – was discovered during a standard lab test on a shipment of the salmon that hadn’t been distributed to stores, according to Wal-Mart."

Is Wal-Mart the enemy?

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 01:00:00 +0000

It's been a week since the Wal-Mart strike of Black Friday. Strike, perhaps, is a misnomer. No one tried to stop sales at any Wal-Mart stores. There were no picket lines to cross. And the essence of a strike, to withhold labor, did not happen. These were protests organized to generate headlines on the most important shopping day of the year. And they did generate headlines. If that's all they did, then Wal-Mart won. If they are the start of something, the beginning of an organizing "marathon,” they will be a turning point. It's impossible to know now. Because what Wal-Mart really fears, strikes to shut down their ability to generate massive profits, isn't what the organizers are seeking. Black Friday did not show a real fight. It was like shadow boxing, or a test to gauge the strengths and weaknesses between workers and Wal-Mart.

I spent some time at one of these megastores last week, and what I really noticed were the kids. The best way to understand Christmas in modern America is to watch how children react to the intense marketing directed their way. Kids are the purest representation of our values, because they haven't yet learned to disguise their desires and feelings. They don't yet know they are being marketed to, they want what they want, and they are going to bug their parents to get it. In fact, piggybacking on innocence is a standard tactic in children's marketing, known as accentuating "the nag factor." But they also want to be adults, to help, to be taken seriously.

Online shopping powered Black Friday

Sun, 25 Nov 2012 20:05:00 +0000

Black Friday’s online sales jumped 21% over last year, the Financial Times reported. Shopping on mobile gadgets also increased, with purchases made on Apple’s iPad tablets accounting for 10% of online sales.

The increasing importance of internet retail appears to be coming at the expense of traditional brick and mortar stores which saw Black Friday sales drop slightly, to $11.2 billion.

The online shopping surge arrived even before tomorrow’s “cyber Monday” event when consumers can supposedly access numerous online bargains. However, the decision by online retail behemoth Amazon to offer comparable bargains throughout last week may cut into cyber Monday grosses and relevance.

In recent years, Black Friday sales have created near riots and even fatalities as shoppers crushed into big box stores. This year the frenzy was relatively subdued though there was a hectic scene outside a Victoria’s Secret in Kansas City, Mo.

1,000 Walmart protests across the US

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 18:51:00 +0000

A Walmart press release this morning downplayed what commentators have called historic strike actions by Walmart workers this Black Friday across the United States.

The release noted that "the same number of associates missed their scheduled shift as last year," but hundreds of protests in 46 states beginning Thursday evening have drawn attention to the retailer's poor labor practices while according to The Nation, workers struck at stores in Dallas, Kenosha, Wis., San Leandro, Calif., and Clovis, N.M. At least one worker went out on strike at stores in Ocean City, Md., Orlando and Baton Rouge. Rep.-elect Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) joined a Walmart worker as she walked off her job in St. Cloud.

Walmart stores rang up almost 10 million transactions from the time doors opened for Black Friday shoppers at 8 p.m. Thursday until midnight. Meanwhile the following strikes and protest actions have been reported:

Capitalism’s grossest win: The final triumph of Black Friday

Fri, 23 Nov 2012 12:00:00 +0000

For wily veterans of a decade of Black Friday doorbuster sales, 2012 was the year that the last semblance of a boundary between the actual day of Thanksgiving and the formal commencement of the holiday shopping season finally collapsed. It wasn't just the decision by some of the biggest retailers to move their opening hours earlier than ever before. For many customers, the exact time when the doors were unlocked was irrelevant, because Thanksgiving had already become completely subsumed in shopping mania. What difference does it make if the doors open at 8 p.m. or midnight, if you were already in line days earlier?

Consider the example of the Kelley family in Fort Myers, Fla., so determined to sacrifice nothing of their quality of life while in quest for the perfect deal that they showed up in front of the local Best Buy's doors on Monday, equipped with a dinner table.

This is what we call not messing around:

Wal-Mart’s Black Friday showdown

Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:42:00 +0000

Employees at 1,000 Walmart stores across the country are planning to strike on Black Friday. The holiday period industrial action comes in the wake of a string of strikes by Walmart workers in several states and involving employees throughout the retailer's supply chain. As Josh Eidelson noted at the Nation, "seafood workers [went on strike] in June, [followed] by warehouse workers in September, and by 160 retail workers in twelve states last month."

"Black Friday," wrote Eidelson, "workers have pledged -- barring concessions from the company -- will bring their biggest disruptions yet." Walmart employees across the country have a host of grievances including unsafe and unsanitary working conditions, sexual harassment, excessive hours, forced labor and low pay. Ned Resnikoff at MSNBC flagged a leaked internal document (first obtained by HuffPo) that revealed that base pay at Walmart's Sam's Place stores can be as low as $8 an hour (or $16,000 per year), with wage increases in increments as low as 20 or 40 cents per hour. To put this in context, Gawker recently highlighted a Demos study that says that raising the salary of all full-time workers at large retailers to $25,000 per year would lift more than 700,000 people out of poverty, at a cost of only a 1 percent price increase for customers.

Sandy: Proof positive government aid matters

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:03:00 +0000

The chorus is now loud in defense of government. The New York Times even used that forbidden phrase "big government" in its editorial earlier this week. Eduardo Porter, the economics writer for the Times, wrote a column about how the election is a choice between a limited-government candidate and a president who would use government to provide a safety net for the less advantaged. He seemed to side with pro-government philosophy. “Government matters,” wrote the New Republic this week.

The Rediscovering Government Initiative has been dedicated to restoring faith in government through publicizing the best scholarship, clarifying the nation’s true history and countering the prevailing and widely prevalent myths about government. So it is encouraging to see the growing chorus, even if there is a Johnny-come-lately feel to some of it.

Walmart’s Black Friday ultimatum

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 19:13:00 +0000

One day after Walmart employees in twelve states launched a major strike, today workers issued an ultimatum to the retail giant: Stop retaliating against workers trying to organize, or the year’s most important shopping day, the Friday after Thanksgiving, will see the biggest disruptions yet. The announcement comes as 200 workers – some of them currently striking – have converged in the Walmart's Bentonville, Arkansas hometown outside the company's annual investors meeting. It offers a new potential challenge to Walmart, and a new test for OUR Walmart, the labor-backed organization that’s pulled off the first two multi-store U.S. strikes in Walmart history.

If Walmart doesn’t address OUR Walmart’s demands, said striking worker Colby Harris, from Dallas, “We will make sure that Black Friday is memorable for them.” He said that would includes strikes, leafleting to customers, and “flash mobs.” Harris was joined on a press call announcing the deadline by leaders of the National Consumers League, the National Organization of Women, and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement, three of the national organizations that have pledged support for the workers’ efforts. Absent a resolution, said NOW President Terri O’Neill, NOW members will join Walmart workers outside stores on Black Friday to ask customers “whether they really want to spend their dollars on a company that treats workers this way.”

Walmart strikes spread to more states

Tue, 09 Oct 2012 13:40:00 +0000

For the second time in five days – and also the second time in Walmart’s five decades – workers at multiple U.S. Walmart stores are on strike. This morning, workers walked off the job at stores in Dallas, Texas; Miami, Florida; Seattle, Washington; Laurel, Maryland; and Northern, Central, and Southern California. No end date has been announced; some plan to remain on strike at least through tomorrow, when they’ll join other Walmart workers for a demonstration outside the company’s annual investor meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. Today’s is the latest in a wave of Walmart supply chain strikes without precedent in the United States: From shrimp workers in Louisiana, to warehouse workers in California and Illinois, to Walmart store employees in five states.

“A lot of associates, we have to use somewhat of a buddy system,” Dallas worker Colby Harris said last night. “We loan each other money during non-paycheck weeks just to make it through to the next week when we get paid. Because we don’t have enough money after paying bills to even eat lunch.” Harris, who’s now on strike, said that after three years at Walmart, he makes $8.90 an hour in the produce department, and workers at his store have faced “constant retaliation” for speaking up.

Wal-Mart punishes its workers

Thu, 26 Jul 2012 15:37:00 +0000

As Wal-Mart celebrates its 50th anniversary this summer, it has faced a new wave of resistance from its “associates” -- the company’s corporate-speak for employees. Last month, a delegation of Wal-Mart workers brought their grievances to the company’s shareholder meeting, including low wages and understaffing. In interviews yesterday, three workers at the forefront of the campaign told Salon the company has punished them for their activism. Critics say that the world’s largest private sector employer is playing dirty once again.

Last June, nearly 100 Wal-Mart employees announced the formation of a new membership organization called OUR Walmart, which demanded improvements on the job. Though backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, it hasn’t sought union recognition (UFCW also backed a previous non-union organization of Wal-Mart workers in 2005). OUR Walmart currently claims thousands of Wal-Mart workers in hundreds of stores as dues-paying members. As its efforts have escalated, OUR Walmart leaders say Wal-Mart has targeted them for punishment.