Handshake With Sam
While Wal-Mart’s founder, Sam Walton, steered his company’s growth over its first thirty years, he never let anyone forget that with such tremendous success come certain moral responsibilities. He led by example, and he did business with a handshake.
Today’s Wal-Mart has lost Sam’s way. That’s why we’ve proposed a new contract with Wal-Mart’s current leadership—to help Wal-Mart take its place as a responsible business leader for the new century.
Wal-Mart to Appeal North Carolina Tax Ruling
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
This brief story notes that Wal-Mart intends to appeal last month’s ruling in a heated North Carolina tax-shelter case. A state court judge in North Carolina dismissed Wal-Mart’s request for tax refunds after the retailer took advantage of a real estate loophole and essentially paid rent to itself. Click here for the original story.
Wal-Mart to appeal tax refund ruling [Raleigh News and Observer (N.C.)]
Wal-Mart said it will appeal a court decision that denied the retailer a $30 million tax refund from the state.
Last month, a Wake County judge rejected the retailer’s argument that the state improperly assessed its corporate income tax for a four-year period.
The state Department of Revenue contended that Wal-Mart tried to use tax shelters to obfuscate its earnings in North Carolina.
Looking for a Way to Boost the Economy? Shop Locally, Not at Wal-Mart.
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
This article from the Oshkosh Northwestern in Wisconsin is one of a series of recent articles explaining that the best way to address a sagging economy is not by shopping at Wal-Mart, as the company might want you to believe, but by supporting locally-owned businesses that reinvest in the community.
In the sometimes embarrassing world of sales, one of the first things I was taught was “Friends buy from friends.” It made sense after all, the first thing that someone should try to develop in a sales relationship was just that, a relationship. And the closer that relationship, the more likely it was that a sale was eminent. If you could be trusted for your advice and product or service, you were worth someone’s hard-earned money.
While this principle seems to make sense, it is surprising to me how we, as a society, have gotten away from that idea of being loyal to the business owners we call our friends. More and more, price plays such a much bigger role in buying decisions that some of the largest companies in the world bank on you being less loyal to the local business and more loyal to which one can satisfy your needs for less.
Case in point is Wal-Mart with their philosophy that sold so many over the holiday season. “Save money, live better.” Did they say, “Shop locally, save jobs?” No. Did they say, “Better service means better satisfaction?” No. Did they say, “Buy from those you know?” No. They said, “Save money, live better.” Because after all, if we can save money on what we want, we will have a better life and it doesn’t matter what it means for anone else. Is this what we as a society have gotten to? It’s all about me?
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Wal-Mart Pays $208,678 For High Price Lobbyists in Massachusetts
Posted by Al Norman
This article was originally published on the Huffington Post.
Forget everyday low prices. Wal-Mart has been paying high-priced lobbyists to keep the company from having to pay its fair share of income tax to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Wal-Mart paid nearly a quarter of a million dollars last year to a small army of 8 lobbyists to push its agenda with Beacon Hill lawmakers in 2007. The retailer’s ‘high-priced’ lobbying tab for 2007 came to $208,678---five times what the company spent the previous year.
According to research conducted by Sprawl-Busters, a Greenfield, MA-based anti-Wal-Mart clearinghouse, Wal-Mart hired three separate lobbying firms, plus its own Public Affairs Manager, as lobbyists:
- Bay State Strategies Group, LLC of Natick was paid $53,200 by Wal-Mart, which went to 3 of its lobbyists: David Shapiro, Frank Shea, and Robert Bernstein.
- Holland & Knight, LLP of Boston, also had Wal-Mart as a client in 2007. The firm was paid $26,600 by Wal-Mart for the services of the same 3 lobbyists.
- Johnson Haley, LLP of Boston, was the big winner of Wal-Mart payments, receiving a total of $128,503 for the services of 4 lobbyists: Stephanie D. Neal-Johnson, Pierce J. Haley, Andrea Serlin, and Martin Fisher.
In addition, Wal-Mart registered its own New England public affairs manager, Christopher Buchanan, of Plymouth, as a lobbyist.
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Wal-Mart Plays Politics, Defends Company Image
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart, long-beleaguered for its labor and environmental practices, is playing a hard offensive game these days. This article points out that the company’s marketing team is working so hard, Wal-Mart’s seeming more and more like a well-rehearsed politician. The fact remains, however, that Wal-Mart’s NOT a politician: it’s a retailer. While other companies are dealing with new spring lines and the cost of milk, Wal-Mart is spending its time playing politics.
Rather than making stump speeches and spending money on marketing execs, Wal-Mart would do better to simply address the problems that got the company here in the first place. Some REAL environmental action (do we really need to hear about compact fluorescents AGAIN??), improvements to employee benefits or sustainable contributions to local economies would go much farther than any press release can. Political pandering is not the same as substantive action, and until Wal-Mart starts doing the latter more work remains to be done.
Wal-Mart: The New Washington [New York Times]
Obama, Clinton, McCain, Romney… Wal-Mart? The nation’s largest private employer sure sounds like it’s running for president these days.
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Video on Wal-Mart’s Union-Busting, Discrimination Practices and Sweatshop Sourcing
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
This poignant video from ABC News discusses Wal-Mart’s long history of union-busting, discrimination against female employees and sourcing from factories with sweatshop-like conditions. Click here for the accompanying article.
Unions Gain Strength at Wal-Mart China
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Workers at a Wal-Mart purchasing center in China are planning to unionize “as soon as possible” according to this report out from China’s Worker’s Daily. The announcement comes after several months of hostility between Wal-Mart employees in China and company executives. Back in Novemeber, Wal-Mart laid off 10% of its Chinese workforce ahead of new labor laws that would have raised the workers’ wages. And earlier this month, distribution center employees protested the company’s refusal to pay back overtime wages. In light of these and many other employee-unfriendly practices coming from the company, the employees’ decision to unionize is hardly surprising.
In recent days, Wal-Mart has come under fire again for its union-busting practices here in the United States. The company’s continuing anti-union practices were the focus of a 2007 Human Rights Watch report that called Wal-Mart’s policies some of the most egregious labor rights abuses on U.S. soil. If Wal-Mart employees in China have the right to unionize, why shouldn’t employees here be able do the same?
Wal-Mart’s global purchasing center staff are in favor of setting up a trade union as quickly as possible. On January 30, the procurement center’s vice chairman made a special visit to the All China Federation of Trade Unions, to call upon ACFTU’s Xu Deming to take up the unionization effort.
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Wal-Mart Corporate Communications Office Responds to Demands for Fair Pay
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Mexico has been inundated with demands from Wal-Mart Watch supporters that the company pay its teenage workers. The company has started responding to these requests with the following form letter from Wal-Mex’s Office of Corporate Communications:
Dear [name omitted]:
You are wrong in your appreciation on the Mexican Government sponsored student program.The student volunteer baggers program is a long-standing activity in the Mexican retail sector, and began decades before Wal-Mart entered the Mexican market.
The program falls under the umbrella of the local social assistance programs for teenagers at school (14 to 15 years old) to earn money in a safe environment regulated by the Mexican labor authorities under an agreement signed with the National Retailers Association of Mexico (ANTAD).
We believe that the program contributes to the teenagers’ well-being and helps their families’ income, while encouraging baggers to maintain good grades at their schools since they are required to present their grades in order to continue in the student baggers program.
As a member of ANTAD, Wal-Mart de Mexico supports these local assistance programs, and respects and fulfills the legal framework established by the Mexican authorities. It is important to note that all major retailers in Mexico participate in this program.
This program provides an opportunity for Mexican students to occupy their free time in a productive activity and is designed in accordance with the International Labor Organization´s guidelines. The program is regarded as positive, as it contributes to the teenagers’ development and to the welfare of their families, providing the teenagers with skills and real world experience to help them become productive members of society.
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Wal-Mart’s Business Practices Still Dog Hillary Clinton
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has come under fire recently for her time spent on the Wal-Mart board of directors. The problem is not so much with Clinton or her actions: it’s with Wal-Mart. The Senator’s brief affiliation with the company nearly 20 years ago continues to plague her today, due in large part to Wal-Mart’s continuing problems with irresponsible corporate behavior. As this article from ABC News explores, Wal-Mart has a history of labor discrimination and rights abuse that were already present when Hillary was there in the 80s and continue to be a problem with the company today.
Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions [ABC News]
In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.
Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions, according to her campaign Web site, which omits any reference to her role at Wal-Mart in its detailed biography of her.
Wal-Mart’s anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton’s fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.