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’s Latest Social Media Target: Mommybloggers
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart has previously tried to win over college students, Facebook users, “working families,” and RVers in its social media misadventures. Now the company has a new target demographic: mommybloggers.
Maybe it was the toy recalls that made Wal-Mart decide to target mothers. Maybe it was the massive gender discrimination lawsuit filed in 2006. Or maybe it was the retailer’s problems adhering to WIC rules, or harsh treatment of pregnant employees that made the company think, “Huh. Women might not like us a whole lot.”
The newest project entails giving free video cameras to mommybloggers across the country and asking them to discuss how they like to save money. We imagine the conversation will pretty quickly turn to Wal-Mart. And Wal-Mart’s marketing execs undoubtedly hope those free video cameras are enough to keep the bloggers from mentioning Wal-Mart’s abysmal record for discriminating against women...but where would the fun be in that?
Retailer, moms who blog form new coalition [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is venturing further into the social media waters with a coalition of busy moms who blog about how to save money on everyday necessities, vacations, even big-ticket items that may fall outside most shoppers’ budgets. Soon, the company intends to invite customers to share their own money-saving tips in exchange for a chance at winning a year’s worth of groceries. Blogs, or Web logs, are journals that are available on the Web. Some of the 12 moms selected for the project already have begun posting video clips on their Web sites, suggesting ways to trim spending.
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Class Action Suits Against Wal-Mart Face New Hurdles
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world, with just over 2 millions employees on its payroll. So when the company does something wrong, there are usually a lot of people involved and for that reason, Wal-Mart often finds itself the subject of class action lawsuits.
An article today from Bloomberg News notes that there are currently over 70 lawsuits currently pending against Wal-Mart which deal with wage-and-hour violations alone. A 2005 federal law, which ruled that any lawsuit involving parties from multiple states and damages exceeding $5 million must go to federal court, means some of the cases filed since 2005 and currently pending against Wal-Mart will be combined. This had included class action suits from Delaware, South Dakota, Nevada and Alaska, until U.S. District Judge Phillip Pro denied their class status in June. Today’s article asserts that Wal-Mart stands to benefit from the 2005 law, which could make it harder for employees to collectively litigate against the company.
Whether Wal-Mart “shaved” time off employees’ schedules is not up for debate here: Judge Pro explained each wage-and-hour violation will simply be treated individually. Wal-Mart continues to look for ways to spend as little as possible on payroll, even if this means unfairly compensating employees for their hours worked. Rulings such as this one make it more difficult for employees to change Wal-Mart as a whole, but the company should stop breaking labor laws in the first place and pay its workers fairly.
Wal-Mart Shareholders Benefit From Judge’s Pay Ruling [Bloomberg News]
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing as much as $2 billion in damages in a Minnesota employee-pay trial, may be shielded from similar cases in the future thanks to a 2005 federal law.
The statute requires federal courts to handle class-action lawsuits of $5 million or more when plaintiffs and defendants are from different states. Because judges have been less willing to certify these cases as class actions, the law may save Wal-Mart as much as $5 billion, said Robert Bonsignore, lead workers’ attorney in Nevada suits against the world’s largest retailer. That’s equivalent to 77 percent of Wal-Mart’s $6.5 billion first- half profit.
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Wal-Mart Tops Ohio List of Medicaid Recipients
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
As the weakening economy takes its toll on state budgets across the country, a new study from Policy Matters Ohio shows that Wal-Mart employees top the state’s list of Medicaid recipients.
Researchers found that an average of 13,141 Wal-Mart employees and their children were on the state-sponsored medical plan, more than any other private employer in Ohio.
Wal-Mart’s company health plan remains out of reach for many of its employees, and Medicaid is often the only affordable option for low-earning workers. The company’s failure to provide adequate health insurance for its 1.4 million U.S. employees isn’t just an unfortunate company policy - it’s something that affects taxpayers across the country.
Public pays health care for private workers [Beacon Journal (Ohio)]
Thousands of workers across Ohio labor for a paycheck, but still lack health benefits from their employer for themselves or their children.
Instead, they rely on Medicaid — a program funded with state and federal tax dollars — to pay for their medical care.
Researchers with the nonpartisan think tank Policy Matters Ohio estimate in a new report that the state spent $111.5 million last year to cover Medicaid costs for more than 111,000 workers and their dependents from the 50 companies with the highest Medicaid enrollment.
The federal government’s estimated share of the cost totaled $182 million.
‘’Right now, we’re in a very tight budget,’’ said Piet van Lier, the study’s author and a senior researcher at Policy Matters Ohio. ‘’Medicaid is a very big expense — not only for Ohio, but for other states — and here’s a substantial benefit going to employers.’’
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Unionization Spreads Across Wal-Mart China
Posted by Research Team
Two stories in the Chinese press last week show that collective bargaining agreements are spreading across Wal-Mart’s China stores like wildfire. Several stores even had union card signing ceremonies, showing that employees take pride in their union membership.
The unions at Wal-Mart’s store in China are made possible in large part by China’s powerful retail labor laws. Strong governmental involvement has thus far been the most effective tool in the quest for Wal-Mart unionization. While workers in China bargain collectively for better pay and better benefits, politicians in the U.S. work to strengthen labor laws here so unionization is not just a possibility, but something workers can accomplish and take pride in.
900 Wal-Mart Employees in Wuhan Sign Collective Contract [Sina Finance]
On August 26, officials from the Wal-Mart store on Xudong Street and the store on Zhongshan Street in Wuhan, Hubei and the local labor union held a collective contract signing ceremony…
This collective contract involves nearly 900 Wal-Mart employees from two stores. The contract addresses essential issues such as wage increases, paid vacation, social security, worker safety, etc. with clear-cut provisions. The contract includes a mechanism to collectively consult on wages. For 2008 and 2009 full-time employee wages will increase an average of 8%. Workers with at least three years may sign the contract without a fixed deadline with provisions on salary, vacation, social security, working women’s rights, benefits, protections, etc. and employee welfare. “Henceforth, we employees have the right to demand wage increases,” a labor union representative from the Zhongshan store expressed.
Presently, Hunan has 27,000 companies that have agreed to collective contracts – establishing mechanisms to evaluate equality. For collective contracts, labor unions and workers elect representatives to consult and negotiate on issues such as wage and hour, work conditions, rest and vacations, worker health and safety, insurance, etc.
Friday Blog Round-Up: Labor Day Edition
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
We’ll be extremely busy this weekend relaxing and celebrating the valiant efforts of American workers, so in the meantime - a brief round up of the week’s Wal-Mart blogs.
DEADLY BASSINETS SOLD AT WAL-MART
Wal-Mart Still Selling Dangerous Cribs [WakeUpWal-Mart.com Blog]
Wal-Mart has long been plagued with recalls of dangerous products, and it has often been implicated in taking too little action about such products. Now it seems Wal-Mart is still selling a dangerous crib that is responsible for two deaths.
Here is the story yesterday at Consumeraffairs.com. I hope Wal-Mart (mentioned in this story) and other retailers have stopped selling these products, since being notified of the imminent hazard warning. And I assure readers, if SFCA’s defense somehow prevails in court, that the Congress will be quick with a technical correction to the new law.
After the jump, Wal-Mart’s local food, more on the company’s mandatory meetings and the new Marketside stores.
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Wal-Mart draws a line between the company and its stores
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
A story out today from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette helps to clear up some of the questions about Wal-Mart’s recent logo change. The article explains that Wal-Mart The Company will continue to use the current, hyphenated form of the logo but that Walmart The Store will use the fancy new non-hyphenated version. As if that weren’t confusing enough, the article explains that the ever popular “squiggly” will remain in the Wal-Mart cheer. Yes, questions of how to spell Wal-Mart’s name will now involve a lengthy existentialist examination.
Exactly why Wal-Mart feels the need to make this distinction - between “the company” and its stores - remains unclear. The company wanted a new look for its stores, but changing every instance of its logo might have proven too complicated. Wal-Mart is, after all, the world’s largest company. But the distinction also plays in to an issue we raised yesterday - Wal-Mart The Company is beginning to distance itself from its stores. The company’s new Marketside shops bear no mention of their Bentonville parent, and perhaps the hypen/no-hypen distinction plays in to that. Does Wal-Mart The Company exist separate from its stores? Can it ever?
‘Walmart’ new, but store’s familiar [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
Wal-Mart or Walmart ? That depends, the company says. With the June 30 announcement of its new, nonhyphenated store logo, “Walmart” started showing up in some of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. ’s news releases and other statements and has been appearing in its printed advertising and in-store signs since then.
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Wal-Mart Still Selling Bassinets Tied to Infant Deaths
Posted by Media Team
The Chicago Tribune and Consumer Affairs bring news today that despite a warning from the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Wal-Mart is still selling a line of bassinets that has killed two infants.
The bassinets - which are sold exclusively at Wal-Mart - feature metal bars spaced farther apart than CPSC guidelines require. In some instances, infants risk slipping through the metal bars and suffocating.
Despite the warning from the CPSC and the harrowing testimonies of parents who have witnessed the crib’s fatal flaw, Wal-Mart is still selling the bassinets on its website and in its stores.
Wal-Mart Selling Bassinets Blamed for Killing Two Babies [Consumer Affairs]
Simplicity bassinets that are still being sold at Wal-Mart and on Wal-Mart’s Web site have been blamed for killing two babies.
An apparently faulty frame on the Winnie the Pooh 4-in-1 Simplicity Bassinet crushed and suffocated two babies according to family members and a police report. This is the latest in a string of six deaths blamed on Simplicity baby furniture, with the previous four followed by recalls of those products.
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Court Case Reveals Alice Walton’s Contributions to Crystal Bridges
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt
A tumultuous lawsuit between Fisk University and the State of Tennessee has revealed just how much money Alice Walton has donated to her pet project, the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Benton County, Arkansas. The figure is an astounding $317 million, small change for a woman worth $19 billion, but a bonafide fortune for any working American. The Walton family has long been a prominent patron of art and entertainment in northwest Arkansas - the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas is just a stone’s throw away from the Walton Arts Center in downtown Fayetteville. So Alice’s contributions to a still-unconstructed art museum in the area are part of a long family tradition.
That family tradition exists for a reason: in the span of six months - from November 2007 to June 2008 - the Walton family made $29 billion off the increase in Wal-Mart’s stock price. With income like that, it’s not surprising that family members can afford to build art museums almost single-handedly. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart employees across the country continue to make poverty-level wages and go without decent, affordable health care.
The article quotes museum director Bob Workman saying, “Crystal Bridges is a gift to the community from Alice Walton and the Walton family. The focus is on what we are creating, not what it is costing.” Perhaps an even better gift to the community - and communities across the country - would be to pay the Wal-Mart’s 1.4 million U.S. workers a fair wage, and build wealth from the ground up.
Crystal Bridges case sheds light on contributions [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
Alice Walton, her family and one of their foundations have donated $317 million to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which has nearly half a billion dollars in assets, according to documents filed in a Tennessee court.