Wal-Mart Imports From China, Exports Ohio Jobs (2005)

Topics: Economic/Small Business | Hiring an Expert

This report, prepared by the AFL-CIO Wal-Mart Campaign, tells the stories of four Ohio companies that sell to Wal-Mart. The loss of jobs at the Huffy Corp., Rubbermaid, Mr. Coffee and Thomson factories in Ohio demonstrates how Wal-Mart pressures suppliers to send Ohio jobs overseas. The study concludes “Wal-Mart backed a Chinese company guilty of dumping TVs in the U.S. market over American workers and the last American TV maker. In 2003, World Kitchen shut its bakeware manufacturing plant in Massillon, Ohio. This year, as World Kitchen continues to cut jobs in America and move them overseas, Wal-Mart rewarded a World Kitchen subsidiary with its Supplier of the Year Award. Time and again, Wal-Mart is on the wrong side of issues that America’s workers care most about. Time and again, Wal-Mart insists its low prices more than make up for the destruction of Ohio’s manufacturing jobs. Wal-Mart is using its power to force Americans to make a false choice between good jobs and low prices to keep from having to make choices that might jeopardize the $11 billion profit Wal-Mart took in 2004. Wal- Mart’s size has allowed it to remake the American economy, substituting its narrow interests for honored American values, including good jobs, family-supporting wages and affordable health care.