2008 Year in Review: Happy Holidays From Wal-Mart Watch

Wal-Mart sucks.

I just finished up a 2-month stint working at Wal-Mart.  I can honestly say it was the worst experience of my life.  I, and all the employees were treated horribly and disrespectfully, with only a handful of rights (and I use the term loosely) still present only there through the arm-twisting our government enforces upon the corporation.  If not regulated by the government, I FIRMLY believe Wal-Mart would result to nothing but slave labor in complete disregard for humanity--just so the corporation could make an extra million per minute.  I personally experienced blatant lying and dishonesty by several people management to cover up the mistakes and mistreatments of the employees.

Alfred Schopenhaur said: “Compassion is the basics of all morality”.

http://www.nupge.ca/news_2008/n22de08a.htm

Wal-Mart workers unionized at third store in Quebec

Employees in Gatineau follow lead of those in Jonquiere and Ste-Hyacinthe

Ottawa (22 Dec. 2008) - Less than two months after closing a tire and lube shop in Gatineau to get rid of a union, Wal-Mart is now faced with a certification order for 150 employees in the adjacent retail store − located across the Ottawa River from Canada’s capital.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) has been certified bargaining agent for the employees and wants to begin negotiating a first contract immediately. Predictably, Wal-Mart is appealing the order to the Quebec Superior Court.

Employees at the store signed union cards 3 1/2 years ago when the tire and lube shop was unionized. However, certification was delayed while Wal-Mart, using its bottomless financial and legal resources, exhausted all means available to avoid a union.

Wal-Mart now says only 63 of the original 194 employees from 2005 remain on staff in the store and it is asking the Quebec labour board to order a secret ballot before the union is recognized.

The ultimate card - shutting down

When it had no option left but to deal with a union at the tire and lube shop, Wal-Mart played its ultimate card in October and shut the shop down, claiming it could not remain profitable if forced to pay wage rates decreed in a contract imposed by the labour board.

The union, and critics across Canada and beyond, said the company was merely behaving as it always does − doing whatever it takes to kill any union, no matter how small, wherever it appears in any Wal-Mart operation.

In 2005, Wal-Mart shut down a full-fledged retail store in Jonquiere, Que., just as an arbitrator was set to impose a union contract. The company is also facing arbitration at a second store in Ste-Hyacinthe, Que.

Meanwhile, workers have also been certified at a Wal-Mart store in Weyburn, Sask., where Wal-Mart is also resorting to all legal tactics available to delay and kill the union drive.

NUPGE

The National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) has signed a protocol with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada) to support and cooperate in the UFCW’s campaign to organize workers at Wal-Mart stores across Canada. NUPGE

More information:
● Wal-Mart closes tire and lube shop in Gatineau

Web posted by NUPGE: 22 December 2008

It sounds like the movement is gaining momentum, Alex. Kudos to Canadian Wal-Mart workers.

Live Better In Cheap Underwear

This post may seem trivial to some, but I thought it quite appropriate for this scourge on our country to ruin my last day of 2008, and the first day of 2009.

I’d promised my 70+ parents a pot of homemade chili on New Year’s Day. I began preparing it last night while watching the festivities on TV.

I had two cans of tomato juice, two of diced tomatoes, and two chopped onions in my pot when I decided to toss in the one and only thing I go to Wal-mart for--their Sam’s Club brand Black Bean & Corn salsa.

I turned the jar upside down over the pot, and heard a loud ‘clunk’ hit the bottom. Gingerly, I put my hand in, and fished around, coming up with the jagged bottom of a jar!

I called Mom this morning, and she asked when I’d be up with the chili. My Dad survived a brain aneurysm two years ago, and has a messed up concept of time; aside from the fact he’s always hungry :)

I told her to explain to him why there is no chili. I almost cry every time I think what could have happened if the glass had been in smaller (undetectable) pieces. Dad’s on Coumadin, and I can’t stop thinking what could have happened if he had eaten a piece of glass. He had a nose bleed last week that wouldn’t stop, and required three trips to the ER.

I’ve got photos, a pot of chili, and a salsa jar with a piece of glass (I wonder how many of the 26 ounces it comprised)?

I haven’t decided what to do with it yet. Every time I think of something, there’s a vision of jail at the end.

Any ideas?

Walmart theft suspects flee, hit worker with car
Arizona Republic - Phoenix,AZ,USA
31, 2008 01:41 PM Police surrounded a Phoenix home Tuesday where two women hid after they allegedly shoplifted at a Walmart and then hit a store employee ...

Valley woman tries to run down Walmart employees
ABC15.com (KNXV-TV) - Phoenix,AZ,USA
Police tactical units and a K-9 tried to convince a woman to come out of a Phoenix home Tuesday night after she allegedly tried to run over a handful of ...

Woman shot in Walmart lot now home recovering
Dayton Daily News - Dayton,OH,USA
By Kristin McAllister MORAINE — The 28-year-old woman shot at the Moraine Walmart Supercenter is out of the hospital and in good condition, according to the ...
See all stories on this topic

ddrb: Are these shoplifters heroes, then? They tried to run over Walmart workers, and if there is one thing this web site hates, it is Walmart workers.

e.g.:According to a marketing executive, an Edelman Group executive providing media training to his firm said: [1]

Sometimes, you just have to stand up there and lie. Make the audience or the reporter believe that everything is ok. How many times have you heard a CEO stand up and say “No, I’m not leaving the company” and then - days later - he’s gone. Reporters understand that you “had” to do it and they won’t hold it against you in your next job when you deal with them again~~~~~~~~~Sourcewatch

Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers.

ddrb said: “Sometimes, you just have to stand up there and lie.”. That explains some of your comments.

“Sometimes, you just have to stand up there and lie.”.

Isnt that Standard Operating Procedure for Liberal Democrats.

Speaking of S.O.P. for G.O.P.  ~~~~~~NOTE:

The Abramoff Scandal is Expanding: More GOP woes for 2009…
by dengre
Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 09:29:18 PM PST~Daily Kos~

“Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers."~realist in

Walmart closes stores and fires workers realist?
Perfect.
Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit, realist.
Walmart is the guilty organization that disrespects workers and their rights.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

“expanding scandals”

Look no further than the Govenor of Illinois, a Liberal Democrat with ties to the Obama Camp.

Oh thats right, the Obama camp cleared themselves of any wrong doing. Sounds like an episode from Hitler’s “Mein Campf”

Now thats a SCANDAL!

What ever happened to an Independent Investigation by a special prosecutor or the like?

Alex,

“Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit”

Let’s see, the stores were open and the people were employed, then the union came in, now they are closed and the people are unemployed, I think the finger should be pointing at the FACTOR that came into view, in between being open and being closed!!  If you remove the UNION from the equation, you would end up with the stores STILL open and the people STILL employed!!

Wal-Mart open + union = Wal-Mart closed!!
Wal-Mart open - union = Wal-Mart still open!!

Now, who is the real culprit?

Think about this, if there were no Wal-Mart to begin with, the union would have NO employees to try to unionize!!  The union is the INTERLOPER (one who intrudes into a business belonging to others) here!!

“Only a fool would try to deprive working men and working women of their right to join the union of their choice.”
--President Dwight Eisenhower

ddrb: Any Walmart worker anywhere is free to mail off a dues check to any union they want. No one ever gets fired for it.

The Labor Agenda

December 28, 2008

There is no doubt that President-elect Barack Obama has chosen a labor secretary who could be a transformative force in a long-neglected arena. The question is whether he will let her.

Hilda Solis, a United States representative from Southern California, is the daughter of immigrant parents with union jobs. She has been an unfailing advocate of workers’ rights during eight years in Congress and before that, in California politics.

Ms. Solis has been a leader on traditional workplace issues, like a higher minimum wage and an enhanced right to form unions. She also has helped to expand the labor agenda by sponsoring legislation to create jobs in green technology, and in her support for community health workers and immigration reform.

Her record in Congress dovetails with the mission of the Labor Department, to protect and further the rights and opportunities of working people. It also dovetails with many of the promises Mr. Obama made during the campaign, both in its specifics and in its focus on the needs of America’s working families.

The main issue is whether the Obama administration will assert a forceful labor agenda in the face of certain protests from business that now — during a recession — is not the time to move forward.

The first and biggest test of Mr. Obama’s commitment to labor, and to Ms. Solis, will be his decision on whether or not to push the Employee Free Choice Act in 2009. Corporate America is determined to derail the bill, which would make it easier than it has been for workers to form unions by requiring that employers recognize a union if a majority of employees at a workplace sign cards indicating they wish to organize.

Ms. Solis voted for the bill when it passed the House in 2007. Senate Republicans prevented the bill from coming to a vote that same year. Mr. Obama voted in favor of bringing the bill to the Senate floor and supported it during the campaign.
[cont.]

The measure is vital legislation and should not be postponed. Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases. By giving employees a bigger say in compensation issues, unions also help to establish corporate norms, the absence of which has contributed to unjustifiable disparities between executive pay and rank-and-file pay.

The argument against unions — that they unduly burden employers with unreasonable demands — is one that corporate America makes in good times and bad, so the recession by itself is not an excuse to avoid pushing the bill next year. The real issue is whether enhanced unionizing would worsen the recession, and there is no evidence that it would.

There is a strong argument that the slack labor market of a recession actually makes unions all the more important. Without a united front, workers will have even less bargaining power in the recession than they had during the growth years of this decade, when they largely failed to get raises even as productivity and profits soared. If pay continues to lag, it will only prolong the downturn by inhibiting spending.

Another question clouding the labor agenda is whether Mr. Obama will give equal weight to worker concerns — from reforming health care to raising the minimum wage — while the financial crisis is still playing out. Most members of his economic team are veterans of the Clinton administration who tilt toward Wall Street. In the Clinton era, financial issues routinely trumped labor concerns. If Mr. Obama’s campaign promises are to be kept, that mindset cannot prevail again. Mr. Obama’s creation of a task force on middle-class issues, to be led by Vice President-elect Joseph Biden and including Ms. Solis and other high-ranking officials, is an encouraging sign that labor issues will not be given short shrift.

There are many nonlegislative issues on the agenda for Ms. Solis. Safety standards must be updated: in the last eight years, the Labor Department has issued only one new safety rule of its own accord; it issued a few others only after being compelled by Congress or the courts. Overtime rules that were weakened in 2004 need to be restored. To enforce labor standards, the Labor Department will need more staff and more money, both of which have been cut deeply by President Bush.

Only the president can give the new labor secretary the clout she will need to do well at a job that has been done so badly for so long, at such great cost to the quality of Americans’ lives.~~~~~~~~AMEN~~~~~~~NYT via American Rights at Work

ddrb

“Even modest increases in the share of the unionized labor force push wages upward, because nonunion workplaces must keep up with unionized ones that collectively bargain for increases.”

This is called inflation.  Not only is this law completely contrary to democratcy by not allowing secret ballot, it will drive more and more jobs overseas.  Everyone loses including the unions.

“Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers."~realist in

Walmart closes stores and fires workers realist?
Perfect.
Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit, realist.
Walmart is the guilty organization that disrespects workers and their rights.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

“Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers."~realist in

Walmart closes stores and fires workers realist?
Perfect.
Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit, realist.
Walmart is the guilty organization that disrespects workers and their rights.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

...if there is one thing this web site hates, it is Walmart workers.

I’d love to read the tortured logic that led you to that conclusion, realist.

This is called inflation.

John, John, John, you are going to have to update your argument. We’ve just come through a decade where everything inflated except wages and look where it got us. Wage slaves just don’t have enough spendable income.

Trickle down economics has been thoroughly debunked. Move on.

“The free market for all intents and purposes is dead in America.” ~ Senator Jim Bunning, (R)

John,

“it will drive more and more jobs overseas”

Somehow, some people here don’t have the ability to understand that SIMPLE concept!!  They fail to understand that if jobs are following LOWER wages, logic would tell you that to RAISE wages, would only cause MORE jobs to be sent overseas!!  Their TWISTED logic, somehow thinks that if you RAISE wages here, those jobs that went overseas towards LOWER wages will come running home again!!  Then, they think that if you pay people based on their NEED, give them MORE paid days off and even pay them to NOT work at all, (like the UAW did), that companies will keep MORE jobs here and hire more workers!!

Then those same people want others to pay higher prices, yet they complain about INFLATION and a ‘race to the bottom’, when THEY are the ones leading the race, but, are too blind to see it!!  They can’t see what is happening to the auto companies, right in front of their faces!!  Pretty soon, the taxpayers will be ‘bailing out’ almost all of American business, I see the steel industry is next in line with their hands out!!  But, wait, how will the taxpayers be able to pay for it, when they don’t have any jobs anymore?

Anti Wal-Mart motto:  Down with the successful and up with the failures!!

In fact, Costco has the lowest employee turnover rate in retailing. Its turnover is five times lower than its chief rival, Wal-Mart. And Costco pays higher than average wages—$17 an hour—40 percent more than Sam’s Club, the warehouse chain owned by Wal-Mart. And it offers better-than-average benefits, including health care coverage to more than 90 percent of its work force.

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/business/story?id=1362779

Sam Walton again on exploitation of people-

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once said, “I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We’re going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart#_note-
iswalmartgood

“Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” PBS. November 16, 2004. Retrieved on February 24, 2007.

==================================

The long march to break up the unions in the United States and elsewhere is a well known effort and fact of disloyal corporations of which WalMart is foremost in retail. America’s workforce can drop dead as far as WalMart is concerned. All they want is money irrespective of the economic consequences and human cost to the United States and its people.

WALMART EXPRESSLY PROHIBITS UNIONS FOR THEIR WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

WalMart- Why should we pay a decent wage? Why can’t we pay our American ‘associates’ in WalMart scrip like we tried in Mexico to be spent only at WalMart hellhole stores? What’s wrong with that? What is wrong with the ‘love of money’. We don’t understand...and we don’t want to either.

“ They can’t see what is happening to the auto companies, right in front of their faces!! “--RDS

It would take the top paid skilled production line employee 380 YEARS to make what the CEO’s do in one.  Tell me again how it is the hourly employees that are bringing on the financial crisis the auto workers are in!

Note:  EVERY AUTO MAKER IS SUFFERING RIGHT NOW NOT JUST THE UAW.  Toyta’s sales fell by 33%.  It has nothing to do with the compensation UAW $55/hr.  vs.  non-union counterpart of $45/hr.  Since most UAW plants are in higher cost of living areas than the deep south.

The $73/hr. figure being thrown around is with the cost of insuring the retirees averaged into the working members.

Don’t blame the unions blame the economy.  Lots of businesses are failing.  To single out one and blame them for being union is just ludacris.

Baraboo: So you admit that the $73 an hour includes compensation, and by your figures, UAW workers are 20% overpaid compared to non-union workers.

Union greed is not the main problem, but it is a problem. As long as the union insists on overcompensation above and beyond a realistic fair value for the work, they will be part of the problem.

Come on now, is $45 an hour such a bad wage??

@San Diego: “WalMart- Why should we pay a decent wage?”

Why? In order to make people want to work there. And they do. You seem to show “love of money”: greed. The demand to get money you didn’t earn.

@ San Diego: “Sam Walton again on exploitation of people- “

Actually, Walton said nothing about exploitation. Paying a fair wage for low-value work is not exploitation. It is insane to pay people a lot more than the worth of the work they do.

ddrb: The EFCA is very anti-worker, since it abolishes the secret ballot.

Would you support a true EFCA with a secret ballot and right to work protections?

Or do you believe that “Free choice” only applies if employees agree with the union?

If the Democrat’s EFCA (Eliminate Free Choice Act) goes down, it will be because of opposition by America’s workers.

“...if there is one thing this web site hates, it is Walmart workers.”

Ken V, it is quite true. From the posts that want Walmart workers force into unions against their will, to those that want laws passed so Walmart will be forced to cut wages to divert them into a health care plan that some workers want and other workers don’t.

And then there is Alex, with his war against Canada’s Walmart workers. He wants Walmart to be forced to close stores and fire workers.  That’s what happens when the company is forced to artificially pay workers a lot more than the work is worth. The company is not a charity: it is not sustainable to do business just giving away money to those who do not earn it.

“Any Walmart worker anywhere is free to mail off a dues check to any union they want. No one ever gets fired for it.”
realist the WalMart worship and propaganda troll

National Labor Relations Board on WalMart’s illegal anti-union activities…

An excerpt from another one of the decisions against Wal-Mart gives a sense of the extent of the violations:
The Respondent, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., its officers, agents, successors, and assigns, shall:
1. Cease and desist from

(c) Engaging in surveillance of the union activities of employees.

http://corpwatch.org/article.php?id=13796

“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.” Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree (1937)

WalMart- The more willing you are to be indifferent to your fellow Americans, the more money we make.

EPI-Economic Policy Institute

The burden of outsourcing
The U.S. non-oil trade deficit has displaced jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, adding up to 5.6 million jobs lost or displaced in 2007. This Economic Snapshot shows how no state is immune to the corrosive effect of the U.S. trade deficit on U.S. workers and domestic economy. A companion Briefing Paper looks closer at the growing U.S. trade deficits, state-by-state, and examines losses by industries.

The facts about CEO pay
CEO pay has emerged as a very hot topic in Washington’s debate over the proposed $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Details on the meteoric rise of CEO pay in the United States, plus comparisons to workers’ pay and to CEO pay in other leading economies, can be found in The State of Working America, 2008-2009. State of Working America 2008/2009
Released in time for Labor Day, the advanced edition of EPI’s authoritative volume The State of Working America 2008/2009 is now available. Described as the “most comprehensive independent analysis of the U.S. labor market” by the Financial Times, the 11th edition shows that the business cycle that started in 2001 will be one for the record books. In fact, for the first time on record, middle-class families are at the end of a recovery without ever having regained the ground they lost during the previous recession. Gross domestic product and historically high productivity growth should have raised paychecks up and down the income ladder, but instead the benefits of that growth have bypassed most of the people who made it possible. Prepared biennially since 1988, The State of Working America scrutinizes family incomes, jobs, wages, unemployment, wealth, poverty, and health care coverage, describing the economy’s effect on our nation’s standard of living. Visit the State of Working America Web site now and in coming months to read the executive summary, introduction, select chapters, press releases, and other related material, as well as to order your copy of the advanced and final edition (to be released by ILR/Cornell University Press in January 2009).
.

U.S.-China trade gap: Massive job losses for U.S. workers
Unbalanced U.S. trade with China since 2001 has had a devastating effect on U.S. workers. This Economic Snapshot reveals that between 2001 and 2007, the trade deficit lost or displaced 2.3 million jobs in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, including 366,000 last year. As the nation’s economic woes mount, a new EPI Briefing Paper, The China Trade Toll, details the devastating impact that the growing U.S. trade deficit with China is having on American jobs, wages, and key industries.~~~~~~~NOTE: These are just SOME of the topics avaiable for download at EPI insitute. There are MANY more topics,including stats and graphs relating to much that is being discussed on this thread. [Baraboo,I think you’ll find some intriguing mathmetical info,especially about union vs. non union wages.]

The Employee Free Choice Act levels the playing field with management by giving employees equal access to injunctive relief.  While current remedies for violation of worker rights are exceeding weak under the NLRA, remedies available to employers are much more effective. 

Under current law, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)is required to seek court orders to stop unions from engaging in certain prohibited activity.  If the NLRB has reasonable cause to believe a union has engaged in such activity, it must seek injunctive relief against the union in federal district court.

Under current law, employees do not have equal access to such “mandatory” injunctive relief against employers.  Employees may request the NLRB to seek a court order to stop illegal employer conduct, such as the firing of union supporters, but these requests are granted only in rare circumstances.

The Employee Free Choice Act levels the playing field by giving employees access to the same kind of injunctive relief now available to management.

A court order putting fired union supporters back to work and stopping management from firing union sympathizers would be a very effective tool to prevent management from using intimidation to smother union organizing efforts.

Under the Employee Free Choice Act, the NLRB must sue for injunctive relief if it has reasonable cause to believe allegations that an employer has illegally discharged or otherwise discriminated against an employee for protected union activity, threatened to illegally discharge or otherwise discriminate against employees for protected union activity, or engaged in any other violation of the NLRA that significantly interferes with employees’ right to self-organization.

The Employee Free Choice Act’s provisions for equal access to injunctive relief are limited to violations that occur during organizing efforts or during the period when employees are seeking to negotiate a first contract.

The Employee Free Choice Act provides for civil monetary fines to deter other forms of illegal employer conduct.  The Employee Free Choice Act provides for civil fines of up to $20,000 for violations of employees’ statutory right to join a union and bargain collectively that occur during organizing efforts or during the period when employees are seeking to negotiate a first contract.  Such violations, for which there are often no effective remedies under current law, include the following:

Threatening to close the workplace or move overseas if employees opt to form a union.

Switching employees’ shifts, reducing their pay, demoting them, or giving them inferior work assignments to discourage unionization.

Surveilling or spying on employees who support forming a union.

Prohibiting employees from wearing union buttons.

Illegally firing employees to discourage unionization.

1 Human Rights Watch, “Unfair Advantage: Workers’ Freedom of Association in the United States Under International Human Rights Standards,” 2000.
2 Kate Bronfenbrenner, “Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing,” U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, 2000.
3 Brent Garren, “When the Solution Is the Problem: NLRB Remedies and Organizing Drives,” 51 Labor Law Journal 76, 78; 2000. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~American Rights at Work website~~~~NOTE: THE DEFINITIVE WEBSITE FOR INFO ON EFCA -ALSO,THE ANTI-UNION CORPORATE GROUPS ARE THOROUGHLY RESEARCHED AND REVIEWED,TOO,ON THE AMERICAN RIGHTS AT WORK WEBSITE.

Realist in…

“......UAW workers are 20% overpaid compared to non-union workers.”

Or are the non-union underpaid by 20%?

“Come on now, is $45 an hour such a bad wage??”

Not in Alabama or Georgia.  But as RDS has posted many times the lower cost of living in the South is a reason for moving there and working for less money.

I would say that $45/hr goes AS FAR if not FARTHER than $55/hr. in the North where the cost of living is more.

2008 cost of living index in West Point: 79.3 (low, U.S. average is 100) (Georgia, Kia)

2008 cost of living index in Huntsville: 83.1 (low, U.S. average is 100) (Alabama - Toyota and BMW)

2008 cost of living index in Dearborn: 90.5 (less than average, U.S. average is 100) (Michigan, Ford headquarters.)

statistics from city-data.com

INTERESTING LITTLE ARTICLE

From Discount Store News December 9, 1985

Buy American campaign gains momentum

BENTONVILLE, Ark.--Wal-Mart’s buy American campaign appears to be gaining momentum.

This year, the program masterminded by chairman Sam Walton has already recouped $208 million worth of merchandise from overseas vendors to domestic ones. The company anticipates that even more merchandise will be transferred to domestic resources next year.

For much of this year, the Buy America program was a major store theme. Red, white and blue streamers rose from promotional tables to the ceiling, and a huge American Flag was suspended over the center aisle. Overhead signs along the aisles carried such slogans as “All American Savings” and “Wal-Mart: Keeping America Working and Strong.”...........

“"The nation’s trade deficit is a serious problem,” he wrote. “I strongly believe the future of Wal-Mart, U.S. manufacturing and our nation depends on our ability to jointly correct this problem.”

The facts he cited were the loss of an estimated 1,610,000 jobs to imports between 1981 and 1984, and nonoil imports growing to 33% reaching $70 billion in 1984, while the trade deficit increased 78% to $123.3 billion...........”

Read the rest here......http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3092/is_v24/ai_4055903

Wal-Mart start paying,

“This year, the program masterminded by chairman Sam Walton has already recouped $208 million worth of merchandise from overseas vendors to domestic ones. The company anticipates that even more merchandise will be transferred to domestic resources next year.”

If I remember correctly, Sam said he would buy American, if companies could sell their products to Wal-Mart at no more than 10% over their competitors!!  Guess they got to a point in those 23 years since 1985, where their production costs exceeded the 110% cost limit!!

Makes one wonder, if ‘Buy American’ is such a ‘great’ idea, why one of Wal-Mart’s competitors, like K-Mart or Target, hasn’t latched onto the idea and ran with it to the top, while getting back all those jobs to the U.S.!!

I have even suggested in the past, that the union’s pool their lobbying money and start such a discount chain, with all union workers, paying ‘good’ union wages and benefits, selling only ‘good old’ American Union Made products, mainly the same things they are asking Wal-Mart to do!!  Think about it, they would be promoting the unions and competeing with Wal-Mart at the same time!!  And, as they grew, so would their membership grow, both in the stores and with their union suppliers!!  Then, when Wal-Mart started to lose market share, their 80% foreign made imports would dwindle and the ‘American Made’ demand would grow, creating even more and more ‘good paying’ union jobs!!

Sounds like a good deal to me and a Win/Win for the unions, don’t you think?  And, they could start these stores in urban areas, where ‘higher paying’ jobs are needed and where Wal-Mart has been shut out, so they wouldn’t even have Wal-Mart as a competitor to their stores!!

“Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers."~realist in

Walmart closes stores and fires workers realist?
Perfect.
Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit, realist.
Walmart is the guilty organization that disrespects workers and their rights.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

The culprits are the union activists which do all they can to encourage Walmart to close the stores.

Poor job on ‘Agentic Shifting’ RDS. Give it a rest on trying to evade corporate responsibility and ‘lets blame the union/consumer’ hucksterism. Your very own bumbling drivel on personal responsibility is what you won’t apply to the decisions made in corporate boardrooms long before product is designed, manufactured, shipped and even presented to the impoverished and desperate WalMart consumer as the foreign made goods offering that is set before Americans in 80% Chinese goods marketplace whorehouses like WalMart. This is exactly what Sam Walton did not want America to find out about. Especially after the Beijing Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989. Now WalMart has to survive on propaganda to America’s working poor and evade explaining shipping their better paying manufacturing jobs over to communist China.

“We are seeing an emerging shift in product development,” said Tom Travis, a trade lawyer at Miami’s Sandler, Travis & Rosenberg, who counts Wal-Mart among his clients. Chinese manufacturers “are assuming much more of the functions, creating and designing … the product.”

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/walmart/secrets/wmchina.html

“It took me 45 minutes to figure out that FU meant Felix Unger. “ Oscar Madison

SDV: Have you heard anything about WalMart sponsoring ads for military recruitment,in movie theaters,before the movie feature is run?

realist,

See what happens when you STUMP an anti Wal-Marter with a logical answer, they post the same thing over and over again, hoping if they say it often enough, maybe some people will end up believing it!!  Alex, has posted the exact same post, 4 times now!!

What Alex fails to recognize, is that it is not because a union is installed, that they have to close their doors, but rather the results of the CONTRACT, that is the problem!!  Wal-Mart, like all other businesses, has a Labor Budget and that is based on their profit margin!!  In order to remain competitive with other retailers, they have to keep their Labor costs within that profit margin (3.5%)!!  If the contract RAISES wages by $3.00/hr, there are for ways to compensate for this: Raise prices (Losing some customers), cut the workforce, cut hours, or close the doors!!  To remain a growing company, you can’t afford to LOSE customers, cutting workforce or hours; reduces productivity, so the only option left, is to close the doors!!

People like Alex and others seem to believe that if Wal-Mart RAISES wages and benefits, the other retailers will follow suit, fact is, they would use that wage/benefit discrepancy to run over Wal-Mart, price wise (like Wal-Mart did to K-Mart), taking customers away from Wal-Mart!!

Wal-Mart start paying,

“in the North where the cost of living is more.”

What you fail to realize, is the REASON the cost of living is so much more in the north, is BECAUSE of the ‘higher wages’, it’s a thing called ‘What the market will bear’, when people make MORE money, landlords and others can charge MORE!!  That is exactly why rent is higher in ‘high income’ areas, you can only charge what people can AFFORD to pay and the more people make, the more that can be charged!!

U.S.: Factories mired in worst slump in 28 years
by Burton Frierson


Global Research, January 3, 2009

Reuters

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. factory activity fell to a 28-year low in December as the deepening year-old recession hammered the manufacturing sector, producing a bleak outlook at the start of 2009.

The Institute for Supply Management said on Friday its index of national factory activity fell to 32.4—a figure indicating contraction and the lowest reading since 1980—from 36.2 in November. Its jobs gauge also hit the lowest level since 1982 and prices were the weakest since 1949.

The report on U.S. manufacturing echoed the dour tone set in factory surveys around the globe and indicated rough times ahead, with a gauge of new orders hitting its lowest level ever.

“Overall this is a very weak report, suggesting no sign of stabilization yet,” said Ian Lyngen, interest rate strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut.

December’s result represents a significant slump, since any reading below 50 in the overall ISM index indicates contraction.

Stocks briefly turned negative after the unexpectedly weak report but then resumed their New Year rally.

U.S. government bonds, generally sought after by investors during troubled economic times such as these, briefly added to gains but then fell, giving way to strength in stocks.

The dollar pared its gains versus the yen.

None of the manufacturing industries in the index reported growth and only two—leather and allied products, and petroleum and coal products—reported no change in activity compared to November.

“Manufacturing activity continued to decline at a rapid rate during the month of December,” the report said. “Manufacturers are reducing inventories and shutting down capacity to offset the slower rate of activity.”

Economists had expected a reading of 35.5, according to the median of their forecasts in a Reuters poll. Their 69 forecasts ranged from 32.0 to 40.0.

WEAK ALL OVER

Earlier, a similar report showed manufacturing activity in the euro zone sank to a record low for the survey in December, and the outlook remained grim as new orders also sank to new lows.

Factories in China and India also slashed output and jobs at a record pace in December.

Global manufacturing activity contracted for the seventh consecutive month in December to a record low, with price pressures tumbling, a survey showed on Friday.

The JP Morgan Global Manufacturing PMI, compiled with research and supply management organizations, fell to 33.2 in December, the lowest level since the survey began 11 years ago, from 36.5 in November.

There was also little sign that the United States was poised to break out of the current recession, which many economists expect to last through the first half of 2009.

A measure of future economic growth in the United States and its annualized growth rate rose in the latest week but were still near all-time lows, a sign that an end to the recession is still out of sight, a research group said on Friday.

The Economic Cycle Research Institute, a New York-based independent forecasting group, said its Weekly Leading Index rose in the week ended December 26, to 108.0 from 106.8 in the previous week, which was revised from 106.6.

The index’s annualized growth rate ticked up to negative 28.7 percent from minus 29.2 percent.

“Despite a three-week uptick, WLI growth remains close to its all-time low seen in early December, which tells us that the recession will persist for the time being,” said Lakshman Achuthan, managing director at ECRI.

(Additional Reporting by Jonathan Cable in London, Rodrigo Campos in New York; Editing by Leslie Adler)~~~~~~~~

Another Liberal Democrat SCANDAL-
Another “Pay to Play” scheme linked to the Obama camp!

WASHINGTON – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson on Sunday announced that he was withdrawing his nomination to be President-elect Barack Obama’s commerce secretary amid a grand jury investigation into how some of his political donors won a lucrative state contract.

Richardson’s withdrawal was the first disruption of Obama’s Cabinet process and the second “pay-to-play” investigation that has touched Obama’s transition to the presidency. The president-elect has remained above the fray in both the case of arrested Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich and with the New Mexico case.

A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson’s political activities won a New Mexico state contract worth more than $1 billion

Here we go again!!

Lets see- another internal investigation, done by self, another claim of no wrong doing-!!!!

The Abramoff Scandal is Expanding: More GOP woes for 2009…
by dengre
Thu Jan 01, 2009 at 09:29:18 PM PST
For many the Jack Abramoff scandal is old news, ancient history and in the past. As the corrupt Bush Administration winds down many of his corrupt fellow travelers are hoping that the Abramoff scandal is dead and buried—and that their involvement will never bubble to the surface.  These Corruptionists hope that the Abramoff scandal is over, but they are just whistling past the graveyard. As Faulkner said:

“The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Quietly, the professionals at the Department of Justice have been working this massive scandal—that is complex by design—to build cases that move from the outer edges to the heart of political corruption in Washington DC. Abramoff is just a doorway in—not an endpoint—and prosecutors are zeroing in on some big fish in a corrupt stream.

dengre’s diary :: ::
To date, sixteen people—including Abramoff—have plead guilty in the scandal and as terms of their pleas they have been cooperating with the DOJ. Another two have been indicted. One is awaiting trial while the other was recently found guilty again in a retrial. Others, including Abramoff, have been indicted for crimes committed on the US Territory of Guam. A trial there is schedule to begin in January 2009. And then there are some indictments on the Marianas Islands that may also prove to be related to corruption in Washington when they come to trial. And that is just what is known on the surface. There are quite a few people identified in these cases who have yet to be indicted, but their day is coming.

The Abramoff scandal is a very active investigation and it is flying far below the radar. One gets the sense that the professionals in the Department of Justice who have been investigating this scandal are waiting out the Bush Administration to minimize political interference and any possible pardons Bush might hand out to his co-conspirators as he leaves office. The US Attorney in Maryland had to be tasked with investigating the DOJ in Washington DC because Abramoff and his team had infiltrated the Justice Department. There is evidence in the Abramoff billing records, documents released from Court cases and from Congressional investigations that former Attorney General John Ashcroft may have exposure is the scandal. Two of his former staffers are involved. One has pleaded guilty and the other has been indicted, his trial should begin later this year.

In the past, I have written about the 750,000 pages of Abramoff scandal documents that were gathered by John McCain and the Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee investigation of the Abramoff scandal. That is a lot of documents, but it is a small pile of paper when compared to the documents gathered by the Department of Justice in their ongoing investigation of the scandal.

Kevin Ring was a key player in the Abramoff scandal. He was deeply involved in helping Abramoff and the K Street Project when he was a staffer on Capital Hill working for John Doolittle and then John Ashcroft. The he moved through the revolving door and went to work as Jack’s Right-hand man. Ring ran the lobbying program for the Marianas Islands and many other clients. He continued to run a K Street Project lobbying program long after Abramoff had been disgraced and sent to jail. When the Washington Post broke the Abramoff scandal in a February 2004 article, Kevin Ring shared his insights on the scandal in an email exchanged with friends that was released as part of a November 2, 2005 Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee doc dump. In one email, Ring confessed:

I know more than the article and the truth is worse.

The Truth is Worse could be the Abramoff scandal tagline. Hell, it seems to be the motto of the Bush Administration and the Republican Party. Kevin Ring is a major scandal player and he is actively fighting the Department of Justice and the investigation into the scandal—when Ring falls, the last line of defense for many corruptionists in DC will fall with him. [cont.]

Vaults! The government has a vault filled with Abramoff scandal emails. And then there are other documents.  So just how many document has the Government given Ring access to as part of the discovery process? Well a response letter from Ring’s lawyers provides some details:

We need an investigation of the Culture of Corruption in Washington that exposes the crimes whether or not the perpetrators are still in office or if they left years ago. We need to expose allies of corruption burrowed deep into conservative “Think Tanks” and NGOs in Washington. We need to expose their sycophants in the media as well.

The Abramoff investigation is still very active. It is not in the past. It is far from over and it may be one of the most active investigations currently underway.  People (in addition to Abramoff) who have pleaded guilty or been convicted in the scandal as of the end of 2008 include:

Trevor Blackann is a former staffer to Congressman Roy Blunt, and Senator Kit Bond who went through the revolving door to become a lobbyist. Blackann (along with Ring and Coughlin) tightens the link between Missouri Republicans and Jack Abramoff. He plead guilty to his role in the scandal on November 20, 2008 and this may have been a contributing factor to Blunt’s decision to leave the GOP House leadership team for the 111th Congress. Blackann is married to Laura Brookshire, a former Tom DeLay staffer and media spokesperson for Richard Pombo and John Doolittle. Blackann is cooperating with the DOJ and has yet to be sentenced for his crimes.

Robert E. Coughlin II was Team Abramoff’s mole in the Department of Justice. He is a Prince of the Conservative movement and this Diary provides details about his background. Coughlin came to the DOJ with John Ashcroft and his guilty plea deepens the links between the Abramoff scandal and Missouri Republicans. Coughlin abruptly resigned from the DOJ in April of 2007 and by April of 2008 he signed a guilty plea for his role in the scandal. The US Attorney from Baltimore was called in to investigate the Washington DC based DOJ because of Coughlin. These Baltimore based prosecutors have opened a second path of investigation into the scandal and it is unclear if Coughlin was the only Abramoff mole in the DOJ. There could be others. Coughlin will be a key witness in the upcoming trial of key Abramoff Lieutenant Kevin Ring and he has yet to be sentenced for his crimes and betrayal of justice.

James F. Hirni is one of the most recent guilty pleas in the ongoing Abramoff scandal investigation. It was just weeks ago, on December 12, 2008 that he signed a guilty plea for his role in the scandal and agreed to fully cooperate with ongoing investigations. Hirni was identified as “Lobbyist E” in the guilty plea of Trevor Blackann. Both plea deals implicate an unnamed staff member of Don Young’s Transportation and Infrastructure Committee (identified as “Staffer D") and long time Tom DeLay aide turned Team Abramoff lobbyist Todd Boulanger (identified as “Lobbyist D"). Boulanger’s indictment could come any day now. The focus of these interlocking pleas is the upcoming trial of Kevin Ring and these cases should be a cause for concern for several current and former members of Congress like DeLay, Doolittle, Blunt and Young—to name just a few.

NOTE: James Hirni was the WalMart lobbyist who was head of their [WalMart’s] Republican” outreach” lobby. Hirni was fired by WalMart prior to even being chaged by the Feds. He pled guilty the same day Lee Scott’s retirement was announced.

Note: The above is an excerpt from Daily Kos diarist via DU.

In court documents filed on November 20, 2008 with the plea agreement of Trevor Blackann, Hirni, identified as “Lobbyist E,” was accused of getting legislative favors by providing illegal gifts to Blackann, a staffer in Kit Bond’s Committee on Environment and Public Works, and a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staff member under Rep. Don Young identified as “Staffer D.” Wal-Mart fired Hirni on November 19, 2008. Another former Team Abramoff lobbyist, Todd Boulanger, was also named in Blackann’s plea ("Lobbyist D"). Boulanger was fired from Cassidy & Associates on November 21, 2008.[1]

Court documents filed November 21, 2008 charge Hirni with one count of “conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud” for giving Blackann and Young’s staffer an all-expenses paid trip to the World Series in exchange for an amendment to the Federal Highway Bill that benefited Hirni and Boulanger’s client, United Rentals.[2]

Hirni also worked… as a legislative assistant to Sen. Bill Frist and Sen. Jeff Sessions.[3]~~ Wikipedia...........NOTE:And , Hirni also worked as an executive legislative director for Tim Hitchinson (R) of Arkansas.

Bill Richardson Withdraws As Commerce Secretary Nominee
By: Jane Hamsher Sunday January 4, 2009 10:09 am

Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC is reporting that Bill Richardson is withdrawing his name for Commerce Secretary because he does not feel that a grand jury investigation into his financial relationship with one of his donors will be concluded in time for him to be confirmed.

Carol Leonig in the Washington Post wrote about the investigation:

A federal grand jury is investigating how an investment company won more than $1.5 MILLION in work advising the state of New Mexico after making contributions to the political action committees of Gov. Bill Richardson, President-elect Barack Obama’s choice to be commerce secretary.~~~~~~~~~Firedoglake

NOTE:..."A federal grand jury is investigating how a California company that contributed to Richardson’s political activities won a New Mexico state contract worth more than $1 billion

Here we go again!! “~~~~~~~’Rastine’

Rastine,where did you get that BILLION dollar figure?Same place you got the double exclamation marks?

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine to head DNC


By MIKE ALLEN | 1/4/09 5:12 PM
Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine has been chosen by President-elect Barack Obama to head the Democratic National Committee, a Democratic official said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Politico

“Billion Dollar figure” & “double exclamation marks”

I got them the same place you got your initials ddrb. From you ex husband!!

Two timing Ken,again.Tsk,tsk.

“Alex: It looks like the union is becoming more and more successful in its campaign to encourage Walmart to close stores and fire workers."~realist in

Walmart closes stores and fires workers realist?

Thanks for pointing the finger at the culprit, realist.

R E M E M B E R
J O N Q U I E R E
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
J A C K S O N V I L L E
T E X A S
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

R E M E M B E R
G A T I N E A U
Q U E B E C
Home of Walmart Worker Abuse

“I don’t see what’s wrong with an employee earning enough to be able to buy a house or having a health plan for the family,” CEO Jim Sinegal of Costco- America’s 4th largest retailer and the 7th largest in the world

Sam Walton on exploitation of WalMart workers…

Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton once said, “I pay low wages. I can take advantage of that. We’re going to be successful, but the basis is a very low-wage, low-benefit model of employment.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wal-Mart#_note-
iswalmartgood

“Is Wal-Mart Good for America?” PBS. November 16, 2004. Retrieved on February 24, 2007.

Sam Walton on abusive behaviors and attitudes against WalMart workers…

“On the other hand, let me say this: anytime we have had real trouble, or the serious possibility of a union coming into the company, it has been because management has failed, because we have not listened to our associates, or because we have mistreated them.” (p. 130)

Quoted from Sam Walton in his book Sam Walton, Made in America: My Story by Sam Walton with John Huey, published by Doubleday 1992 (credit and thanks again to Screwed).

“The culprits are the union activists which do all they can to encourage Walmart to close the stores.”
realist in another ignorant mode

realist in
Sunday, January 04 at 12:46 PM

“Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.” Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)

From you ex husband!!

Did someone call?

bbrd aka Someone,

You were found out long ago…

“In terms of PR strategies, Rubel last year told BusinessWeek that the first job for companies is to monitor the blogs to see what people are saying about them. The next step is to think of damage-control strategies. And when blogs attack, he says companies have to learn to track what blogs are talking about, pinpoint influential bloggers, and figure out how to buttonhole them, privately and publicly (see BusinessWeek.com, 5/2/05, “Blogs Will Change Your Business"). Edelman’s Web site states that, as senior vice-president in Edelman’s me2revolution practice, “Rubel is widely viewed as an expert on conversational marketing.”

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/oct2006/db20061018_445917.htm

WalMart- We hire internet frauds and shills for our business aroma stink therapy and reputation salvage efforts.

You were found out long ago...

If you want to stand by your assinine claim, I’m afraid you’re going to have to “prove it”, sir…

Let us review shall we...bbrd aka Someone aka Vicky-

“Way to go ddrb

bbrd was hoping nobody would remember that he and Someone in USA are actually one in the same.  He was hoping it would all fade deep into the Walmartwatch archives, never to be seen by newer posters to this website.

He’s got some nerve to accuse you and SDV of being “frauds” and such.  bbrd/Someone in USA is the REAL fraud.  Notice how he’s taken up the blogging style of SDV in his last post?”

ScrewedbyWal-Mart in Anytown, America
Friday, November 28 at 08:30 PM

“bbrd in
Wednesday, October 01 at 09:00 AM~~~~~~~NOTE: This entry is from a thread entitled,"WalMart Downsizes in Japan”,September 29,2008,from the WMW archives. The link is operative on the archived site .When you click on the name bbrd,it links to Watching WalMart-Someone in USA site.”

ddrb in
Friday, November 28 at 04:43 PM

http://someoneinusa.blogspot.com/

So, now you used a sign in page so as to not man up ( or transvestite up?) to you’re being caught in internet identity and posting fraud. Try getting hold of yourself bbrd/Someone/Vicky and this time from the waist up.

http://someoneinusa.blogsnot.com/ can be seen at http://walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/wal_mart_downsizes_in_japan/

WalMart- We hire internet frauds like Someone/bbrd/Vicky etc etc

“When you click on the name bbrd,it links to Watching WalMart-Someone in USA site.”

ddrb in
Friday, November 28 at 04:43 PM”

If anyone should know whether bbrd and Someone in USA are one and the same person, it would be bbrd’s ex-wife, ddrb!!

Tell us, ddrb, is Someone in USA your ex-husband?

RDS is realist

RDS: Anyone who claims to be my an ex-husband is a liar--unless you believe in beyond the grave communications.

No Way To Treat a Friend: Wal-Mart’s Shabby Earthquake Aid to China“So,RDS, when bbrd concocts a lie about being my exhusband, that we spent time together at Cape Cod,and continues the deception-you approve of this?” ...
walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/no_way_to_treat_a_friend_wal_marts_shabby_earthquake_aid_to_china/
Labeled blog

Wal-Mart Partners with SAP On New Financial Systems~~~~~~~~~~~~Creepy,bbrd, like when you pretended to be my exhusband ,and fabricated an incident where we allegedly spent on Cape Cod? ...
walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/wal_mart_partners_with_sap_on_new_financial_systems/print
Labeled blog

Wal-Mart’s Achilles’ Heel bbrd: It is evident you have no thing of substance to discuss,and the only ... married to me,we NEVER went to Cape Cod ; but for either sport or malice ...
walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/wal_marts_achilles_heel/
Labeled blog ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~NOTE: This BS has beeen pulled before. bbrd/Someone even ADMITS it’s untrue in one of these WMW threads.

ddrb,

“So,RDS, when bbrd concocts a lie about being my exhusband, that we spent time together at Cape Cod,and continues the deception-you approve of this?”

No, I don’t APPROVE of it, but, neither do I approve of people suggesting one person is another, just to make it look like there are only one or two posters who share an opinion!!  So, if one person can spread LIES, shouldn’t EVERYONE be able to do it?  But, as so many LIES are posted here as facts, by the anti side, it is hard to tell what is truth and what is not!!

In the know,

“RDS is realist”

You are right, I am A realist, but, not THE realist that posts here, so I guess you aren’t really ‘In the know’, as you claim!!

KyKieg <a >dtzfxhkqwmhz</a>, txsganyssxhf, [link=http://gcveiiqaccox.com/]gcveiiqaccox[/link], http://gvwhhabsoiir.com/