Friday Blog Roundup: Wal-Mart Women Win

Wal-Mart Women Win

• Wall Street Journal Legal Blog: Wal-Mart to Face Class-Action Suit
  A federal appeals court ruled today that Wal-Mart must face a class-action lawsuit alleging female employees were discriminated against in pay and promotions. The ruling paves the way for what could become the largest-ever pay discrimination suit. If a jury were to find discrimination, Wal-Mart could face multibillions of dollars in damages claims.

• Labor & Employment Law Blog: Ninth Circuit Approves Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination Class Action Involving At Least 1.5 Million Women
  The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court’s decision which found the case to be suitable for a class action and, therefore, allowed what is unquestionably the largest employment class action in history to proceed.  Importantly, the court did not express any opinion on whether Wal-Mart actually discriminated against the plaintiffs or the remaining 1.5 million class members.  It only held that the plaintiffs could pursue their claims as a class action.

• Wall Street Journal Law Blog: Lawyer of the Day: Brad Seligman
  Yesterday, a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit affirmed class-action status for a suit alleging gender discrimination in pay and promotion at Wal-Mart. More than 1.5 million past and present female employees of the retailer are included in the suit.
  
  Wal-Mart has said it plans to ask an en banc panel to rehear the case. But for now, the 2-1 decision represents a big win for the co-lead plaintiffs lawyer in the case, Brad Seligman, the founder of the Impact Fund, a Berkeley, Calif., non-profit organization that, among other things, bring “public interest impact litigation.”
  
• Wal-Mart Watch Blog: The Women Of Wal-Mart Will Have Their Day In Court
  Wal-Mart’s lead attorney in the case told reporters today’s ruling was “one step in what is going to be a long process. We are very optimistic about obtaining relief from this ruling as the case progresses.” If Wal-Mart can’t get the 3 judges who sat in today’s decision to rehear the case, they also can ask for the full panel of 15 judges to hear it. The Impact Fund of California represents the women who filed the lawsuit.
  
  “What this shows is that no amount of PR or spin can avoid the day in court that is coming, and it’s time for Wal-Mart to face the music,” said the lead attorney for The Impact Fund. “We’re confident that the women of Wal-Mart will have their day in court.” Wal-Mart could wind up paying out billions if it loses the class-action lawsuit.
  
• Click here to learn more about the Dukes v. Wal-Mart suit.

"Better Health Care Together"

• Click here to read more about SEIU’s partnership With Fortune 500 Companies, labor and civic leaders.

Health Care In America

• Huffington Post: Andy Stern: New Momentum to Fix Health Care in America
  Some people were surprised to learn today that I participated in a news conference with the CEOs of several major corporations - including Wal-Mart, with whom our union has major differences. We announced the formation of Better Health Care Together, a new partnership committed to building the momentum and political will we need to bring health care to every man, woman and child in America by 2012.
  
• Think Progress: Why We Did It
  Some of you may be wondering why two leading progressive groups like SEIU and CAP have joined in a coalition with Wal-Mart, AT&T, and Intel on health care.  This is an important issue that deserves a direct response.
  
  From all of our years in organizing and government, we have concluded that the primary obstacle to health reform is not the lack of ideas. What is needed to bring about fundamental reform is new pressure for change and genuine political will. This involves going beyond the traditional coalitions of associations and advocates and political players on both sides of the debate.
  
• Huffiington Post: Jonathan Tasini: Will A New Labor-Business Alliance Solve Health Care Crisis?
  Today, a new new labor-business health care coalition unveiled itself to deal with the health care crisis. Personally, I am solidly in the camp that believes that single-payer is the only rational way to change the health care system in America. But, I think it’s useful that business and labor are at the table.
  
• Campus Progress Blog: The Wal-Mart Enigma
  It seems like public relations fiascos are just about the only criticisms Wal-Mart responds to. It’s good news that they’ve joined the SEIU and CAP to make progress on health care, but it can’t cover up Wal-Mart’s despicable record on labor. 

Wal-Mart Launches Movie Download Website

• Engadget: Wal-Mart signs big 6 studios for movie downloads
  Lookout iTunes, later today Wal-Mart will be announcing a download deal with all six major Hollywood studios—the first of the big boys to do so. So not only will Wal-Mart’s HP-created web site carry flix from Paramount and Disney just like Apple’s service, they’ll also tap into the treasures of Warner Brothers, Sony, 20th Century Fox and Universal.
  
• iTechNote:  Top 10 Facts About Wal-Mart Video Downloads
  The new Wal-Mart Video Downloads website (still in beta) imposes tons of restrictions on the movies or TV episodes you purchase from them.
  
• 24/7 Wall St.: Wal-Mart Bears Down On NetFlix And Blockbuster
  Wal-Mart has made enough mistakes recently that most of its competition may not be overly concerned when the company launches a new service. That could be a mistake. Hewlett-Packard is providing the technology for Wal-Mart to launch an on line video store and DVD-by-mail service. All six Hollywood studios have signed on.
  
• BloggingStocks: Wal-Mart’s movie download strategy
  If you recall, Wal-Mart began to try and offer DVD rentals from its stores (and at its website) years ago but gave up and referred customers to Netflix before the program even got off the launch pad. It was odd to see Wal-Mart admit failure so quickly, but it did in that case.
  
• BoingBoing: Wal-Mart’s new download service: how many ways it doth suck
  Actually, it’s an abstract post-digital conceptual art project *disguised* as a video download service (this page on the site renders like this in Firefox).
  
• Gizmodo:  Breaking! Wal-Mart First to Offer Digital Movies From All "Big Six" Studios
  Topping it off, Wal-Mart has recruited HP to design the store and ostensibly make it more user-friendly than its standard site. We tried getting in to scope it out, but right now it appears to walled off.  This is a huge win for Wal-Mart, but it remains to be seen if the Wal-Mart name can drive the market to new heights (with lower prices to boot), or conversely, if it winds up driving people away.
  
• Click here to read about Wal-Mart’s other less than successful online ventures.

Nazi-Themed T-Shirts: Consumerist On Congressional Letter From Congress To Wal-Mart

• Walmart Nazi Shirts In Chicago Tribune, Thanks To Our Readers
  Consumerist readers, for the win. A great example of the power of blogs to make a difference. With our low overhead, we’re able to stick with a story and follow it through to the bitter end, even after the AP and CNN wrote it off as a done deal. We collected reports from readers across the country, slowly compiling evidence of Walmart’s unwillingness and/or inability to properly conduct a product recall. A hill source tells us that Walmart Watch, who reads The Consumerist, were the ones that tipped off Schakowsky’s office.
  
• Consumerist: Congress To Walmart: Stop Selling Nazi T-shirts
  Members of Congress started a letter writing campaign today, urging Walmart to stop selling t-shirts bearing Nazi iconography...Inside, the letter Rep. Schakowsky circulated to other members of the House and the letter to Walmart CEO Lee Scott…
  
• Consumerist: Walmart Nazi Tshirt Watch: Week 12
  12 weeks after t-shirts bearing Nazi insignia were discovered in Walmart, the retailer has yet to remove them from all their stores, despite initial promises to do so within days.

Behind The Counter

• Behind the Counter:  BBCAmerican - The Wal-Mart Interview
  Well, thewritingonthewal.net asked for an interview back in December and we finally managed to work something out. I’m answering their five questions, and a select few from other readers.
  
• Behind the Counter: My thoughts on the new Wal-Mart schedule
  Logistically, the whole scheduling process probably won’t work smoothly, at least not right off the bat, because of a myriad of practical concerns that people who have never spent time actually managing a store have no concept of.

Behind Closed Doors

• BloggingStocks: How is Wal-Mart planning to go after Target?
  Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.’s "behind closed doors" meetings with its store managers and industry analysts last week was probably meant to be a "no holds barred" session" where the world’s largest retailer tries to gain a foothold into the best operating strategy it can with lessons from past failures along with store-level and industry feedback....

The End Of Corporate Civility?

• Resonance Partnership Blog: Wal-Mart v Julie Roehm: Is this the end of corporate civility?
  But what I really don’t get is the necessity for the smear campaign. Wouldn’t it have been more civil for Wal-Mart to have let it go at with a few euphemistic words such as "bad fit" or "philosophical differences." Why start with "improper conduct." and then go to she had an affair and we can prove it.  Weren’t things once, that civil? Julie Roehm has two children and a husband. Is it necessary to sling mud? Wouldn’t Wall-Mart’s brand image been a little less tarnished by some high road behavior?

The Wal-Martization Of The World?

• Wal-Mart Watch Blog: The Wal-Martization Of The World?
  As Wal-Mart prepares to roll out the details of its joint venture with Bharti Enterprises later this month, Indian politicians are already preempting any foreign takeover of the local retail economy.

Site Fights Around The County

• Wal-Mart Watch Blog: How Wal-Mart Development Impacts Transportation
  Wal-Mart prefers to build their stores where they can get the largest lots and the cheapest land. This frequently places their stores on the outskirts of municipal borders. Generally speaking Wal-Mart supercenters can only be effectively reached by automobile because they are sited away from municipal centers.

 

• Dateline Earth: Nailing Wal-Mart to the wall
  Efforts to stop Wal-Mart and other big box stores from plopping down in smaller towns and cities have had mixed results. An already-built and stocked Wal-Mart in Chelan hasn’t opened because a judge last month ruled its building permit was invalid. Residents of the picturesque town of Sequim formed Sequim First and fought to keep a Wal-mart out, but failed.
  
  But Bellingham’s city council voted 4-2 yesterday to ban the construction of new big box stores.
  
• Curbed: Cross Brooklyn’s Albee Square Off Wal-Mart’s NYC List
  Specifically, at the Gallery Mall which was owned by Thor Equities until this week when the developer sold it for $125 milliion, which is $100 million more than the purchase price in 2001. Thor had planned a building up to 60 stories tall on the site. Well, the mall is going to come down and the new developer, Albee Development LLC, wants to put up a 1.8 million square foot residential-office-retail project. But an anti- Wal-Mart coalition has an agreement with the developer that there won’t be a Wal-Mart.

Posted by Russ Fagaly on Friday, February 09, 2007

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