Lead Paint Used to Lower Product Costs

Speaking of painting things over with lead, try this-

Uribe’s Failure to Win U.S. Congress Signals Loss of Trade Pact

By Mark Drajem Sept. 10 (Bloomberg)
Excerpted-

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has fired three generals tied to drug cartels, agreed to extradite a narcotics boss and hired top Democratic lobbyists to try to persuade the U.S. Congress to sign on to a trade accord.

No sale.

Colombia and the Bush administration reached the accord 18 months ago, and it has languished in Congress ever since. Democrats and unions say the murders of Colombian labor leaders and the Uribe government’s links to paramilitary groups mean the Latin American nation doesn’t deserve the deal.

The standoff has left the White House and business allies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and United Parcel Service Inc. trying to head off what would be the first-ever rejection of a trade agreement by Congress. That would have reverberations reaching far beyond the $16 billion in commerce between the two nations.

A History of Violence

Those against the deal say their opposition is based on the level of violence in Latin America’s sixth-largest economy, especially against union organizers.

``It’s an outrage that this would even be considered,’’ says Yvette Pena-Lopes, a lobbyist for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. While her union is also fighting the deals with Peru and Panama, ``Colombia is more personal, because you have the trade unionists being killed.’’

Last year, 72 labor leaders were killed, according to an analysis by the U.S. Labor Education in the Americas Project, an independent group that examines data on Colombia for the AFL- CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation.

While such killings have dropped by more than half since Uribe, 55, took office in 2002, there are still more union officials killed in Colombia than the rest of the world combined, says Stephen Coats, the group’s executive director. And just a handful of the murders have led to arrests, he says.

``If Congress doesn’t pass it, they lose the opportunity to reinforce a link with an important ally in the region,’’ says Alberto Ramos, senior Latin America economist at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. in New York. ``It would signal that U.S. commitment to free trade isn’t as strong.’’

U.S. corporations are also weighing in. Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart, which brings in duty-free flowers, textiles and apparel from Colombia under current trade- preference programs set to expire in February, is helping to lead the lobbying effort.

``There’s no question that it’s a different degree of political difficulty for Colombia,’’ says Scott Miller, a lobbyist for Procter & Gamble in Washington. When it comes to reducing violence and protecting labor leaders, ``the key political question is: How much is enough?’’

Rubens Barbosa, a former Brazilian ambassador to the U.S., isn’t optimistic.

``There’s a wave of protectionism running through Congress and the Democratic Party,’’ says Barbosa, who now heads a consulting firm. ``I don’t think the Colombian deal will be approved in the foreseeable future because of the political considerations.’’

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=a7ULPgnWA4ew

WalMart- Aside from our German and Korean international failures, you should see the other crap we pull against labor outside the United States. Our hostility against people/workers in other countries should be remembered on a day like today.

“Our hostility against people/workers in other countries should be remembered on a day like today.”

Congrats, SDV - just when I thought you couldn’t get any lower you try to tie 9/11 and Wal-Mart together with your latest zinger!

...so, tell us, are you looking up to see your shoelaces, yet?

Bill

Nice try “Bill” in missing the point about international corporatist behaviors and the consequences. Perhaps you too think British and American corporate oil practices in the Middle East over the last 60+ years had nothing to do with 9/11. Corporations need to be held accountable for their overseas practices before they come home in another 9/11 type reaping and sowing event.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man: How the U.S. Uses Globalization to Cheat Poor Countries Out of Trillions-

John Perkins, from 1971 to 1981 he worked for the international consulting firm of Chas T. Main where he was a self-described “economic hit man.” He is the author of the new book Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/09/1526251

“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
Abraham Lincoln

“The righteous considereth the cause of the poor: but the wicked regardeth not to know it.”
Proverbs 29:7

WalMart/International Corporate Team Psychopath- Bill is a team player, how about you?

“SanDiegoView”,

Your political views and conspiracy theories aside - to use this anniversary of the most horrific day in our lifetime as your personal platform to take a shot at a store is an insult to Americans, everywhere.

What a tool you really are…

Bill

Bill

You must be a MORON of epic proportions!

You’re on a UNION site you IDIOT!!!! What better place to speak out against atrocities committed against UNION members.

Bill, if you want to see a “tool” just look in a mirror.

If you don’t want to read UNION news, go elsewhere. I’m quite sure that you are not being forced to post, or even visit this site for that matter.

“It depends on the client’s requirement,” she said. “If the prices they offer make it impossible to use lead-free paint, we’ll tell them that we might have to use leaded paint. If they agree, we’ll use leaded paint. It totally depends on what the clients want.”

Sound familiar?

quality fade: This is the deliberate and secret habit of widening profit margins through a reduction in the quality of materials.

Nice try “Bill” in missing the point...

That’s what he does best when he’s not speaking for “Americans, everywhere”.

Warning!  We now have the terrible twosome in attack mode!

Hey, Big D (ick!), why not go back under that rock you came from…

Bill

Ken,

If you’ll pull your head out of your hiney, you will see my response was directed at the worthless, tasteless SDV for the “9/11” remark he made—not the subject matter at hand, slick…

Bill

The only way you can get any attention here is to flame me or SDV or Screwed (newly added Big D).

You’re a nasty small-minded little man. If you were the most ardent anti Wal-Marter on the planet I would still tell you to get lost.  I do not suffer fools gladly!

Bill

Your comment about my large manhood has me so upset that I may find it hard to keep coming back too this site..... I guess that I’ll just have to brave the on slot of your childish comments.

You truly are a pathetic little man, funny, but pathetic

“Bill” is the kind of “American” that wants to repeat the visit of evil upon this country through deliberate, willful ignorance and denial of corporate and lackey government meddling history in the Middle East that caused 9/11. Arrogance and extreme corporatist attitudes and political propaganda that now cause the wolves and ignorant of the nation to drift into a sick jingoistic manipulation of suckers. “Bill” is a WalMart patriot of monetary convenience. Like the WalMart/Edelman ‘war room’ slobs he is another right wing incompetent propagandist fool existing at other people’s expense.

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. ~ George Santayana

WalMart- It is the way of the modern globalist corporation. We fund Chinese Communism now because it is convenient manipulative capitalism today. Someone else can pay the consequences tomorrow. “Bill” doesn’t mind lead paint for your kids to chew on or lead bullets for Columbian labor leaders. It makes no difference to the Bentonville ‘love of money’ corporate psychopath slobs.

“The Shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as a liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as a destroyer of liberty.” Abraham Lincoln

“why not go back under that rock you came from…”

It seems to me someone made this suggestion to you, after your first few “posts,” Bill.

And you had the nerve to ask SDV if he had to “look up to see his shoelaces?”

Anyone who needs to stand on a step ladder to look a newt in the eye, shouldn’t be the one hurling insults at others!  Fortunately for all of us, like the crested newt, you’re rare, Bill.

“It depends on the client’s requirement,” she said. “If the prices they offer make it impossible to use lead-free paint, we’ll tell them that we might have to use leaded paint. If they agree, we’ll use leaded paint. It totally depends on what the clients want.”

This paragraph caught my attention too, because I saw it as an argument against the idea of quality fade.  There’s nothing secret about this. This would imply that not only is the buyer aware of what is or may be used in making the product, they also approved it.

“It depends on the client’s requirement,” she said. “If the prices they offer make it impossible to use lead-free paint, we’ll tell them that we might have to use leaded paint. If they agree, we’ll use leaded paint. It totally depends on what the clients want.”

Doesn’t this statement made any on else mad,if its true the Companies during this should be stopped. They are getting around the law, no matter who it is Wal-Mart Target K-Mart if they knowing did this there should be an out cry from all of us.

This is putting the bottom line against the safety and well begin of us all.

I wonder how far this is to other products made over seas not only toys but perhaps the food we eat the clothes we wear.

now hear this,walmart,et.al.------------GET THE LEAD OUT!!!

There’s nothing secret about this.

Was it a secret from the Chinese manufacturer? No. Was it a secret from the toy companies? No. And despite Wal-Mart adopting their best see-no-evil stance, was it a secret from them? Probably not.

It was a secret from the parents buying lead-tainted toys for their children to chew on. But, guess what? The secret is out!

(one gram of uranium produces as much energy as one ton of oil - this difference is a factor of one million).

quality fade: This is the deliberate and secret habit of widening profit margins through a reduction in the quality of materials.

From 2 years ago-

Scott Warns China Wal-Mart Suppliers Re ‘Standards’

Greg Levine,
10.20.05

Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. spoke to suppliers at a Thursday business conference, where the CEO declared that his firm has a lot of people to answer to--and he wasn’t speaking of investors.

The CEO then took a strident tone towards its Pacific pipeline. “The factories in China are going to end up having to be held up to the same standards as the factories in the U.S.,” Scott said. “There will be a day of reckoning for retailers. If somebody wakes up and finds out that children that are down the river from that factory where you save three cents a foot in the cost of garden hose are developing cancers at significant rates--so that the American public can save three cents a foot--those things won’t be tolerated, and they shouldn’t be tolerated.”

WalMart/Lee Scott- Let the American public consume WalMart propaganda while America’s kids eat Chinese lead paint. Thanks for the efficiency cult Lee. BTW, are your dogs still alive?

For inclusion in the:

Ooops! I Wish I Hadn’t Said That file.

And for whom were those gardens hose being manufactured so that the American public could save 3 cents a foot?If somebody wakes up and finds this out? Evidently,this gives new meaning to awakening the “SleepingGiant!I guess if nobody had ever rudely awakened him,perhaps 4 cents a foot would have become the new low standard....lower prices,lower standards,always!