Meet The Waltons: Lobbying To Increase Their Own Inheritance

From The Smoking Gun: Alice Walton, the Wal-Mart heir worth $6 billion, might want to shell out some of that dough for a chauffeur. The 48-year-old Arkansas woman was arrested in late-January on drunken driving charges after her Toyota ran off a road and hit a gas meter. Walton suffered a broken nose when her face greeted the steering wheel. An unruly Walton, the daughter of late Wal-Mart boss Sam Walton, refused to take a blood-alcohol test and, according to these police reports, asked officers, “You know who I am, don’t you? You know my last name?”

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/walmart1.html

Wegman’s supermarket chain is vastly more successful than it’s union counterparts. While other chains are struggling to survive, Wegman’s is actually increasing revenue even despite Wal-mart. Now what does this tell you? Perhaps the unionized business model just doesn’t work ;-)

The death tax mostly clobbers small business owners and family farmers. It is very unfair, and entirely unnecessary. It is an excellent example of the government using tax policy to punish people, rather than just to raise necessary revenue. I’m glad the Waltons are lobbying to help put this bad idea to rest.

sorry coherent but that’s not necessarily true. you might want to read this report by the congressional budget office from last year:

http://www.cbo.gov/showdoc.cfm?index=6512&sequence=0

and the Times did a story about the report as well.

http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FA0B1EFC3E590C738DDDAE0894DD404482

i guess underfunding public health programs just to let rich people keep money they didn’t necessarily earn is completely fair.

The Waltons make me want to projectile vomit, like most of their groupies on this site do.

The three retailers mentioned in this article certainly have different personas. Wegman’s was #1 in 2005 and #2 in 2006 on the Fortune list of best employers to work for. They had an issue with pricing in New York state several years ago involving a major consumer products company, but overall they are very good with great merchandising.

Nordstroms’ is a first class upscale retailer that bends over backwards to take care of their customers. 99.5 % of the Wal-Mart clones could not afford to shop there and if they wandered in by mistake they would be lost. Quality goods, friendly smiles, liberal return policy. Try that at the Mart.

I guess we can’t fault them for trying to protect what they have earned. I find it disgusting when one of the WM foundations cuts checks for “great deeds” to local groups on one hand and then sticks someone else with a store relocation into an area where homes will be uprooted for a new supercenter, which is happening in our area.

kelly: “i guess underfunding public health programs just to let rich people keep money they didn�t necessarily earn is completely fair. “

If they earned the money OR someone freely chose to give it to them, it is fair. It is their money, after all. Hadn’t you’d best keep your nose in your own wallet?

As for “underfunding public health programs”, the government has plenty of money to spend on this already. There are so many examples: Did you know that the federal government (through the Conservation Reserve program) pays farmers $2 billion annually to NOT farm their land? There’s plenty of money there without stealing more money by charging a double-tax. Just spend it in the right place.

Besides, cutting the taxes will likely lead to more money coming in anyway. This happened with the JFK tax cuts, the recent Bush cuts, and other times.

Also, do you have better links? The first one was a white page, and the second one was locked out.

generic - “The Waltons make me want to projectile vomit, like most of their groupies on this site do.”

As long as they are vomiting their own caviar, on their own Porsche seats, I don’t see a need to get in a snit about it.

for Gupta1.

You said: “ then sticks someone else with a store relocation into an area where homes will be uprooted for a new supercenter, which is happening in our area. “

Are they actually forcing people out? Is this one of those eminent domain abuses? Tell more, please.

Time toget hundreds of people and protest ALice and her family.  What do they think we are chinese workers?
Abusing them for up to seventy hours a week!
Kharma will come around!!!!  Wait until thefight for the inheritance
I’m gonna love it!!!

coherent, sorry about that. hopefully this will work:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/65xx/doc6512/07-06-EstateTax.pdf
(pdf report)

also, you have to have a times select subscription to view the NYT article, but if you google the title i’m sure you could find a copy somewhere?

Coherenet

For info. on a possible relocation for a new supercenter, log on to http://www.wjettv.com There is an article about it.

The estate tax hurts more than just “rich people”.  It’s a tax anyone who inherits anything of value (such as land, home, etc) has to pay.  My father is not a rich man, but he owns his home which will go to me when he dies.  Unfortunately so will the estate tax.  I hope they get rid of it soon.

I was in one of your Wegman’s stores a few years ago when I was in your country. It was their flagship store somewhere in Pennsylvania if I remember correctly. It was a very nice store except the dry grocery area was kind of lame.
I do believe that this is a good company to work for. I talked to one worker for a while and they seem very happy.
If a company treats their workforce well, then they don’t need a union. If the don’t, then they need one. That is why Walmart is always under the gun and on the defensive.
They pay poor and treat poor.
Why do you think they get all this attention?

“If a company treats their workforce well, then they don�t need a union. If the don�t, then they need one.”

And what if the union also treats the workforce poorly, as is so often the case? Who do you bring in then?

Looking at this pix of Alice at the top of this page, I only knew it is a woman by the earring and flower top worn. Or am I wrong.

Alex in Ontario, Canada

You have it backwards.  There isn’t pressure to unionize Walmart because WM employees want it.  The SEIU is trying to unionize Walmart because they have the potential to make BILLIONS of dollars out of it.

I know several Walmart employees.  They do not want to unionize and they would like for WMW to butt out.

Beau in USA (4/27 @11:01am)
The picture is not of Alice but that of Helen.

Paul now in Mo (4/27@12:07 pm) you are right as to the unions wanting the dues.  However WM does need an internal WM Associates (employees) only union to address many issues.  I have been working on this for quite some time so that employees can have a spokesman for them.

JM in Usa why do you want to ridicule Paul with your remarks.  Can’t we all keep this to the point and work for the betterment of us all.  Any how have a good day JM.

JM in USA

I don’t know any Walmart managers. I believe that if it was put to a vote, less than 10% of the employees would vote for a union. This is based on my conversations with the WM employees I know. You would only have to look at this web site to understand the small percentages. They look at this site as being stereotypical union behavior. Walmart employees know that this site is promoted by the service employees union. They know that the SEIU has no interest in their welfare and the sole SEIU goal is to unionize Walmart.

A few months ago, WMW proudly talked about an event where “activists” took the carts in a WM and then paraded around the store blocking the isles and just generally disrupted the store. Do you really believe that they would want to belong to a union, the SEIU, which advocates such disruptive and juvenile behavior? By the way “activists” are non-union workers are paid minimum wage by the unions.

Similarly, a few months ago, WMW proudly talked about an event where “activists” dressed up in Hazmat suits and blocked a meeting of Walmart managers.. Do you really believe that they would want to belong to a union, the SEIU, which advocates such behavior?

Most employees, including Walmart employees, want to be proud of their company. This site continually talks about how Walmart breaks the law. They talk about this WM as if the practices were common practice. They know these are not common practices. They look on these accusations as unfair and are making the company they work for look bad. In addition, for those employees who participate in profit sharing, WMW is hurting the value of their Walmart stock. Do you think they want to reward the SEIU for hurting them? In addition they look at the criminal record of the unions themselves which has repeated on several occasions in this site.

Walmart employees recognize that Walmart stock is not just owned just by the Waltons. It is owned by many non Walmart employees in addition to themselves. Any increase in costs whether it be fighting WMW or increasing their own wages and employees must be paid by someone. Raising prices just tends to be a vicious circle. You raise prices and sales go down and you have to further raise prices. Many bankrupt companies can attest to this. The increased costs won’t be “paid” by the multi-billionaire Waltons. They have an investment in Walmart stock and at any time can choose to invest their money elsewhere and the threat of lower stock prices may very well persuade them to do so which will just lower the stock prices and even further hurt WM investors, including the employees.

Participants in this board frequently talk about how stupid and discourteous WM employees are. Do you really think they want to belong to a union which believes that they are just human garbage only fit to pay their monthly dues?

Participants in this board frequently talk about the low quality of products sold at WM. Walmart employees know what they sell. They recognize that they are selling the same products as most other stores. Do you really think they want to belong to a union which condones such behavior?

WMW frequently deletes posts and blocks IP addresses of particularly effective pro-Walmart posters. This is rarely done because of inappropriate language, it is done because the posts are too effective.

Walmart employees can also see what is happening to other unionized organizations. They look at the manufacturing sector, especially the auto and airline industry. They see them going down the tubes, due much in part to the unreasonable demands of the unions. They see the unions unwilling to give up their outrageous benefits, even when their employer is trying to stay solvent.

In addition the SEIU cannot provide one instance in the last twenty years where they organized a company and actually benefited the employees. After taking into consideration union dues and other obligations to the union, did it benefit the employee? Forget about what happened in the early 1900s. What has the unions done recently?

“WMW frequently deletes posts and blocks IP addresses of particularly effective pro-Walmart posters. This is rarely done because of inappropriate language, it is done because the posts are too effective”

I’ve seen posts deleted that represent both sides. There are a huge amount of posts that are strongly pro-WMT, anti-union, and specifically anti-SEIU that REMAIN. I fail to see any sort of consistent pattern of supression perpetrated by those who infrequently monitor/edit these blog sections. Compared to other blogs, they do a pretty good job here, especially when the mission “statement” here is quite open about being one-sided. Those of us who do not like how “.The Watch” is run can easily start our own blog elsewhere, edited the way they want to.

So all these factors will make Wal-Mart stock go down?
Better not pay more to the workers.
So then, why has Wal-Mart stock gone down 20% anyway?

PS Paul, you ask so many question (not really good ones either), that I will let you answer them yourself.

First I give credit to the SEIU for this site and allowing all to post, whether you agree with them or not.

I personally do not agree with SEIU, and I have a lot of
experience with unions from both sides of the fence over
many years.  All need to go back and read the writings of
Samuel Gomphers.

Now as to Wal-Mar—I am certain I could get the majority of
employees (over 50%) in any given store to vote for an
in-house association (union).  At the present time, the
employees have no voice in many matters.  Anyone who has worked for WM knows that the open-door policy does not work.  The in-house association would work.

It would be basically consist of so many stores in a district.
It would not work for all stores to be in the same geographical units as they are different isssues.  In each
district from each store 2 or 3 would be elected to speak for all the employees in that particular store.

Anyone who reads on here and is or has been an employee of WM knows many fellow workers who have been “screwed” by WM and had no place to turn.  I can
think of several incidents.  I truthfully believe in a few years
this will come to fruition, perhaps not exactly as I have stated, but something similar.

All have a blessed day.