NLRB Finds Wal-Mart Guilty of Union-Busting

so what big deal target does the same things to new hires and so do numerous other companies and we dont hear crap from any of you on that so shut up wmw

since when is this a site about walmart?one day that will mean something to me but only after my walmart deprogramming and life returns to me and has meaning.walmart has helped me to piss on my own grave how come we dont hear more about that from you walmart haters?

Yawn!!! How about listing all findings by the NLRB against Walmart ..... and the union during organization efforts in the last 1-2 years. Then we would really have something to read about.

I have no doubt the Bentonvillians intend to ‘outlast’ Betty Dukes and her posse as well.

Meanwhile they can spend millions on a PR effort to hide their high crimes and misdemeanors.

A little extra reading for Doug…

Over the past 10 years, the NLRB or its administrative law judges have determined in at least 11 cases that Wal-Mart or individual Wal-Mart stores were engaging in unfair labor practices to prevent unionization, according to the agency’s website.

An excerpt from 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

And this little item-
According to a 2004 report in The Nation, WalMart stores even administer personality tests to applicants to screen out potential union sympathizers.

This item from the Los Angeles Business Journal by Anthony Effinger-

“Jon Lehman, a former store manager who is with the union now, said Wal-Mart has a 60-by-60 foot room at its headquarters in which two dozen people with headsets monitor calls and e-mails from stores to see whether anyone is talking about union organizing.”

WalMart- We think we are the law. And above it. Anybody in the Bush Attorney General’s office even thinks about prosecuting the WalMart/Bentonville slobs for anything and Carol Lam out the door you go.

SanDiegoView...SanDiegoView...SanDiegoView… Note you did not tell how many times the Union was quilty. Nor have you noted the number of these rulings were overturned. And quoting a union salt that went back to nest… when you have them on your payroll they will say anything to “beat thier own chest”. Wal-Mart is not Homeland security. No way could the monitor the amount of e-mails and calls you are talking about...plus there is nothing that has ever back up this claim. You would think it would have come up and been a part of the public record in the cases you refer to. Great fiction and a story you have left out several chapters.

It would be helpful Doug if you did your homework and actually cited any material, your opinions are unsupported as usual for the pro-WalMart shills, but it appears you really don’t want to. All the material above is documented and cited. I understand your wanting to evade the record and attempt to glorify WalMart. WalMart acts like it is the Dept. of Homeland security with these documented facts as well..

Remember the Julie Roehm e-mail wiretapping/surveillance just a few months ago by WalMart on her outside of their system. They knew about her private e-mails outside of the WalMart servers.
“Wal-Mart’s evidence included a personal e-mail between the two co-workers that Roehm claims was exchanged outside of the company’s e-mail servers.
In general, e-mails exchanged over office computers are considered company property, but those sent through employees’ personal computers are deemed private.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=2851118&page=1

An employer may not,
however, monitor communications of a purely personal nature. See, e.g., Deal v. Spears, 980 F.2d
1153 (8th Cir. 1992)

The wiretapping surveillance of Michael Barbaro of the New York Times was not about theft or national security. This was illegal political wiretapping in violation of , 18 U.S.C. § 2510-2520.

Limitations on Electronic Surveillance
Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968, as amended by the
Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, 18 U.S.C. § 2510-2520, commonly referred to as the Federal Wiretapping Act, generally prohibits the interception, disclosure or intentional use of wire, oral or electronic communications, including those which occur in the workplace. A wire communication or the attempted interception of same, is one that carries a person’s oral communication over a wire cable or like facility such as a phone call. The definition of a wire communication includes the “electronic storage of such communication.” See 18 U.S.C.§2510(1).
An “oral communication” is an oral communication made in circumstances indicating the individual uttering the communication expected it would be private. See 18 U.S.C. § 2510(2). Private conversations between two individuals are “oral communications.” See Dorris v. Absher, 959 F. Supp. 813 (M.D. Tenn. 1997), rev’d on other grounds, 1999 WL 349955 (6th Cir., June 2,1999)(employees of county office had reasonable expectation of privacy in conversations taperecorded by office director in the office, and therefore such conversations were “oral communications” entitled to protection under federal wiretapping statute).

The Act provides a civil cause of action to anyone whose communications are unlawfully intercepted. See 18 U.S.C. § 2520. Successful plaintiffs may recover actual or statutory damages($10,000 or $100 a day for each day of violation, whichever is greater), punitive damages, and attorney’s fees. The Act also makes the unlawful interception of an oral, wire, or electronic communication, or the attempted interception of same, a crime punishable by fine and/or imprisonment.

Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report
Wed Apr 4, 2007 12:44am ET

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter’s phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., The Wall Street Journal reported.

As part of the surveillance, the retailer last year had a long-haired employee infiltrate an anti-Wal-Mart group to determine if it planned protests at the company’s annual meeting, according to Bruce Gabbard, the fired security worker, the Journal said.

“Wal-Mart has been cited by the National Labor Relations Board for numerous labor law violations, including illegal spying on employees, falsying time cards for avoid paying overtime, fraudulent record keeping, and illegal firings for union organizing.”

http://www.collegenews.org/x4656.xml

WalMart- A corporate conscience that is a dog that won’t hunt for social responsibilities. Except in Public Relations.

SanDiego, I did read about the WM Marketing Exec that got fired for having sex with somone that worked for her. I seems that the wife gave WM the e-mails—guess a lot of women would do that if there husband is messing around with the boss. And the employee that did the snooping regarding the reporter was fired immediatly because the actions were not directed or authorized by Walmart. This is why actions against Walmart were never taken. There are no facts, public record or published information that can prove the facts the fired empoyee states. If he was stupid enough to take unlawful action on his own ... he will say anything for 15 mins. of fame.  I do my homework read public records, qoutes from gov officials and solid reporting. I do not quote college news papers or quote ABC that reported something someone esle reported that someone else reported.... and by the time you quote it is is far from the facts.

Doug,

“I seems that the wife gave WM the e-mails”

It seems that SDV ‘forgot’ to mention that, I wonder why?  Maybe because then his whole story would have fallen apart!!  After all, it would be very hard, to retrieve E-mails from someone’s private home computer!!

Doug, ABC News, Bruce Gabbard, Julie Roehm, Jon Lehman, the NLRB and many many others including even Tom Coughlin and WalMart’s own admissions in these cases themselves are far more reliable and factual than you could ever hope yourself to be. Being pro-WalMart obstinate and stupid will gain you no credibility or admiration if that is what you are shopping for. You seek to impeach sources and claim the internet is hearsay (why are you even here then) and disavow regular news sources, these are the notions of typical desperation on your part as a devotee WalMart propagandist. Perhaps your best notion of a valid news source is FOX NEWS or the Rev. Rush Limbaugh.

Actions were and are taken against WalMart (even internally by their own admissions if that is their best claim to ethical fame), fines, lawsuits, public prosecutions and vast government investigations etc are all part of WalMart’s highly notable business misbehaviors. People and businesses break the law all the time and most often in business practice, never get caught. Especially if you are the Bush crowd and don’t want to prosecute your political friends who funded your campaigns. But this yields numerous employees who become enemies of WalMart, not disgruntled ex-associates with suspect moral qualities, but rather a huge aggregate of evidences that WalMart must try to deny and suppress.

Fired Worker Claims Wal-Mart Spy Operation
By MARCUS KABEL
Reuters

But in a text message to The Associated Press Wednesday, Gabbard confirmed the allegations that he was part of a broader surveillance operation approved by the company. The team, the Threat Research and Analysis Group, was a unit of Wal-Mart’s Information Systems Division.

“I can confirm everything in the WSJ story is correct except the glass wall comment which I didn’t make,” Gabbard wrote, referring to a description of the Threat Group’s glass-enclosed work area at Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters.

Gabbard told the Journal he recorded the calls to the New York Times reporter on his own, but added many of his activities were approved by Wal-Mart. The Journal said other employees and security firms confirmed parts of his account.

On Friday, Wal-Mart sued Mr. Gabbard, accusing him of leaking trade secrets in articles published in The Wall Street Journal. The suit in Benton County circuit court said Mr. Gabbard possessed “highly confidential information about Wal-Mart’s strategic planning,” an apparent reference to Project Red. A judge granted a temporary restraining order barring Mr. Gabbard from disclosing confidential information.

“When Wal-Mart fired me and went public with it, I felt it was character assassination. They were trying to make me look like I was a whack job and they were taking the moral high ground,” Mr. Gabbard says.

The Journal said other employees and security firms confirmed parts of his account.
http://a.abcnews.com/US/wireStory?id=3007403

You don’t do your homework, Doug.

You don’t cite any sources or documentation of your own and cast an uninformed deliberately tilted misunderstanding on the sources supplied. This is the reason why…

“ Public-relations specialists make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so that the wilted and less attractive petals are hidden by sturdy blooms.” Alan Harrington, “Public Relations,” Life in the Crystal Palace (1959)

“I(t) seems that the wife gave WM the e-mails—” ~Doug in Springfield

Is this a fanciful “theory” of yours Doug, or do YOU have some hard facts to back this up?  Are you a graduate of the RDS School of Credibility?

Screwy,

<a >Here’s your source. It’s one I doubt you can argue with.</a>

Ken, I’ve seen it do this to you, too. Weird.

Anyway, that link again:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29walmart.html?_r=1&em;&ex;=1175313600&en=ce5565f53d6a7782&ei=5087
&oref=slogin

I did a search on “roehm” and “emails” and found multiple links that support the claim that Womack’s wife gave the emails to Walmart.  But as we’ve seen in the past SDV will never admit he was wrong and made inaccurate statements.  And Screwed just likes to follow in other peoples foot steps.... that’s when he’s not commiting his own acts of plagiarizing.

I did a search on “roehm” and “emails” and found multiple links that support the claim that Womack’s wife gave the emails to Walmart.  But as we’ve seen in the past SDV will never admit he was wrong and made inaccurate statements.

Kudos to the rational thinkers (Mary and Someone).

As for SVD, it seems the stronger his prejudice gets, the more material he keeps missing!

And Screwed just likes to follow in other peoples foot steps.... that’s when he’s not commiting his own acts of plagiarizing.

Not so much plagerism, as it is guys like Mr. Screwed and Kenbo will believe anything so long as it supports their point of view (i.e., “the world is flat").

It is interesting that the conversation has been diverted from Mr. Gabbard and WalMart spying to the topic of Ms.Roehm,a female,former WalMart exec to salacious details of her involvement. As such, its only fair to give equal time to other WalMart executives,male executives, in the past who “blazed the trail” ,prior to Ms. Roehm.According to ,"In Sam We Trust,"Bud Walton was sneaking around and began an affair with a W/M office worker back in the late ‘70’s.This eventually led to a divorce from his wife,Audrey.Additionally, WalMart’s General Counsel at the time was divorcing his pregnant wife and having an affair with his file clerk in his department,according to an affadvit file with the wife in Benton County Chancery Court.(WalMart subsequently changed its policies to forbid supervisors from dating their direct employees AFTER firing two married employees from dating,though one was already separated but in process of divorce.) “In Sam We Trust”,pp 359-60.

Weird.

I think we’ve been stripped of our ability to link. Lord knows, I screwed it up plenty. Now, however, we are limited to my personal favorite.....

Copy & Paste

To rehash the details of the sweet Julie Roehm episode has little or nothing to do with the fact that Wal-Mart is “engaging in surveillance of the union activities” as well as all sorts of other activities. These activities include but are not limited to customer data mining. Least we forget....

Wal-Mart’s data warehouse* is larger than 4 petabytes. What the Hell is a petabyte you may well ask? The progression goes like this: megabytes, gigabytes, tetrabytes, and petabytes. A petabyte is a unit of information or computer storage equal to one quadrillion bytes.

They used to say Wal-Mart was second only to the Pentagon in computer capacity. I’m not sure they are number two any more.

*Too big to be considered a data base any longer.

Ken V: If you go to the thread” WalMart Grows Old and Moves to Florida”,your comment about area 71 provides a link to the Joplin,Missouri story about WalMart’s Jane ,Missouri data center. Long article, but excellent.( You can also type in Kansas City in the search engine here.)

BTW: Springfield ,Missouri is less than two hours drive,eastward,from Jane,Missouri.

Ken V—what has the world’s largest database used by Walmart suppliers to track sales of thier products got to do with this string. Tracking and ordering products purchased by over 100,000,000 people each week has got to take up a lot of space. Using sales data to determine what is selling and what is selling with other items is not new to any company that sells products. It improves customer service and improves sales. So adding this to the string makes about as much sense as quoting the price of rice in China. Which by the way is going up…

Doug: what has the world’s largest database used by Walmart suppliers to track sales of thier products got to do with this string. ~~~~~~~~Uh,are you experiencing difficulty with your comprehension skills?Perhaps you need to review the posts on Mr. Gabbard and surveillance?

“Ken V—what has the world’s largest database used by Walmart suppliers to track sales of thier products got to do with this string.”

“Wal-Mart is not Homeland security. No way could the monitor the amount of e-mails and calls you are talking about...plus there is nothing that has ever back up this claim.”
Doug in Springfield, MO
Saturday, July 12 at 07:04 PM

Disproving again the point you brought up, Doug. And of course the chorus of WalMart’s other propaganda hyenas having lost all sense of WalMart surveillance practices including the illegal surveillance acts…

Sean Womack’s wife Shelly was contacted by WalMart through a previous Womack business colleague to obtain e-mails that occurred outside of WalMart’s servers. How did WalMart know they existed for Tom Mars to go hunt them down?  ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE.

How did WalMart know the content about and then obtain internal e-mails of DraftFCB between Tony Weisman and Howard Draft that have no possible existence on WalMart’s servers? ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE.

There were numerous gmail accounts that were privately used outside WalMart servers.

WALMART MADE CLAIMS AGAINST ROEHM, WOMACK, WEISMAN, DRAFTFCB SELECTION ETC BASED ON THESE AND NUMEROUS OTHER E-MAILS AS WELL AS THOSE ON THE WALMART SERVERS IN THEIR OWN COURT FILING (THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT IN THE EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION CASE NO. 2:07-cv-10168 March 19, 2007).

“And the employee that did the snooping regarding the reporter was fired immediatly because the actions were not directed or authorized by Walmart. This is why actions against Walmart were never taken. There are no facts, public record or published information that can prove the facts the fired empoyee states.”
Doug in Springfield, MO
Sunday, July 13 at 12:45 AM

In addition to your being obviously wrong and typically WalMart propagandist defensive Doug, this is where you venture again into the illegal surveillance practices of WalMart and Bruce Gabbard as but one example of the many cited above.

“Gabbard told the Journal he recorded the calls to the New York Times reporter on his own, but added many of his activities were approved by Wal-Mart. The Journal said other employees and security firms confirmed parts of his account.”

WALMART AND THEIR AGENTS PRACTICE ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE. WHEN THEY GET CAUGHT, THE WALMART PROPAGANDA AND SPIN MACHINE GOES PARANOID.

An excerpt from 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)

ddrb and SDV—Wow what a stretch a merchandise database is used for these purposes. Time to call Oliver Stone to do another movie ... say along the lines of JFK. Walmart knew the emails were there when the spouse found out that her husband cheated on her and she came forward to fry his “rear”. So it makes sense these would be provided in the record. Oh and by the way Roehm is old news. She dropped her suit because there was no hope in it getting anywhere. And Gabbard… no facts could prove his claims. Just someone that got fired and tried to enjoy his 15 mins. of fame.

“Walmart knew the emails were there when the spouse found out that her husband cheated on her and she came forward to fry his “rear”.”
Doug in another lie and/or willful misrepresentation=

“Quiet resolution was not what Shelley Womack got when she agreed to help Wal-Mart. According to Roehm’s lawyer, Wal-Mart had one of Sean Womack’s old Saatchi & Saatchi X colleagues - someone who still does advertising work for the retailer - call Shelley in January and urge her to contact Thomas Mars, the retailer’s general counsel.”

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/30/8405396/index.htm

Bruce Gabbard had more than enough facts for walMart to file suit against him to not disclose what he knows.

On Friday, Wal-Mart sued Mr. Gabbard, accusing him of leaking trade secrets in articles published in The Wall Street Journal. The suit in Benton County circuit court said Mr. Gabbard possessed “highly confidential information about Wal-Mart’s strategic planning,” an apparent reference to Project Red. A judge granted a temporary restraining order barring Mr. Gabbard from disclosing confidential information.

“In a recent email, Mr. Gabbard said he was “going underground” as a result of the furor created by that article.”

Your just another WalMart fraud Doug, who won’t do his homework.

And Gabbard… no facts could prove his claims.~~~~Doug,where are WALMART’S facts to DISPROVE and COUNTER Mr.Gabbard’s statements?

...a merchandise database...

What flavor Kool Aid is Wal-Mart serving today, Doug?

Incidentally, if you had read the previous posts you would know what Wal-Mart has is no longer called a data base..it’s a data warehouse!

It improves customer service...

I want some of whatever you’re smokin’, Doug. Wal-Mart has no customer service. A needless frill dropped long ago.

Anyone interested in catching up on Wal-Mart’s surveillance ‘activities’, click on my name.

Oh,they’re being “Serviced”,alright!

Pentagon Expanding Its Domestic Surveillance Activity
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 27, 2005; A06

Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies, said the data-sharing amendment would still give the Pentagon much greater access to the FBI’s massive collection of data, including information on citizens not connected to terrorism or espionage.

The measure, she said, “removes one of the few existing privacy protections against the creation of secret dossiers on Americans by government intelligence agencies.” She said the Pentagon’s “intelligence agencies are quietly expanding their domestic presence without any public debate.”

The Marine Corps has expanded its domestic intelligence operations and developed internal policies in 2004 to govern oversight of the “collection, retention and dissemination of information concerning U.S. persons,” according to a Marine Corps order approved on April 30, 2004.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/
11/26/AR2005112600857_pf.html

To that end, the global retailer, still headquartered in Bentonville, AR , (population: 19,730) has established what it calls its Analytical Research Center, within its global security division. A few months ago, it hired Harrison – who brings 14 years military intelligence experience with Army Special Operations and the 82nd Airborne, as well as stints with the U.S. Border Patrol and the Department of Justice – to organize and run its new intelligence-gathering center.

The vast majority of the data being collected by Wal-Mart is not currently being used for any investigation purposes, said Harrison, but the company would be willing to cooperate with law enforcement officials, if necessary, to fight terrorism, or to defend itself against criminal activity.

“If a JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] comes to us and wants to look at it, I believe we would cooperate,” he predicted.

Wal-Mart has been in touch with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and its Customs and Border Protection unit, about the federal government’s concept of a “trusted traveler” program. And Harrison is encouraging local store managers to bring information about local incidents to their closest JTTF. But he recognizes that his brand-new intelligence office – the first of its kind in corporate America, he believes—is just getting started on a long and complex journey.

“We’re still taking baby steps,” he said.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/feb_06_02/wal_mart.html

“I promise you a police car on every sidewalk.”—M. Barry, Mayor of Washington, DC

WAL-MART HAS ITS OWN INTELLIGENCE AGENCY AND IT’S WATCHING YOU-

Monday, March 27, 2006
11:46 AM

According to GSN: Government Security News, the February issue, Vol 4 Issue 2, Wal-Mart has developed its own intelligence agency. This isn’t just corporate security--these people are developing a vast data base on millions of employees and customers. David Harrison is Wal-Mart’s first manager of “threat assessments and collection, analysis and dissemination.” With 6,238 retail outlets in 16 countries he cites bombings, armed robberies, and bomb threats, “...and that was just yesterday.” Wal-Mart has created an Analytical Research Center, within its global security division.

The company maintains personal data – names, addresses, social security numbers – on its 1.6 million current employees; millions of additional former employees; and 47 million members of its Sam’s Club operations. It keeps records of anyone who has tried to use fraudulent checks or filed a claim against Wall-Mart; anyone who uses a Wal-Mart’s pharmacy; as well as the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), license plate number and home address of any motorist who has had his automobile’s oil changed at a Wal-Mart, said Harrison.

http://www.gsnmagazine.com/feb_06_02/wal_mart.html

CUSTOMER INTELLIGENCE
November 17, 2004
What Wal-Mart Knows

“With 3,600 stores in the United States and roughly 100 million customers walking through the doors each week, Wal-Mart has access to information about a broad slice of America - from individual Social Security and driver’s license numbers to geographic proclivities for Mallomars, or lipsticks, or jugs of antifreeze,” according to a New York Times article last week. “The data are gathered item by item at the checkout aisle, then recorded, mapped and updated by store, by state, by region. By its own count, Wal-Mart has 460 terabytes of data stored on Teradata mainframes, made by NCR, at its Bentonville headquarters. To put that in perspective, the Internet has less than half as much data, according to experts.”

Although customers won’t complain, Hudson contends that this will squeeze suppliers even further. “You can see the pattern of Wal-Mart’s mandates, and as Wal-Mart grows in power, it is getting more dictatorial,” he said. “The suppliers shake their heads and say, ‘I don’t want to go this way, but they are so big.’ Wal-Mart lives in a world of supply and command, instead of a world of supply and demand.”

http://customer.corante.com/archives/2004/11/17/what_walmart_knows.php

This item appeared to illustrate some of the additional analysis WalMart does on customer profiling-

A recent New York Times story ("What Wal-Mart Knows About Customers’ Behavior”, 11/14/2004) shows this trend extending to general merchandise retailing. The article documents the massive amount of data Wal-Mart collects on customers, workers, and suppliers. This allows the company to track item sales across the country on a real-time basis, to perform analyses of data, in-store inventory, and so on. It can measure the effect on sales of minor changes in price and it can see how well a promotional campaign or new product does hour by hour. It gives the company an in-depth understanding of customer shopping patterns. It also uses the data to discipline suppliers whose truck arrive even an hour late to a store or whose sales on specific items does not meet targets.

Pretty impressive and pretty scary, depending on your point of view, and certainly one of the big reasons for Wal-Mart’s success. The company is getting more and more detailed profiles of its customers and their behavior. Easily available data means they can match credit card numbers and other information to determine where each customer’s lives, the value of their house, their income bracket, the car they drive, their family status, and so on. From your purchases they can know what size pants you wear, what books you read and DVDs you watch, how much junk food you buy, and, if you use their in-store drugstores, what medicines you take. This same intelligence gathering is catching on at other major retailers, from supermarkets like Safeway, to general merchandisers like Target, to electronics retailers like Best Buy, Pretty chilling.

http://www.oligopolywatch.com/2004/11/27.html

“Beware of that profound enemy of the free enterprise system who pays lip-service to free competition - but also labels every anti-trust prosecution as a “persecution.” Franklin D. Roosevelt, speech in Chicago, Oct. 28, 1944.

Wal-Mart eyes expansion in electronics services

By Andria Cheng, MarketWatch
Last update: 6:45 p.m. EDT June 5, 2008 BENTONVILLE, Ark. (MarketWatch)—Wal-Mart Stores Inc. signaled Thursday that it’s very interested in expanding into installation and repair services in its fast-growing electronics segment.
“We are looking at different options,” Gary Severson, a Wal-Mart senior vice president, told MarketWatch during a store tour with media.
Services-market entry would amount to a frontal attack on Best Buy Co.
Analysts have singled out installation and repair services—via its Geek Squad operation—as key differentiators for Best Buy vis-à-vis Wal-Mart~~~~~~~~~~~

I think we’ve been stripped of our ability to link. Lord knows, I screwed it up plenty. Now, however, we are limited to my personal favorite.
=========================
johnson789
Addiction Recovery Illinois
<a >
Addiction Recovery Illinois</a>

I think we’ve been stripped of our ability to link. Lord knows, I screwed it up plenty. Now, however, we are limited to my personal favorite.
=========================
johnson789
Addiction Recovery Illinois
http://www.addictionrecovery.net/illinois
Addiction Recovery Illinois

I think we’ve been stripped of our ability to link. Lord knows, I screwed it up plenty. Now, however, we are limited to my personal favorite.
=========================
johnson789
Addiction Recovery Illinois
[url="http://www.addictionrecovery.net/illinois"]
Addiction Recovery Illinois[/url]

Crooks and Liars has a new story this morning(and video) of WalMart and RILA being exposed :~~~MN’s WCCO CH4 news’ “Reality Check” segment destroys, point-by-point, a new intentionally misleading Sopranos-spoof TV ad by the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace, which is actually a cartel of national business groups including the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) and Wal-Mart, masquerading as a pro-union, pro-worker group on behalf of Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) against his Democratic challenger Al Franken.

The ad exploits “a distorted stereotype of the Mafia, and of labor unions as tools of organized crime” to misrepresent legislation that, despite what the ad implies, would actually make it easier for workers to organize unions.~~~~~~~~Crooks and Liars ~~~~~~~~

ddrb,

“spoof TV”

Isn’t Al Franken one of the cast of the old Saturday Night Live ‘spoof TV’, show?  So, he should be good judge of it!!

“a distorted stereotype of the Mafia, and of labor unions as tools of organized crime”

Maybe, that is because that stereotype came from those organizations actions in the past!!  And, what is it that they say about a leopard changing it’s spots?

RDS: I dont know, RDS. Maybe you should ask WalMart about why THEY feel they need to change their past image. Isn’t that the purpose of the new logo? Incidentally,weren’t you once an alcoholic,according to your own admission? Yet,according to you,you changed YOUR past ways.And good for you!(BTW,With all the false sockpuppet identities you’ve assumed here over time,"chameleon “might be more appropos in your case, than leopard.)

P.S. : Jesse"The Body” Ventura was considering entering the Minnesota race, but last night decided to opt out.

ddrb-

The legislation is unfair to those who don’t want a union (MOST Wal-Mart associates) and those who want their privacy in a union vote.

Also, I have followed RDS’s posts for a long time and he has never attempted to deceive anyone regarding his identity.

Someone: How do you KNOW he hasn’t EVER attempted to deceive? How do YOU know his subjective motivation?How do you KNOW that some of his many incarnations didn’t EVEN deceive YOU?

BTW: HOW do YOU KNOW what most WalMart associates want and don’t want regarding unions-or anything else? Have they ever been ASKED if they even want a union? Are they allowed to be surveyed as to their choices or their input without fear of reprisal? Since you seem to KNOW so much,perhaps you can elucidate for the rest of the reading public here. The floor is all yours.

1. There is a consistent record of RDS’s aliases and their posts on this site and WUWM.

2. RDS has a pretty distinctive style.

3. Me deceived? You’re kidding.

Someone: I’d say your response is merely ASSumption on all counts.

Simple, my dear. If most U.S. associates really wanted a union, there would be one somewhere.

For the record, in my time at the stores, I heard a lot of complaining, but no one ever mentioned anything about a union.

One and two are facts. I suppose I don’t know whether or not you were kidding. Maybe I should go have a drink with him and report back. He and I do live in the same area, after all.

Then again, you probably think I am RDS.

Someone:” My dear”? Are you hinting?  Go have a drink WITH him?? RDS allegedly quit drinking-or was that one of his “alternate selves”?

in my time at the stores, I heard a lot of complaining, but no one ever mentioned anything about a union.

Someone in USA~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Perhaps , when you were “around “ ,they knew it better not to mention ANY organizing of ANY sort?

If you read my posting history, you will see that bbrd is not the only one who uses that phrase, and I was around long before he started posting. Read my early work; it’s especially good.

Perhaps , when you were “around “ ,they knew it better not to mention ANY organizing of ANY sort?

It wasn’t as if I was a rat. It took a while before I started playing any sort of workplace politics. I’m actually a fairly likeable guy in person.

Someone: Ahem, we’re not “in person “.  The phrase “ Loses a lot in translation” comes to mind.

a lot of wm asociates ddrb have been ex ufcw union grocery workers like me and know how that union is.most wm associates dont want a union and thats a fact you must unionize wm haters refuse to accept and understand.the ufcw union just wants dues money.they wont fight hard enough for them to get higher wages,full time work for everyone and etc.hey ddrb have you ever worked in a ufcw union grocery store and seen the treatment and the way the union and the grocers treat workers like i have?didnt think so.so until you have walked in my shoes you have no right to criticize me or wm.yes the same united food and commercial workers union that has been feeding you all the wm bs on here the last 3 yrs.

Matt: Do you believe two wrongs make a right? Why not go directly to websites of stores you dislike and complain directly?If you believe unions to be useless,isn’t it logical that complaining at a union site will be useless too?

We have every right to criticize you Matt for being a liar and a fool. YOU ARE NOT BELIEVABLE CONCERNING THE RETAIL EXPERIENCE. The long march to break up the unions in the United States and elsewhere is a well known effort and fact of corporations of which WalMart is foremost in retail. WALMART EXPRESSLY PROHIBITS UNIONS FOR THEIR WORKERS IN THE UNITED STATES.

‘Someone’ from his above posts would have the deceived not know that WalMart has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prevent unionization of employees in the USA.

There are many kinds of unions. Some are operated better than others. The American people accept unions where they are permitted.

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.”
Abraham Lincoln

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

That’s not true. In the past I have posted the company’s policy on unions word for word. You can look it up as I don’t have it handy and don’t wish to look for it. Trust me, it does not “expressly prohibit” them.

Someone: Wouldn’t that be illegal if it did?

BTW: Do you remember when Sam Walton,et al., would say-"We’re not anti union-we’re non union.”?

I’m getting jealous, Double D! :o)

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

It is absolutely true and unavoidably factual. It is also the sole reason walMart does not have any union representation in any of its stores in the USA.

Back in 1970 Sam Walton hired a professional union buster to lecture Wal-Mart employees about the negative aspects of unions, and successfully squashed an organizing push by the Retail Clerks Union in two small Missouri towns.

Sam Walton again on exploitation of people/labor-

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.

Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions
Tapes Reviewed by ABC News Show Clinton As a Loyal Company Woman
By BRIAN ROSS, MADDY SAUER and RHONDA SCHWARTZ

Jan. 31, 2008—
Excerpted-

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Wal-Mart’s anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton’s fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.

Tate was fond of repeating, as he did at a managers meeting in 2004 after his retirement, what he said was his favorite phrase, “Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living.”

Wal-Mart says Tate’s comments “were his own and do not reflect Wal-Mart’s views.”

But Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton and other company officials often recounted how they relied on Tate to lead the company’s successful anti-union efforts.

An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.

The tapes, broadcast this morning on “Good Morning America,” were provided to ABC News from the archives of Flagler Productions, a Lenexa, Kan., company hired by Wal-Mart to record its meetings and events.

A former board member told ABCNews.com that he had no recollection of Clinton defending unions during more than 20 board meetings held in private.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4218509&page=1

“A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.”
Proverbs 19:5

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

It is absolutely true and unavoidably factual. It is also the sole reason walMart does not have any union representation in any of its stores in the USA.

Beginning in July 2005, he is the subject of a United States Department of Justice investigation, as well as a lawsuit by Wal-Mart, and is being reviewed by a federal grand jury over misuse of company gift cards. When the charges first surfaced in April 2005, Coughlin claimed the money he embezzled was being used to pay bribes to trade union officials not to organize at Wal-Mart locations and to identify pro-union Wal-Mart workers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Coughlin_(Wal-Mart)

Coughlin Says Cash Helped Wal-Mart
Ousted Executive Cites Expense of Anti-Union Activity

By Michael Barbaro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 9, 2005; Page E01

Excerpted-

ROGERS, Ark., April 8—The former head of Wal-Mart’s U.S operations, ousted from the board after the alleged misuse of corporate funds, has maintained that the money was spent on anti-union activities such as paying people to identify stores where union leaders planned to recruit, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Such payments could violate federal law if they went to current union members. But lawyers for Thomas M. Coughlin, in rebutting what the company has called a “disagreement” over expense reimbursements, will argue that although he periodically paid people to keep tabs on organizing activity in Wal-Mart stores, none of the recipients were members of a union, the source said.

Coughlin “believes he was doing what was in the company’s interest” by collecting information on union activity, said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. In countering the company, his lawyers will contend “he was not stealing” but reimbursing himself for work-related expenses, the source said.

Coughlin has not been charged with a crime. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has turned the matter over to the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas. The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment Friday.

Coughlin, once the No. 2 executive at the company, stepped down as a board member two weeks ago after an internal investigation raised questions about the use of up to $500,000 in company funds, Wal-Mart said. The investigation, which prompted the company to fire three more employees, focused on the alleged unauthorized use of corporate gift cards and suspect expense reports.

In a written statement, Coughlin’s attorneys, Blair G. Brown and William W. Taylor III, said their client “did not seek nor obtain any improper reimbursements from Wal-Mart” and added: “We are unable to respond further to allegations concerning expense reimbursement without seeing the records. Wal-Mart has refused to provide them.”

Paying union members for information about organizing efforts is prohibited by the 1947 Taft-Hartley labor relations act. It also violates federal law to pay a current employee for information about union organizing activities, according to Robert Bruno, professor of labor and industrial relations at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Wal-Mart already has a hard-nosed image when it comes to unions. Earlier this year, the company announced it would close a Canadian store that had recently voted to organize, saying the Quebec outlet was not profitable. In 2000, shortly after 11 Wal-Mart meat cutters in Texas voted to be represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers union, the company announced it would pre-package meat and eliminate meat cutter jobs company-wide.

The UFCW, which is trying to organize Wal-Mart’s 1.2 million employees, called on the company to release any relevant documents and sharply criticized its labor practices. Wal-Mart contends that unions make retailers inefficient and has successfully resisted their formation at its 3,000 U.S. stores.

“We are deeply disturbed by these allegations of Wal-Mart’s anti-union activity,” Bill McDonough, executive vice president of the UFCW, said in a statement. “These are serious criminal offenses and cast Wal-Mart’s systematic anti-worker activities on a much more sinister level.”

Coughlin’s lawyers, in their statement, lashed out at the retailer for refusing to release key documents. They said it was “unfair to Mr. Coughlin, after his many years of service to Wal-Mart, for the company to refuse to provide him with the very documents it has publicly said are questionable.”

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38810-2005Apr8.html

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

SDV: The article on Coughlin is very interesting and one I have not seen before. Thanks. BTW,if you do not possess a copy of In Sam We Trust,PLEASE get one,muy pronto!The ENTIRE history of this company’s inception, conception and deception . A first-rate primer on how the foundation of the behemoth was built. COPIOUS info on union busting for those researching the subject.Written by WSJ reporter Bob Ortega,it is a MUST ,an omnibus of” Waltonia”.

ddrb, I have not read In Sam We Trust by Ortega but have seen parts. It shames me as a sociologist and historian with all the WalMart notes I’ve put out, but hey as a cartoonist I’m envisioning Tom Coughlin and John Sweeney rolling each other fat doobies.

ddrb,

“Incidentally,weren’t you once an alcoholic,according to your own admission?”

I never said I was an alcoholic, I just stopped drinking alcohol, to keep from becoming an alcoholic!!

“Go have a drink WITH him?? RDS allegedly quit drinking”

I didn’t stop drinking, I just stopped drinking alcoholic beverages, I would gladly have a drink with Someone, as long as mine was a Mountian Dew or a Pepsi!!

“And good for you!(BTW,With all the false sockpuppet identities you’ve assumed here over time,"chameleon “might be more appropos in your case, than leopard.)”

Here is a list of my identities:

Robert Springer, bob, Donald, and RDS, and the reason I changed, was when others started posting under my name!!  I always announced that I was changing!!

As for sockpuppet identities, SDV takes 1st Prize and Screwedby used to use Tom Boese as his 1st identity!!

“Wouldn’t that be illegal if it did?”

Yes, it would, but, if you check it out, most NON-UNION companies that have handbooks, have a clause that they are non-union and prefer to stay that way, and that is not illegal!!

“HOW do YOU KNOW what most WalMart associates want and don’t want regarding unions-or anything else? Have they ever been ASKED if they even want a union? Are they allowed to be surveyed as to their choices or their input without fear of reprisal?”

First, do you think Wal-Mart associates don’t know about unions?  Under the system, employees have to SEEK union representation, unions cannot solicit employees, that is why they want the law changed!!

And, there is a difference between being non-union and anti-union!!  Not all non-union employees WISH to become unionized!!  If Wal-Mart employees wanted a union, all they would have to do, is contact the union and the union can ask the NLRB for organizer protection and they will be immune from reprisal!!

“Back in 1970 Sam Walton hired a professional union buster to lecture Wal-Mart employees about the negative aspects of unions, and successfully squashed an organizing push by the Retail Clerks Union in two small Missouri towns.”

It is not illegal for a company to explain “the negative aspects of unions”, they have just as much right to do that, as the union has to explain ‘the positive aspects of unions’!!  BTW:  The term “Union Buster” is a ‘negative’ term, used by unions, for downgrading people who explain “the negative aspects of unions”, guess they should call union people “Non Union Company Busters”!!  If a company DOESN’T have a union, how can you bust something that doesn’t already exist?  They should call them “Union Preventers”!!  And, did you know, unions use the same tactics, to convince people to JOIN a union, as the companies use to disuade employees from joining a union?

piss on you ddrb i am going to rag on and dog your favorite stores on here that do the same shit you piss and bitch at wm for doing and if you dont like it tough shit.i have went and complained on other websites maam.i know what site i am on and in case you are too stupid and dumb we have freedom of speech.you are not a real person ddrb because a real person holds their favorite stores to the same standards u hold wm to.you dont which proves that you are a selfish spoiled,ufcw union brainwashed hypocrite.

hey sdv have you ever worked in a union shop or union comapny before like i have?until you have walked in my shoes and seen up close what a pile of shit the ufcw union is and how they and the grocers mistreat workers you have no right to criticize my credibility because unlike you i am an ex ufcw union member pal

when wm became my life i hated everybody that did not like wm.now i hate everybody who wont love wm.it makes me lie and make things up but who cares anyway.what is wrong with lying wm does it all the time and that makes it ok by me.i have never been in a union or ever got a good wage.my benefits are from the government because welfare has been a big part of my life because i work at wm part time when they let me.i am bitter because i chose the wrong path in life and fucked up with my belief being programmed by wm.i shit in the back of my own car to remind me of how stupid i was to get involved with wm.can someone direct me to egoriddenasshole.com?

And good for you!(BTW,With all the false sockpuppet identities you’ve assumed here over time,"chameleon “might be more appropos in your case, than leopard.)

Better a “chameleon” than a “charlatan”, which pretty much sums you up!

I agree with Someone—RDS’ online presence, regardless of whatever handle he uses, is fairly easy to recognize as he doesn’t have to play the “cloak and dagger” game…

bbrd: Weren’t you the one who is known to crow repeatedly,"You KNOW you’ve hit a nerve when they start insulting!” That WAS you,right? Seems your more nervous than usual of late,judging from YOUR panoply of inane and insane accusations....not to mention your outright lies and fabrications.

Much was made upthread about the inequity between how a sfemale executive is trated differently at WalMart than a male executive. Example :Julie Roehm and Tom Coughlin for one. However, Julie seems to be on the upswing,more power to her. Here’s a snippet from Forbes.com-7/14/08-
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When Julie Roehm was introduced at a digital marketing panel in San Francisco this spring, she told the audience her expertise was in the auto industry. Then, according to Advertising Age, she added she’d also spent a year in Arkansas “at a retailer.”

Roehm then put her hand over her mouth and coughed for effect.

Of course, everyone knew the retailer Roehm avoided naming is Wal-Mart, which fired her from her marketing communications role in December 2006. In the very public--since privately settled--legal battle with Wal-Mart, she had to deal with allegations that she had an an affair with a subordinate and accepted gifts from a prospective ad agency.

But with good humor, Roehm, 37, has tried to turn the whole thing into a selling point for her new business, a one-woman marketing consultancy called /Meta, . “When you’re given lemons,” she says, “make lemonade.”

Roehm claim revenues this year should exceed $1 million.

“The upside of a scandal is people [who reach out to you] know what you have to offer is worth more than whatever speculation there is,” she says.

Next: appearing as a judge on a new CBS reality show called Jingles, in which contestants compete to create the best ad tunes. Hard to think she’d have landed that gig without the Wal-Mart “publicity."~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Good for you! Sounds like some SWEET lemonade!

Weren’t you the one who is known to crow repeatedly,"You KNOW you’ve hit a nerve when they start insulting!”

Sure, I said that—and I’ll probably pull a “ddrb” and say it again and again and again…

Seems your more nervous than usual of late,judging from YOUR panoply of inane and insane accusations....

Care to name a few?  Or were you just trying to empress everyone with your latest finds in the dictionary?

IMO, you went off the deep end, months ago...really, you must learn to lay-off that caffeine…

bbrd: I like the Empress part!

I never said I was an alcoholic, I just stopped drinking alcohol, to keep from becoming an alcoholic!!

Which of the ‘12 Steps’ is denial?

Empress Double D ...it has a nice ring to it.

Ken V : Let’s see now. You’re” Le Roi “King Kenzu, I’m Empress Double D,and ofcourse,two very special royal twins-my “girls”. Now,if we could only find an AMUSING court jester!

Ken V,

Are you trying to say, that if someone drinks alcoholic beverages and realizes they would be better off not using them, that means they are an alcoholic and are in denial, but, if they continue to keep drinking, they are not in denial?

Just because I decided not to do something anymore, should show ‘realization’ of a future problem, not denial of it!!  But, you being a former tavern owner, must feel sad to see someone stop drinking, it’s bad for the business!!  And, as I haven’t had any alcohol to drink in almost 30 years, where would the denial come to play?  I just found it to be a big waste of time and money!!  I used to go fishing, but stopped doing it, does that make me a Fishoholic in denial?

Are you trying to say...

I am trying to say I don’t care if what you have is an illness or a weakness. You drag your dirty laundry through this blog in the hope of gaining some credibility but it has the opposite effect in my eyes.

You remind me of the comedy routine* that deals with guests on Oprah or Jerry Springer. The first guy comes out, admits he was a crack addict that beat his wife and abused his kids but after a stint in prison he has reformed! The crowd goes wild: Yay! Yay for you!

The second guy comes out and states he has never done drugs, never beat his wife or abused his kids. The crowd: Boo! Boooooo! Goody Twoshoes!

Sorry, RDS, you get no special consideration for being a disabled dry-drunk.

*My apologies to the author of this amusing profoundity for forgetting his name.

What’s good for Wal-Mart is BAD for America!

P.S. ...a former tavern owner...

You’re confused.

Ken V: Wasn’t it Sage who once owned a tavern? I recall a discussion about an air filtering system that was used to eliminate cigarette smoke.Said it cost him a lot of $,but was well worth the price.

Wasn’t it Sage who once owned a tavern?

Sage is gone—so is cazar and the rest.

You ran ‘em all off!

Oops :o)

I think you just “tipped” your own hand,bat boy!

btw, I thought mary was the drunk around here.