Wal-Mart and China’s Human Rights Abuses

Amnesty International has taken the 2008 Beijing Olympics as an opportunity to highlight China’s legacy of human rights violations, and to call on the country to change its practices. The Olympics may stand for all that is strong and vibrant in the human spirit, but the Chinese government’s policies of forced labor, censorship, arbitrary police detentions, and unjust executions fall miserably short of these lofty goals.

Wal-Mart sources more than 70% of its products from China, and relies on this atmosphere of abuse and oppression to keep production costs low. The issues Amnesty International raises are precisely why Chinese factories can manufacture products for so little: most workers are too afraid to stand up for better working conditions, and understandably so. Without these intimidating working conditions, Wal-Mart would have a much tougher time keeping its prices so low.

Wal-Mart might be in a joint venture with China, but Wal-Mart’s heart lies with exploitative working conditions, not the Chinese people. Surely once China’s labor standards improve far enough, the retailer will move on to a country where working conditions remain medieval and workers’ rights are nonexistent.

China’s Olympic Legacy [Amnesty International]

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Monday, August 04, 2008

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COMMENTS

And now for something completely different under the heading of…

Arrogance or stupidity? YOU BE THE JUDGE!

<b>Walmart gives ‘hero’ the cold shoulder</i>

</i>PORT ST. LUCIE, FL—Scott Leishear thought he was doing the right thing.

He was helping give a jump to his mother-in-law’s car; she’d stalled it in the parking lot of a Wal-mart store in St. Lucie West. While Leishear was working on the car he saw three security guards from Wal-mart run out of the front of the store yelling, “There he is - get him!” That’s when Leishear spotted a man sprinting through the parking lot, clearly looking like he was trying to elude the security team. Leishear didn’t hesitate. He took a b-line toward the suspect and yelled at him, “I think those guys are looking for you!”

When the suspect kept going, Leishear chased him down, grabbed his arm and wrestled him to the ground. He managed to slow the suspect down enough for the security team to catch up and detain the man. His name was Derek Biaselli. Police say Biaselli and an accomplice, Mistey Stilley, had stolen a TV from another Wal-mart store and
they had just taken a computer from the St. Lucie West Wal-mart. They made the arrest.

Leishear says he wasn’t looking for a hero’s welcome from Wal-mart, but a ‘thank you’ would have been nice. He got neither.

What he did get, though, were some significant injuries from tackling the suspect. Leishear says he broke his elbow and injured his wrist. He now has several screws and a plate in his arm and he says he’s lost some mobility. He’s got to go to physical therapy. He says his medical bills now exceed $50,000.

Leishear contacted Wal-mart to ask the company if it would help with his medical deductibles, roughly $3000. He says he went back and forth with the company’s claims department. Bottom line: because the company did not direct him to
help catch the suspect, it refuses to help pay his bills.

“I did what I thought was the right thing, what I was raised to do,” Leishear says, holding a stack of medical bills in his arm that is now scarred from surgery, and far from healed.

The company wouldn’t say specifically why it turned down Leishear’s request, but Wal-Mart issued the following statement;

“We certainly wouldn’t want a customer putting themselves in harms way over a piece of merchandise."</i>

http://www.wptv.com/content/tcoast/story.aspx?content_id=2ff64f82-5e0b-45fa-9c3b-6b464c652e1a&rss=762

Ken V in Texas
Tuesday, August 05 at 08:28 AM

The Beast of Betonville strikes again!

Maybe the news media should pick that one up and “run” with it!

Walmart-low life scum bags!

Michelle in
Tuesday, August 05 at 11:10 AM

“I did what I thought was the right thing, what I was raised to do”

Like everything else, there are consequences with the choices we make.

If WM were to suddenly “reward” Mr. Leishear’s unsolicited efforts, then you would see a rash of these things happening, everywhere.

Sorry, Scott—you’re on your own, big fella.

bbrd in
Tuesday, August 05 at 02:45 PM

Next year will be the 20th anniversary of China’s Tiananmen Square massacre. How is WalMart planning to celebrate now that Sam Walton can no longer hide his shifting of American manufacturing jobs over to the Chinese Communists? I know Sam Walton is dead but how will that stop WalMart’s rejoicing at being the largest private benefactor of the murderous Chinese Communist Party?

SanDiegoView in WalMart needs propaganda to survive
Tuesday, August 05 at 09:02 PM

oh sdv are you going to blame sam walton for everything?is it sam waltons fault we are in iraq?is sam walton the reason gas prices are so high?lets blame mr sinegal at costco for being a cheap tightass by refusing to give full time work to all.get off your blame walton and wm for all ills sdv.

m att hew vantress in gresham,oregon
Wednesday, August 06 at 07:06 AM

hey sdv other stores shhifted jobs to china too.why dont you go pick on them and nitpick everything they do and leave wm the hell alone?

m att hew vantress in gresham,oregon
Wednesday, August 06 at 07:07 AM

Yahoo is hosting a forum on the Chinese Gov. pulling Gold Medalist skater “Cheeks” visa. Apparently they did so because of his human rights activisim in Darfur.

Sounds like a Walmart move when employees ask for more humane treatment.

Go to the forum- a great opportunity to slam China & Walmart.

Maybe Alex can post something about that here.

Michelle in
Wednesday, August 06 at 12:24 PM

oh michele get off your high horse.target and k-mart your favorites treat workers far worse than wm ever has has

m att hew vantress in gresham,oregon
Thursday, August 07 at 06:30 AM

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