The Wal-Mart Watch Blog
China

| Jun 19, 2009

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The U.S. International Trade Commission has made an announcement, and that announcement is one we shouldn’t be surprised by at this point. The ITC has ruled that U.S. tire companies are being harmed by cheap products from China, and as a result President Obama will have to decide whether to impose tariffs or quotas on the country that, thanks to Wal-Mart, is now America’s largest source of imports.

Of course, Wal-Mart’s tire business isn’t the only factor behind the ruling, but it certainly is one of the biggest. China sent 21 million tires to the U.S. in 2005, and that more than doubled to 46 million by last year. For its part, Modern Tire Dealer reports that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has close to 3,200 outlets selling tires, although most of those sales are concentrated in its approximately 2,435-store Tire & Lube Service Centers nationwide.

The (United Steelworkers) union said China has more than tripled its tire exports to the U.S. between 2004 and 2008, ending jobs for 5,100 American workers. The union said another 3,000 workers would lose their jobs by the end of the year.

The next move for the ITC will be to come up with come up with recommendations on what the President should do to help U.S. companies, including a couple familiar names based in Ohio - Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Findlay-based Cooper Tire.

The case is the first test for Obama on trade with China, after he vowed during his presidential campaign last year to help unions or domestic industries seeking relief from foreign competition. Since the election, he also has pledged to avoid protectionism so as not to exacerbate the global recession.

U.S. agency rules for tire producers in China case [Bloomberg News]

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| Jun 04, 2009

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Much is made of Wal-Mart’s presence in China - from the fact that many of its products are sourced there to the realization that the growing power remains a prime target for Wal-Mart’s expansion.

Harold Meyerson, in his Washington Post column marking the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square, poses that it has been American capitalism - chiefly the Wal-Marts of the world - that has spurred the growth of China into a rising superpower:

The transfer of manufacturing from the United States to China—driven by the rise of mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart that have been able to enforce a regime of low wages all along their global supply chains—has diminished our middle class and expanded theirs.

In fact, Meyerson points out it was American businesses and their representative groups (here’s looking at you, U.S. Chamber of Commerce) that opposed legislation in China aimed at strengthening worker rights. The goal was to improve working conditions and arrest the practice of withholding wages and forcing employees into working insanely long hours, but American business interests succeeded in pushing amendments to “make it more acceptable to foreign firms” - a fancy way of saying weakening the effect the bill would actually have on workers and the businesses that depend on keeping costs down. No wonder they’re such close buddies nowadays.

You can read the whole column, but Meyerson unleashes his most venomous critique in his closing:

Wal-Mart, which used to lock its night-shift stock clerks and janitors inside a number of its stores until the morning managers arrived, prefers production in Guangdong to manufacturing in the Midwest. Indeed, the director of purchasing for Wal-Mart is based in China.

As historian Nelson Lichtenstein and others have documented, Wal-Mart inspires in its managers an almost fanatical allegiance to the company’s cause. In Wal-Mart world, the provincialism (if not “idiocy") of rural life is fused with a brilliance in the art of low-cost, low-wage logistics to create a company that is both authoritarian in its inner workings and a friend of authoritarian regimes abroad. The butchers of Beijing could not have found any more compatible capitalists.

Beijing’s Favorite Capitalists [Washington Post]

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27 comments | May 11, 2009

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$2 MILLION GETS WAL-MART OUT OF CRIMINAL CHARGES IN DAMOUR CASE

• Wal-Mart Pays $2M to Avoid Charges in New York Death Probe [Associated Press via Insurance Journal]
  Wal-Mart agreed Wednesday to pay nearly $2 million and improve safety at its 92 New York stores as part of a deal with prosecutors that avoids criminal charges in the trampling death of a temporary worker last year.

• Legal Eagle: Wal-Mart pays up [Capital News 9-TV (N.Y.)]
  A case out of Long Island where a trampling death of a temporary employee has Wal-Mart paying up.

• Valley Stream, NY. D.A. Lets Wal-Mart Buy Its Way Out of Criminal Charges In Trampling Death [Battlemart Blog]
  On January 3, 2009, Sprawl-Busters reported that the police in Nassau County, New York had released a new plan designed to prevent the recurrence of a trampling death that took place at a Valley Stream, Long Island Wal-Mart.
  

RETAIL SALES FINALLY STEADY?

• Retail Sales, Output Probably Steadied: U.S. Economy Preview [Bloomberg News]
  Retail sales in the U.S. probably stabilized in April and factory production fell at a slower pace, indicating the economic slump may be starting to ease, economists said before reports this week.
  

WAL-MART DUKING IT OUT WITH OTHER RETAILERS FOR ONLINE SHOPPING MARKET SHARE

• Store Names Wal-Mart, Safeway, Lowes Drive Consumers to Online Shopping [Bnet Retail]
  According to ForeSee Results, Wal-Mart is an example of a retailer whose established business is driving online sales.

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0 comments | May 06, 2009

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LONG ISLAND STAMPEDE VICTIMS WIN SETTLEMENT, SAFETY CHANGES FROM WAL-MART

• Wal-Mart to pay victims of stampede [Newsday via Chicago Tribune]
  Mega-retailer Wal-Mart will pay an unspecified sum to victims hurt in a stampede that left a security guard trampled to death at a Valley Stream store during an after-Thanksgiving sale.
  

• NY prosecutor ends investigation into Wal-Mart trampling death, creates pact with retailer [Associated Press via Chicago Tribune]
  A New York prosecutor is ending a criminal investigation into the post-Thanksgiving trampling death of a temporary employee at a Long Island Wal-Mart.
  

• Wal-Mart To Announce Changes In Wake Of Trampling Death [NY 1-TV (N.Y.)]
  Wal-Mart officials are expected to announce today an agreement to improve safety measures following the trampling death of an employee from Queens last year.
  

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44 comments | Apr 24, 2009

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Wal-Mart has agreed to revise a plan on a payroll cut involving 2,000 mid-level managers across its outlets in China after a trade union stepped in to mediate, state media is reporting. Here’s a quick recap of today’s stories. You can find our previous posts on the issues here and here.

Row at Wal-Mart China settled after unions step in [MarketWatch]

Wal-Mart China had planned to relocate about 2,000 mid-level managers at existing stores to new stores it planned to open, the China Daily reported in its online edition Friday, citing a senior official at the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions.

The report said the workers union became involved after Wal-Mart employees reported that senior management announced the relocations under threat of demotion or dismissal, the report cited the federation’s Vice Chairman Wang Tongxin as saying.

Wal-Mart Bows to Union Pressure on China Restructuring [Wall Street Journal Blogs]

Wal-Mart (WMT) has made adjustments to its restructuring plans in China after objections from the state-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions, state media reported today.

Last week, the company said it planned to trim management positions, a move that would have involved 1,400 (about 2.5%) of its employees in China. The affected employees would have faced pay cuts, relocation to other stores or possible job losses. This upset union leaders, who said their members hadn’t been consulted. (Under government pressure, in 2006 the famously union-resistant Wal-Mart allowed unions to form in China).

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3 comments | Apr 24, 2009

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NEW VIDEO SHOWS WAL-MART WORKERS DEMANDING CHANGE

• Thousands of Walmart Workers Across the Country Unite to Call for a Voice in the Workplace [Wal-Mart Workers for Change Press Release]
  "The associates are afraid," said Cynthia Murray, a Walmart associate in Laurel, Maryland. "They're intimidated, and they are afraid. My family and other families have paid the price for freedom. And when you tell me I can't talk about a union, you're taking my freedom from me."
  

MAYOR DALEY SAYS WAL-MART HAS 'NO CHANCE' IN CHICAGO

• Daley: Wal-Mart has no chance in Chicago [Chicago Tribune]
  Mayor Richard Daley contends there is no chance the latest effort to have a Wal-Mart built on Chicago's South Side will succeed.
  

• Mayor Daley: Ald. Howard Brookin's quest for a Chatham Super Wal-Mart doesn't stand a chance [Chicago Sun-Times]
  Mayor Daley today questioned why union leaders hell bent on preventing Wal-Mart from expanding in Chicago have allowed suburban Wal-Marts to ring the city without saying a word.
  

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53 comments | Apr 22, 2009

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We reported earlier this week on Chinese workers protesting a Wal-Mart “job optimization” program that would have led to layoffs for many mid-level executive positions. In fact, managers included in the optimization program were actually to be given three options: demotion with reduced salary, relocation, or leaving the company with compensation.

Today, however, the China Daily is reporting that Wal-Mart has decided to backtrack on its optimization plan.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to adjust its plan to streamline staffing in China, and will keep positions and salaries unchanged for employees who don’t want to be reassigned to other locations, the China Daily reported Wednesday. The report, citing Chen Lu, a Wal-mart public relations official in China, said the adjustment to the plan came after a breakthrough in talks between the U.S. retailer and its Chinese union.

So THIS is why unions can be a beneficial tool for workers, eh??

The report did, however, go on to say that Wal-Mart will keep pushing forward its program to redeploy workers.

Wal-Mart reportedly to ease up on China staff streamlining plan [MarketWatch]

1 comments | Apr 22, 2009

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MIAMI WAL-MART WORKERS RALLYING TODAY FOR A UNION

• Walmart Workers, Community Leaders Demand End to Intimidation and Harassment [Wal-Mart Workers for Change Press Release]
  Walmart workers will be joined by Andre Williams, Miami Gardens City Commissioner, and other community supporters as they sign and deliver a petition to store management at the Walmart store in North Miami on Wednesday, April 22 at 5:15pm.
  

VICTORY FOR WAL-MART CHINA EMPLOYEES: THEY WON'T BE 'STREAMLINED' WITHOUT CONSENT

• Wal-Mart reportedly to ease up on China staff streamlining plan [MarketWatch]
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to adjust its plan to streamline staffing in China, and will keep positions and salaries unchanged for employees who don't want to be reassigned to other locations, the China Daily reported Wednesday.
  

 WAL-MART'S MAKES EARTH DAY SOLAR ENERGY PLEDGE...FOR '10 TO 20' STORES

• Wal-Mart to double amount of solar energy use [USA Today]
  All of Wal-Mart's solar projects will generate enough clean energy to power the equivalent of 2,600 homes and avoid 22,500 metric tons of carbon-dioxide emissions each year — tantamount to taking about 4,000 cars off the road.
  

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36 comments | Apr 21, 2009

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LEE SCOTT TOOK HOME $30.2 MILLION IN 2009

• Wal-Mart paid ex-CEO Scott $30.2 mln in FY09 [Reuters]
  Wal-Mart Stores Inc's (WMT.N) recently retired Chief Executive, Lee Scott, took home a total of $30.2 million in the year ended January, slightly down from a year ago, as revealed by the company's proxy statement.
  

• Wal-Mart reports execs' pay, perks [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]
  H. Lee Scott, former Wal-Mart Stores Inc. president and chief executive officer, received more than $29.7 million in total compensation for the fiscal year that ended Jan. 31, his final day as the company's top executive, according to Wal-Mart's proxy statement filed late Monday.
  

• Wal-Mart's Scott Gets $30.2M Payday [Women's Wear Daily]
  H. Lee Scott received a pay package valued at $30.2 million — a 4.6 percent drop — in his final year as president and chief executive officer of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
  

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4 comments | Apr 20, 2009

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In China, Wal-Mart’s “job optimization” program was just a fancy way of saying you’re fired. That is, until the country’s government-run trade union stepped in.

Earlier this month, Wal-Mart announced it could need to slash some mid-level executive positions in an effort to adapt to “the changeable market situation.” At the time, however, company officials refused to say how many people would lose their jobs. The plan that was ultimately unveiled was dubbed the retailer’s “job optimization and regrouping” program, aimed at relocating some mid-management staff to similar posts in new stores.

Angry staff affected by the plan were not buying it, however, and labeled the program as a “de facto layoff plan.” In fact, managers included in the optimization program were actually given three options: demotion with reduced salary, relocation, or leaving the company with compensation - with those choices, Wal-Mart was obviously aiming to trim staff.

“I came to work for Wal-Mart in my 20s. I have been always working hard and never made any major mistakes. I am now pushing 40. If I have to leave Wal-Mart, I really don’t know where to find another job.” said a department manager at Wal-Mart’s Shekou store in Shenzhen.

The optimization program has been thwarted for now, however, as the country’s government-run trade union stepped in and blocked the restructuring. That decision came after over 50 staff protested the plan at Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China.

“Three mid-level executives came to my office this morning and told me the plan was shelved and they have resumed their work,” Xinhua news agency quoted Yang Fengzhi, a union official in northeast China, as saying. The managers in Jilin province, who earlier had been told they would be laid off, were asked to return to work after the union stepped in, the report said.

See, but that’s the thing. China is what it is, yet for all we complain about that country’s methods of doing things, workers there can still band together to fight for their jobs. Yet here in the land of the free, Wal-Mart workers attempting to flex their muscles will find themselves quickly unemployed.

What do you think? Does it make sense that workers in China have more rights that those right here at home?

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