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Last week we told you about Walmart firing 300 workers from its headquarters staff as the company goes through a major restructuring. The 300 jobs were just the tip of the iceberg, with 10 Sam’s Club stores closing, a major layoff of 11,000 workers at Sam’s Club stores, and a new decentralized set up for the company that will shift many jobs away from the main office in Bentonville to regional offices.

When we told you about those 300 layoffs, we wondered if there might by more job losses on the way. As it turns out, there may be. The Northwest Arkansas Times reports that as the company starts creating regional offices and moving positions there, jobs in Bentonville will be eliminated. According to the article,

“some headquarters staff members will face a choice of relocating, looking for other jobs or retirement, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Wal-Mart declined to put a number on positions that could be moved out of Bentonville. Those decisions will be made case by case and it will take time to figure out what works for each area”

We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this transition to see how it affects the company. We can only hope that Walmart does all it can to ensure that jobs aren’t eliminated unnecessarily, or workers aren’t pushed out of their jobs. Walmart has a reputation, after all, for pushing workers with seniority out to reduce the cost of salary and benefits overall. It’s one of the reasons Walmart has such a high turnover rate. 

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Walmart is certainly shaking things up recently. A week ago, Walmart laid off more than 11,000 of its Sam’s Club workers. Two weeks before that, Walmart closed down 10 Sam’s Club stores putting 1,500 jobs at risk. Since the Sam’s Club layoffs, Walmart has announced other substantial institutional changes like splitting its US operations in to regions and establishing a global online organization.

Then today, Walmart announced it would laying off another 300 employees from its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. Just about a year ago, Walmart laid off between 700 and 800 workers from headquarters.

Between the two layoffs, Walmart has let go around 9% of the 12,000 headquarters staff.

The positions being eliminated this time around were in the corporate affairs, finance, human resources, information systems and legal departments.

We’re always concerned to hear about layoffs, especially from a company that is doing so well right now, racking up billions of dollars in sales.

With a 10% cut in Sam’s club staff, and a nearly 10% cut in headquarter staff, are there more layoffs on the way?

You can read more about the layoffs, and the memo from Mike Duke from the Associated Press here.

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Thanks to our good friend Jonathan Rees for submitting this new book review of Bethany Moreton’s To Serve God And Wal-Mart. Dr. Rees is an Associate Professor of History at Colorado State University - Pueblo, and a contributor to one of our favorite blogs, Writing on the Wal.

Wal-Mart watchers are blessed with particularly interesting reading material these days.  Nelson Lichtenstein’s history of the company, Retail Revolution, will be coming out in July.  As it’s coming from a major trade press, that book will be difficult to miss.  On the other hand, Bethany Moreton’s scholarly study of Wal-Mart, religion and politics (already released from Harvard University Press) will probably have to be sought after by readers in parts of the country without an academic bookstore.  That’s a shame, because anybody who is interested in the cultural rather than just the economic significance of Wal-Mart needs to buy this book immediately.

To Serve God and Wal-Mart has more in common with Thomas Frank’s now-classic study of conservatism, What’s the Matter With Kansas?, than it does with any other book about Wal-Mart written to this date.  Like Frank, Moreton’s objective is to explain how it’s possible for evangelical Christians to serve God and Mammon at the same time.  While Frank’s answer was widely construed as condescending to evangelicals, Moreton treats the creation of Christian capitalism with the utmost respect, using the success of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. over the last 50-odd years as a kind of case study in how religion and materialism can live side-by-side in the United States, especially in the American South.  As she writes in her prologue in a direct slap at Frank, “Family values are an indispensable element of the global service economy, not a distraction from it.”

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It’s been almost two weeks since the news broke that Mike Duke signed an anti-gay petition in Arkansas. And unsurprisingly, the internet community isn’t forgetting. The scandal doesn’t appear to be going anywhere.

The right wing, socially conservative agenda of Wal-Mart’s executive management and controlling family is no secret. But as Wal-Mart moves in to the 2ist century is it clearly trying to project a softer, more friendly image. Its spending millions to portray itself as a progressive “green” company. Likewise, it is banking on entering dense urban centers like New York, L.A. and Chicago—all cities with high LGBT populations.

We’d venture to say that this publicity isn’t helping those efforts.

(In related news, a conservative group in Arkansas is trying to push a law to block petition-signers information being revealed in the future after knowthyneighbor.org posted the list of anti-gay adoption signers two weeks ago.)

Check out a sample of what’s been flying around the blogosphere over the last week:

Another Reason to Skip Wal-Mart [L.A. Progressive]
The CEO of Wal-Mart, just like Mormons, can exercise his right to free speech and expression however he sees fit. I too have that right — and will exercise it by refusing to give the company that pays him my business and by saying so.

It’s Been A While Since I’ve Railed On Wal-Mart [Begging 4 Attention]
We also now know the new CEO of Wal-Mart, Mike Duke, has signed an anti-gay marriage petition in his residence state of Arkansas. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and everyone else is entitled to not shop at Wal-Mart. Here’s how I fight back: I shop at Target.

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Workers at a North Miami Beach Wal-Mart Supercenter are hoping to make their store one of the first Wal-Marts in the United States to unionize. The Miami Herald is reporting that workers have gathered signed pro-union cards from 150 of the store’s 476 employees.

If a majority of workers were to vote to join the United Food and Commercial Workers union, Wal-Mart would have to negotiate a contract setting pay, work rules, complaint procedures, health insurance and other benefits for the workers.

The Miami store is the most impressive example of card-signing activity, the movement occurring despite the fact that the Employee Free Choice Act movement remains in neutral in Washington. It isn’t the only unionizing target, however, as the UFCW admitted the North Miami Beach store is only one of about 100 Wal-Mart stores it is working to organize in 17 states, according to the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.

Meghan Scott, a Food and Commercial Workers spokesman in Washington, said the union increased its organizing efforts after the election of President Barack Obama and the reintroduction this year of federal legislation that would make it easier for workers to gain union representation. “We’ve seen a pretty significant uptick in calls from Wal-Mart workers across the country,” Scott said. “The workers just seem to be emboldened in a way that they have not been in the last few years.”

The Miami store is a continuation of a trend that began earlier this month, when the Wall Street Journal reported on organizing efforts in Texas and Illinois.

‘’If we vote and we get it [union certification], they can’t do nothing but go along with it,’’ (Miami employee) Cheryl Guzman said. ``That’s my hope and prayer.’’

Read more after the jump:

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Senator Blanche Lincoln has made it clear where she stands. Over the past few weeks, she has turned her back on Wal-Mart workers, and stood up to fight for the Walton Family.

Just one month ago, on March 14th, Vice President and prominent Employee Free Choice Act supporter Joe Biden stood hand in hand with Senator Blanche Lincoln and praised her hard work in Arkansas and Washington. Biden made the trip to help Lincoln raise $800,000 for her 2010 reelection campaign, but also to convince her to support the bill. What a difference a month makes.

On April 6th, Lincoln finally betrayed Wal-Mart workers. While saying out of one corner of her mouth that she “consider[ed] both the labor and the business communities” to be her friends, she unequivocally stated she could not support Employee Free Choice in its current form.

But Lincoln was hardly done cowing to the Walton Family. Last week Lincoln took a step that shows where her loyalty truly lies: she partnered with Republicans and called for increasing the exemption on the Estate Tax from $5 to $10 million, which would stand to help the extremely wealthy more cheaply pass inheritance to their family. We can think of a lot of Wal-Mart executives and Walton Family members who are in the business of passing along millions in inheritance, but we sure can’t think of any workers who are in that situation.

And while all workers might not donate thousands to her campaign like the Waltons do, there will surely be a lot more of them to cast ballots next November.

One might say that Lincoln is merely repaying some of her prime donors: the Waltons as individuals together donated about $6,000 in 2008 to her election fund.

It’s not for ‘gazillionaires’ [Arkansas News]

U.S. Sen. Blanche Lincoln said I knew better than that.

I’d merely wondered whether she pushed a reduction in estate taxes to save millions for her richest constituents, the Arkansas Waltons, with whom she’s long been tight.

These “gazillionaires,” as she called them, don’t give a hoot about a marginal reduction in inheritance taxes, she argued. She said they’ve already attended to orderly reduction and protection of their inheritances with expert estate planning.

Indeed, an advocacy group that the Waltons help finance has fought to eliminate estates taxes, not reduce them.

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Yesterday, Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) became the first Senate Democrat to oppose the Employee Free Choice Act. But when later allowed to elaborate, she left the door open for her to eventually get on board a revised version of the legislation.

It looked bleak early on - as the Washington Post reported, Senator Lincoln didn’t mince words when stating whether she still supported the Employee Free Choice Act legislation that she had voted for back in 2007:

“I cannot support that bill,” Lincoln told the club, one attendee recounted to Arkansas Business. “Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form.”

But as the day moved forward, Senator Lincoln did soften her stance - if only a bit - after listing several issues she hoped to tackle in 2009:

“Even though the Employee Free Choice Act is not on this priority list, it is receiving a lot of attention in the news and is the focus of many of my conversations with constituents on both sides of the issue. I consider both the labor and the business communities to be my friends. However, now that we need all hands on deck, including business and labor, to get our economy moving again, this issue is dividing us...I am stating today that I cannot support Employee Free Choice Act in its current form and I can’t support efforts to bring it to Senate consideration in its current form. I will consider alternatives that have the support of both business and labor but my pledge today is to focus my full attention on the priorities I have mentioned that affect every working family in Arkansas.”

Why is Senator Lincoln’s vote so important? Her defection would make it increasingly difficult for supporters of the bill to get the 60 votes needed to invoke cloture and help it to move forward under Senate rules. Not surprisingly, Lincoln’s shift towards the right - she has also recently made news for teaming with Senator Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) to push a provision that would slash the controversial estate tax rate (or “death tax” if you’re a Republican or just a pessimist) - just happens to come as she looks towards a 2010 reelection bid in Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s home state. And we all know what Wal-Mart thinks of EFCA.

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Good news for Wal-Mart workers today.

After a few months of other issues taking top priority, most notably the economy and the economic stimulus package, President Obama reminded us that he still plans to pass the Employee Free Choice Act. The Wall Street Journal reports:

President Barack Obama told AFL-CIO union leaders Tuesday in a videotaped address that the controversial Employee Free Choice Act will pass, signaling his full backing for legislation that makes union organizing easier.

“We will pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” President Obama told more than 100 top labor officials in a closed-door meeting at the labor federation’s winter gathering in Miami, according to people at the meeting.

There is no telling when exactly the bill will be introduced in Congress, but when it is it should pass the House vote easily. The concern is the Senate. If the Democrats can rally full support in the Senate they should have 59 votes - assuming Al Franken is confirmed and voting. All that leaves is one Republican to vote for EFCA to pass the bill. The most talked-about candidate is Pennsylvania’s generally-pro-labor Arlen Specter, but other moderates like Maine’s Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins are in the mix as well.

And there’s also the concern that one or more Democratic Senators are wavering on their support for Employee Free Choice under heavy influence from the strong and well-funded corporate lobby by Wal-Mart and other corporate interests. The prime suspects are - big surprise - Arkansas’ two Democratic Senators Blanche Lincoln and Mark Pryor.

Arkansas Business writes more today about the bind Blanche Lincoln finds herself in. She’s undoubtedly receiving suffocating pressure from the Walton Family and the Arkansas business lobby to oppose EFCA - but she’s also up for re-election in 2010, and needs to support of big name Democrats. The netroots as well, likely won’t be friendly to any Democrat who turns tail on Employee Free Choice.

We’ll keep you posted. 

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Surrounded by the enemy, with a story vaguely reminiscent of Frodo’s trek into Mordor (that’s for you Lord of the Rings fans - you know who you are), Target is wading into Benton County, Arkansas, home of America’s retail behemoth. A new store is scheduled to open tomorrow right in Wal-Mart’s backyard, with seven Wal-Mart supercenters, five Neighborhood Market grocery stores and two Sam’s Club outlets located within a 25-mile radius.

Like Wal-Mart, Target has steadily slowed its store growth, a trend that may continue depending on economic conditions. Ironically enough, the demographics in Benton County appear to be a good match to the template of Target’s average customer:

“Those demographics there [in Benton County], people have slightly more income on average, discretionary, and will tend to trade up from pure discounters...” And Target “is known very well for their housewares and apparel.” The typical Target “guest,” as the company calls its customers, has a median age of 42 with a median household annual income of $60,000, said Katie Benscoter, a spokesman at Target headquarters. A third of them have children at home and just over half have a college degree.

The store could have an ace in the hole - its new manager, Chuck Simmons, started his retail career at Wal-Mart and is familiar with the area. Still, to put things in perspective, Wal-Mart currently has five supercenters and 12 discount stores within 25 miles of Target’s home office in Minneapolis. And despite prices that are within 1-2% of Wal-Mart’s markdowns, Target continues to battle the perception that it is the more expensive of the two discount retailers.

Target set to open store in Wal-Mart’s backyard [Arkansas Democrat Gazette]

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Blanche Lincoln, the senior Democratic Senator from the state of Arkansas, has a dilemma on her hands. While the House of Representatives is firmly in Democratic control, the Senate is divided. With an ambitious legislative agenda, every vote matters. Which brings us to the Employee Free Choice Act. This act represents a chance for workers to obtain fair wages and benefits through unionization. Given the state of our economy, it is clear that workers need help and we cannot trust business leaders to do the right thing at this time.

Sen. Lincoln, a moderate Democrat from a conservative state, is facing pressure from both sides of the aisle. First introduced in the Senate in early 2007, Sen. Lincoln voted to send the bill to floor discussion, but it could not survive a Republican filibuster. With a vote coming once again, Sen. Lincoln now feels the legislation is not necessary. What could make her change her mind? Could it be she resides in the same state as anti-EFCA Wal-Mart?

According to our calculations, the Wal-Mart PAC for Responsible Government has given Sen. Lincoln and her leadership PAC over $44,000 since 2000 - and this number does not include money from Wal-Mart executives. All Wal-Mart has to do is influence a few key Senators to prevent EFCA from coming to the floor and it seems like Sen. Lincoln is a great target. Katie Laning Niebaum, the spokesperson for Sen. Lincoln said,

“She believes the bill should go through the normal legislative process and she will not be taking a position until that time. So, to be clear, she remains undecided on the bill.”

Let’s hope Sen. Lincoln does the right thing and votes to improve the rights of workers, not increase the wealth of the Walton family. 

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What he said:

Spokesman Dan Fogleman said Monday evening that although he has no idea what Connecticut sales tax law is, his company is following it.

What his replacement would later say after the Connecticut AG asked him to please, try again:

“We thoroughly reviewed our practices and have taken steps to ensure that our associates are fully complying with Connecticut law when processing even exchanges,” [Wal-Mart spokeswoman] Ashley Hardie said in an e-mail.

I don’t know who this “Ashley Hardie” is, or what she did with my main man Dan, but I really don’t care for her “thorough reviews” or her guarantees that “steps are being taken” to insure compliance. In fact, I’d greatly appreciate it if she just started opening her mouth and letting the words flow, much like Dan used to do. Dan was so much more fun. Dan doesn’t know Connecticut law, but did Dan let that stop him? No. No he didn’t. Dan sat in Arkansas and spun tales of big, benevolent Wal-Mart spreading cheer and helping people afford Christmas, completely incapable of breaking any law known to man. And even if they did, he said, its Connecticut’s fault for having such CRAZY laws in the first place. Well, actually, that was Wal-Mart and not just Dan that said that:

Wal-Mart Stores even had posters behind courtesy desks blaming the state for its policy. “State law PROHIBITS Wal-Mart from refunding SALES TAX to any customer returning or exchanging merchandise without an original purchase receipt,” the “tax refund laws” posters said.

Unfortunately, that isn’t what the law says:

However, state tax laws clearly say the opposite, state Consumer Protection Commissioner Jerry Farrell Jr. said Wednesday in an interview explaining the out-of-court settlement he reached with Wal-Mart. State laws mandate that if a company has an exchange policy, it cannot charge a second sales tax on the new item. Wal-Mart’s website clearly says it has such an exchange policy.

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Despite Target’s worse-than-expected third-quarter earnings, due in part to losing customers to Wal-Mart in a depressed economy, they have found several ways to stick it to the world’s largest retailer.  Other than pledging a ‘price-war’ against them, they are also hitting Wal-Mart where it counts: Bentonville.  Construction is nearing completion and signage is erected at Target’s newest location: Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart’s home when not in vacationing in China. 

Slated to open in March, the store will be located on the east side of I-540.  Jenn Glass, a Target representative was quoted in the Benton Daily Record (Arkansas):

“Target opens new stores in October, July and March of each year,” said Jenn Glass, Target representative. “We’re projecting a March 8, 2009, opening in Rogers. “According to Glass, the Rogers location will be a traditional Target retail store, not a Super Target. The Minneapolis-based retailer has 70 new stores scheduled to open in the United States in 2009.

Not to be outdone, Wal-Mart plans to open a Neighborhood Market DIRECTLY across from the new Target, in an awkward, immodest attempt to keep the citizens of Bentonville shopping at the “right store.” Wal-Mart doesn’t typically open Neighborhood Markets as frequently as they used to, and seem to be making every attempt to upgrade all of their regular stores to Supercenters.  Way to keep the gloves on, guys.

Target set to open in March [Benton County Daily Record (Ark.)]

ROGERS - Target Corp. ‘s red bull’s-eye is hardly a household trademark in Benton County. For years, the nearest Target store has been in Fayetteville, in neighboring Washington County. But the bull’seye has been shining brightly along Interstate 540, in the shadows of the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, for the past couple of weeks.

Crossland Construction crews continue to erect Benton County’s first Target store, situated across the street from the Pinnacle Hills Promenade, along the east side of I-540. The exterior of the 127, 000-squarefoot Target store is nearing completion, the signage has been erected, and the parking lot has been paved. But for those who are planning to get some holiday shopping done at the Minneapolis-based retailer, it’s still going to require a drive to Fayetteville this winter.

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Wal-Mart is the Madonna of retailers - constantly re-inventing itself. 

At this week’s Analysts’ meeting, Wal-Mart announced that it was going to focus its investments on improving current stores and expanding internationally in 2009.  Apparently they got the party started early.  In a story from the Northwest Arkansas Daily News, Fayetteville, Arkansas residents got a taste of Wal-Mart’s new look.  Having already updated their logo, they are taking it several steps forward by using “light and color” to tie the different departments of the store together, in an attempt to create a more efficient, cohesive, and pleasant shopping experience.

Wal-Mart has historically focused less on store appearance, and more on driving-down prices.  In years past, Wal-Mart stores were characterized by large, industrial steel shelving with products stacked into the stratosphere, lighting like a coroner’s office, narrow yet crowded isles, and an all-around depressing and stressful shopping experience.  Wal-Mart’s Vice President for Store Appearance (must be a new position), Joe Tapper, addresses some of these problems in a story from BusinessWeek:

“We’re trying to make it more experiential, rather than just stuff we’re selling...We’ve placed emphasis on making it more enjoyable. Having shelves filled with cardboard boxes worked for a time, but has seen its day, Tapper said.”

This move could, in part, be due to the fact that Target stores tend to have a reputation of being cleaner, more stylish and more organized than Wal-Mart.  Some people recognize this and it can have an effect on where they shop.  Wal-Mart has studied the shopping habits of it’s customers and it’s customers, themselves.  This store platform will eventually see the debut of Wal-Mart’s ”Smart Network” which monitors customer activity and displays advertisements based on time of day or who is in the store.  They have certainly have come up with some interesting information.  This quote from BusinessWeek made my all-time top 15 favorite quotes from Wal-Mart Execs:

“Our signs are more female-friendly,” Tapper said. “The signs are all curved. Those things have been looked at and we’re trying to make those more friendly.”

As a man, I have always preferred the signs at my grocery store to be straight, not curved.  Everyone knows curved signs are for women - even Wal-Mart.  What a zinger.

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Wal-Mart’s official company position on politics is bipartisan, but glimpses into Wal-Mart’s corporate culture reveal this is far from true. Daily Kos diarist Arkydem wrote a post today about a party his adult daughter attended in northwest Arkansas hosted by two Wal-Mart executives. From the sound of it, Wal-Mart’s executive corps is made up entirely of the insensitive meatheads you hated in high school, but instead of teasing you about your lame off-brand sneakers, now they tease you about not being a Republican. Says Arkydem:

I live in the Republican stronghold of Arkansas, the northwest corner. The home of over 7,000 Wal-Mart employees and since early 2002 when Wal-Mart made the announcement that if you’re a vendor, you set up shop here, adding another 30-40K folks and a sea of vendor offices all over the county, all carrying the misinformation and hate that corporate Wal-Mart spreads through its ranks and its vendor slaves about Democrats and about a million other things.

Wal-Mart strives to be seen as a politically neutral company for several reasons. The politics of Wal-Mart have never been positive for the company: low wages, poor benefits and other stingy practices have dogged the retailer for years, and have damaged its reputation. The farther the company can distance itself from these issues, the better. But Wal-Mart is also desperate to break in to several predominantly Democrat markets, and aligning with Republican values never helps this cause. Stories like Arkydem’s present a real problem for Wal-Mart, and seriously hamper its attempts to woo Democrats. Stories like this one don’t help much either, but no one said the company was interested in actually changing its practices to achieve change.

They Attacked our Daughter [Daily Kos]
Wal-Mart on the attack [Arkansas Times]

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WAL-MART AND THE ‘POORING OF AMERICA’
I’m not sure where the phrase “Pooring of America” came from, but it’s perfect to explain Wal-Mart’s effect on working families. Seeking Alpha ponders why Wal-Mart and McDonald’s are doing so well right now.

What are McDonald’s and Wal-Mart Telling Us? [Seeking Alpha]

I am very intriqued by our top 2 choices for the “Pooring of America” trend - Walmart (WMT) and McDonalds (MCD) - what exactly are the charts above telling us?  If we are to enter a long drawn-out recession, which I have believed, these seem to be screaming buys here. The only question is credit - how does a lack of credit potentially hurt both. They are not expanding a ton, in the U.S. at least - perhaps with Wal-mart it’s financing of inventory, but I cannot wrap my mind around this behavior.

Wal-Mart gets downgraded while stock up in 2008 amid the turmoil [BloggingStocks]

Will Wal-Mart weather the storm? To a point, it already is. Sure, all retailers are expected to have a dismal holiday season this winter, but Wal-Mart will do better than the competition. It has more stores, more pricing leverage and more wherewithal to hold customers hostage with lower prices and inventory turns at a time when it’s needed most. Perhaps we’ll see WMT return to the $60/share level by Thanksgiving—if not sooner.

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A tumultuous lawsuit between Fisk University and the State of Tennessee has revealed just how much money Alice Walton has donated to her pet project, the Crystal Bridges Art Museum in Benton County, Arkansas. The figure is an astounding $317 million, small change for a woman worth $19 billion, but a bonafide fortune for any working American. The Walton family has long been a prominent patron of art and entertainment in northwest Arkansas - the Bud Walton Arena at the University of Arkansas is just a stone’s throw away from the Walton Arts Center in downtown Fayetteville. So Alice’s contributions to a still-unconstructed art museum in the area are part of a long family tradition.

That family tradition exists for a reason: in the span of six months - from November 2007 to June 2008 - the Walton family made $29 billion off the increase in Wal-Mart’s stock price. With income like that, it’s not surprising that family members can afford to build art museums almost single-handedly. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart employees across the country continue to make poverty-level wages and go without decent, affordable health care.

The article quotes museum director Bob Workman saying, “Crystal Bridges is a gift to the community from Alice Walton and the Walton family. The focus is on what we are creating, not what it is costing.” Perhaps an even better gift to the community - and communities across the country - would be to pay the Wal-Mart’s 1.4 million U.S. workers a fair wage, and build wealth from the ground up.

Crystal Bridges case sheds light on contributions [Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]

Alice Walton, her family and one of their foundations have donated $317 million to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which has nearly half a billion dollars in assets, according to documents filed in a Tennessee court.

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Check out this week’s issue of the Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials – a compilation of Wal-Mart news from across the country and beyond.

This week’s issue focuses on the big story of the week - Wal-Mart’s efforts to mobilize its managers across the country to warn of a Democratic win in November. The company has been holding mandatory meetings for its store managers and department supervisors (possibly in violation of state and federal election law), who are being warned that if Democrats win in November it could lead to potential store unionization. The meetings focus on a piece of proposed legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act, which could make it easier for stores to unionize if it’s the wish of a simple majority of store employees. Read all the major stories on Wal-Mart’s efforts, plus reaction from Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar.

Beyond the possible election law violations, the Washington Post and Chicago Tribune report on new toy safety legislation making its way through Congress. In addition, more legal problems for Wal-Mart - the first Salmonella-related lawsuit has been filed, and Wal-Mart is the defendant. Also, a new story in the Arkansas Business Journal describes how Wal-Mart knew of the existence of labor violations prior to the filing of the recent wage/hour class actions.

And finally, check out our “Stateside” and “Wal-Mart International” sections to find out what’s going on with Wal-Mart around the country and across the globe.

Wal-Mart Watch Weekly Update for Elected Officials

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In Portland, Oregon this week, U. S. District Judge Anna Brown held Wal-Mart must face claims by Adidas that footwear manufactured for Wal-Mart bearing two-stripe patterns violates the shoemaker’s three-stripe trademark.

In addition, as part of the copyright infringement lawsuit, Adidas has accused Wal-Mart of false advertising, claiming Wal-Mart mislead customers by marketing a pair of Adidas imitations as “running shoes.” Apparently, the shoes will burst into flames before disintigrating if you actually try and run in them - lawyers for Adidas, in explaining how Wal-Mart’s shoes failed numerous durability tests, have said the shoes are “dangerous” and “not fit to run in.” You can find out more on the false advertising claim here.

Beyond the claim of infringement by Wal-Mart’s two-stripe pattern, Judge Brown must still decide whether Wal-Mart must defend the five remaining claims:

Brown will issue a decision later on whether to keep or reject five other claims in the case before a jury trial begins Oct. 6. They include Wal-Mart’s use of four-stripe designs and a claim by the world’s second-largest sporting-goods maker that Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart uses false advertising.

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette News In Brief

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Wal-Mart is now fighting to keep disability benefits from non-employees and well as employees.

Former Pine Bluff Police Officer Jimmy Singleton was shot in the ankle and knocked unconscious from a blow to the head in 2003 while patting down a suspect. Today he suffers frequent migraines, and the bullet remains lodged in his ankle making it difficult to walk or stand up for long periods of time. For the past 4 years he’s been waging a nasty court battle to receive disability benefits.

So where does Wal-Mart come in? To flex it’s political and legal muscle, and push the Arkansas court to set a Wal-Mart-friendly precedent by denying him benefits. Both Wal-Mart and Tyson, Arkansas’ largest employers, “tendered friend-of-the-court briefs with the state Supreme Court this month arguing his claim should be denied.”

In addition to being completely shameless treatment of an officer wounded in the public service, this looks to be another horrible business decision for a company who continually struggles with its public image. We’ll see what happens when Wal-Mart’s PR people catch wind of this disaster-in-the-making.

*Jeff Hess Over at Writing on the Wal has a post up on the Singleton case as well.

Wal-Mart, Tyson Oppose Injured Officer’s Claim [NW Arkansas Morning News]:

Former Pine Bluff police officer Jimmy Singleton was patting down a suspect on March 1, 2003, when the man stuck a gun in his stomach.

Singleton received a gunshot wound to his left ankle and a blow to the head that knocked him unconscious in the ensuing struggle. He says he sustained neurological damage that affected his thinking and that he walks with a limp because of bullet fragments.

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No smiley faces at Levy Wal-Mart [Dogtown Wire (Ark.)]

The new Wal-Mart Supercenter is close to opening in Sherwood, which means the Levy store No. 7 will soon be closing. KTHV’s video features Wal-Mart Senior Manager Public Relations Laurie Smalling touting higher gas prices and the store’s low priced goods as one reason the new store will benefit customers.

The report claims the Sherwood store will bring 300 jobs to Pulaski County, but it doesn’t say if this 300 reflects those jobs to be lost at Levy that would constitute a simple lateral move and not a true increase of 300.

It didn’t mention if workers in Levy have been transferred to Sherwood. KTHV requires a membership to view this video and to comment on its site. The lone posting was a negative promise not to shop at the retail giant and a lament on the loss of mom and pop stores.