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Did you catch “Undercover Boss” after the Super Bowl? It’s a new reality show on CBS where executives go undercover at their own companies and work entry level jobs to see what it’s like. In the first episode, Waste Management’s President and Chief Operating Officer Larry O’Donnell works several different jobs over a week and discovers how tough life can be for his employees. He also discovers how his policies have affected workers.

It’s nice to see a show that uncovers these kinds of problems in the American workplace. Of course, most of us already know how tough work can be, but most of us don’t have a reality show. That’s why American Rights At Work started Fix Our Jobs which is pushing for real, systematic reform in our workplace, not just feel good TV moments. They’re asking folks to sign a petition to congress: “America’s workers need a voice on the job so they can fight for fair pay, real benefits, reasonable hours, and better working conditions. We need to fix our labor laws now!”

They’re also asking for stories about your job, good or bad. We’re sure you all have some stories to share, so go check out the site. You can also watch a video they put together just to the right.

We also want to hear from Walmart workers. Tell us your stories from work. What would Mike Duke find if he came to work as a greeter at your store for a day or two? Would he make the cut as an overnight stocker?

Would Mike Duke ever take on this kind of undercover assignment? We don’t think so, but if he did, we’re sure he’d find some pretty disturbing stories, just like Larry O’Donnell did.

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Bloomberg is reporting today that Wal-Mart and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce are among those opposing legislation that would allow the U.S. to cut off duty-free imports from factories in Pakistan and Afghanistan, if they fail to adhere to international labor standards on matters such as prohibiting forced labor and child labor. The bill, titled the Afghanistan-Pakistan Security and Prosperity Enhancement Act, is meant to help strengthen democracy in the two countries by creating “Reconstruction Opportunity Zones” and increasing their ability to export goods to the U.S. - and in return, it only requires that the countries make sure their factories are providing adequate working conditions.

Wal-Mart, however, is among those arguing that such labor restrictions would reduce any beneficial effect the legislation might otherwise have - and besides, if factories in Pakistan can’t export products to the U.S. because of labor and human rights abuses, Wal-Mart can’t then turn around and sell those products at their everyday low prices, right?

“Pakistan doesn’t have a good record in terms of child labor and the employment of women,” [Susan Aaronson, a professor at George Washington University in Washington who has written on trade and human rights] said. “This ensures the rule of law will be followed.”

The House bill states that each country “shall continue to receive duty-free treatment under this Act only if the President determines and certifies to Congress that Afghanistan or Pakistan, as the case may be has implemented the requirements set forth” - said requirements including insuring the following:

(A) compliance with core labor standards; and
(B) compliance with the labor laws of Afghanistan or Pakistan, as the case may be, that relate directly to core labor standards and to ensuring acceptable conditions of work with respect to minimum wages, hours of work, and occupational health and safety.

We’ve already documented Wal-Mart’s sourcing issues in other international locales, so it shouldn’t be all that surprising that they would oppose such regulations here. Links to summaries of both the House version of the bill (with labor requirements) and the Senate version can be found after the jump.

Obama’s Bid to Boost Exports From Pakistan Hits Snag Over Labor [Bloomberg]

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By this time we should all be aware of the controversies surrounding credit companies - in addition to increasingly complex and confusing options for credit applicants, credit card issuers have been raising interest rates and fees for many current borrowers, many of whom were in complete compliance with their card holders’ agreements when their rates were raised. This is a major reason behind the call for continuing credit card reform.

What many people might not be aware of is the struggle between credit companies and the retailers at which their cards are used. As Bloomberg explains, this could end in a giant Visa vs. Wal-Mart rumble:

Lawmakers are promising new rules to bring down the interchange fee, a charge on purchases sometimes topping 3 percent that’s split by the two banks serving the customer and merchant. Supporters of the legislation include the biggest retail chains, restaurants and small businesses, which say the fees erode profit and inflate prices...Interchange is the second-biggest cost after payroll, Target said, and merchants want to negotiate lower payments collectively without running afoul of antitrust law.

The issue has become such a hot topic, the Government Accountability Office has been ordered to study the effect interchange fees have on both consumers and merchants. The “interchange fee” is the fraction of every credit card transaction that the card’s issuer retains. When combined with additional smaller fees levied by a retailer’s own bank (to which the retailer first submits the transaction), interchange fees can cut into retailer revenue - especially important for those retailers with slim profit margins.

Interchange fees have risen over time - interesting, since technological advances would suggest the cost of such transactions should go down - and the result is a growing battle between retailers and card issuers. Wikipedia provides a surprisingly simple example of how the fees work:

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Last week was supposed to be Wal-Mart’s grand entrance into India. The company’s joint venture with Bharti Enterprises was raring to open its wholesale store in Punjab—that is, until inter-communal and religious violence among Sikhs, who form a majority of the province’s population, temporarily shut down commercial activity.

To be clear - Wal-Mart had nothing to do with this particular episode. Reuters and other sources say that the violence was sparked by an attack on a Sikh temple far away in Vienna, Austria.

But the incident should remind us all that India is unlike places, such as the U.S., with more established channels of dissent. In Wal-Mart site fights across America, local battles against Wal-Mart have primarily taken place through petitions and city council hearings, but in India it could well happen on the streets. Wal-Mart already has enough inevitable opponents in India, including the country’s estimated 12 million shopkeepers whose livelihoods could be threatened by the foreign retailer.

As we’ve discussed before, there has already been significant resistance to Wal-Mart in India. In 2007, shopkeepers and farmers took to the streets and turned Mahatma Gandhi’s “Quit India” slogan (which originally urged British imperial commerce to stop crushing India’s native industries) into “Quit Retail”, showing their opposition to foreign retail like Wal-Mart.

Articles in Time, Business Week, as well as the important work of India FDI Watch have documented the growing unrest Indian small business owners and farmers are manifesting. Dharmendra Kumar, director of India FDI Watch, puts it this way:

“This is a do-or-die battle for us. Either they [the foreign retailers] go or the small traders and farmers perish” [Forbes, 10/10/07]

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Over 50 religious leaders from a variety of faiths and denominations came to Capitol Hill this week to lobby members of Congress and show their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. The group has formed a coalition called Faith Leaders for Workplace Fairness, which made its first public announcement in support of the labor reform bill on a conference call with press last week. The coalition has called the legislation a “moral imperative” and a civil and human right. Check out the video of their visit below.

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SENATOR HARKIN OPEN TO COMPROMISE ON EMPLOYEE FREE CHOICE

• Harkin May Drop ‘Card-Check’ to Pass Milder Labor-Law Changes [Bloomberg News]
  The chief Democratic sponsor of a measure to promote union organizing says he may have to sacrifice its “card-check” centerpiece in favor of more modest labor-law changes that could clear the U.S. Senate.
  

• Card-check may be stripped from bill [Philadelphia Business Today (Pa.)]
  U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, who sponsored legislation to make it easier for workers to join unions, has said the main provision of the proposal may have to be dropped to get the votes to pass it.
  

U.S. REPRESENTATIVES TOUR WILDERNESS BATTLEFIELD WITH ROBERT DUVALL

• Actor Duvall enters battle to save Va. battlefield [Associated Press]
  Academy Award-winning actor Robert Duvall has fired a verbal salvo against plans to build a Wal-Mart Supercenter near a Virginia Civil War battlefield where Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee first fought the Union's Ulysses S. Grant.
  

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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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The Chamber of Commerce (and its major funders like Wal-Mart) are continuing to spend millions of dollars to misinform Americans about the Employee Free Choice Act.

The Chamber announced today a $1 million ad buy in the key EFCA states of Colorado, Virginia, Louisiana, North Dakota, and Nebraska.

The new ads still claim the outright lie that Employee Free Choice Act “denies” secret ballot elections. The ads are also picking up on the latest anti-worker talking point: that Free Choice means excessive government intervention in small business. (As opposed to their solution, of course: that management have 100% of power in the workplace.)

As usual, the ads are masking the real purpose of the legislation, helping workers obtain fair wages and good benefits by leveling the playing field between workers and employers. 

Watch the North Dakota ad below, as well ads for Nebraska, Louisiana, Colorado and Virginia. Let the Chamber of Commerce and Wal-Mart know in comments section of the YouTube videos that we aren’t buying it.

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The saga of Wal-Mart’s efforts to provide financial services to Mexican consumers took a new twist today with word that Mexico’s Congress will consider legislation to fix the maximum interest rate that the retail giant and others can charge consumers. The move, initiated by the National Action Party (PAN), is surprising since PAN is known as Mexico’s pro-business party and in 2007 moved to enable Wal-Mart to offer banking services in-store for the first time. Nonetheless, critics have charged the government with failing to protect consumers from the exorbitant interest rates lenders, including Wal-Mart, charge. Wal-Mart spokesman Antonio Ocaranza has commented that Wal-Mart’s 69% rate on its credit card is “pretty low for this type of product”. Evidently, some in Mexico’s government do not agree.

The full story text is below:

Calderon’s Party Will Propose Law Lowering Loan Rates

Senators from Mexican President Felipe Calderon’s party will propose legislation to lower interest rates on loans, Senator Gustavo Madero said.

The proposal may set maximum interest rates that banks and other companies can charge consumers, said Madero, who is the senate leader for the National Action Party. The measure will replace or expand upon an initiative introduced in Congress last month that aimed to cap credit card interest rates, Madero said.

“Rates are too high,” Madero said late yesterday in an interview. “We’re going to address the cost of credit not only at banks, but also through commercial companies.”

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