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As you may have seen, last week we rolled out a new initiative to stop Wal-Mart’s plan to use the cover of recession to sneak in to Chicago, New York City, and Los Angeles.

Since then, supporters across the country have sent thousands of letters urging their local city council members to refuse to even discuss Wal-Mart development plans until the Employee Free Choice Act is passed to safeguard their communities. The WMW team would like to thank everybody who wrote in to their local elected officials.

Particularly strong in their effort were New Yorkers. One letter that was particularly articulate, passionate, and well reasoned was sent to by Bill Millard, a resident of NYC. Thanks to Bill for giving us permission to publish the letter in its entirety:

Dear Councilmember Mendez:

Greetings from St. Mark’s Place. I’ve recently read that the Wal-Mart corporation is trying to gain a foothold in the Union Square area. As a constituent living in the East Village, and as a local architecture writer who treasures the unique culture, heritage, and built environment of our city, I would like to urge you to use all available means to prevent that corporation from opening anywhere in New York. Not in Union Square, not in Brooklyn, not in Queens: nowhere in our city, please. Not now, not ever, not here… and not even if they swear on a stack of every major culture’s holy books that they’ll pull an ideological 180-degree turn and start supporting the Employee Free Choice Act. No matter what promises they make, Wal-Mart simply doesn’t belong in New York City.

With a disgraceful record of corporate behavior and a business model premised on exurban sprawl, automobile dependence, a work force with no better options, and a bland commercial monoculture, Wal-Mart represents everything ugly and mediocre and unjust about our nation, the exact opposite of the values that progressive Americans take pride in. Part of the case against Wal-Mart is simply economic: Wal-Mart destroys local economies, puts people out of work, damages local environments with auto traffic, degrades local pay-scale standards, treats workers like cattle, and evades its responsibilities as a major employer to provide its workers with decent health care. I’m sure you’ve heard the grim stories about workers locked into stores, mandatory work hours off the clock, petty efforts to claw back legal settlements from workers with health problems, exploitation of Chinese labor under conditions that border on slavery—all the things that make the Wal-Mart name stink worldwide. The “low prices” that Wal-Mart offers on its goods are no bargain at all: they merely shift the costs of its profiteering onto the people and places that have the least power to bear them.  (The necessary statistics and narratives on all this, as you’re probably already aware, are available at walmartwatch.com.)

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The Regina Leader-Post is reporting that an application for reconsideration of union certification at Wal-Mart’s Weyburn store has been dismissed by the Labour Relations Board of Saskatchewan.

This ongoing battle hit the headlines back in December of last year, when after four years of legal wrangling, Wal-Mart workers in Weyburn, Saskatchewan were granted union status. The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board granted union certification last year to the Weyburn store, where a majority of the workers had indicated their support to form a union through card signings. In 2004. Over four years prior.

Meanwhile, last year also saw provincial legislation approved which required a secret ballot be held to certify a union, meaning the previous practice in which a union could be certified through the card-signing practice without a secret ballot was no longer valid. Sensing an opening, Wal-Mart filed to have the Weyburn certification reconsidered since, after all, back in 2004 the employees didn’t conduct a secret ballot. But the argument has gone for naught, as the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board held that the requirement passed in 2008 will not apply to the union certification which begun back in 2004.

“In the Board’s opinion, when the Union filed an application for certification together with sufficient evidence of majority support in accordance with state of the law at that time, they completed all procedures within their control to complete under the procedures in place,’’ the labour board said.

“At that point in time, their reliance on the state of the law crystallized into a right, a tangible and particular legal right protected under the common law presumption against retrospectively,’’ the labour board ruled.

Boo-yah, Wal-Mart. Boo-yah. Not surprisingly, Wal-Mart plans to appeal. We’d say we’re surprised, but, well, you know.

Labour relations board rules against Wal-Mart [Regina Leader-Post]

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If there was ever a example of why we need the Employee Free Choice Act, its the saga of Wal-Mart workers in Jacksonville, Texas.

In February 2000, workers at a Wal-Mart meat department in Jacksonville, TX voted to form a union by 7-3 margin. Instead of honoring the vote and opening negotiations with UFCW, Wal-Mart took the standard company option: it closed all in-store butcher departments in favor of pre-packaged meats. If Wal-Mart’s union-busting reputation was ever in question, this case erased any doubt years ago.

Unfortunately for the workers, the National Labor Relations Board upheld Wal-Mart’s decision to close the department. Occupational Health and Safety Magazine wrote on the NLRB decision: “Because of the conversion, the meat department had become an inappropriate bargaining unit, meaning Wal-Mart had no general duty to bargain with the UFCW.”

Upon appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, UFCW was faced with a test they simply could not pass. The legally appropriate ‘community-of-interest test’ allowed a unanimous three-judge appellate panel to uphold Wal-Mart’s right to eliminate butcher departments since they had no particularly special skills; citing the incident as analogous to a typical closing, effectively cutting butchers out of the picture for good. Although Wal-Mart could avoid recognizing the union, it still had to “negotiate over effects of the new meat program on the workers.” Well these negotiations took nine years. Now only one of the original 12 employees still works at the store. One employee died during the delay and the others moved on to other jobs. “Nine years is a long time,” said UFCW spokesman Johnny Rodriguez. 

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The most respected newspaper in the country is at it again. Over the weekend, another long piece on Wal-Mart’s sustainability push. Read the whole thing and let us know below what you think.

Our buddies at Writing on the Wal beat us to the punch and did a great job as usual of breaking down the flaws in the story.

We have two main points of contention:

1) How much attention does selling lightbulbs and laundry detergent deserve?

We should all give Wal-Mart its due credit for environmental progress. There’s no doubt: selling CFLs and concentrated laundry detergent, as opposed to the old fashioned kinds, is good. Still - it’s selling a product for profit. A good thing, an American thing, but also a normal and rational business strategy.

For the same reason that we expect to see TV cable news cover missing-child cases, we expect to see environmental media and small news outlets across the country cover Wal-Mart’s new stores and product lines. But the New York Times is the nation’s most venerable newspaper. It’s known far and wide for the tough questions its investigative journalists ask. How many more of these do we need?

2) Wal-Mart’s environmental progress is in no way connected to health care or labor progress.

It’s astounding that the three issues have been lumped together so easily, so often. Does anyone, really, think that in the past 3 years Wal-Mart has significantly improved its health care or labor policy? It brags that barely over half of employees are insured on the company plan. A breakdown of the plan, or a look around Wal-Mart Speakout - will show what real workers can do with the plan: virtually nothing.

As we’ve said a gazillion times, a full-time Wal-Mart worker at $10.86 an hour is living well below the poverty level for a family of four. And even if it were true that those wages are average for retail - none of those other companies have the immense size or multi-billion dollar profit that Wal-Mart does. Wal-Mart has the unique ability and responsibility to stimulate the economy and support its workers by giving them a well-deserved raise. (obviously they’re doing a good job, right?)

When will the New York Times catch on?

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Wal-Mart’s use of sweatshop labor in developing countries has been well documented, but what about the use of slave labor inside their U.S. stores?

A recent investigation in York, Pennsylvania has turned up a case of forced labor occurring right inside a Wal-Mart store.  According to the report, two Vietnamese women were brought from Vietnam to work without compensation in a DaVi salon located inside the Wal-Mart store at the West Manchester mall.

In the seemingly unregulated borders of a Wal-Mart store, almost anything can happen:

Wal-Mart’s established history of violating workers rights includes locking employees in stores overnight, forcing employees to work unpaid overtime, as well as a host of other egregious problems. 

At a Wal-Mart supercenter in Jinling, China, sales promotion employees were being forced to work 365 days a year with little or no rest.  Those who took time off work were “severely reprimanded”. 

Because Wal-Mart is often aware of the problems in its stores, employees are threatened for reporting violations.  Workers demanding their rights and attempting to unionize are fired.

Wal-Mart’s low prices come at the cost of human rights and human dignity.  Wal-Mart has a responsibility to its employees and its customers to ensure a fair and safe working environment for all workers at all stages of the supply chain.  For more on the Wal-Mart’s labor abuses click here. 

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Another one bites the dust: 150 associates in Hull, Quebec are the most recent Wal-Mart workers to unionize.

Congrats to UFCW and Wal-Mart’s Canadian Workforce. The pace at which stores are being unionized now entirely changes the ballgame. Over the past few years, Wal-Mart has been able to shut down a few unionized stores here and there with little consqequence other than bad press. But with stores becoming more rapidly unionized, this won’t be so easy. At a minimum, if Wal-Mart does choose to shutter every unionized store, it’s going to take a major bite of it’s Canadian business and growth plan for the future.

Another Wal-Mart unionized in Quebec [UFCW Press Release]:

HULL, QUE., NEWS RELEASE--(Marketwire - Dec. 18, 2008) -

Over 150 Wal-Mart workers in Hull, Que., have become the ninth group of Canadian “associates” to join the country’s largest private-sector union after a Dec. 17 decision by the Quebec Labour Board awarded bargaining rights for the Hull location to the United Food and Commercial Workers Canada (UFCW Canada).

“After nine times, the message coming from Wal-Mart workers in Canada to Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Arkansas, couldn’t be louder or clearer: Canadian Wal-Mart workers want to be union members,” says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley.

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It’s been confirmed: Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott will appear in a roundtable discussion on Meet The Press this Sunday with Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. The roundtable will be, according to MTP’s website, an “in-depth discussion on the troubled economy.” Tune in at 10:30 AM on NBC to check it out.

Also, this is David Gregory’s first show as the new host. (A one-on-one grilling of Lee Scott over his company’s low wages would be a heck of a way to make a first impression, no?)

Anyone have any other good ideas for questions to ask Lee Scott?

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Wal-Mart has a long history of opposing unionization. Sam Walton was notorious for trying to keep unions out of his stores. In fact, Walton hired union-busting lawyer John E. Tate to quash some of the earliest efforts to organize stores in Missouri. Despite a successful unionization effort in China, Wal-Mart will not budge from its position in the United States and Canada. However, with the election of Barack Obama and the potential passage of the Employee Free Choice Act, Wal-Mart is clearly afraid that its anti-worker practices of the last half century might be coming to a close. Wal-Mart says its associates do not need a union. Wal-Mart Watch, however, believes that after years of low wages, expensive health care benefits, and poor working conditions, Wal-Mart workers can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Wal-Mart and the retail industry have been spending millions slandering the Free Choice Act, saying that it would destroy the “private ballot” in the unionization process. To find out why this simply isn’t true, see Wal-Mart Watch’s latest fact sheet, The Employee Free Choice Act: Wal-Mart’s Last Stand Against Unionization?

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Введение
Управление международных закупок Wal-Mart было создано в 2002 году в целях осуществления прямых импортных операций и прямых закупок у производителей. Управление международных закупок контролирует приобретение товаров у тысяч предприятий-поставщиков по всему миру. 

Это Управление также отвечает за подбор новых поставщиков, поиск новых товаров, установление партнерских отношений с существующими поставщиками и международную сеть прямых импортных поставок Wal-Mart. Цель Управления международных закупок – работать над обеспечением качества, проводить проверки предприятий-поставщиков и обучение в области стандартов организации труда для поставщиков и производственных предприятий. Штаб-квартира управления, насчитывающего 1 700 сотрудников, находится в Шэньчжэне, также имеются дополнительные отделения в 50 странах.

Учрежденный в 1992 году в целях улучшения условий труда на предприятиях-поставщиках Wal-Mart, Отдел деловой этики входит в состав Управления международных закупок. Сотрудники Отдела деловой этики отвечают за проверку соблюдения предприятиями стандартов Wal-Mart для поставщиков, в также положений применимого местного законодательства. Отдел координирует административную работу и проведение аудиторских проверок на предприятиях поставщиков, снабжающих Wal-Mart своей продукцией, а также выступает в качестве формального импортера.

Настоящий обзор исследует систему закупок и снабжения компании Wal-Mart, а также ряд проблем на предприятиях Китая, Бангладеша и прочих стран, где модель снабжения Wal-Mart не смогла обеспечить защиту прав рабочих и соблюдение собственных стандартов компании.

Являясь одной из крупнейших компаний мира и участником проектов по внедрению стандартов справедливых условий труда, таких, как Инициатива по торговой этике и Глобальная программа соответствия общественным потребностям, компания Wal-Mart просто обязана повышать ставки в игре и быть лидером и новатором в области снабжения, как она это делает в сфере розничной торговли. Изучая различные примеры с участием предприятий, использующих потогонную систему труда, и Wal-Mart, можно проследить три явных тенденции:

1) Отсутствие должного контроля со стороны Wal-Mart за соблюдением собственных стандартов для поставщиков
2) Неспособность Wal-Mart ввести систему подотчетности владельцев и управляющих предприятий
3) Настойчивое стремление Wal-Mart приобретать товары у поставщиков по минимально возможной цене

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Introdução
A divisão de Procurement global do Wal-Mart foi criada em 2002 para gerenciar as compras diretas da fábrica e os negócios de importação direta do Wal-Mart. O Procurement global é responsável por inspecionar a terceirização de mercadorias de milhares de fábricas fornecedoras do mundo todo. 

A divisão também é responsável por identificar novos fornecedores, terceirizar novos produtos, criar parcerias com fornecedores existentes e gerenciar a cadeia de suprimentos global das importações diretas do Wal-Mart. O objetivo do Procurement global é resolver problemas de garantia de qualidade, conduzir inspeções de fábricas fornecedoras e dar treinamentos de padrões do local de trabalho para fornecedores e fábricas. A equipe da divisão de 1.700 funcionários tem sua principal sede em Shenzhen com escritórios adicionais em 50 países.

Fundada em 1992 para melhorar as condições dos trabalhadores nas fábricas fornecedoras do Wal-Mart, o Ethical Standard Program (Programa de padrão ético) é uma subdivisão do Procurement global. A equipe de Ethical Standards (Padrões éticos) é responsável por verificar a conformidade da fábrica com os Padrões do Wal-Mart para Fornecedores além das leis locais aplicáveis. O programa coordena a administração e execução de auditorias nas fábricas fornecedoras das quais o Wal-Mart terceiriza diretamente e é o importador do registro.

Esta cartilha examina os sistemas de terceirização e procurement do Wal-Mart, bem como alguns dos problemas ocorridos nas fábricas da China, Bangladesh e em outros países nos quais houve falha em seu modelo de terceirização em proteger os direitos dos trabalhadores e em cumprir os próprios padrões do Wal-Mart.

Como a maior empresa do mundo e como membro de padrões justos de trabalho, projetos como Ethical Trading Initiative e Global Social Compliance Programme, é responsabilidade do Wal-Mart intensificar sua participação e ser líder e inovadora no âmbito da terceirização como tem feito no setor de varejo. Ao estudar os diversos casos que envolvem péssimas condições de trabalho e o Wal-Mart, surgiram três padrões notáveis:

1.) Falha do Wal-Mart em forçar corretamente seus próprios Padrões de fornecedores
2.) Incapacidade do Wal-Mart em implementar um sistema de responsabilidade com os gerentes e proprietários da fábrica
3.) Insistência contínua do Wal-Mart em obter o menor preço possível dos fornecedores

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परिचय
वाल-मार्ट के सीधे आयात के कारोबार और फैक्ट्री से सीधी खरीद का प्रबंध करने के लिए वाल-मार्ट का वैश्विक खरीद प्रभाग 2002 में बनाया गया। वैश्विक खरीद विश्व भर में हज़ारों आपूर्तिकर्ता फैक्ट्रियों से वस्तुओं की खरीद के कार्य को देखने के लिए जिम्मेदार है।

यह प्रभाग नए आपूर्तिकर्ताओं की पहचान करने, नए उत्पादों की खरीद करने, विद्यमान आपूर्तिकर्ताओं के साथ साझेदारियों का निर्माण करने, और वाल-मार्ट के सीधे आयातों की वैश्विक सप्लाई चेन का प्रबंध करने के लिए भी जिम्मेदार है। वैश्विक खरीद का प्रयोजन गुणवत्ता आश्वासन के मुद्दों पर कार्य करके आपूर्तिकर्ता फैक्ट्रियों के निरीक्षण करने और आपूर्तिकर्ताओं तथा फैक्ट्रियों के लिए कार्यस्थल मानकों के प्रशिक्षण देना है। इस प्रभाग का 1700 का स्टाफ अधिकतर शेन्ज़ेन में स्थित है जबकि 50 देशों में इसके अतिरिक्त कार्यालय हैं।.

वाल-मार्ट की आपूर्तिकर्ता फैक्ट्रियों में कामगारों के लिए स्थितियों में सुधार लाने के लिए 1992 में स्थापित नैतिकता मानक कार्यक्रम वैश्विक खरीद का एक उपप्रभाग है। नैतिकता मानक दल लागू स्थानीय कानूनों के अतिरिक्त आपूर्तिकर्ताओं के लिए वाल-मार्ट के मानकों के फैक्ट्री अनुपालन की जाँच करने के लिए जिम्मेदार है। यह कार्यक्रम उन आपूर्तिकर्ता फैक्ट्रियों में आपूर्तिकर्ता फैक्ट्री लेखा-परीक्षाओं के प्रशासन और निष्पादन का समन्वयन करता है जिनसे वाल-मार्ट सीधे स्रोतीकरण करता है और यह रिकॉर्ड का आयात करता है।

इस प्राइमर में वाल-मार्ट की खरीद और स्रोतीकरण की प्रणालियों की जाँच की गई है और साथ ही चीन, बांग्लादेश, और उन अन्य देशों की फैक्ट्रियों की जाँच की गई है जिनमें उनका स्रोतीकरण मॉडल कामगारों के अधिकारों की रक्षा करने और वाल-मार्ट के स्वयं अपने मानकों पर खरा उतरने में असफल रहा है।

विश्व की सबसे बड़ी कंपनी होने के नाते, और नैतिकतापूर्ण व्यापार पहल तथा वैश्विक सामाजिक अनुपालन कार्यक्रम जैसी उचित श्रम मानकों की परियोजनाओं के सदस्य के रूप में, वाल-मार्ट की यह जिम्मेदारी है कि वह अपने खेल में आगे बढ़े और स्रोतीकरण की प्रक्रिया में एक अग्रणी और नवोन्मेषक बने जैसा कि इसने खुदरा उद्योग में किया है। कठोर श्रम वाले प्रतिष्ठानों में उत्पीड़न के विभिन्न मामलों और वाल-मार्ट का अध्ययन करते समय, तीन उल्लेखनीय स्वरूप दिखाई दिए हैं:

1) वाल-मार्ट की स्वयं अपने आपूर्तिकर्ता मानकों को पर्याप्त रूप से लागू करने में असफलता
2) वाल-मार्ट की फैक्ट्री मालिकों और प्रबंधकों के साथ जिम्मेदारी की प्रणाली को लागू करने में असमर्थता
3) वाल-मार्ट का आपूर्तिकर्ताओं से न्यूनतम संभव कीमत पर माल लेने के लिए लगातार ज़ोर दिया जाना

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There are two important economic discussions going on right now in America, and too rarely are they tied together as they should be.

Not a day goes by without talk in the media of the ‘Wal-Mart Economy’ and Wal-Mart’s role in a recession. Similarly, with the proposed auto bailout being debated on Capitol Hill, we’ve heard endlessly about the supposed failures of GM, Ford and Chrysler to adjust and adapt.

Everyone tends to agree that more Americans are now forced to shop at Wal-Mart - whether they love or whether they hate it. Likewise, the talking heads know that the Big Three are suffering - whether or not they need to be bailed out, or are getting what they deserve.

But the two aren’t separate stories.

A couple of columns by the Washington Post Writers Group over the past two days have done a great job of laying out the differences between Bentonville and Detroit – and what that has meant for the American economy.

Warren A. Brown writes mostly about cars. A lot of his column defends Detroit’s efforts to make greener cars, but more importantly (for this blog post at least) - he draws a more realistic picture of what’s been happening in America:

“Here is where newspaper columnists—Thomas L. Friedman of The New York Times comes to mind—routinely dismiss the idea of federal aid to an ailing Detroit, suggesting that the city and its automobile industry be consigned to the scrap heap of history, having failed dismally in their core mission to design and develop the kinds of cars and trucks Americans really want.

It is sophist nonsense, of course, the kind of tale spun by people who haven’t bothered to check the numbers, and who have paid even less regard to the history of their supposed knowledge.

The truth, all things considered, is that Detroit has done reasonably well. The American Three—General Motors, Ford and Chrysler—still hold an estimated 47 percent of a home market that is wide open to competition from car companies all over the world. Until July of 2007, domestic automobile manufacturers historically held more than a 50-percent U.S.-market share. But in a country where consumers have made Wal-Mart the retail king—that’s Wal-Mart, one of America’s biggest importers of foreign goods—that was bound to change.

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Reader W.D. sent us a note over the weekend, with an interesting strategy to help struggling Wal-Mart employees: give them a tip.

It’s not a cure-all to the Wal-Mart problem, but it’s an interesting idea - and it would certainly shame any manager who knew it was happening. It’s great to have readers who are so keenly aware of the Wal-Mart dilemma to think of things like this:

“I shop at Wal-Mart. I never believed a boycott would be effective in changing their grotesque management system. I always believed a boycott would only hurt workers and cause more pain. After years of struggling within when I stepped into the front doors of Wal-Mart an idea suddenly hit me on how I could directly help employees while shopping for products I probably didn’t need. This idea I had would directly help some employees but the action of the idea would hopefully shame management. I decided I would implement it when checking out. I got to the register, the lady working at the check out stand was an older woman around sixty years of age, very friendly. When she finally gave me the total $68.38, I handed her my credit card. She ran the card through, and I decided to put my idea into action. When I finished signing my receipt, I reached into my pocket and handed her a $10.00 bill. She asked me what that was for, I responded that it was her tip. She said they don’t accept tips. I asked her if she believed the customer was always right? She said “yes” and I responded “well, I know you don’t get paid a fair wage for what you do, so I want to give you a tip”. She didn’t know what to say, I just said “please take it”. The lady behind me was laughing and said “take the tip cause I am going to tip too” and then she said “awesome”. The lady finally took my tip and said God Bless you. I told her if management gives her any problem, give the tip to them and tell them to disperse it and that I demanded you take it. I was concerned she would get in trouble for taking it.

So far I have tipped five times when visiting a Wal-Mart. I tip based on the restaurant scale, 20% on the dollar amount. During the last five times, I have had one manager ask me what I was doing. I told him why I was tipping, he just stared at me and smiled.

Start tipping your check out clerk. If not money, buy them a wal-mart gift card. Let’s shame management into action.

Just doing my part.”

What do you think?

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Well, my faithful blog readers, after two years of working on Wal-Mart issues and more than a year as the main editor of this blog, our Friday Blog Round-Up today will be my last post. I hope you all continue reading, commenting and working to challenge Wal-Mart’s business practices. Enjoy the writing of my Wal-Mart Watch colleagues and try to keep the infighting to a minimum. As for now - on to the week’s blogs!

BLOGGERS WEIGH IN ON “EMPLOYEES SPEAK OUT”

Real Voices, Some More Wild Stuff [Working Life]

Wal-Mart Watch has set up a website where you can actually hear and read about the actual workers who have to put up with the oppressive behavior of The Beast. This is part of the picture: the Great Robbery that we have all endured for a number of decades--wages not going up (even though productivity goes up), no health care, no pensions--plays out, day-to-day, in those aisles at Wal-Mart.

The voice of the workers (Part 1) [Writing on the Wal]

What you get there is a look behind Walmart’s PR curtain to see what employees are really thinking, but too afraid to tell their supervisors since they don’t have a union to protect them. Indeed, let’s start this series there, in the category that Wal-Mart Watch calls corporate culture.

After the jump, union-busting in Canada, bottle water, Nike’s suit against the Bentonville behemoth and Sarah Palin.

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SweatFree Communities, an anti-sweatshop activist group, went undercover in Bangladesh to examine working conditions in Wal-Mart’s supplier factories. The resulting report (PDF) paints a heart-wrenching portrait of the poverty and abuse that make Wal-Mart’s low prices possible.

BusinessWeek’s article on SweatFree’s findings is equally troubling. The piece highlights problems at Wal-Mart that enable sweatshops: preannounced factory inspections mean managers can hide violations, and fewer corporate reports on the state of its supply chain means Wal-Mart executives are turning a blind eye. Wal-Mart also tried to suppress SweatFree’s report, alone a worrysome fact. SweatFree Communities Executive Director Bjorn Claeson is quoted in the article saying, “Wal-Mart has incredible economic muscle in that country. If it takes the leadership position as a retailer and works with other brands, there is no question that it can really have an impact.”

Wal-Mart Supplier Accused of Sweatshop Conditions [BusinessWeek]

The world’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT), is being accused of buying school uniforms that were made under extreme sweatshop conditions at a factory in Bangladesh.

The JMS Garments Factory in Chittagong, Bangladesh, produces school uniforms that are sold in Wal-Mart stores under the Faded Glory brand name. A report from SweatFree Communities, an anti-sweatshop activist group based in Bangor (Me.), found that workers at the factory work up to 19-hour shifts to finish Wal-Mart’s orders under tight deadlines; are made to stand for hours as punishment for arriving late to work; and are frequently subject to verbal abuse and kicking or beatings. Some workers earn as little as $20 each month, the group says—even lower than the country’s legal minimum wage of $24 per month.

The report is based on interviews with more than 90 workers conducted away from the factory in workers’ homes by a Bangladeshi nongovernmental labor research organization on behalf of SweatFree Communities, a five-year-old nonprofit group funded by activist foundations such as the Solidago Foundation, CarEth Foundation, and Presbyterian Hunger Program. The group works to get commitments from schools, cities, and other employers to buy goods with employee rights in mind.

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Labor rights violations have plagued Wal-Mart’s supply chain since the company abandoned its “Buy American” campaign in the early 1990’s. Wal-Mart’s business model relies on low prices, and those low prices are made possible by manufacturing products overseas where economies are weaker and human rights enforcement is lax.

Yesterday, the company announced that it will require suppliers to avoid cotton from Uzbekistan, which is known for using children to harvest cotton each year. From IWPR’s The Cost of Uzbek White Gold:

Gathering cotton in the autumn has been considered the most important part of life for an Uzbek citizen since Soviet times. But the hefty dollar revenues reaped by the government from its monopoly export and processing business are made on the backs of children who provide cheap labour.

Many other retailers have also started boycotting Uzbekistan’s cotton, and it is without a doubt an issue that should be addressed by every conscientious company. Wal-Mart use it’s purchasing power like this a thousand different times in dozens of countries and still not resolve all the problems in its supply chain. We only hope to see more efforts like this coming out of Bentonville.

Wal-Mart asks suppliers to avoid Uzbek cotton [Reuters]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Tuesday it is requiring its suppliers to stop sourcing cotton from Uzbekistan, in an effort to end child labor there.

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This video from American Rights at Work tells the story of workers’ attempts to unionize at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and why the Employee Free Choice Act is crucial for workers everywhere. As is often the case with Wal-Mart, Yale-New Haven was the largest employer in the area and employees repeatedly tried to unionize at the hospital without success. And like Wal-Mart, hospital workers in the video describe mandatory meetings held with mangers who used fear mongering to discourage unionization. The video’s case for EFCA is persuasive not only for employees at Yale-New Haven Hospital, but workers across the country.