54 comments

---

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?

59 comments

---

After four years of legal wrangling, Wal-Mart workers in Weyburn, Saskatchewan were granted union status today, according to the UFCW local. Congrats to all the workers involved, and good luck to the other two Saskatchewan stores that have applications before the labor board.

Wal-Mart’s instinct will undoubtedly be to shut the store down, as it quickly did in Jonquiere and Gatineau. But can the company continue its aggressive growth plans in Canada if its forced to regularly shut down stores and take on the negative publicity that comes with it?

Wal-Mart Workers in Canadian Store Are Granted Union Status [Bloomberg News]:

Workers at a Wal-Mart Stores Inc. outlet in Canada were allowed to be represented by a union after more than four years of legal challenges by the retailer, the United Food and Commercial Workers said.

The Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board granted union certification to workers at a store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the union said in a statement today. The union already represents workers at three of the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer’s locations in Quebec. Applications for unionization of two others in Saskatchewan are before the labor board.

Wal-Mart in Weyburn certified as UFCW Canada unionized store [UFCW Press Release]:

A Wal-Mart store in Weyburn, Saskatchewan has been granted union certification by the Saskatchewan Labour Relations Board (SLRB) after years of Wal-Mart legal wrangling and delays, including two Wal-Mart applications to the Supreme Court of Canada to overturn the process.

“Justice has finally arrived for these Weyburn workers, in spite of Wal-Mart’s endless attempts to thwart the workers from exercising their constitutional right to have a union,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.

Read the rest of this story ...

8 comments

---

The National Journal’s Under The Influence Blog brings our attention to a new 501(c)6 group called the “Workforce Fairness Institute,” whose sole purpose is to fight the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA).

The National Journal tells us:

Packer would not identify the WFI’s funders. But sources familiar with its creation speculate that such big retailers as Wal-Mart and Home Depot—a which are high-profile opponents of EFCA—are likely among the group’s donors. One source says the WFI is trying to raise as much as $10 million for its operations.

Presumably, Wal-Mart and other companies are spending early while preparing for a possible Obama administration and strong Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate - which are expected to make a push for the legislation which, of course, would make it easier for Wal-Mart workers to form unions and negotiate contracts for higher wages and better benefits.

The WFI website is savetheelection.org, and the featured video is a fake news broadcast which for the first minute or so openly implies that the presidential election is being taken away. Halfway through it tells us we’re talking about a possible change in unionization rules.

But - the website reminds us that WFI (just like Wal-Mart!) is “NOT anti-Union.” Which is reassuring.

We’ll do our best to investigate WFI’s funding disclosure laws, and Wal-Mart’s role in the venture. As usual....we’ll be watching. 

8 comments

---

Today marks the debut of a new project from Wal-Mart Watch: Wal-Mart Employees Speak-Out. The new website is a chance for Wal-Mart’s employees and former employees to talk about how the retailer’s low wage, poor benefits business model impacts their lives. The site features user-submitted material in the form of comments, stories, and video testimonies. Check it out at: http://walmartspeakout.com.

Wal-Mart workers often face retaliation for speaking out about the many problems at the company. This website is a chance for them to speak out – anonymously, in many cases – without fear of being fired or demoted. The project comes at a time when working Americans are suffering more than ever, but while Wal-Mart reaps record profits as the largest corporation in the world.

Are you a former or current employee of Wal-Mart that has a story to share?  Click here to SPEAK OUT! All entries will be kept anonymous unless authorized. Speaking out helps others fight the unfair treatment Wal-Mart is infamous for. Help transform Wal-Mart into the kind of workplace it claims to be, and speak out against unfair policies at the company.

3 comments

---

Wal-Mart earned $31 billion in profit last year, but repeatedly refuses to raise wages for its lowest-paid employees. When workers at a Tire and Lube Express in Canada voted to unionize in hopes of raising their wages and securing better benefits, Wal-Mart responded in the same way it has before: it shut the shop down. Such actions have been challenged before; hopefully these workers will be able to find justice.

Wal-Mart Closes Quebec Tire Center After Labor Accord (Update1) [Bloomberg News]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s biggest retailer, said it closed a unionized Quebec tire and lubrication shop because of costs tied to the first labor agreement imposed at any of its North American locations.

The closing is effective immediately because it would have raised operating costs by at least 30 percent and triggered “dramatic’’ price increases on products, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said today in a statement. The Quebec Labour Relations Board imposed the three-year labor contract in August after the union and company failed to reach an agreement.

“The union contract that was imposed is simply unworkable,’’ Wal-Mart Canada spokesman Andrew Pelletier said in a telephone interview.

Wal-Mart rose $1.89, or 3.8 percent, to $51.94 at 1:05 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.

Under the contract, wages would have increased by a third, or more than 10 times the average hourly rate of Quebec companies this year, the company said in the statement. Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express’s six employees in Gatineau won’t be fired and will be offered jobs at other regional shops.

Read the rest of this story ...

5 comments

---

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.

Read the rest of this story ...

24 comments

---

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.

Read the rest of this story ...

74 comments

---

Within two months of starting an intense campaign to get Wal-Mart China stores to sign collective contracts, the Chinese labor union has declared success.  All Wal-Mart store contracts include provisions on yearly wage and hour increase consultations in addition to including many, if not all, of the following provisions on: break time, holiday time, contract supervision, insurance, worker safety, women workers’ special rights and benefit protections, worker discipline, worker training, work quotas, etc.

Congratulations to the Wal-Mart China workers and their unions for negotiating and safeguarding their rights!

Wal-Mart China’s 108 Stores Sign Collective Contracts [Xinhua]

Wal-Mart’s 108 unionized stores in the China have all agreed to and signed collective contracts.  This historic breakthrough was the result of the legal push by China’s labor union to organize Wal-Mart.

Read the rest of this story ...

2 comments

---

Andy Stern, head of the SEIU, speaking about the Employee Free Choice Act on Meet the Bloggers. On what the EFCA is, and why it would benefit workers:

If we understand what’s happening in America today, the gap between the rich and everyone else is growing pretty wide and pretty fast, which leads to all those foreclosures and other debt problems you talked about. One of the ways American workers used to get a raise was they had a union. And they way they got a union was they could make their own choice about whether they wanted to have an organization to talk to their employer about their wages and their heath care. And over the last 50 years what we’ve seen, is the courts and the corporations begin to eat away at those rights. So the Employee Free Choice Act just modernizes the national labor relations laws of our country, that again allow workers to make their own choice about whether they have a union, and tell the employer “We’ll see you after we have a majority of people who want to talk with you at the collective bargaining table, and until then this is our decision not your decision.

72 comments

---

That part about the socks is true. They say Obama doesn’t even know how many socks he owns.

2 comments

---

For those of you who’ve seen Wal-Mart’s training videos, this new short from American Rights at Work will ring particularly true.

I don’t know about you, but that bottle of soda does look pretty enticing.

73 comments

---

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.

2 comments

---

While the FEC investigates Wal-Mart’s possibly-illegal attempts to influence the votes of its employees, writers at the Legal Times discuss what those mandatory meetings exposed. While obviously making clear how much Wal-Mart fears unionization - and how much its managers exaggerate the impact of Democrats and the Employee Free Choice Act - the meetings also exposed the national need for stronger laws against employee intimidation.

Chained to Office Politics [Legal Times]

Imagine you work for the largest company in town. You live from paycheck to paycheck like a large portion of lower- to middle-wage workers and can’t afford to be without a job for long. Your company has pretty high turnover, and it has a reputation for firing people it labels troublemakers, people who don’t fit into the corporate culture.

Now imagine that at a mandatory work meeting, your supervisor warns you that Congress is considering legislation that will make it easier for unions to come into your company. A union here would be a disaster, the supervisor warns, and would mean layoffs, or even worse, closing down entire locations. Unions are bad news. And just to top it off, if a Democrat gets into the White House, we can be sure that bill in Congress will become the law. So think about that, he says, when you’re in that voting booth.

This speech might make you a little nervous about what your supervisor thinks your political leanings are. You might be very careful about what you say to be sure it can’t be interpreted to support the Democrats, particularly if your company has the reputation of firing people who support unionizing. And since your employer is the biggest in town, you watch what you say no matter where you are. You can’t afford to have anything get back to the company.

Read the rest of this story ...

33 comments

---

MEXICAN SUPREME COURT SLAMS WAL-MART’S LABOR PRACTICES

Mexico’s Supreme Court rules against Wal-Mart’s labor practices [AlterDestiny]

Mexico’s Supreme Court has been making some really interesting decisions lately. Last week they upheld Mexico City’s law to provide access to abortion. Yesterday, they ruled in favor of a Wal-Mart employee in Mexico who brought a case against the corporation for its practice of providing store coupons in place of a portion of one’s salary.  (English story here, Spanish here). The court likened Wal-Mart’s practice to the old company stores that operated under the dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz (1876-1910), that were subsequently outlawed with the 1917 constitution.

Walmart Slammed by Mexican Court [Politics and Hypocrisy]

Now to be fair, I am far from knowledgeable on the working conditions in Mexico. I do know that they must be bad enough to cause 1000’s of Mexicans to cross our borders yearly in search of a better life.

So knowing that, how bad must Walmart be in Mexico if their Supreme Court is criticizing their labor practices? I’ll give you a hint, an 1890’s dictator and store only salary vouchers are mentioned.

I wonder if they tell their employees how to vote down there as well?

After the jump, Wal-Mart’s new in-store TV network, the company’s outreach to mommy bloggers and why you should love the REALLY free market.

Read the rest of this story ...

24 comments

---

In the past, we’ve compared Wal-Mart to the Harry Potter villain Voldemort, as a way to highlight the retailer’s harsh treatment of employees and devastating impact on small towns. The Mexican Supreme Court has made an even more extreme condemnation: the court recently compared Wal-Mart’s labor practices to those of Mexican dictator Porfirio Diaz, whose rule was known for brutal use of power and widespread corruption.

The comparison arose after a Wal-Mart employee complained to the court that Wal-Mart was essentially paying its workers in store credit, rather than actual money. Vouchers handed out to employees as part of their salary could only be used at Wal-Mart stores, the employee said. President Diaz used similar plans during his regime.

Labor problems have dogged Wal-Mart in Mexico since it began expanding in the country in the early 2000s. A worker strike at several Walmex stores in February ended suspiciously, leading many to wonder if the company hired false negotiators or intimidated employees. Prior to that incident, Wal-Mart workers rallied in Mexico City to demand better conditions and a union. The company has also been criticized for refusing to pay teenagers employed as baggers at its Mexico stores. In light of these problems, the Supreme Court’s comparison seems somewhat fitting.

Mexico’s Supreme Court slams Walmart’s labor practices [AFP]

Mexico’s Supreme Court compared the practices of US retail giant Walmart in Mexico to employer-worker relations during the dictatorship of former president Porfirio Diaz.

Diaz served as president and absolute ruler of Mexico from 1877-80 and from 1884-1911.

Mexico’s top court on Thursday backed a Walmart employee who had complained that vouchers handed out by the company as part of its salary payments could only be spent in the company’s stores.

Read the rest of this story ...

7 comments

---

Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world, with just over 2 millions employees on its payroll. So when the company does something wrong, there are usually a lot of people involved and for that reason, Wal-Mart often finds itself the subject of class action lawsuits.

An article today from Bloomberg News notes that there are currently over 70 lawsuits currently pending against Wal-Mart which deal with wage-and-hour violations alone. A 2005 federal law, which ruled that any lawsuit involving parties from multiple states and damages exceeding $5 million must go to federal court, means some of the cases filed since 2005 and currently pending against Wal-Mart will be combined. This had included class action suits from Delaware, South Dakota, Nevada and Alaska, until U.S. District Judge Phillip Pro denied their class status in June. Today’s article asserts that Wal-Mart stands to benefit from the 2005 law, which could make it harder for employees to collectively litigate against the company.

Whether Wal-Mart “shaved” time off employees’ schedules is not up for debate here: Judge Pro explained each wage-and-hour violation will simply be treated individually. Wal-Mart continues to look for ways to spend as little as possible on payroll, even if this means unfairly compensating employees for their hours worked. Rulings such as this one make it more difficult for employees to change Wal-Mart as a whole, but the company should stop breaking labor laws in the first place and pay its workers fairly.

Wal-Mart Shareholders Benefit From Judge’s Pay Ruling [Bloomberg News]

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., facing as much as $2 billion in damages in a Minnesota employee-pay trial, may be shielded from similar cases in the future thanks to a 2005 federal law.

The statute requires federal courts to handle class-action lawsuits of $5 million or more when plaintiffs and defendants are from different states. Because judges have been less willing to certify these cases as class actions, the law may save Wal-Mart as much as $5 billion, said Robert Bonsignore, lead workers’ attorney in Nevada suits against the world’s largest retailer. That’s equivalent to 77 percent of Wal-Mart’s $6.5 billion first- half profit.

Read the rest of this story ...

2 comments

---

Two stories in the Chinese press last week show that collective bargaining agreements are spreading across Wal-Mart’s China stores like wildfire. Several stores even had union card signing ceremonies, showing that employees take pride in their union membership.

The unions at Wal-Mart’s store in China are made possible in large part by China’s powerful retail labor laws. Strong governmental involvement has thus far been the most effective tool in the quest for Wal-Mart unionization. While workers in China bargain collectively for better pay and better benefits, politicians in the U.S. work to strengthen labor laws here so unionization is not just a possibility, but something workers can accomplish and take pride in.

900 Wal-Mart Employees in Wuhan Sign Collective Contract [Sina Finance]

On August 26, officials from the Wal-Mart store on Xudong Street and the store on Zhongshan Street in Wuhan, Hubei and the local labor union held a collective contract signing ceremony…

This collective contract involves nearly 900 Wal-Mart employees from two stores.  The contract addresses essential issues such as wage increases, paid vacation, social security, worker safety, etc. with clear-cut provisions.  The contract includes a mechanism to collectively consult on wages.  For 2008 and 2009 full-time employee wages will increase an average of 8%.  Workers with at least three years may sign the contract without a fixed deadline with provisions on salary, vacation, social security, working women’s rights, benefits, protections, etc. and employee welfare.  “Henceforth, we employees have the right to demand wage increases,” a labor union representative from the Zhongshan store expressed.

Wage Talks Defend Employee Interests, Three Wal-Mart Stores in Changsha Sign Collective Contract [Sina News]

Presently, Hunan has 27,000 companies that have agreed to collective contracts – establishing mechanisms to evaluate equality.  For collective contracts, labor unions and workers elect representatives to consult and negotiate on issues such as wage and hour, work conditions, rest and vacations, worker health and safety, insurance, etc.

50 comments

---

Americans first celebrated Labor Day in 1892, and Congress made it an official federal holiday in 1894, during one of the most tumultuous and forward-thinking decades in American history. It was initially intended to be a gift to the working class, and came at a time when workdays were long and a day off was precious.

Labor Day’s modern iteration has come to be more about barbeques, big sales and the end of white pants season; often lost is the celebration of “social and economic achievements of American workers.” And most unfortunately, the massive back-to-school shopping frenzy - with Labor Day at its climax - means many retail employees will be unable to enjoy this day, despite the fact that it was intended for them.

Jeff Hess over at Writing on the Wal urges readers to remember what Labor Day is all about: improving the lives of American workers. While you’re flipping a burger this weekend or enjoying the last remnants of summer, remember that we’ve still a long way to go in the fight for fair rights for workers across America. 

18 comments

---

WAL-MART TO BUILD NEAR PROTECTED CIVIL WAR BATTLEFIELDS?

Wal-Mart and the Wilderness. [Hardtac and Hard Times]

Before I say another word, let me remind you that the Civil War Preservation Trust is NOT a knee-jerk, anti-development group; we do not assume that all developers are bad people, and we do not oppose responsible economic growth. In fact, there are several developers who have worked very closely with us to save battlefield land. We welcome and seek out such partnerships!

Stop Wal-Mart [Rantings Of A Civil War Historian]

There are three major corporations that I absolutely despise. I absolutely and categorically refuse to do business with two of them...The third is the Walton empire. Wal-Mart is notorious for forcing its way into communities and killing off local businesses, whether it’s wanted or not. In many instances, it’s not wanted, but it matters not to Wal-Mart. The latest atrocity by Wal-Mart is probably the most unforgivable of all: it wants to build one of its superstores ON the Wilderness battlefield, regardless of the historical significance of the ground, and regardless of what the community might have to say about it. It MUST be stopped.

CWPT Leads Effort To Stop Wal-Mart At The Wilderness [National Trust For Historic Preservation]

Leading the charge against the Wal-Mart plan are CWPT and the Warrenton-based Piedmont Environmental Council. Their “Wilderness Battlefield Coalition” also includes the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Parks Conservation Association, Friends of the Wilderness, and Friends of the Fredericksburg Area Battlefields. Representatives of all six organizations signed the letter.

Wal-Mart is Wiping Out American History - Literally [La Vida Locavore]

Now Wal-Mart wants to do more than just censoring books and music, putting entire towns’ worth of Moms ‘n Pops out of business, and basically selling America to China to wipe out American culture and history. What could be worse and more un-American than that? Oh, funny you should ask. They want to build a Supercenter on the site of the Civil War Battle of Wilderness.

THE UNIONIZATION OF WAL-MART CANADA

Wal-Mart is not above the law. [Writing On The Wal]

So what did I miss while I was in lovely Southern California? “Gatineau Wal-Mart workers awarded contract: Arbitrator imposes only labour pact for retailing giant in North America” [Yes, I see that Robert has already covered this story, but do you really expect me to leave news like this alone?] My source, The Ottawa Citizen offers the full context:

Wal-Mart: 8 Unionized Employees [Mindful Mission]

“Incompatible?" Really? Paying decent wages and giving decent benefits are “incompatible” with the way you do business? Thanks for reminding me why I have not shopped at Wal-Mart in years.

TOM COUGHLIN RAKES IN THE CASH

Wal-Mart, Coughlin settle [Arkansas Blog]

The Morning News account indicates Judge Jay Finch ordered reporters out of the courtroom on the ground that it was a meeting room where parties were discussing settlement. But the minute the judge and a court reporter sat down to have an agreement entered into the record, I’d think court was in session. Absent a compelling reason not apparent here, the session should have been open.

I’ve been doing this Wal-Mart blogging thing for far too long [Writing On The Wal]

This is my first greatest hits post, devoted to the guy who’s now $6.75 million richer, Tom Coughln. Here’s me from July 19, 2005…

Read the rest of this story ...

107 comments

---

More good news out of Canada: UFCW is beginning to map out its strategy to use the victory in Gatineau as a springboard to unionize other Canadian Wal-Mart stores:

In Quebec, hearings are underway before arbitrator Corriveau for a collective agreement for unionized Wal-Mart employees at a store in St. Hyacinthe. And the UFCW is now reportedly interested in unionizing the 240 employees at the Wal-Mart store in Gatineau, next to the garage.

It’s hard to underestimate the importance of the victory in Gatineau. All Wal-Mart Canada associates have seen that the Gatineau contract has immediately raised starting wages from $8.40 to $10.89. And aside from good press and momentum, a legal precedent has been set in Quebec - which should be harder to reverse in Canada than in the U.S..

Union ramping up Wal-Mart drive [Montreal Gazette]:

Union leaders are preparing to use a history-making collective agreement won by nine Wal-Mart garage workers to organize more of the retailer’s Canadian stores.

The United Food and Commercial Workers, which negotiated the Quebec contract, is especially interested in Wal-Mart Canada Corp.’s Supercentres, which have undercut rivals and forced down wages in Ontario.

Read the rest of this story ...