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Originally posted on Huffington Post

Illegal Aliens Deliver Fear & Loathing To Wal-Mart Pharmacies
By Al Norman

One of the world’s largest drug store chains is employing a very unusual---and provocative---method for sourcing its drugs.

This week mighty Wal-Mart found itself at the center of a street-level drug deal that raised larger questions about where and how the retailer gets its cheap drugs.

In June of 2008, I wrote in this space about Wal-Mart’s global sourcing empire for prescription drugs, quoting one pharmaceutical industry analyst as saying, Wal-Mart drugs “come from all over the world. They’re U.S. manufacturers, Israeli and Indian manufacturers. They have a choice of where to buy these drugs.”

But this week, Wal-Mart’s choice of drug vendors made some small town news. The corporation was tight-lipped about a narcotics source that raised lingering questions about where the giant retailer is really getting its cheap drugs, and what product safety and procurement protections are in place at the retailer’s pharmacies. In fact, the whole incident was described by the ABC news affiliate that broke the story as “strange.”

Strange, but also unsettling. ABC 4 News in Cedar City, Utah---a town of roughly 28,000 people---reported that a routine traffic stop of three men led to a bizarre tale of prescription narcotics, illegal couriers, a Las Vegas drug supplier, and the world’s largest retailer.

Diego Jimenez, Maricio Jimenez, and Kyle Gutierrez are being held in a jail in Iron County while local authorities sift through their odd story. Police pulled over their car as it was traveling north on Route 15 just south of 100 miles per hour. The men claim they were hired to deliver prescription drugs to at least three Wal-Mart stores, including the superstore on South Providence Drive in Cedar City, Utah, which has an in-store pharmacy. The three men reportedly had already been to the Wal-Mart supercenter in St. George, Utah, which is south of Cedar City on Route 15, and the Wal-Mart superstore on Route 15 further south in Mesquite, Nevada, on the border with Arizona.

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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.

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Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

At Wal-Mart Watch will be focusing on one of these stories each week, highlighting those cases that warrant further attention because of the light each sheds in its own way on how Wal-Mart does business.

A seventy-seven year old Nevada resident is suing Wal-Mart for their unlawful, discriminatory employment practice which caused him to be terminated from his position. Mr. Gold was hired on as an electronics cashier for an unfinished Wal-Mart store. Construction at the Wal-Mart was still being finished up in January, when employees were brought in to stock the store. In February of 2008, Mr. Gold reported to work like usual; little did he know that this would be his last and most embarrassing day at Wal-Mart.

The Wal-Mart store was nearing completion, so much so that employees were putting the finishing touches on stocking the store shelves for the grand opening. Yet, one problem remained. Wal-Mart had not yet finished the plumbing system in the building, forcing employees on the clock to use an outdoor port-o-potty.

On February 28, Mr. Gold, needing to use the port-o-potty, headed toward the building’s exit. Stopped at the door by a Wal-Mart supervisor, Mr. Gold was ordered to go back to work. Mr. Gold explained that he needed to use the restroom, but again was told that he needed to return to work. 

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RPC OKs map for new Wal-Mart [Pahrump Valley Times (Nev.)]

A new 175,000-square-foot Wal-Mart store on the east side of Highway 160 between Irene and Adkisson streets was part of a tentative subdivision map approved by the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission Wednesday.

The subdivision, measuring 57.7 acres, will encompass a 300,000-square-foot shopping center.

Brad Jones, project manager for Nigro Development, confirmed Thursday the un-named anchor tenant mentioned in the application will be a new Wal-Mart store but provided few other details.

The fifth anniversary of the grand opening of the existing Wal-Mart store at 300 S. Highway 160 was May 21. That store, measuring 155,000 square feet, was the smallest of two new Wal-Mart stores that opened in Southern Nevada that same day, the Pahrump Valley Times reported.

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Many communities are eager to see a new Wal-Mart come to town, but few think of the effect the retailer will have if and when it leaves. This article from Minnesota’s St. Cloud Times gives a local perspective to the retailer’s global prospects. Visit Battle-Mart for more information about fighting Wal-Mart in your local community.

Wal-Mart’s exit is boon, bane for communities [St. Cloud Times (Minn.)]

An empty Wal-Mart building sits along a stretch of road in Little Falls and shoppers have been rerouted to a newer, bigger Wal-Mart down the street.

Its owners have taken care of the old building after the Wal-Mart Supercenter was built in August. It’s been repainted a shade of light green, masking signs of what once thrived there.

At any given time, about 300 to 400 former Wal-Mart stores sit empty around the nation, in some cases for as long as five to seven years, said Ken Stone, a retired professor from Iowa State University who has studied Wal-Mart for about 20 years. Those empty buildings can be a blight to a community and area businesses if they sit untouched for too long.

“It’s a real problem, there’s no question about it,” Stone said.

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Neighbors say Wal-Mart is too noisy [Nevada Appeal]

Wal-Mart says it’s tried to keep quiet but residents near the Carson City store say it is too loud too early and the city should do something about it.

The city planning commission will look at the issue that has come out of complaints officials have received since January about noise from trucks and machines. The city has hosted four meetings between the store and residents during that time.

Wal-Mart Store Manager Scott Yoder said the store wants to be a “good neighbor” and has made changes to deal with the noise. The store has posted a special attendant, installed cameras to watch out for problems and moved back its receiving time for trucks in the morning, he has said.

The store has many trucks coming each day, however, and “it’s a complex situation we’re trying to deal with,” he said.

The store did well June through October in keeping the noise down, according to the city planning division, which makes recommendations to the planning commission, but then the city started getting complaints again.

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What’s disgusting? Union busting. What’s outrageous? Poverty wages.

Wal-Mart breaks the law, gets punished, wins anyway [Las Vegas Sun]

Here is how Wal-Mart, at a cost of a couple of thousand dollars, illegally beat back an attempt to unionize its stores in Nevada:

Seven years ago, as Wal-Mart corporate executives proclaimed Nevada ground zero in an attempt to battle unionizing the giant retailer, three workers at Wal-Mart stores in Southern Nevada took the first steps toward organizing. Avis Hammond, Norine Sorensen and Diana Griego talked to fellow employees about the union and passed out fliers in front of stores, activities clearly allowed under federal labor laws.

Management stepped in. The three employees were told to stop. They were questioned, threatened and insulted, according to later findings by the government. Wal-Mart stripped one worker of his union fliers and denied another a promotion.

The union seeking to represent workers asked for help from the National Labor Relations Board, the federal agency charged with enforcing labor law. The workers wanted Wal-Mart to act within the law so they could continue to try to organize.

That was in 2000.

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CALIFORNIA SITE FIGHT: COUNCIL EXPLAINS DECISION
Council explains Wal-Mart decision [Brentwood (Calif.) Discovery Bay Press]
Although the planned expansion of Wal-Mart into a 24-hour supercenter was essentially killed at the Feb. 13 City Council meeting, it was made official last week as the council cited four reasons for its decision.

WASHINGTON SITE FIGHT: WORKING ON SETTLEMENT
City officials working on settlement with Wal-Mart [Yakima (Wash.) Herald-Republic]
Although a court date looms, Yakima officials are trying to settle their differences with Wal-Mart in closed-door negotiations. “The attorneys for the city are hopeful that we’ll be able to resolve those issues without having to actually go to court,” said Randy Beehler, Yakima’s communication manager.

HAWAII SITE FIGHT: TOPPING THE AGENDA
Big box, county attorney top agenda [Kauai (Hawaii) Garden World]
A representative for Wal-Mart and a government watchdog yesterday offered pros and cons for a bill limiting the size of big box stores as the Kaua‘i County Council scheduled an April 25 public hearing on the issue.

NEVADA SITE FIGHT: CLOSE, OPEN
One Wal-Mart closes as another opens [Reno (Nev.) Gazette-Journal]
A new Wal-Mart Supercenter scheduled to open in summer 2008 on tribal land along Glendale Avenue east of its junction with U.S. 395 will mark the closure of the Wal-Mart on Northtowne Lane. 

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