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From our allies over at Wake Up Walmart:

WakeUpWalmart.com and a coalition of supporters today launched a national week of action against Walmart’s irresponsible sick leave policy.  WakeUpWalmart.com will hold events at 50 Walmart stores across the country to deliver ‘demerits’ and a letter to local store managers calling on Walmart to change its unfair and harmful sick day policy.

Last fall the New York Times article Lack of Sick Days May Worsen Flu Pandemic, exposed Walmart’s track record of giving employees “demerits” that can lead to termination when they call in sick.  A number of workers across the country reported retaliation and termination from Walmart due to illness.

Beatrice Parker, a former greeter at Walmart # 3371 in Charlotte, N.C., felt forced to resign due to Walmart’s sick leave policy after suffering from a bladder infection caused by not being given bathroom breaks on the job.

In a new video released today, Parker describes abuse and age discrimination and asks Walmart CEO Mike Duke, “If you don’t have any or can’t have any concern for the way I was treated in this Walmart, please have some for the people who work there, especially the older people.” You can watch the video on the right of this post.

Walmart’s policies and actions create a working environment where employees feel they are faced with a choice between spreading the flu and keeping their job.  Walmart deserves public demerits for sick leave policies that put the public at risk and make its employees sicker.

The Demerit Walmart program is supported by leading advocacy groups such as the MomsRising.org and the Labor Partnership for Working Families.

“MomsRising is extremely concerned by news reports that Walmart associates risk receiving demerits (which can lead to termination) for taking earned paid sick days,” said MomsRising Executive Director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner.  “Such a practice is a public health hazard and a threat to the economic security of Walmart associates and their families. We call on Walmart to publicly respond to these charges and immediately end any ongoing practice of issuing demerits .”

Walmart is America’s largest private employer and sets the standard for workplaces in the retail industry.  Walmart associates should not be afraid of losing their jobs simply because they are too sick to help customers.  Walmart can and should live up to the highest possible workplace standards. 

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So were back to this? And we thought worker intimidation was soooooooo last year.

In 2007, Human Rights Watch released a report detailing Wal-Mart’s unionbusting policies and practices in the United States. According to the report, “while many American companies use weak U.S. laws to stop workers from organizing, the retail giant stands out for the sheer magnitude and aggressiveness of its anti-union apparatus.”

That aggressiveness is back in the news, courtesy of a unionizing push in St. Paul, Minnesota:

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 filed unfair labor practices complaints this week with the National Labor Relations Board. The union contends that during meetings with employees at its Midway store in St. Paul, Wal-Mart managers said people who sign union authorization cards would be fired. The union also charges that store managers interrogated employees regarding their union support and whether they had signed cards in favor of the union.

Of course this shouldn’t be very surprising, though it does seem pretty interesting that management staff came right out and told people that they’d no longer be a Wal-Mart employee if they supported unionization. You’d think they would hew closer to the Godfather-esque, vague threat route - we can’t be held responsible if, say, a supporter “had an accident” type thing. They should know that threatening workers’ employment status is illegal, right? Or do they just not care? One thing we do know is that they’ve certainly had problems with labor issues in Minnesota before.

Anyway, we’re attempting to get a copy of the NLRB complaint. In the meantime, feel free to check out video of the Local 789 worker rally after the jump.

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That wheezing you hear...that unmistakable click of walking stick on linoleum...that is the sound of another beyond its prime musical act trying to climb the Wal-Mart stairs back to relevance (and more importantly, larger record sales).

You might of course remember exclusive deals with The Eagles, Journey, and AC/DC with its “Black Ice” album. The Boss, Bruce Springsteen, made a similar deal, only to prove that he really was “born to run”...as quickly as he could from a PR nightmare. Aerosmith too has (perhaps accidentally) acknowledged the possibility of a deal.

The list is distinguished...but wait...aren’t we missing something? Where is the glam rock? Where is the long, permed hair? The Star Trek inspired spandex jumpsuits?? The face-paint reminiscent of Japanese Geishas??? KISS!!!!!!! Fine...we can cross glam rock off the Wal-Mart list.

“We’re about four days from finishing the new Kiss album. Eleven tracks, and it IS everything I’ve told you. It IS classic. It IS all written within the band. And IT ROCKS BIG TIME!,” guitarist Paul Stanley writes...However, when Kiss do release their new album, it will apparently be a Walmart exclusive.

With regards to Kiss’s predecessors, only Springsteen and his blue collar legend status seemed to face significant backlash:

Facing accusations that he had sold out on his principles after decades chronicling everyday working struggles in songs such as Born to Run and My Hometown, Springsteen accepted that he should not have got into bed with the retailer.

For the most part, the rest of the deals appeared to be money driven, with bands looking to jumpstart aging fan bases. I think we can safely put KISS in this category as well. So good luck to them - hopefully they’ll be able to afford all the face paint they can handle.

Kiss “Days From Finishing” New Album, Walmart Deal In the Works [Rolling Stone]

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While Wal-Mart has announced more retail jobs for the United States, the company continues to draw nearer to an agreement that would send IT tech jobs to India.

From Citizen Economists:

In 2009 it (Wal-Mart) now predicts it will add another 22,000 positions nationwide. In fact in some hard hit states like California, Florida and Michigan, Wal-Mart plans to add over 1,000 jobs in each.

More jobs are great, but the majority of them are going to be of the lower-paying, sales associate variety. Meanwhile, however, Wal-Mart is drawing nearing to awarding multiple outsourcing contracts for managing its business applications and other back office activities to firms in India. The contracts could be worth $500 million.

According to BusinessWeek, Wal-Mart is doing so under the guise of “globalizing its information technology sourcing initiatives,” which is certainly its prerogative. But you would think that a U.S. company that has sought to build its standing as the very embodiment of American ideals would, during times of economic struggle, take an opportunity like this to find domestic firms to fulfill its IT needs. Provide hard working Americans with higher paying jobs. You would think that. But you’d be wrong.

“Wal-Mart has been testing the waters by outsourcing smaller projects to companies such as Infosys, TCS and Wipro. Now, the retailer wants to flesh out a more comprehensive outsourcing strategy and has shortlisted these tech vendors,” said a senior executive of one of the tech firms exploring business opportunities with Wal-Mart. He requested anonymity because he is not authorised to speak to media.

Wal-Mart, despite enjoying growth during the current economic climate, continues to show that while saving customers money is nice, saving its own money is paramount. BusinessWeek points out that UK retailer Tesco saves over $60 million every year by outsourcing its IT projects to India.

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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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Last year, Wal-Mart made a grand announcement - a plan to open hundreds of in-store medical clinics with the goal to have 400 clinics up and running by 2010. That plan crashed and burned, but from the ashes a new plan has been reborn. Behold the Wal-Mart Health Plan phoenix, reborn anew to live again.

Early last year, the company spoke of having 400 walk-in clinics by 2010. But later in 2008, that plan went into reverse. Of the 78 clinics Wal-Mart had in operation at the beginning of 2008, all but 17 were closed. Now it is rebuilding that business, this time largely in partnership with hospitals.

The timeline goes pretty much like this: Early last year, Wal-Mart announced a plan to open hundreds of in-store medical clinics, aiming to have 400 clinics up and running by 2010. That announcement came less than a month after twenty three - almost a third - of Wal-Mart’s walk-in clinics unexpectedly closed after Wal-Mart’s choice of partners (the CheckUps company) fell behind on payroll payments and other expenses. Strike one.

The CheckUps fiasco led to a partnership with RediClinics, which was going to run 200 of the 400 new units. That endeavor, however, did not end well either:

Originally, H. Lee Scott Jr., the Wal-Mart chief executive who retired this year, had assigned a big role for the clinic project to RediClinic, a privately held company backed by Steve Case, the AOL co-founder. But last December RediClinic, citing the poor economy, abruptly shut down its 15 Wal-Mart centers.

Strike two. Who would have guessed that medical clinics run by the AOL dream team would struggle? Weird.

So now Wal-Mart is hoping that the third time really is the charm - this time the retailer is moving forward largely in partnership with hospitals. Probably a wise mood, since, you know, hospitals like, take care of sick people and stuff all the time. In fact, if this goes well, I see a Grey’s Anatomy: Wal-Mart spin-off happening in the very near future.

Wal-Mart Begins to Rebuild Health Clinic Business [New York Times]

Hospitals Begin to Move Into Supermarkets [New York Times]

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Wal-Mart has agreed to revise a plan on a payroll cut involving 2,000 mid-level managers across its outlets in China after a trade union stepped in to mediate, state media is reporting. Here’s a quick recap of today’s stories. You can find our previous posts on the issues here and here.

Row at Wal-Mart China settled after unions step in [MarketWatch]

Wal-Mart China had planned to relocate about 2,000 mid-level managers at existing stores to new stores it planned to open, the China Daily reported in its online edition Friday, citing a senior official at the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions.

The report said the workers union became involved after Wal-Mart employees reported that senior management announced the relocations under threat of demotion or dismissal, the report cited the federation’s Vice Chairman Wang Tongxin as saying.

Wal-Mart Bows to Union Pressure on China Restructuring [Wall Street Journal Blogs]

Wal-Mart (WMT) has made adjustments to its restructuring plans in China after objections from the state-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions, state media reported today.

Last week, the company said it planned to trim management positions, a move that would have involved 1,400 (about 2.5%) of its employees in China. The affected employees would have faced pay cuts, relocation to other stores or possible job losses. This upset union leaders, who said their members hadn’t been consulted. (Under government pressure, in 2006 the famously union-resistant Wal-Mart allowed unions to form in China).

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Dear Small Business Owner:

If Wal-Mart opens a store near yours, and you need to come up with a strategy to compete, don’t try to copy Wal-Mart by lowering your prices. It certainly won’t help - in fact it might even hurt - according to a new study published by the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. The report finds that a new Wal-Mart has a strong negative effect on an existing retailers’ sales in general, though certain retail formats see more negative effects than others.

Having Wal-Mart as a new neighbor means that—no surprise—grocers and other competing retailers will likely take a sales hit...On average, neighboring grocers’ sales decline by 17 percent when a new Wal-Mart opens.

In fact, the study found that when Wal-Mart comes to town, local mass merchandisers, supermarkets and drug stores all see significant sales declines. Cutting prices only “mitigates” the harm for grocery stores, and doesn’t work at all for mass merchandisers and drug stores. And so perhaps the most important piece of information to come out of the report for any business looking to compete with a Wal-Mart moving into its neighborhood is this - the key is differentiation, not mimicry.

Grocers, in fact, should try to be the opposite of Wal-Mart, the study concludes, by offering more high-end items as well as more private-label, natural, and organic products. Rather than reducing prices overall, grocers should run more sales promotions.

When a Wal-Mart comes to town, retailers “should be scared,” one of the study’s authors, Dartmouth professor Kusum Ailawadi, told the Wall Street Journal’s Independent Street blog. But “it’s no use to blindly cut prices” because “price-sensitive consumers will move to Wal-Mart anyway.”

What You Can Do to Fight Wal-Mart [Wall Street Journal]

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Wal-Mart’s health care issues obviously go back quite some time. Nationally, 64% of workers in very large firms (5,000 employees or more) receive their health benefits from their employer. And Wal-Mart? Wal-Mart typically covers only 50% of its employees. Twenty-five states have tracked and reported the number of employees and dependents that the largest employers within their borders have enrolled in state-funded health care programs. Where does Wal-Mart rank in those states? Across the board Wal-Mart is at the head of the line for public assistance.

Despite these negatives, Politico says Wal-Mart is looking to throw its economic might into the health care ring:

Wal-Mart is ramping up its Washington activity to push for comprehensive health care reform, and the world’s largest retailer says it is ready to use its economic muscle to get out in front and influence the discussion.

That’s probably a good thing, as anything but the status quo would be a positive development. And we know Wal-Mart and its employees are familiar with using public health care. Michael Hicks, an economist at the Air Force Institute of Technology at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, conducted a study analyzing state Medicaid data from 1978 to 2003 - he found that Wal-Mart causes an increase in state Medicaid spending by as much as $898 per person. That sounds extreme, yet consider the example from Wal-Mart’s home state of Arkansas, where 3,971 of Wal-Mart’s 45,106 employees are on public assistance. That’s basically one in eleven employees taking advantage of public assistance, so no wonder the costs to taxpayers are high.

Still, Politico argues that Wal-Mart has made some gains recently - including offering a broader range of lower-cost insurance options and pushing for electronic health records - and notes that SEIU could be moving towards cautiously optimistic status:

“As the largest private corporation, they do have the ability to set a standard to providing good jobs with good health care,” said SEIU spokeswoman Lori Lodes. “Right now they are at the table, and they have a very strong commitment to reforming our health care system.”

Whether the reform Wal-Mart ultimately seeks ends up being a positive will remain a HUGE question mark for a while. In the meantime, Wal-Mart has announced that only 3 percent of the company’s employees are now on state assistance. So, only about 45 THOUSAND employees nationwide. So, you know...just a few.

Wal-Mart lends muscle to health reform [Politico]

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The battle for the heart and soul of Mexico’s banking industry is reaching a fever pitch, with the Mexican government’s two chambers—the House of Representatives, and the Senate—fiercely divided over proposed changes to the country’s banking laws that would allow so-called “corresponsal banking”. The concept would literally mean that any of Mexico’s countless small corner stores or shops could offer limited banking services, such as check depositing, through partnership with larger banking entities.

In theory, any bank with sufficient size to set up “corresponsal” relationships with shops could participate, from microcredit institutions that targets loans to Mexico’s poor, to multinational giants. But one key provision in the bill will actually affect whether giants such as Wal-Mart can effectively do so: the provision says that banks must raise no more than 25% of their deposits from the “corresponsal” locations. This would mean Wal-Mart could not offer banking services in-store as such services would be counted as “corresponsal” (as opposed to “brick-and-mortar” banking) and would surely exceed 25%. Mexico’s House of Representatives wants financial regulators to have the ability to override this restriction for certain banks, and this would no doubt provoke a flurry of intense lobbying from Wal-Mart.

Although Mexico is Latin America’s second-largest economy, it lags far behind other countries in offering financial services to its population, especially to poorer consumers. So why is more convenient and lower-cost access to financial services a bad thing? Passing the new law without the 25% restriction would encourage Wal-Mart to aggressively pursue a stranglehold on the market as many lower-income consumers already shop there. The retailer, however, has proven that it does not have the consumer’s best interests at heart: the interest rate on its store-brand credit card is an exorbitant 69.6%, high even by Mexican standards.

Additionally, Mexico is a dangerous country where bank robberies are frequent; turning “every Wal-Mart cash register into a bank” would only make customers and cashiers more attractive targets. Though the law is a good idea, it is intended to encourage growth for Mexico’s burgeoning microcredit businesses and small shops: not retail giants.

The original story in the Financial Times is republished below:

Go to any corner shop in Mexico and the chances are there will be a cluster of people buying avocados, detergent, green tomatoes and nopales – cactus paddles best served fresh from the grill.

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According to USA Today, state governments struggling to find new ways to raise revenue are running into stiff opposition to one idea — the expansion of wine sales into grocery stores.

One such state is New York, where embattled Governor David Paterson’s proposed 2009-10 fiscal budget includes a provision to allow such expansion, a move that if approved he believes could yield $105 million in licensing and franchise fees from stores during the new fiscal year. New York currently is currently facing a rather daunting $14 billion budget gap.

“This legislation would provide greater choice and convenience for New Yorkers and provide an even greater market for New York wines,” said Matt Anderson, a spokesman for the state Budget Division.

Not everyone in the Empire State is happy with the provision, however. In fact, there is a relatively large coalition of small business owners and independent wine sellers opposing the change, basically calling it a gift to big box chains and grocery stores. The argument is that the proposal will not create any new jobs - in fact, all it will do is divert liquor-buying traffic from independently-owned shops and liquor stores to larger chains and big box stores like Wal-Mart. And while it could result in $105 million in licensing fees from the Wal-Marts of the world, it wouldn’t really increase the alcohol market as a whole - so while New York gets its money and Wal-Mart gets its booze, small business owners will see less costumers and eventually a good portion of them could see unemployment.

“This misguided plan would benefit big-box stores like Wal-Mart without creating even one new job, while imperiling Main Street businesses across the state and the thousands of jobs they provide,” said Jeff Saunders of the Retailers Alliance Foundation, a New York state retailers’ lobbying group that helped form the Last Store coalition. If the legislation passes, Saunders predicts roughly 1,000 liquor stores will close, costing 4,000 to 5,000 jobs.

Job loss means more people on unemployment and more people people on state health roles, and that equals more cost to New York taxpayers. Some might call this “thinning of the heard,” but the prospect of losing 4,000 jobs that will not be replaced seems questionable at best. Already this year a similar idea has been killed in Kentucky, and the proposal in New York and another in Tennessee both face stiff opposition.

Spirited debate over state wine laws [USA Today]

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Victory has come at last to Blacksburg, Virginia. The small town known best for being the home to Virginia Tech has won the right to regulate big box development within its border - A Virginia Supreme Court ruling has given the town council the right to regulate or disapprove plans for a proposed big-box retail store south of the town’s Main Street widely thought to be a Wal-Mart.

The Blacksburg council has spent $170,000 so far to fight for its right to regulate its own development, and local residents opposed to big box development have spent an additional $70,000.

Blacksburg Mayor Ron Rordam called the decision a victory for all local governments, and said it reaffirms the town’s power to plan for its future. Yet the decision will have a much further reach than simply affecting the Blacksburg development. According to the Roanoke Times:

Friday’s ruling is also expected to have statewide repercussions as it clarifies at what point in pursuing a project a developer becomes immune to changes in a locality’s zoning code. In Virginia law, this immunity is called “vested rights.”

Here, the developer was attempting to argue that a 2006 rezoning approval with additional limitations gave them a blanket right to build any type of retail establishment that would have been allowed under commercial zoning laws in 2006. The Supreme Court, however, wasn’t “feeling” that argument.

“We reject the developers’ contention that terms of development proffers that apply to any use of the property, such as increased setbacks, restrictions on building height, or the required inclusion of ... roads and landscaping ‘specify use’ of the property in order to create a vested right,” the justices wrote.

Basically, the court has said that in Virginia, a vested right to build a big box store can only be attained after plans for that big box store have been approved. Once approval is given, the project can go forward from that point on regardless of future changes to zoning laws or restriction. In Blacksburg, however, offers of height restrictions, new roads and increased setbacks - things that could apply to any development - do not a big box plan make.

Blacksburg town council wins supreme court case against superstore [Roanoke Times]

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Russell Simmons is a hip-hop pioneer. He’s an activist; a philanthropist; a role-model for young, disadvantaged youth.

But is he really launching a new line at Wal-Mart? And now???

Yes, apparently he is. On Feb. 15 Wal-Mart will roll out a new line of men’s clothing designed by Simmons in 350 stores - about 10% of its U.S. outlets - and on its Web site.

[T]he move seems surprising, especially as Wal-Mart flopped famously in its previous efforts to sell more fashionable, pricier clothing… But as Wal-Mart slows its store expansion, it needs to sell higher-profit items to continue generating growth, and apparel is one segment that can still draw new customers.

The clothing items will be priced anywhere from $10-30, not terribly expensive, but some analysts are still questioning the move. From BusinessWeek:

Still, the new line’s timing could not be worse, some analysts say, since Americans have chopped discretionary spending so dramatically.

Wal-Mart to Launch Simmons Clothing Line [BusinessWeek]

As most apparel retailers announce job cuts and store closures because of sluggish sales, it is a precarious time for any of them to launch a new brand. But on Feb. 15 Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) will roll out a new line of men’s clothing designed by hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons in 350 stores, about 10% of its U.S. outlets, and on its Web site. The launch will come less than a week after the world’s largest retailer announced that it will move buyers in the apparel division from its Bentonville (Ark.) headquarters to New York to increase the focus on fashion.

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Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar on the company’s rationale for the home office layoffs yesterday:

“The changes are designed to align our staffing and organizational structure, to increase operational efficiencies, support our strategic growth plans and help reduce our overall costs.”

Apparently.

On the same day that Wal-Mart gutted its Bentonville workforce, the company announced it will seek to outsource up to $500 million of IT functions to India. How many more layoffs might that mean? While Wal-Mart might not be the only one sending U.S. jobs overseas, the timing of the move is pretty crass, even for Wal-Mart. Even decades-long salaried employees in Bentonville belonging to “core” business functions are no longer safe from the retailer’s cost-cutting ruthlessness.

As we said yesterday, we would have hoped that during these tough times, some of the obscene wealth amassed by Wal-Mart Executives and the Walton family could have been invested in the company’s workforce. Unfortunately, they decided to go another direction.

We’re curious, though, about something else that didn’t show up in any of the stories we read. Has anyone heard anything about which employees were laid off yesterday? Possibly more full-time workers to make way for part-time? We’ve long heard rumors that home office has been “reclassifying” workers and moving to more part-time employees. Cost-cutting, for sure - but possibly bracing themselves for a union drive if EFCA passes?

Wal-Mart mulls IT outsourcing [Economic Times (India)]:

WAL-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, which until now has been dependent on its inhouse information technology division, is
evaluating a business process outsourcing (BPO) contract worth around $300- $500 million, as it seeks to outsource non-core processes of procurement, merchandising , finance, accounting and payroll.

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After German holding company Arcandor, which owns major e-shopping and brick-and-mortar businesses in Germany had faced a year of declining sales, their shares shot up 12 percent today on news Wal-Mart may be interested in a deal. This market swing is surprising given Wal-Mart’s failure in the country as recently as 2004; the company proved unable to adapt to Germany’s unique retail and labor laws which forbid opening stores on Sundays or selling items below cost, and have tough provisions to protect unionization and collective bargaining. And Arcandor’s largest brick-and-mortar location, Kaufhaus Des Westens, sells upscale clothing lines and accessories, a far cry from Wal-Mart’s strengths. Only time will tell whether Wal-Mart really is serious about breaking into such a difficult market, albeit through a partnership.

Arcandor up on talk of Wal-Mart interest [Reuters]

Shares in Arcandor rose more than 12 percent on Wednesday as traders cited market talk Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, was interested in the German retail and tourism group.

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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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A move that many analysts have anticipated for a long time is one step closer to reality: Wal-Mart is moving into Russia. The retailer announced that it has joined the Russian Association of Retail Trade Companies (AKORT) and registered a legal entity in the country, Wal-Mart Eastern Europe Holdings. In January 2007, Wal-Mart had hinted at expansion and had begun talks with X5, Russia’s largest food retailer. The Russian market represents an awesome growth opportunity for the company: GDP grew at 8.1% in 2007 and Russian consumers have shown a preference for toys from Wal-Mart’s number one supplier country, China, with imports valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in 2006. Yet as of 2008 only about a third of Russia’s retail sales came through groceries and superstores, with independent markets and small businesses constituting the majority of the sector. Additionally, Wal-Mart’s European competitors Carrefour and Tesco have shown an interest in moving into Russia; Carrefour is already part of AKORT. As elsewhere, Wal-Mart may be trying to beat them to the punch.

Wal-Mart Moves Closer to Russia [Reuters via Moscow Times]

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has registered a legal entity in Russia and joined a local retailers’ organization, the latest in a series of moves indicating its interest in expanding into the country.

The company registered a subsidiary under the name WM Eastern Europe Holdings and joined the Russian Association of Retail Trade Companies, or AKORT, which includes the 28 largest commercial organizations in the country.

“Wal-Mart is working on the Russian market,” Ilya Belonovsky, the executive director of the 28-member industry group said Dec. 29. He declined to elaborate.

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No longer will your tootsies be kept tender by Wal-Mart’s “all man-made” Tender Tootsie slippers. The main problem, apparently, is that while Wal-Mart advertises that its slippers use 100% man-made materials, it turns out that in reality those slippers are lined with real rabbit fur.

So, either Wal-Mart is claiming to be the inventor and subsequent mass-producer of the bunny, or Wal-Mart’s packaging is inaccurate. I say it’s a coin-flip, but either way the mass retailer and uber rabbit farmer has pulled all of its Tender Tootsie slippers from store shelves in Canada after the Animal Defence League of Canada discovered the products were incorrectly labelled and contained real fur.

Marley Daviduk, a spokeswoman for the Vancouver branch of the national organization, found the slippers while shopping last week and the Ottawa and Vancouver branches of the Animal Defence League immediately contacted both Wal-Mart Canada and the product’s London, Ont.-based importer. “I knew right away it was real rabbit fur, but it said on the tag that there were no man-made materials,” she said.

The slippers, manufactured in China, apparently slipped past Wal-Mart’s quality control despite the fact that the company states it has a strict no-fur policy. Maybe next we should start checking the fur coats, to see if, ohhh, perhaps a real mink got slipped in there every so often?

Wal-Mart pulls slippers after animal-rights group complains [CanWest News Service]

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When we hear about Wal-Mart being in the ‘top-five’ of something, we usually assume it’s in CEO salary, quarterly earnings, highest number of lawsuits pending against them or worst places ever to buy bassinets.  Today it’s among the worst corporations on worker’s right to organize. The International Labor Rights Forum [ILRF] released a report today called: “Working for Scrooge: 5 Worst Companies for the Right to Associate,” and guess who made the list?  We weren’t surprised either.  Wal-Mart has a very real history of anti-union propaganda and bigotry. 

The report cites several of the more highly-publicized anti union stories such as Jonquiere, Quebec where a tire and lube shop was shut down after workers successfully unionized it and Jacksonville, Texas, where the meat department of a retail outlet successfully unionized and Wal-Mart responded by shutting down the meat department in every Wal-Mart, nation-wide.  Will the newly-unionized Saskatchewan outlet meet the same fate?  We sure hope not…

Other finalists included: Dole, Del-Monte, Russell Athletic, and Nestle.  The union-busting must be stopped.  Write your local representative and tell them to support the Employee Free Choice Act today! 

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Wal-Mart Watch has released two documents to aid international activists in their fights against the expansion of Wal-Mart.  The primers, which have been translated into Chinese, Hindi, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, are tools which demonstrate the negative impacts Wal-Mart’s global expansion can have on local communities. 

“Wal-Mart’s International Expansions: A Primer for Activists” is intended to educate activists around the world about Wal-Mart’s retail development strategies and the company’s impact on local retail culture.  The primer uses case studies of Wal-Mart in Mexico and India to highlight the corporation’s primary tactics for entry into a county.

“Wal-Mart’s International Sourcing: A Primer for Activists” examines Wal-Mart’s procurement and sourcing systems, as well as some of the problems with factories in China, Bangladesh, and other countries where their sourcing model has failed to protect the rights of workers and to live up to Wal-Mart’s own standards.

Click here to see all the primers.