Blurbs 7-16-12

Walmart brings crime into a community, depending on your area anywhere from 100 to 600 responses a year. A call to the police department in your community, with the address of the Walmart store will reveal the amount of calls per year. You may have to inform the agency that the information is public, and you are entitled to such info. With up to 1500 cars a day per store you can imagine the traffic headaches as well as the criminals descending on an unsuspecting public. Car theft, auto burglary, assaults, robbery, car jacking, hit and run and worse are all things Walmart brings to communities.

There is a move underfoot to investigate the involvement of Walmart and Cal-Trans. Investigators have noticed a trend between freeway inter-changes and proposed Walmart locations. When Walmart decided to drop a million plus warehouse in the middle of the desert of Apple Valley, Calif. an inter- change was built. A seemingly unlikely place for such a project the residents thought, until they learned of the Walmart warehouse construction. A project which the city kept secret from the residents for almost a year. Investigators have noticed the same pattern of new inter-changes where Walmart intends to build. The cities of Menifee, Calif. Highway 215 and  Scott Road, Rialto, Calif. 10 Freeway and Riverside Avenue, Victorville, Calif. Highway 15 and  Nisqualli Road, Desert Hot Springs, Highway 10 and Indian, and others, all interchanges built just as the Walmart puppet company is performing a traffic study for the various cities. Traffic congestion is the main concern of residents, has Walmart found a new way of pay to play? Investigators are now checking other locations in California and may expand their investigation into other states where similar complaints have surfaced.For those of you that haven’t heard, Mike Duke, CEO of Walmart Stores Inc. filed his income tax for 2011. Due to the company’s income shortfall, Mike Duke only managed to make a mere $18.1 million. Mr. Duke has only been CEO since 2009. His base salary is a paltry $1.8 million but the rest is from his performance bonus. Poor Mike lost 25% from last year. Ironically 1.8 million is the same number of employees Walmart has. What kind of bonus or raises did the employees receive for the all the abuses put upon them.

The residents of Quartz Hill, Ca. have finally won their battle against Walmart. The community fought against the mayor and the city council for years. Even though the mayor insisted the Walmart would be built the citizens persevered and the retail giant left town. This is another story of a mayor and city council trying to do the bidding of Walmart and forsaking their constituents. This is also a story of how a community came together and fought to maintain their lifestyle. Many communities across the country feel they can’t beat Walmart. Quartz Hill is just one more example of what can be done when people stand up to Walmart, and the phony politicians who bow down to the Arkansas retailer.

In the latest issue of Consumer Reports there was a study done on the all the mainstream supermarkets across the country. The study included price, cleanliness, product knowledge, quality and politeness of the employees. Of the 52 market chains studied, Walmart came in at number 51, of the 11 markets in Southern California Walmart came in number last place. When are people going to learn that prices are not always the lowest at Walmart, what is important to most folks is also the quality and cleanliness of the store.

Quartz Hill, Ca. outside of Lancaster, is the latest city to turn their back on Walmart. Though the mayor and city council were all for the new Walmart Supercenter, the residents however did not share the mayor’s enthusiasm. The mayor repeated again and again that Walmart was coming to Quartz Hill. From 2006 until March of  2012 the residents fought and hired a land use attorney to help them. Finally a judge gave a ruling against Walmart, this is another city that though the politicians were willing to bend over for Walmart, the residents were not. When Walmart decides to enter your city, do not become overwhelmed, fight for your city and the quality of life you have worked for. People all over America have seen the devastation Walmart promotes. We have had enough of poor quality, low wages and tax-payer paid benefits from the worlds largest corporation. The time has come for Walmart treat their employees and customers with respect.  In Chicago where the unions were fighting to for a fair wage ordinance, Walmart in an effort to open their supercenter in the predominantly African American west side of Chicago asked the city for  $18 million in subsidies. Walmart also donated $75,000 to local politicians. The unions that fought against Walmart were labeled “racist” Walmart then donated 50 calculators and $1000.00 to the local high school. Walmart also ran a campaign against the council members who were opposed to them. By calling residents in the area and asking if they wanted jobs in their neighborhood, if the resident replied “yes” that call was routed to the council persons number.  Walmart likes to throw peanut size gifts out into the community to get their stores. Once Walmart gets what it needs, you will not hear from them again. This is a lesson that should be taught to politicians all over the country, those same tactics are still being used today by Walmart.

When Walmart has plans to open a store in a particular area Walmart will run a front group with various names such as “Protect (any cities) Future” and funnel money into it to run deceptive ads and give politicians money. If indeed the various city councils in America wanted to keep Big Box Stores from closing the existing stores in the area and level the playing field for all business they would pass ordinances restricting the size of these stores, and the amount of grocery space on the shelves. In a time when jobs are at a premium, these low wage paying jobs only hurt the community not help. Why are people going to work for the same money they now collect from welfare to sit home.Walmart has targeted California as a battleground to open more supercenters, and their new grocery entity the “Neighborhood Market”. Since 51% of the Walmart fortune is gleaned from groceries it is no wonder that they are proposing 50 plus such stores in southern California. Wherever there is a vacant property Walmart will be looking to open. The tragedy of our economy is a boon to Walmart, vacant stores are opportunities for Walmart to sneak into an area unopposed. You will notice that any Walmart construction is never advertised. One day an empty building, all of a sudden a sign goes up and the community down.

 

A question to be asked of these so called Pro-Walmart politicians is this.

Do you even bother to read current events?

Do you look at the inter-net?

Do you Mr. Politician pay attention to what goes on at these Walmart stores?

How can you in good conscience (if you have one) bring this type of garbage into the community you have been elected to protect.

How can you vote for a company that that pays low wages and no benefits into our cities and then, ask us to subsidize that company?

Do all of you just do what it takes to garner campaign funds for your re-election?

   

Walmart fined $2 million for over rings at the register. “Again” Walmart was fined in 2008 and was supposed to fix the problem. It seems clear that Walmart feels that the fine didn’t come close to the profits made on the overcharges the customers paid.Walmart has now shown a dip in profits for the past 10 quarters. Walmart has seen a lot fines and bad press (rightfully earned) here and abroad, but to Walmart the fines are a drop in the bucket. The company is still making inroads into areas that were previously denied them. All across the country and mainly here in So. Cal. where empty stores are like road-kill to a jackal. The recent fine of  $365,000.00 imposed on Walmart in Rochester N.Y. by the Occupational and Safety Health Administration (OSHA) for multiple violations. Walmart as always spews the same rhetoric, “Our customers and associates safety comes first and we will try to correct the hazards.”

Of course because of the many incidents the Netherlands largest pension fund Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds with $300 billion in assets has blacklisted Walmart for noncompliance with the United Nations Global Compact principles. Walmart’s behavior concerning human rights, labor standards, environmental and anti corruption standards makes them an outlaw, not a good corporate citizen. I’m sure the Walton Family could care less, this family of clowns and the executives and attorneys is only interested in how much money they can make. Walmart for sure is not interested in child labor, chemical spills, environmental problems as long as they can sit at the top and look down on the rest of us. More and more companies have the same attitude, many are backing indicatives to kill the unions and turn this country into the United Right to Work for Less States of America.  

No matter where a Walmart opens, there is always crime and weirdness. Even people who shop Walmart are embarrassed by some of the shoppers who show up. Case in point: The Walmart in Lexington, N. C. recently had a problem with a customer who, after ringing up $476 worth of  items attempted to pay with a $1 million bill. Michael Fuller 53 years old was hauled off to jail, all the time insisting the bill was real. Hopefully someone can bring in some real money that will cover his $17,500 bond. Probably wouldn’t hurt to speak to some one other professional besides his attorney. Why are these stories so Walmart?

Victorville Ca. Jan. 11, 2012 is the next date the planning commission has a chance to do the right thing. Changing the zoning will allow Walmart a third supercenter store in that city. The residents are up in arms and do not want the traffic and crime that Walmart brings to the neighborhood. Victorville city officials have built a great looking city hall, all the while changing the city to a 47% welfare community. The city has not been able to bring nicer retail to the area and cannot figure out that business killer Walmart could be the blame. The Victorville city fathers are turning a once nice community into Wally world.    Victorville Ca., in an effort to try and pass a proposed Walmart, the city has postponed the planning commission vote until 12-14-11. The idea is to hopefully have the citizens out holiday shopping and not have time to attend the planning vote. Victorville already has approved two other Walmart stores. The Planning Commission and City Council members have completely lost themselves to the Walmart hype. The city is hoping Walmart will help their bottom line when in truth, the mall and other business’ will be forced out; and Victorville will be a city of  low paying jobs, welfare families, crime and lost real estate values. Thanks to another bunch of ignorant self absorbed civic leaders who are way over their heads in attempting to plan and run a city.

Walmart is now bringing in stores where normally the community would try to stop their incursion. Closed up Mervyn’s and home stores are now new territory for Walmart. Walmart also is attempting to bring into California their “Neighborhood Market” stores, which are full blown grocery markets, the first opening in Downey Ca. and the second is possibly going to open in Cathedral City. Walmart treated Cathedral City quite shabbily in the past, closing the Walmart store because the city would not allow them to pave over a street to expand their existing store. Walmart will now have to come “hat in hand” to the city fathers and make their case to why Cathedral City should allow them back into the city. There are no tax revenues to be made by the city and because Walmart closed the old store, Cathedral City lost the tax revenues being made from the Walmart retail store.  Walmart is making a big deal about bringing back the Layaway program; truth is Walmart has lost same store sales for the past nine quarters and is trying desperately to garner new customers.

Walmart has been buying up the recently vacated Mervyn’s stores and other vacant properties in an effort to move into new areas. New areas mean new customers that Walmart needs to survive. Americans are getting wise to the way Walmart does business and the fact that those Chinese goods are junk. Smart shoppers are going to nicer stores and picking up on sale prices. Walmart is finally getting what it deserves for what they’ve done to America, China and Europe better keep their eyes open.

Walmart is really pushing their influence and monies into city councils races, enhancing their chances of moving into various cities and towns around southern California. It was, at one time when Walmart gave the bulk of their political monies to Republicans, it has been for some time now that the Democrats have gleaned fifty percent of those funds. It’s become apparent that some of the same politicians that claim to be for the working people, will vote to bring Walmart into their city. Politicians like L.A. Councilman Parks who praises Walmart and is heard saying any job is a good job. This man is in a position to bring in decent paying jobs, but, heis stuck singing the praises of Walmar.

With a grocery strike looming on the horizon, it would help our Teamsters warehouse workers and drivers and the UFCW grocery workers, if when shopping in our unionized grocery stores that we tell the grocery mangers, “if there is a strike we will not cross the picket line to shop.” Tell the checkers that the Teamsters will support their strike. The last two contracts the stores have tried to break the unions, quoting the need to cut wages and benefits to be competitive against Walmart. When you shop locally, the money you spend goes through the community about 7 times, shopping at Walmart that money is sent directly to Bentonville Arkansas where the greedy Walton clan divide it up amongst themselves. Shop our unionized stores. We as union members are under attack. Our families and our way of life is being threatened by corporations and politicians unfriendly to labor.

Because of the bad publicity Walmart receives for buying poison laced food and recalled fire causing appliances from China, Walmart has decided to start factories in Africa. Cheap labor and of course like China good press releases for giving jobs to a poor economically strapped country. For Walmart just another country to exploit for cheaply made goods. Remember the good old days when Walmart boasted “Made in America” products. Now its “Made in China or anywhere else we can exploit cheap labor” The Arkansas Walton Family sure pulled themselves up by the bootstraps, all the while pulling down the pants of America.

Walmart is now going after Net-Flix to put out of business, to stream videos into the home. This company will go after any company they feel a buck can be made. Not content with being the worlds largest retailer Walmart wants more. When are the people of this nation going to wake up? Walmarts customers are not doing very well economically and are usually the last hired and the first to be laid off. Has Walmart, with all of its expanding and has now noticed a drop in revenues, so as usual Walmart will attempt to steal another companies revenue, Will America be known as the United States of Walmart and China? Wake up people lets get Walmart out of our country. Tell your friends and neighbors not to shop at Walmart.

Walmart already has one ship that crosses the ocean in 5 days, 4 days faster than other ships. What is so remarkable about this ship that by 2012 this ship will have 2 sister ships just like her. These ships carry 15,000 containers each at a speed of 31 knots, and can be unloaded in under 2 hours with a complete crew of 13. Longer than a aircraft carrier (1302 ft.) and 10 stories high the ship has a beam (width) of 207 feet, too large to pass through the Panama or Suez Canals, these vessels are strictly transpacific use only. (America and Canada) The first ship has been operating since 2006, so if you wonder where our jobs have gone, just look to China. Of all the products sold by Walmart 91% are from China look for more jobs to be outsourced when these other two ships are built. Something the workers of America should know is, those 15,000 containers are shipped back to China empty. We are consumers, we do not have anything Walmart or China wants except our money and cheap labor. We as a nation of consumers with the help of our self serving politicians are selling out America. Will your job be next?

Walmart has another food recall, this time it’s 188,181 pounds of Great Value Reduced Sodium Chicken Noodle Condensed Soup, produced by Bay Valley Foods LLC. 36 states and Puerto Rico were recalled by the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service. (FSIS) The 10.5 oz. cans with a “best by” date of “09 29 12” was produced on Sept. 29’ 2010 the soup has milk in it and may also be labeled wrong. States affected are: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, CALIFORNIA, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. More info at Bay Valley (800) 983-0823. Concerns about allergic reactions, talk to your doctor.

Walmart has a new tactic for bringing in stores where not wanted. Gather enough signatures to bring forward a ballot initiative, then threaten the cash strapped cities to either vote yes to the project or pay the cost of bringing it to a vote, usually in excess of $100,000 depending on the size of the city. Walmart needs more stores and is really trying to lift its profits from the pits. For the past two years Walmart sales have been dropping, consumers are aware that Walmart doesn’t really have the lowest prices and are not looking that attractive to towns and cities looking for tax revenue. The day of being the bully with predatory prices may be backfiring on the retailer. More and more communities are rejecting Walmart, traffic, crime and taxpayer incentives are the main issues.

Walmart in their attempt to boost sales has decided to start selling guns again. In 2006 Walmart in California had been caught selling handguns to felons. Walmart now says they will have properly trained personnel and American made guns. The problem is the guns made for Walmart are cheap imitations of the guns sold in regular gun shops, also because of that the resale on a Walmart special is terrible. Because of the downturn in sales the last 8 quarters, Walmart is pulling out all stops to blacken that bottom line. Walmart is expanding any store there is room to do so and building new stores where ever they can. Walmart must grow to compete and until their overseas locations take hold a lot more damage will be done to our country.

The residents of Tehachapi, Ca. have been fighting to keep Walmart out of their town. Small business and citizens alike are banding together to keep the small town ambiance. The sad thing is the city fathers only see money, and Walmart is throwing it around and promising the council plenty of tax revenues. With plans of stealing business from surrounding communities, Walmart has hoodwinked another council into drinking the Kool-Aid. When one elderly business owner objected to a time limit of 3 minutes speaking, while Walmart was given 1 ½ hours for their presentation, he was escorted from the meeting by the police. Walmart is a monopoly, where are our laws regarding this issue?

Apple Valley, Ca. is the latest city to fall to the Walmart charm. After having a large hole cut into a rock hillside to build a Walmart, Walmart then decides after occupying the site for years, they need a supercenter and wish to abandon the existing site. Meanwhile the Town of Apple Valley brought in many retailers to the area. The city council now is going to stab those retailers in the back. Allowing the ever predatory Walmart to steal as much revenue as they can. It has been well documented that 84% of Walmart sales and profits are from the existing business’ in the community. Why these council members from around the country who love going on junkets all around the world haven’t seen fit to tour the cities and towns Walmart has ravaged causing boarded up downtown shopping areas and malls. I imagine it’s a little harder to get greased when you know the truth. Walmart was able to get approval from the council by threats of a $185,000 cost to the city to put it on a ballot and allow the voters decide. Again Walmart gets what it wants from a spineless city council. The only council person in opposition of the project was Councilman Rick Roelle.

Looks as though the gender lawsuit may be going away as a class action suit. The supreme court is apparently leaning towards the Walmart way of thinking. I don’t have a clue to when America is going to wake up and see where our country is headed. Walmart wants to be the only game in town, putting other retailers on the bus. Why the government has not stepped in charging Walmart as a monopolistic corporation is unbelievable. As has been said in the past we cannot bring these third world countries up to our economic level, but we surely can bring our standard of living down to theirs. Just look at is happening around the country. The only people profiting over all of our economic problems are the ones who started it. No other time since the 1920’s have the rich controlled so much of the wealth in America.

In the May 2011 issue of Consumer Reports, a list of 33 Drugstores around the country were scored for speed, accuracy, knowledge, helpfulness and courtesy. (how well the pharmacist understood their medical history and needs). Of a possible score of 100 Walmart received a 78 finishing on the very bottom of the list # 33. As a footnote in the mail in category Prescription Solutions finished #2 in a list of 10.

Walmart up to their old tricks here in Southern California, as was tried in Inglewood some years past, the citizens of that city sent Walmart packing.. Walmart wanted to build their store with no restrictions put upon them. Walmart found out very quickly that the residents were not selling their city or souls to the Walton family Walmart is now out gathering signatures in Apple Valley, Victorville, Menifee and Northern California in an attempt to bypass the legal process in order to build their stores. The same tactics are being tried in other states as well. Walmart is having problems with the bottom line of late. New sales are needed and lower economic neighborhoods are the targets. We will have to take a wait and see stance to see if these cities are as strong as Inglewood.

El Monte, Ca. was the scene of the latest Walmart excursion into southern Ca. Walmart stood out front of the city council chambers with Walmart T- shirts, passing them out to the students of the local high school that were told to attend to see how government works. Walmart also hired a cleaning firm to attend the meeting, and lastly seniors brought in to fill the council chamber and hallways. (which seemed to be fire hazard) This is of course in effort to stop any opposition to Walmart from getting into the meeting and falsely showing the council the support for the Walmart store. The council voted 4 to 1 to reward the developer With $7.7 million of taxpayer money to bring Walmart to town. Again the worlds wealthiest retailer using tax-payer funds build another store where it’s not wanted.

Tehachapi, Ca. is now under attack by Walmart, over 600 people showed up at the local high school gymnasium to attend the planning commission meeting. Walmart passed out water and pastry to attract residents to their table where a signature petition was waiting. This again is Walmart with the help of an inept planning dept. and an uninformed city council forcing a Walmart on the community. Walmart needs the California market to keep the shareholders happy. A Walmart friendly UPS driver sporting his “Walmart Jobs” button, was waiting for a load to Chicago from the Sylmar terminal also thought Walmart was a great idea. He said he didn’t make the kind of money the other drivers did, so he wanted the Walmart in Tehachapi. It’s a shame that one of our highest paid members with premier benefits feels the union hasn’t helped him and finds it necessary to back Walmart. The jacket he was wearing amounted to about 4 days pay for a Walmart worker. What a proud Teamster he is.

Apple Valley, Ca. Walmart is trying the same tactics in this town as they attempted in Inglewood, Ca. years ago. Walmart is now trying an end run around the city council in an effort to subvert the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Walmart believes they are above the law and that whatever Walmart wants Walmart gets. That is what they would want the world to think. Recently Walmarts lobbyist tried to unravel the CEQA laws in Sacramento, fortunately to no avail. This is not Arkansas, California takes CEQA very seriously.

We in California enjoy clean air but we don’t enjoy heavy traffic or crime, we as tax-payers should not be supplementing the wages, housing, medical needs of the employees of the worlds wealthiest company. We should not be paying in the form of redevelopment monies to Walmart for the privilege of having a store in our neighborhoods. Walmart is planning no less than five of their supercenters in the Victor Valley area. Three of these in the city of Victorville, what city of this size needs that many Walmarts? One of the most ridiculous quotes from one of the bought and paid for companies that make up the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) is the use of the term “sensitive receptors” when referring to senior citizens, children and people who would be adversely affected by poor air quality caused by the opening of a Walmart store.

Walmart has marched into China like an army. With over 3600 stores here in America, Walmart wants that number plus in China. Weekly 7 million shoppers forage through the aisles of Walmart in China. Suppliers for Walmart top 100 thousand, including products made in sweat-shops around the globe including; Peru, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Viet Nam, Columbia Mauritius and hundreds of other third world countries. Anywhere cheap labor can be had Walmart will there in force. Complete and total global dominance of cheap labor and retail sales is the Walmart goal.

Why is Walmart setting their sites on San Bernardino County? Unemployment is at 17%, land is still abundant and reasonably priced, cities are clamoring for sales tax revenue and think Walmart is the answer. Redevelopment money is out there for Walmart to pick like ripe fruit. A city will spend $8 to $10 million for roads, traffic signals, water, sewer and electric lines to attract Walmart. Only to have these funds paid back in 20 years usually by taking half of the tax revenue due to the city. Imagine the worlds richest company using taxpayer funds to help build their stores. Anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

Walmart has placed ads in the San Diego newspapers, asking the residents to chastise the city council, for not allowing Walmart free reign in opening stores in the area. The community is not too happy with Walmart and their bullying of the residents and the city council. When is this company going to learn? California does not need Walmart. Period.

Walmart again is trying to use a special use permit near Roanoke, Virginia to open a Supercenter. The site is the Wilderness Battlefield area, the site of a civil war battle. Walmart wants to build on private land at the entrance of the Fredricksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. A lawsuit has been filed against the supervisors who approved the plan last year. The plaintiffs are requesting personnel files of the supervisors and former County Administrator Bill Rolfe. Walmart’ attorneys are attempting to stop plaintiffs from questioning the supervisors. The trial is set for January 2011.

Walmart is attempting now to attempting to expand the store in Lompoc, California. In October the planning commission rejected the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) as “inadequate.” The 41,433 square foot expansion will probably close the existing grocery store. Urban blight is being looked at all over the country as Walmart moves in and neighboring stores get boarded up. A once quaint nice area becomes a ghost town with no other shopping choices left standing. Walmart and their predatory business practices are well known and documented, how many more city councils will allow themselves to bamboozled by Walmart and their shark attorneys.

A wage-and-hour class action lawsuit filed in Oakland, California on behalf of California workers resulted in a settlement of between $43 million and $86 million. The suit presided over by a U.S. District Court Judge granted final appeal against Walmart. As part of the suit Walmart must continue to maintain electronic systems to protect the workers rights. Walmart workers were cheated out of approximately @12 million in vacation pay. The other $74 million is interest and fines that would have been levied had the case gone to trial.

Walmart is again touting their new drug program with Humana. They are advertising sign up dates for their cheap drug program in November. What Walmart is hoping is that everyone has forgotten the fines and the fact that some of their drugs have been banned in the U.S.A.. Drugs with anti freeze and other substances that are dangerous to your health, have come under fire from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the past. Drugs made in China under questionable conditions have no place in America. The prices are no cheaper than Costco and other stores. Costco also does not require membership to use the pharmacy.

Walmart in 2007 was denied a banking charter, Walmart is again trying to make that happen. Walmart now wants your auto loan, small business loans and demand deposits. This of course would put another business out in the cold. Credit Unions have been the staple of the blue collar worker, now Walmart wants some of the action. There is not a business that Walmart has not eyed up to take over. Walmart is a monopoly in this country and others, but governments seem to turn a blind eye to Walmart and their business practices. Walmart it seems has plans to take over all retail and make the interest money on your purchases as well. Soon if we are not careful we will all be clones of each other, wearing and buying whatever Walmart feels we should have. Does anybody see this or has everyone just give up the fight and decided to fall into line like good little consumers. Has individuality gone by the wayside? Walmart shoppers even though they may be on the lower end of the economic scale don’t seem to care where the products come from, who or how they are made as long as they feel a buck has been saved. The stories of child labor, lead in toys, toxic food and drugs, or the families welfare have no effect on the public. I worry about us as a nation, seems as though the dollar has taken the place of integrity.

Walmart recently rolled back prices on some items in order to bring back some of their lost customers. The rollback prices ranged from 30 to 50% off, the strategy backfired when customers ran in, bought the sale items and left. Walmart has since rolled back the rollbacks. Same store sales (customer returns to that store to shop) has dropped for 5 quarters in a row. The prices will now be raised to get as much cash from the existing consumers as possible. Walmart stocks are off 15% since 2008. The attempt to clean up the stores and cluttered aisles did not seem to work, so Walmart will be filling the shelves and cluttering the aisles with the products they had previously dropped. Walmart will be expanding in Brazil and China where sales peaked at 11%.

When are we as consumers going to learn to shop wisely and not spend hard earned wages with companies that do business in India and China. The poisoned toys, health products, animal and human food products laced with everything from lead to anti-freeze. How do we as a society fight back against these companies? Check prices that are supposed to be sales, the item is not a sale item because Walmart says it is. By shopping other retailers you may be surprised that Walmart’ sale price is not a sale at all. If at Christmas the difference of $4.00 on a $500.00 shopping day is all you save at Walmart, why would you put yourself through walking in a dirty cluttered store. You are worth more and deserve more than that.

Walmart now is making offers to buy Massmart a South African retailer. Walmart has bought products from South Africa for years but now want to start selling on the retail end. The offer of $4.25 billion may not be enough to secure the sale. Shares of Walmart fell .60 cents to $53.48 when the news hit Wall Street. Shares for Massmart jumped up 10.6% to $21.29 from $21.11 which is more per share than the offer made by Walmart. Since Walmart is not doing so well here in America because of America’s disdain for the company, Walmart is looking for more global business, 25% of their revenue is from foreign countries with less stricter laws. Countries like China, Mexico and Brazil generate about $100 billion a year to the Walmart coffers.

Walmart who is the chief importer of Chinese goods and has had many recalls of their tainted products for years. An article about the dangers of Chinese ammunition has surfaced. A gentleman loaded some Chinese made .44 magnum shells into his Smith & Wesson Model 629 and when he fired the weapon it exploded 2 other shells in the cylinder completely destroying the gun. What happened to the shooter was not reported. Again Health and Safety Standards in these third world countries in no way rival the standards here in America. Be careful what you purchase and note the country of origin on everything from food, health aids and toys. You are putting yourself and families welfare at risk if you don’t.

According to USA Today newspaper the Saint Index Report which tracks land use and communities willing to support commercial projects in their cities. New data points out that of 1,000 adults polled nationwide 68% said they were willing to support new commercial projects due to the current economic situation. With that said 3 out of 4 Americans feel that their towns are already over developed. The percentages of projects acceptable to residents are as follows, single family homes 87% grocery stores 74% in support. The most unwanted opposed projects are landfills 74% a gambling casino 72% a quarry 59% and opposition to these type of projects is down from 5 years ago. WALMART 54% from 63% shopping malls 56% vs. 62% power plants 54% vs. 66% and Lowes/ Home Depot 44% down from 55%. People unfortunately believe these large stores are the answer to lower prices, they are also taking away our selection of goods, whatever is the cheapest product from China is what we are forced to purchase and we all wind up wearing the same clothing and our homes all have the same furnishings, we are losing our identities and our choices are being dictated to us by Walmart and these other big box stores. Start looking at where your food products are from fresh as well as canned. A word of advice stay away from seafood raised on Chinese fish farms.

Walmart sells Faded Glory jeans for $8 a pair, how can they do it??? Simple pay the workers in Bangladesh .11 ½ cents an hour. The workers are expected to make 10 pairs an hour, that works out to 1.2 cents per pair. When the company asked for a few cents more per pair, Walmart refused. Walmart it seems would rather spend their money in Chicago, paying people who showed up at the city council in support of a proposed store a crisp new $100.00 bill. A C note in a Chicago ghetto is money better spent than paying a few cents for the workers in Bangladesh.

Marketside Grab and Go sandwiches sold by Walmart nationwide have recalled 38,000 pounds of lunch meat, U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the meat may be contaminated with Listeria. Listeria can cause a severe headache, high fever, stiff neck and nausea. The suspected sandwiches are Ham and Swiss, Roast Beef and Cheddar, Smokehouse Hero and Italian Hero Sandwiches. These sandwiches have a sell by date of August 25, 2010 or before. Walmart said the customers may return them for a full refund. How many people buy a sandwich and save it?, Those contaminated sandwiches that were purchased have been eaten, good luck. Other sandwiches were produced from June18 to July 2^nd 2010. The sell by dates also have sell by dates ranging from August 20, to July 2, 2010.

Redlands Ca. recently had a chance to vote whether or not to allow a certain percentage of non taxable items in the proposed Walmart Supercenter. The residents against the Supercenter felt Walmart already had a store in the community and another was unneeded. The thing the residents didn’t understand was why the police and fire departments came out so strong for Walmart. It was understood that the city council wanted the project and had promised those departments plenty. What was not known is the pensions these guys have gotten for themselves. It is no wonder then why these guys sold out to the city and to Walmart, greed is a great motivator. These employees as in other cities give a black eye to the many who do not allow themselves to be bought and paid for. It really hurts to see our hero’s in this light as more cities are brought into the light of day with these obscene pension deals that fleece the taxpayers.

Walmart has found new allies in their bid to conquer the world. The newest tactic that worked well for them was to pit one union against another. In Chicago Walmart promised jobs to the laborer unions to build the store, therefore getting the store built. Walmart of course used very little union labor, just enough to make it look good. Then of course use city workers to back a Walmart in the community by having the city council promise raises to all. Walmart was very successful in Chicago and as we’ve seen here in Redlands. Greed is a powerful motivator especially when times are tough.

El Monte like most all of the cities who think they must have a Walmart to survive in these economic times don’t look beyond their noses. First the tax revenue predictions are only monies shifted from one source to another, the business lost by other stores to Walmart is only shifted revenue, not new money. A household only has a certain amount of disposable income, just because Walmart moves into town doesn’t give a family more money it is only money spent elsewhere. Secondly, the redevelopment money Walmart gleans from the city is usually $5 to $10 million for the privilege of bringing Walmart to town. Thirdly, the cost for social services such as food stamps, healthcare at the emergency room, rent subsidies, additional police protection all drain the city and the only winner is the bottom line of Walmart.

Walmart again is facing a class action lawsuit for limiting medical care for its Colorado injured employees in an effort to save money. According to The Wall Street Journal, Walmart broke state and federal laws by sending injured workers to clinics run by Concentra Inc. which operates 300 medical centers and 250 workplace clinics in 40 states. Walmart, Concentra and American Assurance Co. part of American International Group Inc. are accused of “ conspiring to violate Colorado worker’s compensation law that prohibits companies from dictating medical treatment for workers injured on the job.” Attorneys are looking at other states where Walmart may be doing the same thing to its employees, such as Arizona, New York, Iowa, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin. Walmart, Concentra and American Home of course all deny any wrong doing.

Walmart has yet another recall on another one of its products. This time the recall is for Perdue chicken nuggets sold under the brand name of Great Value. And what a great value it is to have pieces of bright blue plastic in your nuggets. According to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Food and Safety Inspection Service the nuggets were sold in a 1 pound 13 oz. bag number P-33944 case code # 89008 A0160 with a best used date of June 9, 2011. The 92,00 pounds or 50,000 packages of nuggets made on June 9 2010 were shipped out nationwide. Perdue Co. can be reached at (877) 727-3447 With the recall coming in July most of the nuggets have probably been consumed by the customers and neither Walmart or Perdue will not suffer any monetary losses. Most recalls are done late so that the public usually foots the bill.

The smoke has cleared in Redlands where the residents were outspent a hundred to one on the Measure O initiative. The sad thing is the police and firemen who are looked upon as hero’s to most people allowed themselves to be used by the city to endorse Walmart. Most of these city employees don’t even live in the community, but promises of additional funding for their departments was all it took for them to jump on the Walmart bandwagon. Let’s hope they get what was promised or at least what’s coming to them. The city funded Chamber of Commerce in Redlands and other cities and towns across the country repeatedly sell out their members future to sustain the trickle down monies from their cities. Why would a known business killer like Walmart, who has openly set their sights on stores like Best Buy, Toys R Us, small business and grocery stores be supported by the Chamber of Commerce? These back stabbers should be called the Chamber of Walmart, who usually doesn’t even join the organization once they arrive.

The Hillbilly Mafia from Arkansas has muscled their way into city after city across the country with empty promises of great tax revenues and support for the local politicians. Has America become so illiterate that reading a newspaper, listening to the radio or watching news programs, doesn’t resonate when telling of the way Walmart does business? How many jobs have been lost overseas because companies have to lower their prices in order to sell to Walmart? The many lawsuits, the cheating of employees out of earned wages, health care benefits supplied by the taxpayer, overburdening of city resources, crime, traffic, empty buildings that cause blight and still these politicians and ill informed residents allow the Walmart Trojan horse into the community. How long are you going to sit back and allow these phony politicians to climb in bed with Walmart without any repercussion at the polls.

Walmart is ramping up their donations to food banks, for this effort Walmart will receive $250 million in grants over 5 years which will pay for refrigerated trucks to help keep the food fresh from store to charity. This food of course will be food that cannot be sold to the public for one reason or another or food that is close to its expiration date and would be thrown away anyway.

Walmart is outspending the Redlands residents that are opposing a Supercenter in the community. The latest figures show the residents spending about $6,000 and Walmart coughing up around $350,000. Its really a shame that these city councils and the uninformed Police and Fire Departments all eat the water sandwiches Walmart serves up. How soon this council forgets what happened when the existing Walmart came to town and the city was actually paying Walmart for the privilege of having Walmart in town. What ever happened to the previous mayor who went on tour speaking on how Walmart took Redlands for a ride. This new group evidently wants to take that same ride. The Redlands Group backed by Walmart are selling the city for thin promises of raises and new vehicles, what a shame to be so gullible and be in charge. The folks in Redlands should be looking for new faces across the board.

Walmart has another recall on its hands, 900,000 coffee pots made by General Electric and sold Exclusively by Walmart have to date caused 83 reported fires. By law a company should notify the government immediately when a product has a defect. It is much cheaper to sell the defective product and then give notification. Walmart has not responded to the reason why the government or the public wasn’t notified sooner. The coffee pots have caused kitchen damages and consumers being burned. The 12 cup coffee pot model numbers are 169164 (black) and 169165 (white) sold between March 08 and Jan.2010. If you have one and you shouldn’t because you’re not supposed to shop Walmart, maybe you will learn a lesson. You can return it to Walmart for a refund. Walmart buys this Chinese crap on the cheap with no regard for public safety just the bottom line profit. You work hard for your money quit giving it the Walton Family.

Another recall is the Miley Cyrus jewelry line which was known in February ( late reporting again) to have toxic levels of cadmium. The jewelry is not toxic if worn only if sucked on’ swallowed or bitten. Walmart claimed the jewelry was marketed for older people not kids according to the statement given by the Associated Press. Cadmium can cause kidney failure and softening of the bones.

When are you as the public going to understand that big business is only interested in making money and not the integrity of its cheaply made products from 3^rd world countries with no health or safety standards.

California Walmart employees have sued and won a lawsuit settlement involving around 223,000 workers who claimed unpaid vacation and wages. Walmart is of course claim to be always looking out for its employees and their families. Now Walmart will get the chance to settle for anywhere between $43 and $86 million plus the cost of a third party to calculate the final monies owed the workers. The case is from two cases filed in 2006 with the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California. As usual Walmart had no comment, this lawsuit falls right on the heels of the multi-billion dollar gender lawsuit.

Redlands California is the latest city where the residents are fighting Walmart. The grass roots community effort is of course battling the ill informed city council members who feel Walmart riding up on the white horse will save the day. The ordinance to stop Walmart comes up for a vote on June 8^th. The city in an effort to confuse the voters have written the ordinance so that NO means YES and YES means NO. The anti big box coalition which is the residents of the city are walking precincts and calling their neighbors. Walmart is paying out of town employees to do the walking. These people have no investment in the community and are there for the bidding of Walmart. If you have friends or family in Redlands or are a Redlands resident, please Vote YES on O and keep the charm of Redlands and stop the intrusion of Walmart.

Walmart has finally running out of tricks to stop the gender lawsuit filed in 2001. The lawsuit contends Walmart paid their female employees substandard wages and promoted them less often in comparison to their male counterparts. This lawsuit could conceivably cost Walmart billions of dollars. Walmart stocks fell .27 cents a share the afternoon of 4-26-10.

Walmart has reported a 1% profit over 2009 which probably has many investors pretty nervous. Again Walmart is attempting to extend its reach into the urban areas again. Chicago and New York are the targets on Walmart’ radar, however cheap Chinese goods and Cheap paying wages have kept the big cities from welcoming in Walmart. The only problem in Chicago is that the Mayor Daley that runs the city today would not make a pimple on the backside of his father. He seems to think Walmart would be great for the city, of course his wages are quite a bit higher than the Walmart employees would be.

Walmart has been opening stores in small towns of California, as has been said many times its easy to outwit these small time city councils and their attorneys. Walmart’ attorneys give these small towns loans, garner redevelopment money from the city and usually cuts a deal giving the city coffers a percentage of the promised taxes. The residents then pay for the privilege of having a Walmart in town. The city council members feel they have played ball with the big boys, never realizing they have been snookered. The sad part is they keep getting elected and as dumb as they are, the voters are dumber.

Walmart in order to survive has to break into the California economy. The problem is Los Angeles wants a living wage for the Walmart employees. L.A. understands that low wages depress the community and the employees become a drain on society. Not only L.A. but cities like New York, Washington D.C. and Chicago have halted the growth of Walmart. Wherever a Walmart wants to open there is opposition, if Walmart is such a great company, why are the residents not happy to have them in their communities?

Walmart now is now getting into the education business. We know that Walmart likes to show anti-union films to their new hires. Joining up with a city like Detroit where unemployment is running rampant. Walmart wants to teach the inner city students what they need to know to prepare them for entry level positions. This class offers the students a 4 credit after school program. This job readiness program is preparing these minority students for a job that doesn’t even pay a livable wage. How are these students going to break the chains of poverty working for Walmart. Walmart is only looking to obtain cheap labor and future customers who cannot afford to shop anywhere but Walmart. This is what Walmart is all about, by perpetuating poverty Walmart stays in business. No choice.

Walmart of course has been embroiled in racial lawsuits in the past and it seems as though some people still like to play games. In Washington County New Jersey, some one very politely over the intercom system asked if all the black customers would please leave the store. Walmart stated that some in store phones are accessible to the public and do not have cameras at these locations. It does however make one wonder the type of employees and customers are attracted to Walmart.

Walmart’ 401 K plan has come under fire, in a Nov. 25^th federal court ruling. Walmart hired Merrill Lynch as the trustee of the plan and they (Merrill Lynch) failed to evaluate investment options for the plan and charged excessive brokers fees. This cost the plan about $60 million in these fees and will cost the plan around $20 million per year. The court alleges Walmart and Merrill Lynch breached their fiduciary duties and duty of loyalty by not informing the plans investors about the fees. Walmart is not only doesn’t pay their employees very well, but then turn around and screw them out of the little money they try to invest. Yes, Walmart is really a place you really want to work or shop at. Walmart is for the Walton family and no one else, when are people going to learn?

The Workday Minnesota reported that a union buster told a worker that he could be fired for union activity. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled the worker was protected by labor law. The NRLB then as usual gave Walmart a slap on the wrist by having Walmart post a notice for two whole months stating Walmart would not “threaten employees with termination because of union activity” The NRLB is another agency that really needs to be looked at very closely because of some very controversial rulings.

The Supreme Court of Canada issued a statement concerning Walmart closure of their Quebec store in 2005, seven months after the workers voted to unionize Walmart shut the doors and put 190 workers on the street. The court in a 6-3 vote said “the closure did not constitute an unfair labor practice aimed at hindering the union or the employees from exercising rights under the labor code.” This is just ridiculous that anyone would buy that it wasn’t retaliation against the workers for wanting a better life. Walmart doesn’t believe in LIVE BETTER WORK UNION.

Gardnerville, Nevada:

Seems the town council is deadlocked on a proposed Supercenter, the project is a 152,495 square foot behemoth while the people who have a real vision for the area want to stay with the idea of a small town atmosphere. Councilman Jerry Smith stated a big box goes against the towns vision. The town manager Jim Park actually said he thought that business’ in the area would benefit from having a Walmart in the area, apparently the only publications this rube reads are the ones Walmart supplies. The council should consider firing Parks so that he can work full time for Walmart. Councilman Jim Slade said of the proposed changes Walmart introduced violated both the master and the specific plan and was tantamount to putting lipstick on a pig.

Walmart has started a new move to kill the competition. Code name for this is called Project Impact, the idea for the sake of the public is to clean up their cluttered stores, give better customer service. That is what the customers will hear, the real deal is to crush the competition. K-Mart, Rite Aid, and of course Toys R Us, since they are the last toy retailer left. Michaels Stores the craft people is not going to compete much longer with Walmart already selling about 80% of the items as Michaels. Best buy should be looking closely at Walmart since the demise of Circuit City.

The grocer stores are also on the list to be annihilated since grocery customers shop 3 times a week, Walmart wants that foot traffic so it can sell the cheap Chinese crap in the retail section. Walmart is not trying to save anybody money Walmart only wants to sell you more junk to make the Walton Family more money.

Walmart almost had another episode this Black Friday like the one last year where a security guard was trampled to death. This year was a little closer to home here in California. The Walmart store in Upland had to be closed down by police and then reopened to let customers in a few at a time. Where is the security people from Walmart?, or is it cheaper to use the Upland City Police and then if something goes wrong Walmart has someone else to share in any lawsuit. Walmart is private property and Walmart should be paying for their own security, not the taxpayers.

Walmart and Pepsi have teamed to display Pepsi and Dorito’s in the toy aisle. Hard enough trying to say no to the toys, now you have to keep them away from sugar and junk. So in the middle of the toy dept. Walmart and Pepsi are doing you moms a favor to enhance what Walmart says is “Family Night Center.” This idea came directly from the Walmart Central Office. This is a nationwide program to help families, just like selling toys and junk food time on cartoon shows. Like Walmart shoppers don’t have enough problems, studies show a young persons diet is the best predictor of criminal behavior. Eating junk food will probably wind the kid in jail. Young offenders who took vitamins were less likely to repeat.

Teamster in the grocery warehouses and UFCW members have the most to lose with the interloper Walmart selling groceries. The poor wages and lack of benefits from Walmart can of course be used to sell cheap groceries, that is until the competition is dead. Once there is no one else selling groceries the prices escalate as in every other city across the nation. Walmart gives nothing they only suck the lifeblood from a community. Any union member shopping at Walmart is looking to have his or her wages lowered or be on unemployment.

Walmart will sell you a months supply of prescription drugs for $4. The largest supplier of these drugs is an East Indian company named Ranbaxy who was charged in February of falsifying data and test results.In 2008 Walmart gave Ranbaxy an Award for Performance. The FDA has issued warning letters barring entry into America any finished drug product or any active pharmaceutical ingredients.

Walmart was selling cheaply made Chinese DVD players for $29.00 it’s a hell of a deal if… your house doesn’t burn down. One week ago Walmart recalled 1.5 million of these DVD players and this week are recalling another 2.7 million players. Anyone owning one of these machines is urged to return them to Walmart for a complete refund. These DVD players were sold exclusively by Walmart and these players are dangerous and this warning should not to be taken lightly.

Everywhere there’s a Walmart those freight containers seem to be parked in the rear of the store. These containers are rusty and unsightly. Many of these containers were allowed to be parked behind the store for the Christmas holiday merchandise, but after the holidays the so called city fathers looked the other way to accommodate the wishes of Walmart. When are these politicians going to stop kissing the backside of this retailer and start paying attention to the residents and the ambiance of the cities they are supposed to represent?

Have you noticed there are more and more JB hunt and Swift tractors pulling Walmart and Sam’s Club trailers lately? Walmart doesn’t even want to pay their own drivers, when they can get these other carriers so much cheaper. Walmart is like the old game of Packman eating through towns and cities and devouring everything in sight.

Redlands citizens are up in arms over a proposed Wal-Mart coming to the city. The idea of another big box would probably mean the closing of the existing store, leave an empty building and cause the demise of many other stores in the area. The community is gathering signatures in hopes of staving off the attack by Wal-Mart. If you live in Redlands and see these folks, please help by signing their petition.

Wal-Mart in an effort to boost sales has been working with various singing artists and designers. What Wal-Mart doesn’t seem to understand is, not only do shoppers not want cheaply made Chinese goods no matter whose name you put on them. Californians even more so than the rest of the country aren’t interested in fall apart clothing, we don’t want the Walton Family cheap filthy stores in our neighborhood, nor do we like the looks of those make shift container warehouses in our back yards. Please when asked JUST SAY NO to Wal-Mart ask your friends and family not to shop in these junkyards.

On May 6, 2009 Wal-Mart negotiated a civil settlement with the district attorney of Nassau County N.Y. concerning the death of a temporary worker. The stampede on Black Friday of 2008, a day that results in 13% of Wal-Mart’s yearly profit. Wal-Mart as usual did not have to admit to any guilt in what happened and will not face any criminal charges. The agreement includes Wal-Mart to donate $1.5 million to the community, set up a $400,000 victims compensation fund, provide 50 jobs to high school students and hire safety experts to scrutinize future security plans for Black Friday sales at all of the New York stores. Wal-Mart even after this tragedy promised shoppers “more lanes than ever to make Christmas shopping easier” airing Christmas carols and telling customers “Save Money, live Better” stealing the famous union slogan of “Live Better, Work Union”. The family of Jdimytai Damour the worker who was killed has also filed a civil lawsuit against Wal-Mart.

Eight years ago Wal-Mart was hit with the largest class action lawsuit in history. Wal-Mart had discriminated against its female workers, paying them less than their male counterparts doing the same job and not promoting them on an equal basis. Originally six women filed the lawsuit on behalf of all women presently or formerly working for the giant retailer. Twice Wal-Mart has tried to quash the suit but lost on both occasions. Wal-Mart wanted each woman to file lawsuits individually which would have tied up the courts for years, and would have been all but impossible for one person to sue Wal-Mart because the cost involved.

Fontana turned down Wal-Mart for a Supercenter, The crime stats for Wal-Mart stores far exceeds the crime rates of other stores. Tuesday May 5^th two armed robbers shot the manager in the leg as a persuasive measure to force another employee to open the safe. The two were apprehended, one in a U-Haul truck and the other was chased down by a police dog and was bitten. Cash and a gun were found in the so-called get-a-way vehicle. The crime for Supercenters is even worse for the regular Wal-Mart stores. Why do other cities feel the taxes gleaned from a Wal-Mart out weigh the safety of its citizens.

Wal-Mart is having such a hard time sneaking into cities with the help of misguided ignorant city council members. These council members buy into the Wal-Mart theory of economics. Wal-Mart promises great tax benefits to their cities. Wal-Mart now wants to expand their traditional stores into Supercenters one in Victorville and another in Barstow. The fact is Wal-Mart doesn’t bring any additional tax revenue with the addition of a grocery component. There are no taxes on food products. Wal-Mart only wants the grocery component for one reason. People grocery shop three times a week, but only go to a big box store once or twice a month. To Wal-Mart putting in groceries only means more shopping trips. Wal-Mart has made a ghost town of downtown Barstow, That of course is not enough they now want the grocery dollars as well. We can only hope the citizens are smarter than the council people and fight against Wal-Mart causing more store closings in the city and putting more people out of work.

Class action suits are the only way to addressing discrimination. In the past the GOP Bush EEOC attorneys appointees were joined by business lobbyists and the Chamber of Commerce and the right wing radical organization Pacific Legal Foundation, well known for suing for corporate property rights.

The Obama administration has taken the side of the discriminated women sending a legal brief on March 19^th to the San Francisco 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals. They are in support of the lower courts ruling on how back pay would be determined whenever the case comes to trial.

There is a ship Wal-Mart uses to have goods shipped from China to America, it is 1,302 ft. long, (which is longer than an aircraft carrier) 207 ft. wide has a net cargo of 123,200 tons carrying 15,000 containers. Cost of the vessel was $145,000,000+. It only has 13 crewman and can make the trip from China to America in 4 days. It is able to travel at 31 knots whereas the average ship travels at 18 to 20 knots. The ship also has silicone paint on the bottom saving 317,000 gallons of fuel per year. The real kick is that usually heads back to China empty. Wonder why our economy is in turmoil? Don’t you think Americans have supported China and Wal-Mart long enough?

Wal-Mart has won an appeal from a federal appeals court in San Francisco to try and stop a lawsuit filed on behalf of 1.6 million women for sex discrimination. The workers contend Wal-Mart paid women less than men and granted fewer promotions. The suit was filed in 2001 and Wal-Mart has fought hard to keep it out of the courts. Wal-Mart does not want to pay back pay or any compensation to the women. A judge in 2004 granted that the lawsuit go forward and Wal-Mart is still fighting the judges order.

Bentonville Arkansas the home of Wal-Mart had to lay off 800 management personal this week. Nobody likes to see someone lose their job, but in this case a predatory bunch of suits who have no doubt slapped many a high five when putting other companies out of business causing untold grief and hardship to thousands of working families, it’s very hard to feel much morose for them. Maybe now that same hand that slapped five at others misfortune will be thinking about the devastation dealt to others when they themselves are using that same hand to pick up an unemployment check. What goes around comes around.

Wal-Mart is settling over 63 lawsuits for routinely underpaying its employees. The amount to be paid will be between $350 and $640 million. Resolving these cases before going to court will save them many millions, and also helps to not to give the unions ammunition to argue the Employee Free Choice Act. Wal-Mart is scared to death of unionizing its work force, having to pay decent wages and benefits to the workers. With the way things have been going the working class in America is under attack and we must fight back to preserve our standard of living.

Well when faced to maybe having to fight public pressure and the unions Wal-Mart is eyeing the international markets even closer. Wal-Mart has offered to buy a large retail chain in Chile, this move would make Wal-Mart Chile’s largest grocer. This fits into Wal-Mart’s strategy of buying established chains to quickly gain market share in that country. This is the same strategy used in Brazil, China and Japan. Once you start exploiting the lower wage workers it must get easier and easier. By paying one ignorant worker a bit more than the rest and give him or her a title, that person will do anything they are told not to be put back with the masses. Its very easy to find people with that mentality in that education sector.

Wal-Mart in New Jersey had a truly Black Friday sale. It was a day of mourning for the family of one employee who was trampled to death by the crowd of shoppers. Wal-Mart could have hired crowd control security, but that would have cut into the bottom line. Even while the man was dying on the floor and the paramedics were loading the body into the ambulance, the customers were still allowed to shop. No attempt to empty the store, just keep em’ shopping. This is the mentality of the owners, employees and the type of people who shop there.

Human Rights Watch an independent nongovernmental organization that investigates human rights violations worldwide has put out a study on labor rights and trade. Senior researcher Carol Pier did a case study of the abysmal workers rights regime we have here in America. In a 2 ½ year study culminating in a 210 page report issued in 2007 “Discounting Rights: Wal-Mart’s Violation of U.S. Workers’ Right to Freedom of Association.” Found Wal-Mart to be one of the worst union busting companies in the country. The study has come at a time when a Minnesota state judge may levy a multi-million dollar fine against Wal-Mart for 6 years of violating workers’ rights to their pay. The full study may be viewed at www.hrw.org/reports/2007/us0507.

In an effort to plunge further into the unionized grocery markets, Wal-Mart has plans of opening fewer 190,000 square foot stores and opening their 15,000 sq. ft. Marketside grocery stores. This in an effort to compete with anti-union Tesco’s Fresh & Easy Markets and of course trying to quiet the many communities that protest the large Supercenter stores.

The Victorville Wal-Mart which is about the 7^th most violent in America is a distinction the residents aren’t very proud of. On Tuesday November 18, 2008 an 83 year old man was followed into the washroom by Robin Lee Whalen who then robbed the older man of his wallet. The strong arm robber (Whalen) was taken into custody the following Thursday thanks to witnesses and is being held on $50,000 bond. Despite all the crime at the present Wal-Mart location the city council still feels 3 more Wal-Mart Supercenter stores are needed in Victorville. I wish when these out of touch councilmen and the Wal-Mart stockholder mayor make these decisions the California State Attorney General would investigate said decisions for any improprieties.

Wal-Mart in Victorville had a bomb threat on Saturday Oct. 25^th. This time Wal-Mart evacuated the store, last time Wal-Mart had a bomb scare they refused to close the store and told the employees to “find the bomb”. I wonder if the workers received hazard pay for that job? Wal-Mart as usual puts profits over the safety of its employees. We wonder what Wal-Mart would have said had a bomb exploded while the workers were searching the store. The Walton Family is building their wealth on the backs of the employees that mean absolutely nothing to them. Calling your employees “associates” gives them a feeling of belonging, but its only a way of keeping them in the Wal-Mart way of thinking.

The December 08 Consumer Reports stated that of 27 walk-in electronic stores. Wal-Mart came in dead last failing in price, selection, quality, customer service, checkout and return policy. Costco which is a Teamsters Union company got the highest marks for prices and a generous return policy. The fact that Costco pays its employees well and provides good benefits proves that Wal-Mart, and others who pay sub-standard wages and benefits and treats its employees poorly have no credible excuse for their conduct. Wal-Mart has to become a good corporate citizen.

Even though Wal-Mart prospered during the years the democrats were in power the median household income rose by $6000 under the Clinton administration. The unemployment rate fell by 3 points, and the poverty rate went down by 6 million. The Bush years caused a drop of $1000. in household income, and unemployment rose from 3.9% to 5.9%. During those same years the poverty level went up by 5 million, and families are paying $6000. more for basics. Wal-Mart sales went up, but despite this Wal-Mart is encouraging its employees to vote republican. We can only figure the republicans are giving Wal-Mart much more.

We as trade unionists must do everything we can to make Wal-Mart a good corporate citizens. If Wal-Mart wants the republican party in the White House, what the hell are they getting in return? We all know Wal-Mart is only interested in the bottom line and cheap or no benefits. Can we make a difference and force the worlds largest retailer to give their employees medical benefits? Yes we can, if our union companies can afford to give its employees medical, then sure as hell Wal-Mart can also. That would probably bring down the cost of medical for union companies if the other large companies were to pay into insurance programs. Remember when all companies provided healthcare? Lets return to those times by voting Democrat.

Wal-Mart being the largest retailer in the world, buys on the cheap and then complains when their products fail at what is expected of them. The latest product to fail is Arcadia bottled water sold at Wal-Mart. If you are the largest company and you want keep your customers healthy and happy, then you need to check more thoroughly the products purchased. Wal-Mart constantly blames everyone but themselves. This latest product Wal-Mart claims passed their test. The government however doesn’t agree.

Wal-Mart intends to invest $1 billion in Brazil, in hopes of expanding further into Latin America. Eight of the twelve foreign countries Wal-Mart operates in are in Latin America. Wal-Mart buys most of its products from China, where there is little or no health or safety standards. Perhaps Wal-Mart should leave America and continue their business practices in countries that don’t worry about such things.

Wal-Mart Stores in Mexico has been paying its employees in part with vouchers that can only be redeemed at the Wal-Mart Stores known as Walmex in Mexico. The courts in Mexico likened Wal-Mart’s practice to labor practices that led to the Mexican Revolution in 1910. Wealthy landowners 100 years ago in Mexico paid employees in monies that could only be used in the company store. This is a violation of Mexico’s constitution. Wal-Mart puts it to it’s employees “ALWAYS”.

America turned down Wal-Mart to open a bank, so Wal-Mart is now trying to obtain a license in Canada. Wal-Mart has bank started a banking business in Mexico this year. The fact that Wal-Marts attempt to start it’s own bank in America was denied may make Canada think twice.

Wal-Mart has settled the lawsuit aimed at Tom Coughlin a former executive accused of embezzlement. Mr. Coughlin claimed the money was to foil union attempts at organizing Wal-Mart. In reality the money was used to better his life style. Coughlin later pled guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and tax evasion. His retirement package had been estimated at $17 million, but his settlement amounted to $6.75 million. It seems if anything is wrong at Wal-Mart the union can be blamed. The employees at Wal-Mart should take a lesson here. What is their retirement worth?, and what happens when they steal so much as a candy bar.

Wal-Mart and Hanes have garments made in Jordan’s Ad Dulay Industrial Zone. The Meridian Garment Factory operating under a U.S. Jordan Free Trade Agreement. 60% of the 1400 guest workers have been stripped of their passports by management. Workers are forced to work 99 hours a week, which they supposedly get paid for 80 hours at $45.63. Besides not being paid for the hours over the workers are routinely cheated out of 37% of the wages due them.

Women are paid .08 cents for every pair of White Stag pants they sew for Wal-Mart.

Write to the U.S. Trade Representative and ask her to take action.

Ambassador Susan C. Schwab

United States Trade Representative

Office of the USTR

600 17^th Street NW

Washington, DC20508

Wal-Mart has a new Board member, Gregory B. Penner son-in law of chairman S. Robson Walton. Two years ago he was involved in the purchase of Seiyu Ltd. A Japanese co. Penner was the chief financial officer and the company posted a loss of $216 million last year. Wal-Mart is buying back stock so the per share earnings look better. Penner’s parents are sex therapists who have written many books on the subject, all with a religious theme. Mr. Penner is then well qualified to show Wal-Mart the finer points of screwing America, with a religious theme of course.

Wal-Mart shares are creeping downward and they are slowing down their growth forecasts for 2009. Of course in the Inland Empire and the high desert its all out. Victorville plans to open three supercenters, even though the residents aren’t very happy with the situation. The city council seems to only bow to Wal-Marts demands. The latest is to put in a street in the guise of making traffic move smoothly whereas in reality it’s a ruse to have the taxpayers pay for an entrance to Wal-Mart. Here is a city that really needs to recall its council members.

Wal-Mart being the largest importer of Chinese goods in the nation, and enticing vendors to move to China so that they can sell their wares to Wal-Mart at a low price has had a great effect on Americas economy.Since 2001 2.3 million jobs have gone to China. In 2007 366,000 left this country. Our trade deficit with china in 2007, (the last full year of reporting) was $256 billion. Almost a third (31%) of lost were college degree workers. How safe is your job? 40,000 factories have closed in the past 10 years. Who has the most to lose? Since 2001 displaced minority worker figures were 230,065 African Americans, 339,065 Hispanic workers, with Asian and other minority workers losing 219,235 jobs. These figures are not made up, you can find them at www.americanmanufacturing.org if you intend to keep your job and lifestyle, educate yourself to what you are doing to the American economy by shopping at Wal-Mart. Do not let price overcome ethics. Protect your job and the future of your family.

When you or your family shop at Wal-Mart here are a few things you may want to remember and consider before walking through those doors to maybe save $2.00 after spending $500.00. August 2, 2007 1.5 million Sesame Street dolls were recalled because of excessive lead content. October 5 2007 Boy Scouts of America recalled over a million Cub Scout badges for excessive lead content.November 9, 2007 4.2 million Aqua Dots toys were recalled because of a chemical that converted to GHB the “date rape” drug when swallowed. That’s what we want for our children. Remember there are no laws governing Chinese factories. Lets not forget the tainted dog food or the blood thinner Heparin that killed 19 Americans.

The latest three cities to allow Wal-Mart into their cities are Barstow, Ca. Barstow is wanting a distribution center and Rialto, Ca. wants to replace its current Wal-Mart with a Supercenter. It seems the cities with poor council representation and lower income residents look to Wal-Mart to save them. Wal-Mart only puts these cities further down the economic scale. The use of medical emergency rooms, police calls, food stamps, housing subsidies and the criminal element Wal-Mart seems to carry into a city goes unnoticed by these wizards on these city councils.

Are you as a union member doing your part? What is your part? As a union member when your union asks for your help, you should be there.Be it walking a picket line, showing up at council meetings, attending union meetings, walking precincts for political candidates, voting for labor endorsed candidates, donating to DRIVE, performing a simple task like not spending tour union wages at a union hateful company such as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is taking your money and using it to remove your job. We hold a lot of economic power, a great deal of members understand this, there is still a great deal of you who take your jobs and wages serious. When you lose your job, where will you go to make the money and benefits a union job provides? Shop at union grocers such as Ralph’s, Food 4 Less, Von’s, Stater Bros. and of course our unionized Costco stores. One would think that what the Teamsters union has done for you and your family, a little payback should be in order. Don’t you?

It has come to my attention that many of you are not aware of the various web-sites that track and supply information about Wal-Mart, therefore you can check these sites yourself at the following.

http://walmartwatch.com

www.wakeupwalmart.com

This next site will let you know how much Wal-Mart gets subsidized from various cities.

http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/corporate_subsidy/walmart.cfm

These are your Teamster sites.

www.teamsters.info

www.teamster.info

Yucca Valley, a small quiet Mayberry RFD type town is the latest city to have the wishes of the residents overturned by an out of touch city council. Wal-Mart comes to town and just gets the council to sell the farm, or pay Wal-Mart to take the farm. The council controlled the meeting by keeping the residents cheers down and allowing the Wal-Mart employees to wave their “I’m a Wal-Mart Fan” signs in the air to show approval. Wal-Mart owned this council. Someone in the audience shouted “Recall”, I think that would be perfectly in order for these arrogant buffoons.

Wal-Mart will tell you that sixty to seventy percent of their employees have health insurance, truth is more than sixty percent of Wal-Mart employees------600,000 people get their health insurance through the government or their spouses’ health insurance. How many of you are supporting Wal-Mart with Teamster Health Insurance? When your job is lost, hopefully you can receive health insurance through Wal-Mart.

The idea that Wal-Mart still is able to receive tax breaks, infrastructure assistance, free land or cheap land prices and sales tax rebates Wal-Mart is able to swing from these city councils is outrageous. The fact that these rebates and special deals Wal-Mart is able to accrue is testament to the fact that public officials just don’t get it. Even though all these deals hurt taxpayers that also just happen to be Wal-Mart customers proves just how much Wal-Mart really thinks of the people who shop there. With all the

Wal-Mart and the Town of Apple Valley hid the fact that a Wal-Mart Distribution Center was planned for the area. Maybe if the mayor and Wal-Mart was a little more forthright, maybe someone would have warned them of the danger in building a facility on top of a former bomb site. The employees are now at risk because of the lead, titanium and nitroglycerin that pose an immediate health risk, due to exposure to these contaminants by wind or the leaching into the ground water. The report also states there are no warning signs to make the public aware of the danger. It will be interesting to see the outcome of any litigation against the mayor and town of Apple Valley and of course Wal-Mart who blames everyone but themselves for any wrongdoing.

Tesco the retail and food giant from England and who is been called a monopoly by Wal-Mart, is like Wal-Mart in its disdain for unions. Though Tesco is union in England they refuse to sit and negotiate with any unions here in America. If you don’t want to play by American rules, then they should head back to England. Why should we give our hard earned money to a company that has no respect for hard working Americans? Like Wal-Mart we don’t need to shop in their stores either.

Wal-Mart did it again, a not so sharp city council gave Wal-Mart the green light to build a Supercenter, with the understanding that the existing store would house a revenue making Sam’s Club. After Wal-Mart built their Supercenter a Sam’s Club didn’t seem like such a good idea after all. The City of Hemet now has a boarded up eyesore with gray paint covering the graffiti right on the main street of Hemet. Why these cities believe Wal-Mart and don’t get things in writing is amazing. How many cities are sitting with Big Box blight in their city, who is going to buy or lease a building that size just to have Wal-Mart put the investment into an early grave. The mayor now say’s he doesn’t think Wal-Mart was ever going to put up a Sam’s Club, they just wanted a Supercenter. These towns and cities should listen to the community when they tell the city council NO WAL-MART.

The National Advertising Division has recommended that Wal-Mart discontinue the implied claim that shoppers could save $2500.00 a year by shopping at Wal-Mart. The Council of Better Business Bureaus singled out Wal-Mart for the implied message that the $2500.00 a year savings could only be had by shopping at Wal-Mart, and not any other stores. Wal-Mart’s claim was that their size and efficiency drive down prices all across the entire economy and therefore generate the $2500.00 savings no matter where you shop. If you buy that crock of an excuse, we have an acre of land in we can sell you.

Wal-Mart sues Disabled Worker

http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-US&brand=&vid=c5b7960a-fa23-45ed-baaa-0faf410ac792

After the Fontana city Council turned down Wal-Mart’s attempt to circumvent an ordinance that retail stores in the north side Promenade Shopping Center be no larger than 75,000 sq. ft.. Wal-Mart bought property in the center and tried to force the City Council to allow them to build a 160,000 sq. ft. Supercenter. The council stood fast and told Wal-Mart to build in another part of the city. Wal-Mart’s attorney stated “that if they (Wal-Mart) had to build off the freeway, they would demand freeway signage.” It is refreshing to see a City Council that won’t allow itself to be bullied or intimidated by Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has to learn that no matter how much wealth and power Wal-Mart has, Wal-Mart is not above the law. Our hat is off to the 3 councilmen who stood their ground.

Wal-Mart has decided not to purchase the property in Blythe, Ca. located on Hobsonway and Intake. The property was in escrow but Wal-Mart decided to opt out of the deal. A lawsuit won in Bakersfield Ca. caused the Blythe City officials to rescind the Environmental Impact Report (EIR). The (EIR) did not address many of the issues needed to be complete. Two citizen groups MENOS and BSCG filed lawsuits to stop the Wal-Mart Supercenter. Wal-Mart has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars thus far on the project. When will Wal-Mart get the message, they are not welcome in California. We do not need you to ruin our state as you have in many other states.

The Cott Bottling Company has been the maker of private label drinks such as Sam’s Choice for Wal-Mart for years. Wal-Mart is now replacing Cott’s products with RC Cola and Diet Rite. This will be a loss of 38% for Cott which translates to about $89 million. There is no loyalty from Wal-Mart to a company that was loyal to them.

The City of Victorville is attempting to change its zoning to accommodate a Wal-Mart on the heavily traveled Bear Valley Road and Spring Valley Parkway. This is the main traffic artery for thousands of commuters from Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville, not to mention the students of Victor Valley College. The Victorville City Fathers are actually allowing three Supercenters for their city. It will be interesting to see what the backlash will be towards the council.

Wal-Mart has bought 17 acres in Carlsbad but were met on Valentines Day by about 40 protesters. The protesters had heart shaped signs stating “Have a heart No Carlsbad in Wal-Mart” The latest strategy of Wal-Mart is to buy property and threatening city officials into allowing them to build or face a lawsuit. Wal-Mart has bought property in other cities as well, like Ontario, Fontana and Victorville. These cities need to understand that because someone buys a piece of property, they just can’t build whatever they want. When will Wal-Mart get the message, California does not want you.

Wal-Mart has a competitor that has come to town. Tesco, Tesco is a British company that Wal-Mart claims is too big and should be investigated. Wal-Mart who crushes its competition is crying foul. That is really something to hear, the giant doesn’t want competition from any one able to give them a run for the money. This new store opening under the name “Fresh and Easy” is unionized in Britain but like Wal-Mart wants nothing to do with unions. Wal-Mart should stay out of California and Tesco needs to go back to Britain. I thought we already fought this war and ran the British out of America.

Edward Fox, professor at So. Methodist University’s Cox School of Business said the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenters in Highland and Redlands will have a negative impact on the grocery business in the area by 15 to 20%. Jack Brown Chairman of Stater Bros. Markets stated these cities shouldn’t be offering economic incentives to bribe Wal-Mart. It is very difficult for any of our grocery companies to compete with a company that pays substandard wages with little or no benefits. Protect your job and the jobs of others by not patronizing Wal-Mart.

There are seven candidates running for the two city council seats in Redlands. Four candidates will not say they support or are opposed to the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. The three “grass roots” candidates have all said they oppose the project. That group comprises transportation analyst Henry Nickel, retired teacher Ruth White and college student Eddie Tejeda. If you live in the area, check them out before casting your vote for an anti-labor candidate.

In Dakota County Minnesota a case was filed involving 46 Wal-Mart and 13 Sam’s Club stores, starting in Sept. 98 to Jan. 04 14.6 million,….yes 14.6 million violations of Minnesota law and company policy covering 9 million shifts cost Wal-Mart workers $27 million dollars. The class action suit alleges Wal-Mart failed to pay employees for missing all or part of their 15 minute breaks, working employees off the clock, failing to pay for missing all or part of 30 minute lunch breaks, not paying employees for work performed “off the clock” before or after work shifts, and the best of all not paying an employee an entire shift if they were 1 minute late. Wal-Mart managers actually falsified time sheets to show breaks were taken.

Wal-Mart is truly outrageous in how they attack and deny what is fact. The facts concerning the many products that were proven unsafe or downright hazardous to consumers is being blamed on the unions turning away customers by alerting the public to the dangers. I would imagine the media is guilty as well for alerting the public.

The accounting firm of Ernst & Young is the latest company to jump into bed with Wal-Mart. Telling Wal-Mart “this is a very aggressive strategy with considerable risk” in a 37 page proposal. California as well as many other states are attempting closing the tax loopholes Wal-Mart is using. The “Tax Shelter Room” as it was called at Wal-Mart’s Bentonville headquarters is no longer called that since 4 current and former Ernst & Young employees were indicted in May.

Hillbilly Wal-Mart Heiress Alice Walton is buying up artwork like a K-Mart Blue Light sale. Dubbed the Culture Vulture because she uses her $16.1 billion fortune to buy up artwork for her Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The museum is scheduled to open in the very cultural town of Bentonville Arkansas. Who is she kidding, does she really believe the art world will flock to this Hillbilly museum? Giving the employees who have given her, her billions a decent pay check and benefits would do more to bring up the quality of life for more than a million of families. Rather than try to impress a few art lovers.

In Pennsylvania Wal-Mart had the nerve to tell a judge that their employees chose to work through their breaks and past their shift time. Wal-Mart claimed the working of employees a few minutes without pay was insignificant. The judge wasn’t buying the Wal-Mart idea of working people off the clock was no big deal, and fined Wal-Mart $62.3 million in damages on top of the $78.5 million awarded to about 125,000 workers earlier. Each employee will receive $500.00 plus.

Thanks to Wal-Mart and the treatment given their employees, vendors, customers, forcing the closeing of thousands of business’s, and one of the major reasons for jobs being outsourced to third world countries. After hundreds of lawsuits Wal-Mart is finally reaping its just rewards. Many big companies no longer worship in Bentonville, Arkansas. Judges are finding Wal-Mart guilty in the lawsuits brought against them. Wal-Mart stock now trades at the same price it did 10 years ago. Prices between Wal-Mart and the competition have narrowed, and people have had enough of the cheap goods sold by Wal-Mart. To top it all, many more cities are saying no to Wal-Mart moving in and bringing all the negative conditions it carries.

Wal-Mart searching for its low-income customers has turned to India. They have also have increased ownership shares in Brazil, China and Japan. In 2006 Wal-Mart was not welcomed in India due to the fears of putting the mom and pop stores out of business and the loss of millions of Livelihoods. Wal-Mart in a 50-50 joint venture with Bharti Enterprises will now provide a wholesale cash and carry supply-chain operation.

The City of Ontario recently released a very flawed Environmental Impact Report; (EIR) even though the Planning Commission admits the proposed Wal-Mart will cause a multiple of problems including noise and air quality, plus massive traffic congestion the planners approved the project anyhow. The residents of Ontario one after another spoke in protest of the Wal-Mart Supercenter, but the paid Wal-Mart employees from outside the city who spoke of shopping won the hearts or pockets of the commission. On September 24^th the Ontario City Council Meeting will convene at the Convention Center, and then the council can put on the charade of listening to their constituents, all the time winking at Wal-Mart. If you live in Ontario and would like to voice your opposition to the Wal-Mart project please show up. If you are not a resident and would like to witness first hand how the Wal-Mart family really operates “Come on Down.”

Ontario City Council Meeting Exit 10 Freeway at Vineyard

Ontario Convention Center and go South to Holt turn left

2000 Convention Center Way

Ontario Calif. Monday Sept. 24^th at 6:00 P.M.

5:00 P.M. if you want to march

Wal-Mart now wants to open health clinics in their stores. The Rogers, Ark. store is the prototype minute clinic as they are called. It’s nice that Wal-Mart will sell you healthcare, but won’t provide the employees healthcare.

The recent toy recall of Chinese made Mattel Toys seems to hurt have Wal-Mart most of all. This is not surprising as Wal-Mart is the largest importer of Chinese made goods. The sad thing is the factory owner, in order to make the toys as cheap as possible bought lead based paint for the toys. He later committed suicide in what he perceived as a loss of face.

These large companies such as Mattel and others have moved overseas for the cheap labor and the lack of safety standards. American workers are once again the victims of corporate greed.

The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency settled claims against Wal-Mart for violating the Clean Water Act at 17 locations in 4 states. The states of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Massachusetts violations of the storm water act by Wal-Mart became the first federal enforcement against a company for multi-state violations.

Wal-Mart was fined $1 million civil penalty and must establish a $4.5 million environmental management plan to improve it’s environmental compliance at each of their construction sites.

A community group who fought hard to keep Wal-Mart out of Arlington, Texas 6 years ago is now watching a Supercenter being built. Wal-mart waited for a new council and returned with a vengeance. The community group didn’t have the energy for another fight. Anyone I’ve ever talked to that has fought against Wal-Mart has told me that they had shopped Wal-Mart in the past but, after seeing how dirty the worlds largest retailer fought they vowed never to step foot in another Wal-Mart again.

Click here: Walmartworkersunite.org

Wal-Mart is again crying foul as the newest lawsuit of forcing 80,000 employees to work off the clock. In a class action suit filed in New Jersey a judge has allowed the suit to move forward. How many crimes and lawsuits does Wal-Mart have to be involved in before the public stops patronizing the retail giant? When are you going to wake up?

Wal-Mart claims it doesn’t bring any substantial traffic to a community, but also states in order for a store to be profitable it needs 70,000 car trips a week.

According to the State Building & Construction Trades Council of California, as taxpayers we subsidize millions of dollars in the form infrastructure assistance and sales tax rebates that allow Wal-Mart to keep a significant amount of the tax rebates for themselves rather than the local government. 600,000 of Wal-Mart employees get their health insurance from the government or their spouses plans. It seems nothing ever changes at Wal-Mart except larger profits for the Walton’s.

The most profitable company in the world Wal-Mart, used its warehouse store Sam’s Club to sell phony knockoff Fendi handbags to their cherished customers. Customers Wal-Mart claims they only want to bring low prices to. The bags which if authentic would have cost $900.00. Sam’s Club sold them for $525.00. The same bags you can buy in Mexico for about $60.00. Susan Koeller spokeswoman stated Sam’s Club is “no longer doing business with the companies that provided us the goods.” Sam’s Club will of course refund any monies to customers who bought the fake bags. The greed of the Walton Family knows no bounds, its all about the money. How many thieves would like to return stolen items and walk away clean? Sam’s Club is paying a confidential amount to Fendi.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs stated the company planned to cut the waiting period for health insurance from two years, and allow the children of workers to be covered, that is if the premium isn’t so high that the employees won’t be able to afford it and leave their children on the public dole. The time frame has not been disclosed as yet, but follows a report by the AFL-CIO that Wal-Mart has more workers enrolled in public healthcare programs than any other company in at least 17 states.

Chicago is going to open its first Wal-Mart Supercenter, but not without some conditions. One of the main conditions is that by the middle of 2010 Wal-Mart is to pay its employees $10.00 an hour plus $ 3.00 in benefits. The measure passed 35 to 14. This is another example of how unions help non-union workers, but unions are still condemned in the press, and by the workers who reap the benefits we fight for.

Wal-Mart and its new web-site Paidcritics.com is being funded very heavily, Wal-Mart will not say how much money is being funneled into the war room which is staffed by some high dollar Washington D.C. lobbyists. In response to this a new website that the WakeUp-Wal-Mart. com people have come up with is as follows and is very suitable. http://www.abunchofgreedyrightwingliarswhoworkforwalmart.com. That’s not so bad when you think of Ian McShane who plays the owner of the Gem Saloon on HBO’s Deadwood. He was quoted using his favorite word, anyone who has anything to do with Wal-Mart is one.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Kelly Hobbs stated the company planned to cut the waiting period for health insurance from two years and allow children of workers to be covered. The time frame has not been disclosed as yet, but follows a report by the AFL-CIO that Wal-Mart has more workers enrolled in public healthcare programs than any other company in at least 17 states.

Remember Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club is one and the same company. If you shop at Costco you are supporting a good corporate citizen as well as a union shop. Costco pays 33% more than Sam’s Club and 65% more than Wal-Mart. At Costco 82% of the workers are covered by healthcare compared to 48% at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has 1.3 million employees. However the turnover rate is 50%, if this company is what CEO Lee Scott wants you to believe it is, why are the employees leaving at such an alarming rate? The answer is low wages, substandard benefits and discriminatory working conditions. By you shopping at Wal-Mart you condone Wal-Marts policies.

Mrs. Barker, a single mother living in Cicero Il. Was paid $8.40 an hour working at Wal-Mart, she could not afford to pay the $1,860.00 a year for medical insurance offered by Wal-Mart. Mrs. Barker however did qualify for taxpayer Medicaid and a monthly food stamp allowance of $140.00. Shopping at Wal-Mart is not saving you money, it only helps Wal-Mart build more stores to exploit more workers.

Andrew Young, former United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor was hired by Wal-Mart to defend the retailer’s wage and benefits package. This is of course is a smart move by Wal-Mart who has been accused of treating minorities unjustly. Andrew Young being an African American gives Wal-Mart the credibility it sorely lacks. It is a shame of course to see someone like Young trade his ethics for a check from Wal-Mart. Unfortunately many of our members who denounce the world’s largest retailer still shop Wal-Mart, like Mr. Young selling character for a few dollars.

The middle class is slowly being eroded because of companies, spurred on by Wal-Mart to be more competitive are paying lower wages and offering minimum medical benefits, more and more companies are doing business the Wal-Mart way. Meanwhile in the past four years the number of billionaires has doubled.

The job market is getting so bad in America that college graduates are moving to India and Pakistan. The high tech jobs that have been moved overseas are now a way to fill a resume for Americans. Even though the pay is very low, the education gleaned is worth it. Hopefully the college graduate then can return to America and acquire a good paying job, if there are any left.

China is the fastest growing economy in history. Thanks in a large part because of manufacturers moving their companies to China and our government condoning the loss of American jobs with no taxes on the goods being purchased by American companies such as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart spends 18 billion dollars a year importing products from China.

The rally in Rosemead was very successful with about 300 anti Wal-Mart protesters including Mothers against Wal-Mart, politicians and residents, of course Mike Lewis a paid Wal-Mart shill from West Covina who is fond of saying the anti Wal-Mart people are outsiders, the truth is Mike Lewis and Wal-mart are the outsiders. Mike Lewis brought out around a dozen pro Wal-Mart people from his front group PRIDE, I’m sure more would have came if he promised them a free meal like he does at his meetings. Mike Lewis fits in great with Wal-Mart, He will promise or do anything for the almighty dollar. Integrity means nothing to him or the Walton Family he represents.

A recent cartoon put it right to the point. The WAL-MART MOTTO.

WE REFUSE TOGIVE OUR EMPLOYEES A LIVING WAGE OR LET THEM PARTICIPATE IN A HEALTH-CARE PLAN SO THAT YOU CAN GET LOW, LOW PRICES EVERY DAY.

Is this what kind of company we should be shopping at? I don’t think so.

Wal-Mart does more business than Target, J.C. Penney, Kmart, Sears, Safeway and Kroger combined. More than 10% of all Chinese imports are delivered to Wal-Mart. Many union members and their families still shop at Wal-Mart despite all the efforts put forth to save jobs and create a decent work-place for the exploited Wal-Mart employees. If 10% of Wal-Mart’ customers would boycott the stores Wal-Mart would then be willing to sit down and become a good corporate citizen.

Wal-Mart costs taxpayers 2.5 billion a year for public healthcare and welfare programs.For every 300 employees at Wal-Mart it costs the taxpayers 240 million dollars.For every two poor paying jobs created by Wal-Mart, three jobs in the community are lost.

Here are some information sites: You can use these to educate yourself, your family and friends.

www.wakeupwalmart.com www.sprawl-busters.com www.walmartcostsyou.com www.union4walmart.com www.walmartwatch.com

The city of Fontana has a vision for its residents, an Italian style Tuscany village; this would be at the Gateway of Fontana located on Sierra and the 210 freeway. The development would include a large theatre and upscale restaurants. Wal-Mart bought the property and has a vision of a little two-screen theatre and some fast food restaurants, Wal-Mart needs the space for parking if they build a supercenter. This is another reason Wal-Mart’ vision of “We want it all and we don’t care where its at or how it looks.” Is not sitting well with many communities.

Wal-Mart stocks keep falling as the lawsuits keep piling up Wal-Mart cannot keep treating their employees poorly and expect to walk away with all the money. The employees must see that all the chants and happy faces don’t pay the rent.

The latest cities to resist the Wal-mart lies and protect their community are Ventura, Santa Maria and Northridge. These cities do not like the way Wal-Mart bullies its way into a city. If the Planning Dept. says no, Wal-Mart will buy the property and sit on it so the city can’t do anything with it. Since Wal-Mart likes the eminent domain law, maybe the law could be used against to take Wal-mart’ property.

Wal-Marts low wages and substandard health benefits produce unfounded mandates. Over time taxpayers, county and state governments are forced to cover the costs. Increases in pharmaceuticals, state and property taxes are just a small example of how the tax payer subsidizes Wal-Marts bottom line.

Rosemead: Wal-Mart has brought in the earthmovers and equipment to try and lay the foundation on the wanted supercenter before the Wal-Mart supported councilmen get recalled. Wal-Mart invades a community and opposition from the residents means nothing to this bully of a company. Again Sam Waltons (founder) words come to mind, “If there is a city that doesn’t want us we won’t come and cause a mess”

Rosemead December 22; The Garvey School District has joined the community group “Save our Community” in suing the city for allowing a Wal-Mart to open across from Rice Elementary School, The traffic and air quality would significantly impact the students health and safety.

Rosemead: The action is heating up with the one of the two councilmen being recalled filed a lawsuit in an attempt to save his position. Jay Imperial and Gary Taylor disregarded the community’s wishes to stop a Wal-Mart. Both of these councilmen claim their adult children work for Wal-Mart, neither person believes he has a conflict of interest.

Wal-Mart just fined $172,000,000.00 in California for working their employees through lunch periods, this after being fined in Colorado $50,000,000.00 for the same thing, this is just the tip of the iceberg since there are 50 more lawsuits going through the courts.

This one is worth repeating…….

Joe Smith started the day early having set his alarm clock (MADE IN JAPAN) for 6am. While his coffeepot (MADE IN CHINA) was perking, he shaved with his electric razor (MADE IN SRI LANKA), designer jeans (MADE IN SINGAPORE) and tennis shoes (MADE IN KOREA). After cooking his breakfast in his new electric skillet (MADE IN INDIA) he sat down with his calculator (MADE IN MEXICO) to see how much he could spend today. After setting his watch (MADE IN TAIWAN) to the radio (MADE IN INDIA) he got in his car (MADE IN GERMANY) and continued his search for a good paying AMERICAN JOB. At the end of yet another discouraging and fruitless day, Joe decided to relax for a while. He put on his sandals (MADE IN BRAZIL) poured himself a glass of wine (MADE IN FRANCE) and turned on his TV (MADE IN INDONESIA), and then wonder why he can’t find a good paying job in AMERICA.

 

Wal-Mart charged $14.5 million to settle gun and ammunition violations: The Attorney General of California has resolved thousands of gun law violations committed by Wal-Mart over the course of three years. Some of the violations include “engaging in unfair competition, selling and delivering firearms to 23 individuals.” The Attorney General’s Office had informed Wal-Mart these people were prohibited from possessing a firearm. Wal-Mart also delivered firearms to 36 persons prohibited from owning a firearm by means of a “straw purchase” through a friend or relative. Other violations were “failing to complete criminal background checks, failing to verify identity by thumbprint and drivers license scan, and failing to document whether a safety device such as a trigger lock was delivered with each weapon.”

Wal-Mart has set their sights on Best Buy Electronic Stores. Last year their target was Toys-R-Us, now it’s Best Buy. Wal-Mart plans to market a new line of big screen televisions under the Wal-Mart name. The Waltons will not be happy until they have their fingers in every item sold in the world, even if it means driving down the wages of every industry in the world. The Walton family will still be extremely wealthy. They manufacture absolutely nothing. All their money is made off the backs of the workers of the world. Wal-Mart employees cannot even afford to shop at Wal-Mart. Where will your children and grandchildren work in the Walton World?

Teamsters: Keep your valuable dollars away from Wal-Mart! This conglomerate is destroying Union jobs and manufacturing. Your Union has launched a comprehensive campaign to stop Wal-Mart’s anti-union, anti-worker bias.

TEAMSTERS: HEAR ABOUT THE FIGHT AGAINST WAL-MART AT YOUR JOBSITE! Want to hear the real story about Union-hating Wal-Mart at your Teamster jobsite? Just email: SmithIBT63@aol.com and request a speaker to visit your plant.

ADDED Dec 22, 2004 China can expect 12 to 14 Wal-Mart store openings in 2005. With 1.3 billion people in China it is a gold mine for the Walton family. Wal-Mart can now have products made for 32 cents an hour, save on shipping costs, exploit the workers in the stores with low wages, but wait; the Chinese government is telling Wal-Mart that all their employees must be union, unlike our government, which is very friendly to the Walton clan.. I guess their government is too far away to get in bed with the Walton clan. The Rosemead anti Wal-Mart group met on Thursday the 16th of December. Wal-Mart chose that time and date to drop a tool trailer on the project property just to show the group that they control the city council and the groups efforts to keep out Wal-Mart means nothing to them. The arrogance of this corporation is unbelievable. Makes one wonder who wrote Sam Walton’s biography, he stated, “If a city doesn’t want us we won’t come and make a mess.” Since Sam’s death, the rest of the family says The hell with what the people say, we’re coming in any way there might be a buck to be made off this cheap crap we sell. There seems to be a lot of buyers and these fools will shop themselves out of a job just to get their hands on this trash. The city of Rosemead has been fighting with its residents for two years. The arrogance of this city council towards its citizens is unbelievable; the treatment given to the anti Wal-Mart coalition is nothing short of criminal. They have openly made personal attacks on the group’s leader as well as members of the coalition. In March three of these council members are up for reelection, I would urge that all the union households in Rosemead take the opportunity to vote out the mayor and her Wal-Mart council.

Here are some facts to digest. Wal-Mart is a $245 Billion Company. 138 Million people shopped Wal-Mart in 2002. Wal-Mart sales clerks make less than the Federal poverty level. For every two jobs Wal-Mart creates, three jobs are lost elsewhere. For every Super Center opening, two traditional grocery stores will close, thus trading good paying jobs, with good benefits and pension, to a low wage, no benefit job. By 2008 $1.00 of every $4.00 will go to Wal-Mart or China. Wal-Mart has a lawsuit brought against them by female employees that may include one million women.

Wal-Mart information web sites are as follows, these sites will help you understand what Wal-Mart is all about: www.walmartwatch.com www.womenvswalmart.com www.waronworkers.com www.walmartlitigation.com www.ufcw.com

ADDED Aug 30, 2004: Wal-Mart Article, Aug. 25, 2004 (written by Teamster Ed Smith): Wal-Mart claims to have the lowest prices. Could it be because they have the lowest quality goods? According to Consumer Reports magazine, the two worst automobile batteries they tested were the Exide Nascar Select #78DT-84N at $80.00 and the Everstart by Wal-Mart #MAXX-IN for $60.00. The best was Costco’s Kirkland Signature #12860 of the 34/78 series for $60.00. Wal-Mart Lowest Quality Always. Are you aware of the study that Berkley University just completed on the real cost of Wal-Mart and the price we as taxpayers ante up to subsidize the Wal-Mart employees. A typical 200 employee Wal-Mart store will probably cost federal taxpayers $420,750.00 a year, about $2,103.00 per employee. This equates to $86 Million annually broken down to $32 Million in healthcare and $54 Million in other assistance programs. Wal-Mart employees are forced to use 40% more taxpayer-funded programs for healthcare and 38% more in non-health care such as food stamps, school lunches, subsidized housing, tax credits, etc. than any of the large retail store employees. If other large retailers adopted Wal-Mart’s wage and benefit standards, it would cost California $410 Million a year in public assistance programs to employees. Wal-Mart is not interested in helping their employees or in becoming a responsible corporate citizen. Wal-Mart has only one goal, to control 30% of the retail market, and put as much money in their pockets as possible. Remember, the five Walton family members are each worth over $20 Billion each. But with all their wealth, the thought of decent wages and health care for the employees just makes them cringe. While the Waltons live in the lap of luxury, the towns around a Wal-Mart lose up to 47% of the retail trade once enjoyed by the community, replacing good paying jobs with Wal-Marts’ low wage jobs and the loss of choices a consumer once had enjoyed. The Orange County Business Council’s 1999 Economic Study found that Wal-Mart’s entry into Southern California could depress wages and benefits to the tune of $2.8 Billion a year. Five years later, the 2004 grocery strike and its impact on the wage and benefit cost to the grocery workers hasn’t been analyzed yet. But, as predicted, it will be substantial. A non-managerial grocery worker in the Bay Area average $9.40 an hour compared to $15.31 for a unionized grocery worker. The Wal-Mart employee is also 50% less likely to have health insurance, It is a sad day indeed when we allow a company like Wal-Mart to decimate our economy and drive down the quality of life in our communities. It seems that Wal-Mart’s hidden costs to taxpayers doesn’t have much of an effect on the general population or to our Teamster members who still shop at Wal-Mart – and actually 29% of you have Wal-Mart charges on your Union credit cards. That doesn’t take into account cash and checks spent at Wal-Mart. I am getting a little agitated preaching to my so called Teamster brothers and sisters who frankly don’t seem to care about any of this but will look to their Union reps when our hard fought for contracts of good wages and benefits are eroded. No one will want to say, “I shouldn’t have shopped at Wal-Mart”. It will be too late then, crybaby. Try to look ahead instead of at the ground Let me switch up and talk about Wal-Mart and politics, nothing else seems to work. President Bush wants to cut the number of workers eligible for overtime pay. The Republican Congress is very reluctant to make it easier for workers to unionize. Wal-Mart likes these ideas and has given 81% of its $1.3 Million in political donations to the Republicans. Since taking office 40 months ago, Dick Cheney has not gone out and spoken to one single company workforce until May 3rd of 2004 when the Vice-President made his pilgrimage to Wal-Mart headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. This is a quote by Dick Cheney, “This is one of our nation’s great companies.” Wal-Mart now knows where to spend its money. It’s a lot cheaper to buy the politicians than to pay decent wages and benefits. When all the fat cats get together to drive down the rights of workers and sell out our country by sending more and more jobs overseas and driving down our wages and benefits. People we are up to necks in alligators and nobody seems to care. You need to stand up and fight for what you have. You need to write letters to these newspapers that print letters from people who think we don’t need unions and companies like Wal-Mart are great, that union wages drive up the price of consumer goods, its not the union wages its corporate greed. Wake up we are 9% of the working class, we set the standard for livable wages, if it was up to the ignorant masses who bang the unions we would all be working for the shear joy of having a job. Is anybody going to stand? Or do we just kneel down and pick up the crumbs thrown to us. I guess it won’t be any of the Wal-Mart shoppers in our organization; they seem to be too busy shopping themselves out of a job. I won’t dignify these people by calling them Teamsters. Real Teamsters have a different attitude. Wal-Mart auto battery the Everstart Maxx-IN priced at $60.00 was rated one of the two worst shortlived batteries tested. The other was the Exide Nascar 78DT-84N priced at $80.00. The best in the 34/78 group size was the Costco Kirkland Signature 12860 priced at $60.00. Why shop Wal-Mart when you can get better quality for the same price, and Costco is union. The Wal-Mart Effect: a new name for downward spiral on wages, also known as the Wal-Martization of the economy. Wal-Mart has collected more than $1billion in taxpayer dollars in the form of subsidies. The Walton family must really be milking the system. The House Committee on Education and the workforce has released a report stating that the typical 200 employee Wal-Mart store is subsidized to the tune of $420,750.00 a year by you the taxpayer. This equates to $2103.75 an employee. Here is a copy of the City of Los Angeles Planning Department's June 2004 recommendation report concerning the regulation of superstores. Click HERE (document is in Adobe Acrobat format - click HERE for a free copy of Adobe Reader). Wal-Mart is the #1 economic force in driving down wages according to the Russell Sage Foundation. Statistics show that 24% of the American workforce makes less than $8.70 an hour. Wal-Mart has been the main reason 25 retail chains have been forced into bankruptcy or out of business. Wal-Mart is thinking of leaving Honduras and Bangladesh, which will devastate these countries’ economies. The reasons to leave these countries is simple, by moving factories to China they can exploit even cheaper labor. A move from Southern China to Western China will get even less expensive labor. As the wages go down here in Southern California, we will soon discover that buying a car, a home or sending our kids to decent schools or college is unattainable. Meanwhile, The Walton Family sits back counting their money and laughing at the workers of the world. Remember as you dance through Wal-Mart’s aisles, you’re dancing with the devil! Wal-Mart Inc. CEO really has the nerve of a thief. After years of shifting the healthcare costs of its employees to the cities and counties of America, Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott in a speech to the National Federation convention in New York stated the U.S. health-care system was in “crises” “We believe it is time for the government to step in and get a handle on health-care costs.” The worlds wealthiest company with less than 40% of its work force insured, and the cities and counties unable to absorb the cost any longer is now reaching out to the Federal Government to subsidize its employees. This boy really has a set on him. Toy ‘R’ Us has an inventory of approximately 9,000 items. Wal-Mart has about half that many items. Wal-Mart increasingly gives the consumer less of a choice. Wal-Mart must feel that too many choices may confuse us, when in fact the less of a choice for the consumer means less inventory to maintain, nice philosophy, but again our choices are gone. WHERE'S PILLOWTEX? Wal-Mart was a major customer of Pillowtex that went out of business last year. How does a company doing business with Wal-Mart fail? Maybe because they couldn’t sell their product at the cut rates Wal-Mart demands. How many manufacturing jobs have been forced overseas by Wal-Mart? Now our textiles are leaving. How many thousands of jobs have we lost because of Wal-Mart? You can watch their phony commercials about all the jobs they provide, inferior wages and benefits; Wal-Mart doesn’t think your well being is any concern to them. Wal-Mart says “We provide jobs” Wal-Mart also provides a list of all the social services in the community, such as taxpayer provided healthcare, low income housing, food stamps and even where the employee can purchase used clothing. Most people are of the opinion that a job will at least allow them to shop at the store they work in. If you shop at Wal-Mart for low prices, think about the hidden costs and how you’re helping to exploit your fellow citizens and all the children working alongside adults in sweatshops from Mexico to China and anywhere else Wal-Mart can chisel a buck. STAY OUT OF WAL-MART! This is recommended reading for anyone concerned with the devastation Wal-Mart brings to a community: “How Wal-Mart is Destroying America, and What You Can Do About It” by Bill Quinn. To express your feelings, write to Wal-Mart: David Glass, President, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., P.O. Box 116, Bentonville, AR. 72712-9956 Around the middle of Dec. 2003 the U.S. Attorney will hold hearings in front of a grand jury, probing violations of federal immigration laws that resulted from raids conducted on Oct. 23, 2003 in 21 states. If you cannot find enough workers in America to exploit, then import them. Simple Wal-Mart philosophy. WAL-MART GENEROUS TO INJURED: On the day after Thanksgiving, a Wal-Mart in Florida opened its doors to frenzied shoppers and a woman was trampled, and had to be airlifted to a hospital because of life-threatening injuries. A sale on DVD’s on the biggest shopping day of the year prompted the stampede. When Wal-Mart was subsequently contacted about its culpability on the near-death experience on its property, the store replied that they would issue a rain check to the woman for a DVD. DON’T BLAME WAL-MART FOR STRIKE: The U.F.C.W. on strike for 8 weeks, Teamsters joining in, what is going on here? The media would like you to believe it’s all about $ 5.00 & $15.00 co-pay. The truth is these union workers are fighting for their lives. The grocery companies want to cut medical benefits, stop paying into the pension and cut wages. Why not? Wal-Mart has been sticking it to their employees for years. California Assemblywoman Sally Leiber of San Jose has a pretty good idea how Wal-Mart operates. Wal-Mart gives its employees hand-outs explaining how to apply for Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance for needy families. Wal-Mart shifts about a billion dollars in health-care costs to workers. Health care accounts for about two/thirds of a union company’s cost. Wal-Mart has a $104-a-month insurance program, with a $1000 deductible. Wal-Mart’s answer to all this: “We provide jobs”. Is that what living in America has come to? What is happening to our way of life, our freedom of choice? How long before we become like a third world country? Not soon enough for Wal-Mart, a place where, as an employee you cannot speak to the media without corporate permission. What country did I say we lived in? Residents of San Marcos, CA, who begged their City Council not to vote in favor of another Wal-Mart in their city, were slapped in the face on August 12, 2003, when the elected officials voted instead for Wal-Mart. Since then a lot has happened: signatures were gathered to put the council's decision to a citywide vote, Wal-Mart suing everyone in sight (you mustn’t say "no" to the great and powerful Wal-Mart), and finally a judge tossing the frivolous lawsuit out. Sam Walton is quoted in his book as saying “If they don’t want us in their town we won’t go,” but Wal-Mart fights tooth and nail to enter communities that do not want the lifeblood sucked out of them. Wal-Mart won’t take no for an answer in San Marcos, Ca., even though the citizens have made their feelings known to Wal-Mart and the City Council. Wal-Mart has, on November 17, 2003 threatened the council, and in no uncertain terms, stated it will open another store. A Mexican-American who contracted with Wal-Mart to maintain the parking lot in Augusta, Maine, was awarded $300,000.00 when the words “White Supremacy” were spray-painted in the lot where he unloaded his equipment. The employees of Wal-Mart also subjected him to verbal harassment. (Daily Labor Report, 1/11/00) The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a jury’s decision to award $167,000.00 in back pay to Jeffrey Janes, assistant warehouse manager in charge of the meat department, for retrieving outdated meat thrown out into a scrap barrel and making carne asada for himself and other employees. Wal-Mart claimed he was stealing, but the court disagreed, stating Wal-Mart did not have just cause to terminate Janes. Wal-Mart stated it "understood they could terminate any employee at any time with or without just cause." WAL-MART UNION BUSTER … 3X BASTARD!! A corporate union buster from Wal-Mart’s Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters, Kirk Williams, has been named for the third time for illegally threatening workers in an attempt to undermine workers’ efforts to organize a union. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) charged that Wal-Mart illegally denied workers the right to have a co-worker as a witness in any interview with management. In labor law this is known as an employee’s “Weingarten rights.” Wal-Mart told its employees that those rights didn’t hold water, even though two Circuit Courts of Appeal have upheld the right. Wal-Mart ordered to pay $571,777.00 in damages, medical costs, lost wages, and loss of property. The parking lot of the Oxnard Wal-Mart is so dangerous that, on January 9, 2003, there were two carjackings and a kidnapping. During the previous two years there were 933 police calls, of which 31 were for stolen autos and dozens for assaults, fighting, narcotics and 3 other kidnappings. Wal-Mart, the parent company of Sam’s Club and, using the same format of low wages and little or no benefits, has set its sights on Costco Wholesale Corporation. In October 2003 Costco posted a 3% drop in quarterly profits due to fierce competition from Sam’s Club. Costco, though not 100% union, is a corporate responsible company that pays good wages and provides benefits to its employees. One billion dollars is a lot of money to most people and companies. Wal-Mart shifts that cost to County and Federal agencies to keep its competitive edge and force the competition out of business. Wal-Mart may not donate much to the communities they are located in, but you can bet Wal-Mart donates heavily to the elected officials who allow corporate welfare to flourish. The City Council in Oakland, CA, has passed an ordinance that would ban mega big box stores like Wal-Mart, citing a loss of choice for shoppers in the community and causing lower wages that depress the local economy. WAL-MART APPEALS JUDGES RULING From North County Times SAN MARCOS- Wal-Mart officials want their day in court. The company filed paperwork Monday requesting a hearing in a lawsuit it brought against election officials. The lawsuit involves a referendum aimed at keeping the nation's largest retailer from building in southwest San Marcos. The hearing is basically an appeal of a tentative ruling issued last week by San Diego Superior Court Judge Janis Sammartino. The ruling would have become official today unless Wal-Mart requested the hearing. In her tentative ruling, Sammartino refused to rule on the petitions' validity because City Clerk Susie Vasquez has not yet certified the referendum. Vasquez is expected to certify the referendum by the end of next week, in time for the City Council to review it on November 18th. At that meeting, the council will decide whether to repeal its vote approving Wal-Mart or put the referendum on the March 2 ballot. Sammartino also wrote that asking Vasquez to rule the signatures invalid would disrupt the electoral process by "preventing the exercise of the people's franchise." A date for the hearing has not been set. Wal-Mart was found guilty of predatory pricing Oklahoma in 1986; a similar lawsuit was brought forth in August of 1993 in of all places Arkansas. Wal-Mart then president and chief executive David Glass was quoted “We couldn’t continue as the low-cost leader if we didn’t price things below cost” Many states including Ca. have statutes barring companies from selling below cost. Many companies use a loss leader to get you into the store, but Wal-Mart will undercut prices until they drive out the competition. This is lawbreaking, pure and simple, but nobody seems to care. 50,000 manufacturing have left this country, our textile mills are next, is everyone asleep? Do we only awake when our job is gone? Will there be a middle class? Will working families be able to make ends meet? Or do we become a society of the haves and the have-nots? The Walton family, you can bet, won’t be asking these questions. Look around any Wal-Mart store, what do you see besides maybe a fast food restaurant? Little fish swimming with the shark hoping for a few scraps. What has happened to the other stores that Wal-Mart claims weren’t competitors? How long before we are all Wal-Mart clones wearing, eating, and using only what China makes and Wal-Mart sells. Wal-Mart vs. FMCSA hours of service rules Wal-Mart has asked the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration for more flexibility in the new hours of service rules. The new logbook rules which go into effect January 2004 stops a driver from driving after fourteen (14) hours of the start of the shift. The old rules stated a driver could not drive after fifteen (15) logged hours of “on duty” but “off duty” time for breaks and meals were not part of the calculation. Wal-Mart feels the new rules will reduce productivity by 6%, never mind the fact the old rules had some drivers working 18 hours or longer after beginning the shift. Safety on the highway for the driver as well as the public should come before profits. The request by Wal-Mart was rejected. The better mousetrap - Wal-Mart has definitely built it. But remember the mouse trap is only made to do one thing - “kill the mouse”! Unfortunately, most Union members or in fact most people do not see themselves as the mouse. City Councils throughout this country believed they were really outwitting the Arkansas Country Bumpkins when they agreed to give Wal-Mart tax breaks, build the infrastructure for Big Box and then sit back and reap the rewards. Wrong! All of a sudden all the small business in town is gone. The local economy has gone down--not up. Property values are stagnant and this large windfall the city was expecting is not there. Police and Fire costs go up. The failed businesses are no longer contributing to the local charities. The tax base has only shifted from the existing business to Wal-Mart. Score another hit by Wal-Mart to the mouse. And, there are plenty of mice. 82% of Americans made at least one purchase at Wal-Mart. Product manufacturers now design most anything that is bought for the home to Wal-Mart’s specifications. The list includes coffee pots, toasters, blenders, radios, even toothbrushes. If America can’t appease the giant’s appetite, then the Chinese will. How many jobs has Wal-Mart cost this country? How many factories left vacant? 10% of all US imports from China go to Wal-Mart - $12 Billion worth. That is a lot of jobs, more mice for the trap. As Wal-Mart sends more and more businesses overseas, the labor pool here in America grows. That’s good for Wal-Mart who has a turn-over rate as high as 80%+ per year in some stores. Also, as the labor pool becomes larger, lower wages follow. For companies that are trying to compete with Wal-Mart, they too must lower wages and/or cut benefits. Since Wal-Mart is able to make their employees believe that if they (the employee) watch his or her budget, they can survive on the low wages Wal-Mart pays. More mice for the new and improved mouse trap. Speaking of women, Lynn Walton, daughter-in-law of Old Sam Walton was put out of business by who else?!! Wal-Mart!! Sometimes the mouse trap bites the trapper. And of course in Bentonville, Arkansas, where everyone is quite thrifty, I wonder what they think of the lifestyle the Waltons live in San Diego, California? By now every Union worker should realize that having a Wal-Mart in your community costs you money. Low wages means property values drop, no benefits means you must subsidize Wal-Mart employees by paying more taxes for their county hospital stays; paying for the infrastructure to Wal-Mart stores with sewers, water and electric will also cost tax dollars. Let's not forget…Wal-Mart may try to get the city to erect a sign advertising Wal-Mart! All Union members have to understand that every dollar you spend at Wal-Mart will come back to haunt you and your family's future. This is what you have to do: Never, ever set foot in a Wal-Mart store. And tell your family members, friends and relatives to “Just Say No” to Wal-Mart. Since January, Local Unions throughout Joint Council 42 have met with United Food and Commercial Workers Union representatives in strategic planning meetings. The plan: local containment, research, and funding. Local containment is the means by which growth is either halted or limited by appealing to city governments. Research on Wal-Mart provides insight into their methodical planning and plotting to expand their empire, often at a great cost to the unionized grocery industry, small business, and community appeal. Funding is essential to the maintenance and operation of a long-term organizing project. With a structure and functional committee in place, the future will hold ample opportunity for Teamster members to get involved with this campaign. Today, however, every member can do their part by staying out of Wal-Mart stores! That would be a great start. As this project continues to gain momentum the information on this company is pouring in by the day. The average employee at Wal-Mart only makes $15,000 a year and full time only consists of 28 hours. A majority of Wal-Mart products that are sold in the stores are produced in China at a rate of 13 cents per hour. The EEOC has filed more claims against Wal-Mart than any other company for racial and sexual discrimination. Some stores have a turnover rate for new employees of greater than 100% per year. If a Wal-Mart moves to your town it destroys 3 jobs for every 2 it creates. Once again some valuable information to convince your friends and neighbors. In the news recently we have heard about Wal-Mart refusing to pay workers overtime and forcing them to work off the clock. The legal battle covers 28 states and doesn't include a $50 million settlement in Colorado covering 69,000 current and former employees. Workers in the payroll department said that managers deleted hours from time cards to avoid paying overtime. Wal-Mart states that these practices are not prevalent. These violations, as well as many others, have propelled this company to the number one spot. Iowa State University economist, Kenneth Stone, studied the devastation that Wal-Mart leaves behind. This ten-year study, from 1983 to 1993, found that Wal-Mart was estimated to have sent 7,300 businesses packing. The impact hit 555 grocery stores, 293 building supply stores, 264 apparel stores, and thousands of small businesses. If you take into account that these stores were shut down by regular Wal-Mart stores the next study should reflect what impact the Supercenters will have. Wal-Mart wants to have 2,200 Supercenters by 2006 nationally. In February 2000, meat cutters in Jacksonville, Texas, voted for unionization at a Wal-Mart. Eleven days later Wal-Mart announced that it was closing the meat-cutting departments in all of its stores. It is amazing that a company would destroy hundreds of lives to prove a point to eleven workers that stand up for their rights. This disgusting behavior continues to be driven by corporate greed. Check this website feature for periodic updates and plans for our anti-Wal-Mart campaign. If you have any questions or want to get involved call campaign coordinator Ed Smith at 909-562-0876 or send an e-mail message to smithibt63@aol.com. Click HERE for more information about the devastation caused by Wal-Mart.