Portland Is First U.S. City to Divest Funds from Walmart

Photo Credit: Molly Rusk/Shutterstock.com

Alternet.org | May 19, 2014 | Laura Garcia, Molly Rusk

The initiative also prohibits the city from purchasing Walmart bonds in the future.

On Thursday, May 15, the city of Portland, Oregon got rid of $9 million, or 25 percent of its investments in Walmart. This marks the beginning of a divestment program that will purge Portland's investment portfolio of $36 million in Walmart bonds by 2016, according to  a press release. The divestment plan is part of the city's responsible investment initiative, introduced by City Commissioner Steve Novick, and adopted in October 2013. The initiative also prohibits the city from purchasing Walmart bonds in the future.

Portland is not only discontinuing its investments in Walmart, but has set up a committee to advise it on making socially responsible investments in the future. The committee will address issues like abusive labor practices, corruption, and health concerns, among other things.

During a press conference on May 15, Commissioner Novick encouraged other cities to adopt similar initiatives.

"From what I can tell, no other U.S. city has looked at socially responsible investing in quite the same way as Portland. I’m hopeful other cities and states take note and adopt similar investment principles to hold companies accountable and align our investment policies with our values."

Meanwhile, the company's net income fell 5 percent, and shares fell 2 percent, in the first quarter of 2014, failing to meet Wall Street's expectations for the third time in five quarters.

Walmart blamed its poor performance on bad weather.

Laura Garcia is an education outreach Intern at YES! and a graduate of the program in Political Science and International Relations at Saint Louis University.

Molly Rusk is an intern at YES! Magazine.

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Walmart breaks labor law in Black Friday strikes

Black Friday Wal-Mart Protest Nov. 29, 2013.

Walmart breaks labor law in Black Friday strikes
Jan 15, 2014 | Press TV

After failing to reach an agreement that would avoid litigation, the federal labor board issued a complaint against Walmart on Wednesday, formally accusing the world's largest retailer of breaking labor law during Black Friday strikes by its store workers.

In the complaint, the general counsel's office of the National Labor Relations Board accused Walmart of illegally threatening or punishing workers who considered taking part in the high-profile walkouts that started in November of 2012. The agency, which is tasked with enforcing labor law covering unions and employers, generally prefers to reach a settlement before litigating such a case, and only files a complaint if the parties can't manage to come to terms through negotiations.

Workers in several states filed complaints with the board after the strikes, and the board's counsel eventually "found merit" in many of the accusations while dismissing others. The workers are backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers union and its non-union affiliate, OUR Walmart, which have coordinated the walkouts and blasted the retailer for its treatment of employees.

Walmart previously told HuffPost it disagreed with the general counsel's accusations and believed its actions "were legal and justified."

Brooke Buchanan, a Walmart spokeswoman, said Wednesday that the filing of the charge was just a procedural step and that the company looked forward to telling its side of the story.

"Walmart now has the opportunity to share the facts in these specific cases with an administrative law judge," she said. "We've been in continued conversations with the NLRB on this matter since it was announced in November, and we will continue to be."

At least one of the charges appears to have been easily avoided for Walmart. In the complaint, the board's counsel accuses Walmart of illegally threatening workers through statements made by one of its own spokespeople on television. That charge appears to refer to an interview that Walmart spokesperson David Tovar gave to CBS Evening News ahead of the strikes, saying "there could be consequences" for workers who are expected to show up for work and don't.

"We’ve never seen a complaint against Walmart of this size or scope, and we’re glad the NLRB is taking action," Sarita Gupta, executive director of the labor group Jobs With Justice, said in a statement. "Walmart’s attacks on its own employees cannot go unchecked."

The general counsel's charge is similar to an allegation made by a prosecutor, not a final determination by the quasi-judicial board. It's still possible Walmart and the workers can hash out an agreement before the case gets litigated and the board issues a decision.

An estimated 400 employees took part in the strikes that began on Black Friday 2012 and rolled into the following year, with workers and progressive allies protesting the chain's pay practices outside its stores. Although the participating workers comprised just a small fraction of Walmart's 1.3 million-member US workforce, the scattered walkouts garnered national attention and helped fuel the fast-food strikes that have since hit dozens of US cities.

According to the board, Walmart has until Jan. 28 to respond to the complaint, and no hearing has been set yet. The Huffington Post 

AN/AGB

Walmart: The High Cost Of Low Prices FULL MOVIE

© Brave New Foundation

Walmart: The High Cost Of Low Prices FULL MOVIE
May 6, 2012 | Krazyjesus

WAL-MART: THE HIGH COST OF LOW PRICE is a feature length documentary that uncovers a retail giant's assault on families and American values.

The film dives into the deeply personal stories and everyday lives of families and communities struggling to fight a goliath. A working mother is forced to turn to public assistance to provide healthcare for her two small children. A Missouri family loses its business after Wal-Mart is given over $2 million to open its doors down the road. A mayor struggles to equip his first responders after Wal-Mart pulls out and relocates just outside the city limits. A community in California unites, takes on the giant, and wins!

Producer/Director Robert Greenwald and Brave New Films take you on an extraordinary journey that will change the way you think, feel -- and shop.

Walmart’s Shocking Threats And Employee Bullying Detailed In 27-Page Report

Walmart’s Shocking Threats And Employee Bullying Detailed In 27-Page Report
May 30, 2013 | Opposing Views | Stacie Borrello

Walmart continually asks Americans to consider what’s more important: justice for its workers or low prices for its customers?

This month, the nation’s largest retailer faces more accusations of illegally threatening and retaliating against employees with the release of a new report entitled: “Fighting For a Voice: Walmart Workers Speak Out Despite Systemic Labor Abuse.”

The 27-page report, released by the labor rights group American Rights at Work, describes the “fear-based” strategies Walmart uses to curb worker organizing, along with its ruthless targeting of employees who associate with the OUR Walmart employee rights group.

More than 150 allegations of workers’ rights violations are detailed in the report, many of which occurred around or after the Black Friday strikes of 2012 that brought national attention to the plight of Walmart workers. (Undeterred, OUR Walmart plans more strikes beginning this week. Striking for better working conditions is protected under labor law.)

While Walmart’s tactics are not new to the company, this report may be the first opportunity for some outsiders to get a near-comprehensive take on how the company tyrannizes its employees.

Some of the more shocking employee intimidation incidents described in the report include a form of sexual harassment and threats of violence:

• A Walmart manager in Kentucky continually harassed employee James Vetato after hearing him talk about workers coming together to improve working conditions. This harassment included the manager making sexual comments regarding Vetato’s teenage daughter. The manager said he would stop harassing Vetato if he made his daughter have sex with the manager.
• A California Walmart manager shouted threats at workers returning from a strike, saying he was going to “shoot” the activists.
• A manager in another store ignored an OUR Walmart member who reported that other employees were threatening her with violence.

The report also documents a laundry list of other intimidation tactics and suspect firings directed at those involved in protected OUR Walmart organizing activities:

• A Texas Walmart employee who was planning to participate in an upcoming strike was accused of stealing from the store, even though she had a receipt for her purchase. Another employee who witnessed this encounter felt intimidated and decided not to strike.
• After participating in the Black Friday strike, Lisa Lopez, a Walmart employee in Florida, was repeatedly called to the manager’s office and cited for “transgressions” that included cutting her finger (Walmart called it “recklessness”) and, another time, for wearing earrings.
• Cindy Lee was told by a Missouri Walmart manager to get some rest at home when she was sick. Then, the manager fired her for “walking off the job.”
• Angela Williamson, an employee of a Florida Walmart, was terminated for being absent while she was hospitalized for a severe kidney infection.
• OUR Walmart leader Gerardo Paladan was injured on the job at a Walmart in Washington State after management refused his requests to fix broken equipment. When managers still ignored him even after the accident, Paladan and 21 co-workers signed a petition asking the store to make employee safety a priority. In response, a manager told Paladan not to “mouth off” and threatened him with extra work and further discipline.
• Associates in Missouri, Illinois, and California said managers tried to socially isolate OUR Walmart members by ordering other employees not to interact with them.
• Employees have suffered reduction in working hours (cuts as drastic as 30 to 12 hours per week) after participating in OUR Walmart activities.

In addition to firing or threatening employees involved in organizing, the report states that Walmart has surveilled and questioned OUR Walmart members, even though it is unlawful to do so:

• Employees of multiple California Walmarts reported that managers followed OUR Walmart organizers when they entered stores and kept track of which workers talked with them.
• Also in California, employees reported that a manager stood by the time clock and recorded the names of everyone wearing OUR Walmart bracelets imprinted with the word “respect.”
• Other incidents involve managers interrogating employees about their activities, using threatening language like “we have you on tape” and demanding to know which employees are OUR Walmart members.

The company has such a well-documented history of firing, surveilling, harassing and interrogating employees for organizing activities that the National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel had described Walmart’s tactics as a “pattern of illegal conduct” likely encouraged by company headquarters. The NLRB filed nearly 100 complaints against the retail giant in just one five-year span from 1998 to 2003.

As if employee silencing wasn’t enough, Walmart is seeking to eliminate public protests as well. The company has filed lawsuits seeking to curb freedom of speech and assembly by having Walmart stores and surrounding property declared off-limits to critics.

Meanwhile, non-employees have a lot to be mad about, too, given that tax dollars fund the mega-corporation’s struggling employees:

• Walmart’s poverty wages force employees to rely on $2.66 billion in government help every year, or about $420,000 per store.
• Walmart’s employees also are top recipients of Medicaid.
• As many as 80 percent of Walmart employees depend on food stamps.
• Meanwhile the Walton family, heirs to Walmart, are collectively worth more than $100 billion, making them the wealthiest family in the world.

Do you think Walmart should increase employee wages and benefits – or should Walmart treat its employees however it chooses as long as it keeps prices low?

Follow the author: @LiberaLLamp on Twitter – On Facebook

Sources: American Rights at Work, Thom Hartmann

Walmart found guilty of dumping hazardous waste nationwide

"Junk shipped from China"
Reuters / Lucy Nicholson

Walmart found guilty of dumping hazardous waste nationwide
May 29, 2013 | RT

America’s largest retailer and employer has been fined over $100 million for violating environmental regulations by disposing of fertilizer, pesticide and bleach in sewage systems across the country, among other violations.

Walmart pleaded guilty to six counts of violating the Clean Water Act by disposing of hazardous chemicals in garbage receptacles and sewage systems at over 4,000 retail outlets across the United States in court cases filed by the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The US Justice Department said Walmart was also found guilty of violating federal law by mixing together pesticides at a Missouri recycling facility and then reselling them in a process that violated the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA).

The state of California opened an investigation into the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company in 2005 when a San Diego County Health Department inspector witnessed a Walmart employee discarding bleach down a sewer drain.

In another instance, investigators said a boy was found playing in a mound of fertilizer near a Walmart garden section. The product contained ammonium sulfate, a chemical compound that causes irritation to people's skin, eyes and respiratory tract, USA Today reported.

“As one of the largest retailers in the United States, Walmart is responsible not only for the stock on its shelves but also for the significant amount of hazardous materials that result from damaged products returned by customers,” said Melinda Haag, US Attorney for the Northern District of California. “The crimes in these cases stem from Walmart’s failure to comply with the regulations designed to ensure the proper handling, storage, and disposal of those hazardous materials and waste.”

Court records show the illegal dumping happened in 16 California counties between 2003 and 2005. Federal prosecutors said Walmart failed to train its employees on how to handle and dispose of hazardous waste material at its outlets.

Walmart agreed to pay more than $110 million in penalties to end the decades-long investigation, the Department of Justice said.

Ignacia Moreno, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, suggested the retail giant’s gross violation of environmental regulations may have helped its performance against the competition.

"By improperly handling hazardous waste, pesticides and other materials in violation of federal laws, Walmart put the public and the environment at risk and gained an unfair economic advantage over other companies," Moreno said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also weighed in on the court case.

“The FBI holds all companies, regardless of size, to the same standards,” FBI Special Agent in Charge David J. Johnson of the San Francisco Field Office said, in a statement released by the Department of Justice. “We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners to ensure there is a level playing field for all businesses and that everyone follows the rules.”

Walmart defended itself, saying it has cleaned up its environmental standards.

“Walmart has a comprehensive and industry-leading hazardous waste program,” Phyllis Harris, senior vice-president and chief compliance officer, said in a statement on Walmart’s webpage. “The program was built around training, policies and procedures on how to safely handle consumer products that become hazardous waste, and we continue to run the same program in every store and club that was deployed years ago.”

This month, Walmart surprised analysts by reporting a 1.4 per cent quarterly decline in sales across the United States.

According to the Walmart website, the retailer operates more than 10,800 retail units under 69 banners in 27 countries. It employs 2.2 million associates around the world — 1.4 million in the United States alone.
Robert Bridge is the author of the book, Midnight in the American Empire, which deals with the consequences of excessive corporate power in the United States.

Walmart Workers' Strike Gains Steam, Spreads Across Country

(Photo: OurWalmart/Facebook)

Walmart Workers' Strike Gains Steam, Spreads Across Country
Oct 10, 2012 | CommonDreams.org

Walmart workers went on strike for the second time in less than five days on Tuesday in protest of low wages, lack of benefits and Walmart's "attempts to silence and retaliate against workers for speaking out for improvements on the job," according to United Food and Commercial Workers. Workers in 9 states and 12 cities took to the streets, picketing in front of stores and calling on Walmart to improve working conditions.

The first retail worker strike occurred last week in several stores across Los Angeles, CA and was the first retail worker strike in the five decades of Walmart’s existence.

On Tuesday workers walked off the job in Dallas, Seattle, the San Francisco Bay area, Miami, the Washington, D.C. area, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Chicago, Orlando, and in parts of Kentucky, Missouri and Minnesota, said Dan Schlademan, director of the United Food and Commercial Workers' Making Change At Walmart campaign.

"I make $8.90 an hour and I've worked at Walmart for three years," said Colby Harris, 22, of Dallas. "Everyone at my store lives from check to check and borrows money from each other just to make it through the week."

"The six heirs to Walmart founder Sam Walton, meanwhile, are worth $89.5 billion, or as much as the bottom 41.5 percent of Americans combined," Huffington Post adds.

On Wednesday hundreds of Walmart workers demonstrated outside the company’s annual investor meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas.

* * *

Walmart Workers Strike at Stores Nationwide

Workers strike Thursday outside a Southern
California Walmart store. (Photo: Organization
United for Respect—Our Walmart).

Walmart Workers Strike at Stores Nationwide
Oct 4, 2012 | CommonDreams.org

Walmart workers at various stores around the country are on strike today, protesting poor working conditions and alleged retaliation for their attempts to organize.

The one-day strike was expected to culminate in a mass rally outside a store in Pico Rivera, Calif., this afternoon.

OUR Walmart, a coalition of Walmart workers and other sympathizers, organized the protest.

According to Salon.com, Pico Rivera Wal-Mart employee Evelin Cruz said “I’m excited, I’m nervous, I’m scared … But I think the time has come, so they take notice that these associates are tired of all the issues in the stores, all the management retaliating against you.” Rivera, a department manager, said her store is chronically understaffed: “They expect the work to be done, without having the people to do the job.”

According to a release from the group, although Walmart's more than 4,000 stores employ 1.4 million people in the United States, "For too many of us, the economy Walmart helped create isn't working—but we have the power to change it."

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OUR Walmart's objectives include, but are not limited to, minimum pay of $25,000 a year, quality, affordable health coverage; that Walmart and the Walton family sign "a global labor agreement" guaranteeing employees the right to organize; and that they guarantee that contractors and subcontractors will "provide living wages and worker safety protections, respect basic human and labor rights including freedom of association, and freedom from racial and gender discrimination," according to the release.

A previous, 15-day strike in Riverside, Calif., prompted today's strike, according to David Dayen at FiredogLake.com.

"In the past, Walmart has responded harshly to unionization efforts," Dayen wrote. "When one set of food workers voted to join a union at a Walmart store in North America, the company simply shut down the store and left the area. Walmart has seen labor actions at its supply chain in recent weeks too, particularly around the guest worker abuse at a seafood supplier in Louisiana. Labor organizers also brought tens of thousands to the streets of Los Angeles to protest the proposed opening of a new store in Chinatown. These actions are clearly linked and are feeding off one another. But Walmart’s vicious anti-unionization efforts give them the upper hand."

Walmart to start selling unlabeled insecticide-laced GMO corn from Monsanto

A bag containing "MON 810", a variety of genetically
modified maize (corn) developed by Monsanto
Company has been ripped opened by anti-GMO
activists (AFP Photo/Eric Cabanis)

Walmart to start selling unlabeled insecticide-laced GMO corn from Monsanto
Aug 21, 2012 |Rt.com

America’s largest bio-agriculture company and the biggest retailer in the country are joining forces, but a happy ending isn’t necessarily in sight. Walmart will soon be stocking their shelves with GMO corn made by Monsanto.

Millions of Americans shop at Walmart, but that doesn’t mean that they all know what they’re getting as they check out in shopping centers across the country. The retail giant says they won't advertise which of their products are made with genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, which could become a big problem very soon. Zack Kaldveer explains in an editorial published by the California Progress Report this month that Walmart will soon sell a special factory-made corn manufactured by Monsanto, which while it will allow most of Americans more easy access to affordable food, will also fill them with unknown insecticides: the very GMO crop Walmart will be selling has been genetically engineered to include chemicals right inside the corn.

Voters in California will decide later this year if retailers on the West Coast will be legally bound to correctly label all foodstuffs sold in shopping centers that are made from lab-alerted, genetically modified foods. Notwithstanding that ruling, one of the largest retailers in the world says that they won’t worry about advertising their GMO foods as the product of scientists in the meantime because, simply, they don’t see enough of a reason to do as such.

"After closely looking at both sides of the debate and collaborating with a number of respected food safety experts, we see no scientifically validated safety reasons to implement restrictions on this product," company representative Dianna Gee tells the Chicago Tribune.

Critics of that stance say that the explanation is flawed, though. With GMOs still being a relatively new science and industry, the true safety of foods made in labs has not been thoroughly tested because the long-lasting effects have yet to be analyzed. That’s why people in California are rallying to pass Proposition 37, a legislation that will require that products sold in the state are labeled as GMOs if they fit the description.

"How would you ever know if there are adverse health effects?" Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumers Union, the policy arm of Consumer Reports, adds to the Tribune. "There has been a doubling of food allergies in this country since 1996. Is it connected to genetically engineered foods? Who knows, when you have no labeling? That is a problem."

Monsanto, one of the biggest biotech companies in the world, isn’t that okay with efforts to pass the bill, though. They have so far donated hundreds of millions of dollars towards a campaign established to stop the bill, No on 37. But in the latest incident to unfold in the saga, Monsanto isn’t exactly offering suggestions to come to a compromise either.

According to the New York Times, Monsantor Director of Corporate Communications Phil Angel said, ''Monsanto should not have to vouch for the safety of biotech food. Our interest is in selling as much of it as possible. Assuring its safety is the FDA's job.''

The FDA, on the other hand, disagrees. California Progress Report reveals that, on the record, the Food and Drug Administration insists, “Ultimately, it is the food producer who is responsible for assuring safety.”

Now unless the Proposition 37 passes, Walmart says that they will not go out of their way to inform their customers as to what exactly they are getting either, leaving millions of Americans to shop at the country’s most popular store without being aware of what risks are at hand.

Opponents of the effort to label foods insist that passing Prop 37 will leave America’s agriculture and food shopping economy in shambles because it will scare consumers, though.

"Prop. 37 leaves consumers with the incorrect impression that there is something wrong with GE crops, when that is not true,” No on 37 spokesperson Kathy Fairbanks tells the Associated Press.

Walmart agrees, and now plans on letting all GMOs go onto their shelves unlabeled at the 4,000 or so stores across this country. With Walmart growing from having 6 percent to a full quarter of nationwide grocery sales in just a decade and a half, though, a win for them can eventually mean a loss for anyone in America who is concerned with what’s going into their bodies.

“It’s an epic food fight between the pesticide companies and consumers who want to know what’s in their food,” Yes on 37 media director Stacy Malkan tells the Associated Press,

U.S. lawmakers accuse Walmart of tax evasion and money laundering

Jared C. Benedict, Creative Commons

U.S. lawmakers accuse Walmart of tax evasion and money laundering
Aug 16, 2012 | Raw Story / Agence France-Presse

Two US lawmakers probing bribery allegations against Walmart in Mexico say they have documents suggesting the US retail giant may also have engaged in tax evasion and money laundering.

The congressmen, Elijah Cummings and Henry Waxman, made their claim in a letter to Walmart Chief Executive Michael Duke dated Tuesday, urging him to respond to requests for information about allegations that the company violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

"We have obtained internal company documents, including internal audit reports, from other sources suggesting that Walmart may have had compliance issues relating not only to bribery, but also to 'questionable financial behavior' including tax evasion and money laundering in Mexico," said the letter, dated Tuesday.

Cummings and Waxman gave Walmart until August 28 to answer their call for documents and briefings.

"Although you have stated on multiple occasions that you intend to cooperate with our investigation, you have failed to provide the documents we requested, and you continue to deny us access to key witnesses," they wrote.

Walmart's head office had no immediate comment on the letter.

But its Mexico subsidiary Walmex said in a brief statement that it had no knowledge of any investigation by Mexican authorities into tax evasion and money laundering allegations.

The US congressional investigation is running in parallel to inquiries from the US Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Mexican government.

The scandal broke after the New York Times reported in April that the retail giant's largest non-US subsidiary made illicit payments to win market dominance and tried to cover them up.

During Walmart's rapid expansion of its Mexico operations in the early 2000s, the company allegedly shelled out $24 million in bribes to Mexican officials, according to the newspaper.

Speaking to shareholders in June, Walmart chairman Robson Walton vowed the retailer would not tolerate corrupt acts, promising "a thorough and comprehensive inquiry" into the Mexico accusations and said the company was cooperating with government investigators.

Is Wal-Mart Destroying America? 20 Facts About Wal-Mart That Will Absolutely Shock You

Is Wal-Mart Destroying America? 20 Facts About Wal-Mart That Will Absolutely Shock You - Economic Collapse Blog

America absolutely loves Wal-Mart.  100 million customers visit Wal-Mart every single week in this country.  But is Wal-Mart good for America?  That is a question that most people never stop and ask.  Most of us love shopping in big, clean stores that are packed with super cheap merchandise, but the truth is that Wal-Mart is destroying America in a lot of ways.  As you will see below, Wal-Mart has destroyed tens of thousands of small businesses and countless manufacturing jobs over the past couple of decades.  Wal-Mart has become a gigantic retail behemoth that sells five times more stuff than any other retailer in the United States.  Unfortunately, about 85 percent of all the stuff sold at Wal-Mart is made overseas.  What that is costing the U.S. economy in terms of lost jobs and lost revenue is incalculable.  But Wal-Mart is a perfect example of where our economic system is headed.  Our economy is becoming completely and totally dominated by highly centralized monolithic predator corporations that ruthlessly crush all competition and that will stoop to just about anything in order to cut costs.  In the future, will we all be working for gigantic communal entities that funnel all of the wealth and economic rewards to a very tiny elite?  That sounds very much like how communist China works, and red-blooded Americans should want no part of that.  America is supposed to be about free enterprise and competition and working together to build up this country, and Wal-Mart is destroying all of that.

The following are 20 facts about Wal-Mart that will absolutely shock you....

#1 The average U.S. family now spends more than $4000 a year at Wal-Mart.

#2 In 2010, Wal-Mart had revenues of 421 billion dollars.  That amount was greater than the GDP of 170 different countries including Norway, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates.

#3 If Wal-Mart was a nation, it would have the 23rd largest GDP in the world.

#4 Wal-Mart now sells more groceries than anyone else in America does.  In the United States today, one out of every four grocery dollars is spent at Wal-Mart.

#5 Amazingly, 100 million customers shop at Wal-Mart every single week.

#6 Wal-Mart has opened more than 1,100 "supercenters" since 2005 alone.

#7 Today, Wal-Mart has more than 2 million employees.

#8 If Wal-Mart was an army, it would be the second largest military on the planet behind China.

#9 Wal-Mart is the largest employer in 25 different U.S. states.

#10 According to the Economic Policy Institute, trade between Wal-Mart and China resulted in the loss of 133,000 manufacturing jobs in the United States between 2001 and 2006.

#11 The CEO of Wal-Mart makes more in a single hour than a full-time Wal-Mart associate makes in an entire year.

#12 Tens of thousands of Wal-Mart employees and their children are enrolled in Medicaid and are dependent on the government for healthcare.

#13 Between 2001 and 2007, the value of products that Wal-Mart imported from China grew from $9 billion to $27 billion.

#14 Sadly, about 85 percent of all the products sold at Wal-Mart are made outside of the United States.

#15 It is being reported that about 80 percent of all Wal-Mart suppliers are in China at this point.

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#16 Amazingly, 96 percent of all Americans now live within 20 miles of a Wal-Mart.

#17 The number of "independent retailers" in the United States declined by 60,000 between 1992 and 2007.

#18 According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Wal-Mart spent 7.8 million dollars on political lobbying during 2011.  That number does not even include campaign contributions.

#19 Today, Wal-Mart has five times the sales of the second largest U.S. retailer (Costco).

#20 The combined net worth of six members of the Walton family is roughly equal to the combined net worth of the poorest 30 percent of all Americans.

All over the country, independent retailers are going out of business because they cannot compete with Wal-Mart and their super cheap Chinese products.  Often communities will give Wal-Mart huge tax breaks just to move in to their areas.  But what many communities don't take into account is that the introduction of a Wal-Mart is often absolutely devastating to small businesses....

A study of small and rural towns in Iowa showed lost sales for local businesses ranging from -17.2% in small towns to -61.4% in rural areas, amounting to a total dollar loss of $2.46 BILLION over a 13-year period.

When we buy stuff made by people working for slave labor wages in China, we destroy good paying American jobs and we make America poorer.  This is a point that I have tried to make over and over.

Wal-Mart often tells one thing to the public and then does another thing in private.  Sadly, the truth is that Wal-Mart does not care about U.S. manufacturing jobs.  Wal-Mart just wants to get products as cheaply as they possibly can, and most of the time that means getting them from China.

Just check out this first-hand testimony from an 81-year-old retired apparel manufacturer....

I was president of the Southwestern Apparel Manufacturers Association. There was a meeting sometime between 1985 and 1990. Walmart had contacted our organization and asked if they could meet with us at our beautiful Apparel Mart we had here in Dallas, which has now been razed, because all the independent merchants don’t exist that used to come to it. Two people from Walmart came down and they said they were going to be sourcing goods from overseas and we would have to meet those prices for consumer products and to get ready for it—we are going to be sourcing the world. Walmart was the only company that came out and said this.
It was sort of shocking: I was selling them some merchandise at the time. On the back of their trucks it was saying “Bring it Back to America!” They had the big “keep it in America” program going at that time on the big signs in the stores. Meanwhile when I reminded the buyer of that, she told me, “that is just for domestic consumption, we’re going to buy at the cheapest we can anywhere on earth.”

As I have written about previously, the United States has lost more than 56,000 manufacturing facilities since 2001.

We are losing millions of good jobs that cannot be replaced.  If you can believe it, the United States has actually lost an average of about 50,000 manufacturing jobs a month since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001.

Last year, the U.S. trade deficit with China was the biggest trade deficit that one nation has had with another nation in the history of the world, and Wal-Mart played a huge role in that.

In fact, Wal-Mart has actually been forcing some U.S. manufacturers to pack up and move overseas.  The following is from a recent article by Amy Traub....

Walmart’s market power is so immense that the even the largest suppliers must comply with its demands for lower and lower prices because they cannot afford to have their goods taken off its shelves. Companies that used to manufacture products in the United States, from Levi’s jeans to lock maker Master Lock, were pressured to shut their U.S. factories and moved manufacturing abroad to meet Walmart’s demand for low prices.

Unfortunately, the vast wealth that Wal-Mart is sucking out of our communities is not put back into our communities.  The profits are funneled out to Wal-Mart executives and shareholders.  We may enjoy the low prices, but very little of the money that we give to Wal-Mart gets recycled in our local areas.

In the old days, you could actually support a family selling electronics or running a general store.  But you can't support a family working at Wal-Mart.  The vast majority of the jobs that Wal-Mart creates are very low paying.  Large numbers of Wal-Mart employees are actually on welfare, and this is part of the reason why we have seen such an explosion in the number of the working poor in America.

At this point, more than 40 percent of all jobs in America are low wage jobs and the middle class is rapidly disappearing.

If we do not support American jobs and American manufacturers they will continue to go away and the welfare rolls in this country will continue to explode.

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There is not going to be any prosperity in this country without jobs.  Unfortunately, most Americans simply do not understand how good jobs are being systematically destroyed in America every single day.

The path that America is headed on today is only going to end in complete and total disaster.  We are being transformed from a wealthy nation into a poor nation.  In the end, we will be dominated by a very tiny elite and everyone else will either be among the working poor or will be totally dependent on the government.

Our system is supposed to be about open, honest competition.  But that is not what Wal-Mart is about.  Wal-Mart is about crushing small businesses and manufacturers here in America and getting us all to buy their super cheap Chinese-made goods.

Shame on Wal-Mart.  They are an un-American disgrace.

So what do all of you think about Wal-Mart?  Please feel free to post a comment with your thoughts below....

Wal-Mart: 50 Years of Gutting America's Middle Class

Movie poster detail from the documentary,
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price.

July 2, 2012: Wal-Mart: 50 Years of Gutting America's Middle Class by Stacy Mitchell - OtherWorlds

Walmart's explosive growth has gutted two key pillars of the American middle class: small businesses and well-paid manufacturing jobs

Sam Walton opened the first Walmart store in Rogers, Arkansas, 50 years ago this month. Sprawled along a major thoroughfare outside the city's downtown, that inaugural store embodied many of the hallmarks that have since come to define the Walmart way of doing business. Walton scoured the country for the cheapest merchandise and deftly exploited a loophole in federal law to pay his mostly female workforce less than minimum wage.

That relentless focus on squeezing workers and suppliers for every advantage has paid off since July 1962. Walmart is now the second-largest corporation on the planet. It took in almost half-a-trillion dollars last year at more than 10,000 stores worldwide.

Walmart now captures one of every four dollars Americans spend on groceries. Its stores are so plentiful that it's easy to imagine that the retailer has long since reached the upper limit of its growth potential. It hasn't. Walmart has opened over 1,100 new supercenters since 2005 and expanded its U.S. sales by 35 percent. It aims to keep on growing that fast. With an eye to infiltrating urban areas, Walmart recently introduced smaller "neighborhood markets" and "express" stores.

While the big-box business model Sam Walton pioneered half a century ago has been great for Walmart, it hasn't been so great for the U.S. economy.

Walmart's explosive growth has gutted two key pillars of the American middle class: small businesses and well-paying manufacturing jobs.

Between 2001 and 2007, some 40,000 U.S. factories closed, eliminating millions of jobs. While Walmart's ceaseless search for lower costs wasn't the only factor that drove production overseas, it was a major one. During these six years, Walmart's imports from China tripled in value from $9 billion to $27 billion.

Small, family-owned retail businesses likewise closed in droves as Walmart grew. Between 1992 and 2007, the number of independent retailers fell by over 60,000, according to the U.S. Census.

Their demise triggered a cascade of losses elsewhere. As communities lost their local retailers, there was less demand for services like accounting and graphic design, less advertising revenue for local media outlets, and fewer accounts for local banks. As Walmart moved into communities, the volume of money circulating from business to business declined. More dollars flowed into Walmart's tills and out of the local economy.

In exchange for the many middle-income jobs Walmart eliminated, all we got in return were low-wage jobs for the workers who now toil in its stores. To get by, many Walmart employees have no choice but to rely on food stamps and other public assistance.

Walmart's history is the story of what has gone wrong in the American economy. Wages have stagnated. The middle class has shrunk. The ranks of the working poor have swelled. Whatever we may have saved shopping at Walmart, we've more than paid for it in diminished opportunities and declining income.

And the worse things get, the more alluring Walmart's siren call of low prices becomes. While the Ford Motor Co. once profited by creating a workforce that could afford to buy its cars, today Walmart profits by ensuring that Americans cannot afford to shop anywhere else. The average family of four now spends over $4,000 a year at Walmart.

Such market concentration is unprecedented in U.S. history, as is the concentration of wealth it has engendered. Sam Walton's heirs own about half of Walmart's stock and have a net worth equal to the combined assets of the bottom one-third of Americans - about 100 million people. This year alone, the Waltons will pocket $2.7 billion in dividends from their Walmart holdings.

They are among the few Americans who have reason to celebrate Walmart's 50th birthday. As for the rest of us, the milestone offers a good moment to reflect on the company's business model and where it might lead us if we allow Walmart's growth to continue full-steam for another 50 years.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Stacy Mitchell is a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, which challenges the wisdom of economic consolidation and works to advance policies that build strong local economies. Stacy directs initiatives on community banking and independent retail. She is the author of Big-Box Swindle and produces a popular monthly bulletin called the Hometown Advantage.

Wal-Mart's List of Crimes Expands by Adding 'Bribery Campaign' in Mexico

Wal-Mart's List of Crimes Expands by Adding 'Bribery Campaign' in Mexico by John Galt

Wal-Mart has been on the march across Latin America over the last 20 years. America's largest private employer is now also the leader in all of Latin America.

From their launch pad in Mexico, where an incredible one in five of all Wal-Mart stores now reside, they have successfully conquered Brazil Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Chile and Puerto Rico.

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It is now coming to light how they might have facilitated such rapid progress in a region known for massive bureaucracy.

A former Wal-Mart executive has exposed a widespread bribery campaign inside Mexico orchestrated by Wal-Mart in order to "gain market dominance." Apparently, the price to do so was a mere $24 million dollars -- hardly a drop in the bucket compared to its now $380 billion annual revenue in that country.

What is staggering is the brazenness with which they went about the campaign:

The former executive gave names, dates and bribe amounts. He knew so much, he explained, because for years he had been the lawyer in charge of obtaining construction permits for Wal-Mart de Mexico.

Wal-Mart dispatched investigators to Mexico City, and within days they unearthed evidence of widespread bribery. They found a paper trail of hundreds of suspect payments totaling more than $24 million. They also found documents showing that Wal-Mart de Mexico’s top executives not only knew about the payments, but had taken steps to conceal them from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark. In a confidential report to his superiors, Wal-Mart’s lead investigator, a former F.B.I. special agent, summed up their initial findings this way: 'There is reasonable suspicion to believe that Mexican and USA laws have been violated.'

(...)

In one meeting where the bribery case was discussed, H. Lee Scott Jr., then Wal-Mart’s chief executive, rebuked internal investigators for being overly aggressive. Days later, records show, Wal-Mart’s top lawyer arranged to ship the internal investigators’ files on the case to Mexico City. Primary responsibility for the investigation was then given to the general counsel of Wal-Mart de Mexico — a remarkable choice since the same general counsel was alleged to have authorized bribes. (Source)

Wal-Mart is currently in damage-control mode, as its stock has slumped nearly 5% based on the  allegations that they have engaged in a top-to-bottom coverup of their practices.

Wal-Mart's despicable behavior is being protested against in every country where their model of cheap slave goods and corruption has been instrumental in decimating local economies . . . even in the wealthier nations where their consumer base resides.

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Research into the impact that Wal-Mart has on local U.S. communities only enhances the other forms of exploitation that Wal-Mart is well-known for across the world, with well-documented slave labor being used to create their "cheap" goods by poor people in other countries so that poor people in the U.S. can afford them.  This is an organization known for blatant discrimination against women, and for playing games on every level with people's wages and healthcare.

Mexico is a very large piece of the pie for a company like Wal-Mart, and their practices there indicate a willingness to do whatever it takes to set up shop and expand.  Something tells me that this is merely the tip of the iceberg, and that this practice is likely to have been part of their business model throughout the region.  We'll just have to wait until the next former executive steps up to the plate and has the courage to expose their latest crime.

Read other articles by John Galt here.

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