'Legislative mugging' of Wal-Mart......

[RETIREDFAN1]

I'd rather them be working at Wal-Mart than collecting unemployment or living off welfare. I guess the politicians in Maryland don't see it that way.

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by Sideliner

Even if their clothes may be made in sweatshops and most of what they sell comes from China. you know, that communist country where most of the goods sold fund China.s military. Not Me.................................

 

Sideliner, I think it is time for you to wake up a bit......China is quickly becoming the major manufacturer of the world.....in the early part of this past century, it was the US, but now China has overtaken the US as the world's largest manufacturer because of China's MASSIVE workforce, cheap labor costs, and their policies on import/export taxes, etc.......It is cheaper for companies all over the world, and the US, not just wal-mart, to do business with Chinese companies, simply because they can buy products from them cheaper and the supply is more consistent due to the larger workforce who is producing them.....

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by parentofredheads

Wal-Mart may have a million employees, but how many of those employees are part-timers? If they are, you don't have to supply insurance for them. That's the way it is with any business, not just Wal-Mart.

 

As far as women managers - that goes back to what Camus was asking the other day. Here at our store, the only men I see whatsoever, if a couple back in the sporting goods, the kids who bring the carts in, and this hilarious older gentleman back in electronics - who is extremely knowledgeable. Managers, whether they be male or female, put in a lot of hours, in any business, not just Wal-Mart. It's not that women aren't given the option with Wal-Mart, it's because they don't want it!

 

I will tell you this, however, there are some women in their legal department that will just slap eat you up.

 

 

"1.3 million Associates work at Wal-Mart in the U.S. The majority of Wal-Mart's hourly store associates in the U.S. work full-time. That's well above the 20 - 40 percent typically found in the retail industry. We are a leading employer of Hispanic Americans, with more than 139,000 Hispanic associates. Wal-Mart is one of the leading employers of African Americans, with more than 208,000 African-American associates. More than 220,000 of our associates are 55 or older. We employ more than 775,000 women."

 

 

 

"Wal-Mart’s commitment to diversity starts with our board of directors and extends throughout the organization. Our 14-member board of directors includes two females, two African Americans and two Hispanics. Wal-Mart is a leading employer of Hispanics in the U.S. with more 139,000 Hispanic associates; a leading employer of African Americans with more than 208,000 African Americans; an employer of more than 775,000 females; and an employer of more than 220,000 seniors who are 55 and older.

 

We know that attracting diverse customers, associates, and suppliers is critical to our success.

 

In establishing the Office of Diversity in 2003, we appointed a chief diversity officer. Her team serves as the company’s focal point for diversity initiatives that place Wal-Mart among corporate leaders in this regard. Wal-Mart actively recruits talent from colleges and universities with significant populations of diverse students, including many women’s colleges, historically black colleges and universities, and colleges with a high Hispanic representation. Additionally, Wal-Mart recruited at more than 59 diversity career fairs in 2004.

 

We have put specific programs in place to make sure we have a talent pool of women and minorities who are well prepared for management jobs. In 2003, Wal-Mart expanded its offering of leadership seminars designed specifically for women; in 2004, we added leadership seminars designed specifically for people of color. All of the seminars are designed to enhance the leadership skills of these members of management in an effort to advance their careers. Initial measurements of participant retention have been positive.

 

Wal-Mart has been heralded for its legal diversity program, which has led to a larger, more effective and more diverse legal department and encourages diversity among its outside counsel.

 

We provide diversity training to all levels of management and hourly associates.

 

Officer compensation is now linked to diversity goals. If company officers do not meet their individual diversity goals, bonuses are reduced up to 15 percent.

 

Wal-Mart’s senior leaders are actively engaged in our diversity initiatives, and, in some cases, serve as external board members for diversity-related organizations. Among the organizations receiving support are the National Council of LaRaza, the Business Women’s Network/Diversity Best Practices, the Congressional Black Caucus, the International Women’s Forum, the National Urban League, NAACP, National Association of Female Executives, the Organization of Chinese Americans, Gathering of Nations, National Council on Aging, the National Organization on Disability, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the Black Retail Action Group.

 

Our multicultural merchandise mix reflects our respect for our diverse customer base and we are committed to communicating effectively through our advertising and shopping environment.

 

In 2005, Wal-Mart was named on the DiversityInc Top 50 Companies For Diversity list."

[Colligula]

Originally posted by jasonattsu

 

 

"1.3 million Associates work at Wal-Mart in the U.S. The majority of Wal-Mart's hourly store associates in the U.S. work full-time. That's well above the 20 - 40 percent typically found in the retail industry. We are a leading employer of Hispanic Americans, with more than 139,000 Hispanic associates. Wal-Mart is one of the leading employers of African Americans, with more than 208,000 African-American associates. More than 220,000 of our associates are 55 or older. We employ more than 775,000 women."

I hope they are a family of three since on average wal-mart pays its sales associates $14,000 dollars a year, which is $1000 dollars under the poverty line for a family of three.

 

You can spew all the propoganda Wal-Mart is desperately vomiting out. But here are some more facts.

 

in 2000 ten butchers from Jacksonville Texas chose to unionize. Wal-Mart fired butchers across the nation and now uses only prepackaged meat.

 

in 2004 wal-mart close a profitable canadian store after the workers chose to unionize

 

Costco pays its workers 65% more than wal-mart.

 

Half of wal-marts U.S. employees qualify for the federal food stamp program

 

Wal-Mart buys enough of a product to become the companies major source of income. Then wal-mart forces the company to lower prices. The only way the company can compete is to take jobs overseas into sweatshops. Levi, Heinz, and Vlasic have all faced this problem.

 

The average date from hire to first promotion to assitant manager is 4.38 years for women, but only 2.86 for men.

 

Workers in Honduras work 88 hour weeks in 14 hour shifts, making 43 cents an hour, this only meets 54% of the cost of survival. (Wal-Mart's annual sales are 98 times greater than the entire national budget of Honduras, yet Wal-Mart doesnt pay ANY taxes there.)

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by Colligula

I hope they are a family of three since on average wal-mart pays its sales associates $14,000 dollars a year, which is $1000 dollars under the poverty line for a family of three.

 

You can spew all the propoganda Wal-Mart is desperately vomiting out. But here are some more facts.

 

in 2000 ten butchers from Jacksonville Texas chose to unionize. Wal-Mart fired butchers across the nation and now uses only prepackaged meat.

 

in 2004 wal-mart close a profitable canadian store after the workers chose to unionize

 

Costco pays its workers 65% more than wal-mart.

 

Half of wal-marts U.S. employees qualify for the federal food stamp program

 

Wal-Mart buys enough of a product to become the companies major source of income. Then wal-mart forces the company to lower prices. The only way the company can compete is to take jobs overseas into sweatshops. Levi, Heinz, and Vlasic have all faced this problem.

 

The average date from hire to first promotion to assitant manager is 4.38 years for women, but only 2.86 for men.

 

Workers in Honduras work 88 hour weeks in 14 hour shifts, making 43 cents an hour, this only meets 54% of the cost of survival. (Wal-Mart's annual sales are 98 times greater than the entire national budget of Honduras, yet Wal-Mart doesnt pay ANY taxes there.)

 

Pardon me for asking, but do you have any sources for this info.???? I would personally like to see this info. for myself b/c the majority of humans have a tendency to fabricate information........Now, to the task at hand, the butcher situation I believe is merely a coincidence.......Wal-Mart has strictly gone to pre-packaged meat in the effort to cut labor costs on butcher's, because let's face it, butcher's can bring in some dough.......The fact that a butcher or 10 butchers unionized and then every butcher in the US employed by Wal-Mart was laid off and pre-packaged meat became the norm. is in my opinion, only a business cost of operations decision, nothing more.......and the "profitable" Canadian store that was closed, how do you know it was profitable?? There are several reasons why it could have closed.....unprofitable, taxes, issues with local officials or even citizen complaints such as excessive traffic and too much noise associated with the prescence of a Wal-Mart store in that area, etc. etc..........."Costco pays its workers 65% more than Wal-Mart".....Ok, and how many people exactly does Costco have on their payroll??? I know it is alot less than 1.3 million........Sure it is easier to pay fewer workers more money, any genius can figure that one out.......And what exactly does Costco do????............"Half of wal-marts US employees qualify for the food stamp program." Ok, if true, then how many actually are on food stamps?? And how does that compare to the national average??

 

"Wal-Mart buys enough of a product to become the companies major source of income. Then wal-mart forces the company to lower prices." First off, are you familiar with a Markup?????.......If not, here is a layman's explanation......A Markup is the difference between the true cost amount and the selling price of any item a company/person pays for from a wholesaler, retailer, etc.....For instance, the cost of an item is $1.00, but the company charges $1.50 per item, that is a .50 cent markup........some companies love to have a high markup on their products because that is simply more revenue money for them.......By keeping prices down from the distributer, wholesaler, etc. Wal-Mart keeps prices down for everyone.......The fact that companies move overseas typically has nothing to do with Wal-Mart.......Companies move overseas for cheaper labor, cheaper taxes, and cheaper operating expenses period.

 

"The average date from hire to first promotion to assitant manager is 4.38 years for women, but only 2.86 for men."........If true, then how many of these women compared to men actually applied for the management training program?? Remember, Wal-Mart employs over 775,000 women, and when subtracted from the 1.3 million total employees of Wal-Mart, that makes for 525,000 men, a difference of the two sexes being 250,000 more women than men.......So of course you are going to have a major difference in the average years of men compared to women because of those two factors combined: # of women applying for the program and total # of women compared to men in the company......

 

"Workers in Honduras work 88 hour weeks in 14 hour shifts, making 43 cents an hour, this only meets 54% of the cost of survival. (Wal-Mart's annual sales are 98 times greater than the entire national budget of Honduras, yet Wal-Mart doesnt pay ANY taxes there.)"............Are the worker's in Honduras employed by Wal-Mart??? I am not even aware of Wal-Mart having a prescence in Honduras.......anyway, this boils down to Honduras's labor practices, their laws, enforcement by the government, and what is considered the cost of survival in Honduras, which I am betting is not much compared to here in the states.......

 

All in all, decent arguments, if some are even true, but easily explained by rational thought, probability, and common sense......

[parentofredheads]

Jasonattsu, nice!:happy65::happy65::happy65::happy65:

 

And we're supposed to feel sorry for those ten butchers - we recorded and typed that transcript, and it was a bunch of hooey. So companies are blamed if they don't want unions in - phooey. Last time I looked, if you owned a company, you ran it like you wanted to, within the law - period. You want to know the difference in prices - visit Wal-Mart versus Albertson's, then you'll understand.

 

I've seen lots and lots of companies that had to close their doors because of unions coming in, because they simply could not afford it, and would have no chance of running a successful business - and how many people did that put out of work.

 

Simply put, if you don't like Wal-Mart, then don't go.

[Guest Sideliner]

Wal-Mart Butchers Force Anti-Union Retailer to Eat Crow (July 7, 2003)

 

By Cynthia Green

 

After elaborate trickery designed to blunt union activity, the world’s largest retailer has been forced to recognize and bargain with a United Food and Commercial Workers local.

 

Wal-Mart has a long and ugly history of shady anti-union tactics, but a National Labor Relations Board administrative law judge may have muzzled the company, at least temporarily.

 

Marking the first such labor victory at any of Wal-Mart’s more than 3,200 U.S. stores, the NLRB’s decision neuters the company ploy to void a successful union election by abruptly changing job descriptions.

 

In February of 2000, a dozen meat cutters in the Jacksonville, Texas, Wal-Mart voted for representation by UFCW Local 540. By July of that year, the company had abruptly replaced fresh meat with pre-packaged products in all of its stores, neatly eliminating the need for skilled meat cutters and rendering the election moot. The company was reportedly proud of its novel “union avoidance strategy.â€

 

Three years of legal battles finally produced a stunning win for the UFCW. In June 2003, an NLRB judge ordered Wal-Mart to restore the meat department to its prior structure, complete with meat-cutting, and to recognize and bargain with the union over the effects of any change to case-ready meat sales, for which purposes Local 540 will represent the workers.

 

“The elimination of work requiring their special skills greatly affected both job satisfaction and future earning potential,†administrative law judge Keltner Locke wrote of the former meat cutters in his ruling.

 

“This is a historic decision—the first bargaining order issued against Wal-Mart in the United States,†UFCW Executive Vice President Mike Leonard said. “It is a victory for all Wal-Mart workers who are fighting for a voice at work.â€

 

Al Zack, assistant director of the UFCW’s strategic programs, said, “Wal-Mart’s not above the law, and that’s the message the decision sends to Wal-Mart workers.â€

 

Of course Wal-Mart is appealing this decision with their teams of lawyers and billions of dollars. Their goal? To prove they are above the law...............

[RETIREDFAN1]

I hope Wal-Mart wins the appeal. Unions served their purpose, now they are dinosaurs dragging our economy down.

[et_football]

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by Sideliner

“This is a historic decision—the first bargaining order issued against Wal-Mart in the United States,” UFCW Executive Vice President Mike Leonard said. “It is a victory for all Wal-Mart workers who are fighting for a voice at work.”

 

Actually, what that statement has written all over it is: "hey, we won one, and I might actually get alot of money trying to ruin a perfecty good business, so life is good for me, who cares about those butchers, what was their name again? Ah, who cares, as long as they pay us their dues." :thumbdown:

 

The reason why Wal-Mart has not unionized is because there is NO need for its associates to need an outside voice.....Wal-Mart has what is called the Open-Door Policy, which allows ANY associate to openly communicate ideas, problems, etc. to any member of management with the utmost of confidentiality and without the fear of retaliation.........In fact, most of the major improvements to Wal-Mart's operations have come about because of this ideal......The open door is also an effective way to solve small problems before they become big problems.......There is also the Grass Roots survey, which is done yearly to kind of give Wal-Mart senior management a report card on how things are going, and to see what other improvements can be made in the next year......

 

This kind of ruling is absurd in the first place......butchers, like old school barbers, are becoming extinct.......Which is kind of fitting anyway, because unions themselves are slowly fading away, so I think we all can admire the irony of the situation......

[jasonattsu]

Thanks for that post with the nice pic. ET_Football, here is a link for the website, unionfacts.com:

 

http://www.unionfacts.com/

 

 

Enjoy.....

[Guest Sideliner]

Quote In Honor of President's Day - "If I were an employee, a working man ... or wage-earner of any sort, I undoubtedly would join a union of my trade ... I believe in the union and I believe that all men are morally bound to help to the extent of their powers in the common interests advanced by the union." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

 

I make it here, I spend it here......................Sideliner....

[RETIREDFAN1]

And back in those days, the unions served a good purpose. As I have stated before, they are no longer needed. They are mostly controlled by organized crime. Unions should become extinct just like the dinosaurs that they are.

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by Sideliner

Quote In Honor of President's Day - "If I were an employee, a working man ... or wage-earner of any sort, I undoubtedly would join a union of my trade ... I believe in the union and I believe that all men are morally bound to help to the extent of their powers in the common interests advanced by the union." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

 

 

I make it here, I spend it here......................Sideliner....

 

LOL, hey Sideliner, you realize that FDR died in 1945, right??? So you are using an old quote for an old time......This isn't the 40's anymore buddy, and alot has happened in the world of business the last 60 years, so maybe you should update with the times........That quote might have been useful over 60 years ago, but not in today's times.....

 

 

"I make it here, I spend it here......................Sideliner...."

 

Okay, so name me a company who's products components are certified to be 100% American produced, built, assembled, packaged, marketed, and sold........I'll bet you won't find even a handful, and even if you do find a couple, try comparing prices to that of similar products from other companies who use a variety of sources for their products and see the difference in price........Every company it seems uses components for their products from other nations.....very rarely in these times will you find any product that is 100% completely domestic from its inception to creation to finished product.......

[KirtFalcon]

[jasonattsu]

Just for the curious, I have the latest figures on Wal-Mart's Revenue's and profits for FYE 2005. (These are not official numbers, but are about as accurate as you will get).

 

Revenue: 312.4 Billion FYE 2005

 

Profits: 11.3 Billion FYE 2005

 

Difference: 301.1 Billion

 

 

As an example, Exxon posted profits in the 4th quarter alone (2005) of almost 10 Billion!!!!! That is 1 quarter, not all 4 combined.......

 

Wal-Mart made over 312 Billion in Revenue, but only profited 11.3 Billion, which means that 301 Billion of that revenue is being spent on taxes, wages, benefits, utilities, products, insurance, operating expenses, new stores, etc.........

[Guest Sideliner]

And now they announce that they will be cutting insurance costs to the employees as well as opening clinics. Seems to me they got the message...

[jasonattsu]

Originally posted by Sideliner

And now they announce that they will be cutting insurance costs to the employees as well as opening clinics. Seems to me they got the message...

 

They got the message a long time ago, too bad most of corporate america, and the government for that matter, is not following in Wal-Mart's footsteps..........Insurance is a problem for every company, not just wal-mart.......in the next couple of years I believe it is, health care costs in this country are expected to shoot into the 4 trillion per year neighborhood........check walmartfacts.com, there should be a new speech by CEO and president Lee Scott outlining the changes to associate benefits/insurance this year, including opening up some health clinics in several wal-mart stores........