[Vision2020] Wal-Mart Under Scrutiny

[Tbertruss at aol.com]

All:

Hopefully the info below is not "redundant" on the Vision2020 list:

Wal-Mart Under Scrutiny: 

LIZA FEATHERSTONE 

lfeather at panix.com 

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051121/wal-mart_nation 

   Featherstone is the author of "Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle 
for Workers' Rights At Wal-Mart." She said today: "Most people wouldn't like to 
live in a crime-ridden neighborhood, with no police on the streets, but that's 
the situation Wal-Mart employees face every day when they come to work. The 
company's business model depends on breaking the law. When it comes to workers' 
rights, our government has completely abdicated its law enforcement role, so 
Wal-Mart is never seriously punished for its actions. The company is getting 
away with child labor, race and sex discrimination, as well as violations of 
wage-and-hour and freedom of association laws." 
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JAMES HEINTZ 

jheintz at peri.umass.edu

http://www.umass.edu/peri/aboutus/ourstaff.htm#james 

   Heintz is associate director and assistant research professor at the 
Political Economy Research Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He 
said today: "Using a strategy of 'everyday low prices' aimed at low- and  
middle-income families, Wal-Mart has expanded into developing countries, 
including Mexico and China. ... However, Wal-Mart depends on its enormous market power 
to maintain these 'everyday low prices.' ... The huge global purchasing power 
of Wal-Mart allows it to demand rock-bottom prices from suppliers who capture 
a small fraction of the total value Wal-Mart realizes. The pressure to 
continually cut costs, while keeping Wal-Mart profitable, also pushes down incomes 
and keeps working conditions substandard as suppliers specialize in low-value 
added production." 
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HAROLD MEYERSON

hmeyerson at prospect.org

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=10574
 
   Meyerson is editor-at-large of the American Prospect. He writes in an 
upcoming issue of the magazine: "In 2002 the company sent [Jim Bill] Lynn to 
Central America, in a new position in which he was to report on any abusive labor 
practices he came upon in the factories that make the clothes Wal-Mart puts on 
its shelves. ... Lynn discovered factories whose fire doors were padlocked 
from the outside, and where women workers were fired if they turned up pregnant. 
... He shot reports back to the home office. He assumed things would change. 
Instead, Lynn soon found that the company was more alarmed by the existence of 
his reports than by the substance of them. ... Indeed, he believed he was 
doing just what the company expected of him, right up to the moment when he was 
fired." 
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ROBERT L. BOROSAGE 

reckstein at ourfuture.org 

http://www.alternet.org/walmart/28263/ 

   Borosage is co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. He said 
today: "If Wal-Mart's size is a problem, its policies are a threat. Wal-Mart is 
the model 'low-road' corporation in the global economy. Its efficiency is 
celebrated; but its exploitation is caustic. The average pay of a Wal-Mart employee 
is $8.23 per hour, or an average yearly income of $14,000 -- not enough to 
lift a family out of poverty. ... But Wal-Mart doesn't merely follow the low 
road; it drives its suppliers and its competitors into the same race. ... In 
China, Wal-Mart pushes its suppliers to lower their costs, generating sweatshops in 
which young workers -- primarily women -- are forced to work grotesque hours 
at subsistence wages. According to the Washington Post, Wal-Mart even 
pressures its suppliers to pay less than the Chinese minimum wage." 
------------------------------------
CHRISTOPHER HAYES 

tracy at inthesetimes.com

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/2377/
 
   Hayes is a senior editor of In These Times. He said today: "There's little 
secret to Wal-Mart's success. The company will simply do whatever it takes to 
keep workers from organizing. 'Staying union free is a full-time commitment,' 
reads one of the company's training manuals."

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Vision2020 Post by Ted Moffett 
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