[Vision2020] to the people who attacked tom hansen yesterday

Fri Jan 27 11:42:05 PST 2006

Mr Greene,

I appreciate your concern about WalMart, but if 
we are to move forward in a dialogue, we must work from fact not hyperbole.

The Moscow WalMart starts their folks at approx. 
$7.15 - equivalent to the prevailing minimum wage 
for the Palouse area (Washington has a higher 
minimum wage and Moscow must compete with 
that).  According to the local WalMart manager, 
the average wage is about $10.20.  I am curious, 
what is the average wage at BookPeople?

As I understand your position, you want Idaho to 
become a union state - that is, a worker must 
join a union in order to work.  Is that what you endorse?

Further you advocate that Idaho citizens should 
be guaranteed a job.  Who, exactly, will provide 
this guarantee?  Who will pay for it?

For those that have not examined the State Law 
about "right-to-work", here is the reference (emphasis added):

TITLE  44
                                     LABOR
                                   CHAPTER 20
                                 RIGHT TO WORK
     44-2001.  DECLARATION OF PUBLIC POLICY. It is hereby declared to be the
public policy of the state of Idaho, in order to maximize individual freedom
of choice in the pursuit of employment and to encourage an employment climate
conducive to economic growth, that the right to work shall not be subject to
undue restraint or coercion.  The right to work shall not be infringed or
restricted in any way based on membership in, affiliation with, or financial
support of a labor organization or on refusal to join, affiliate with, or
financially or otherwise support a labor organization.

I am just curious, which part of this statute would you change?

As to shareholdings, Walmart is one of the most widely held stocks in the US.

According to Investment news, WalMart is in 18th 
position in stocks held by Equity Mutual Funds, 
with 27% of equity funds holding the stock. Here 
is a link to that site is you want additional 
information 
( 
http://www.investmentnews.com/docs/1219p222005.pdf) 
Even the state of Idaho's PERSI (last time I 
checked) holds enough WalMart to position it as 
the 4th largest holding in the portfolio.

  The St. Petersburg Times reported on the 25 
most popular stocks in 2000.  Here is their 
ranking - note that Walmart was the 21st most 
widely held stock by individuals (these numbers do not include fund holdings.

Most widely held stocks

Here is a list of the 25 most popular U.S. 
companies, based on the number of registered 
shareholders. The numbers do not include millions 
of investors who hold their shares in brokerage 
or bank trust accounts, which shield their identity.

1. MetLife Inc. -- 8,800,000

2. AT&T Corp. -- 4,206,319

3. America Online -- 1,924,600

4. Lucent Technologies -- 1,677,810

5. Verizon Communications -- 1,440,811

6. SBC Communications -- 1,038,807

7. BellSouth Corp. -- 944,285

8. John Hancock Financial -- 918,551

9. McDonald's Corp. -- 899,100

10. Walt Disney Co. -- 842,000

11. Exxon Mobil Corp. -- 778,644

12. IBM Corp. -- 646,147

13. Mony Group -- 606,753

14. Qwest Communications -- 567,293

15. General Electric -- 557,000

16. General Motors -- 499,809

17. Delphi Automotive Systems -- 462,357

18. Lockheed Martin Corp. -- 398,165

19. Coca-Cola Co. -- 394,603

20. Fannie Mae -- 378,000

21. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- 341,000

22. NCR Corp. -- 330,000

23. Limited Inc. -- 310,500

24. Raytheon Co./B -- 282,698

25. Merck & Co. -- 280,500

Here is the link to that report: 
http://www.sptimes.com/News/102200/Business/The_most_widely_held_.shtml

Finally, here are the holdings, reported as of today on MSN Money, on WalMart:

Ownership Information
Shares Outstanding 4.16 Bil
Institutional Ownership (%) 35.20
Top 10 Institutions (%) 13.30
Mutual Fund Ownership (%) 14.61
5%/Insider Ownership (%) 40.94
Float (%) 59.06
Ownership Activity
Description # of Holders Shares
Total Positions 1,139 1,466,378,240
New Positions 100 42,390,540
Soldout Positions 65 -15,526,859
Net Position Change -98 46,759,148
Buyers 513 208,675,872
Sellers 611 -161,916,720

and here is a link to that 
site: 
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=WMT

At 09:45 AM 1/27/2006, you wrote:
>today's spokesman review's front page article 
>shows tom to be right.the 600 people at the 
>hearing were divided into two groups those who 
>didn't want walmart in their backyard and those 
>who didn't want walmart period.as in no way.
>for those walmart wanters who are concerned 
>about poor people i suggest you support reps. 
>ringo and trail in their efforts to raise the minimum wage.
>walmart wanters who are concerned about poor 
>should also back the repeal of the so called 
>right to work law which doesn't gurantee any one 
>a job.this is called law has kept wages down in 
>idaho and has not led to an increase in well paying jobs.
>walmart wanters who are conceerned about poor 
>people should back national helath insurance, a 
>one payer system instead of the chaos we know 
>have. walmart. owned by the five richest people 
>in the world can afford health insurance for its employees.
>robert greene
>_____________________________________________________
>List services made available by First Step 
>Internet, serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994.
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>          mailto:Vision2020 at moscow.com
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