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Mr Greene, <br><br>
I appreciate your concern about WalMart, but if we are to move forward in
a dialogue, we must work from fact not hyperbole.<br><br>
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?<br><br>
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? <br><br>
Further you advocate that Idaho citizens should be guaranteed a
job. Who, exactly, will provide this guarantee? Who will pay
for it?<br><br>
For those that have not examined the State Law about
"right-to-work", here is the reference (emphasis
added):<br><br>
<br><br>
<pre>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,
<font face="Courier New, Courier" color="#FF0000">in order to maximize
individual freedom
of choice in the pursuit of employment and to encourage an employment
climate
conducive to economic growth</i></b>,</font> 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.
</pre>I am just curious, which part of this statute would you
change?<br><br>
As to shareholdings, Walmart is one of the most widely held stocks in the
US.<br><br>
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 (
<a href="http://www.investmentnews.com/docs/1219p222005.pdf" eudora="autourl">
http://www.investmentnews.com/docs/1219p222005.pdf</a>) 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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
<div align="center"><h3><b>Most widely held stocks</b></h3></div>
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. <br><br>
1. MetLife Inc. -- 8,800,000 <br><br>
2. AT&T Corp. -- 4,206,319 <br><br>
3. America Online -- 1,924,600 <br><br>
4. Lucent Technologies -- 1,677,810 <br><br>
5. Verizon Communications -- 1,440,811 <br><br>
6. SBC Communications -- 1,038,807 <br><br>
7. BellSouth Corp. -- 944,285 <br><br>
8. John Hancock Financial -- 918,551 <br><br>
9. McDonald's Corp. -- 899,100 <br><br>
10. Walt Disney Co. -- 842,000 <br><br>
11. Exxon Mobil Corp. -- 778,644 <br><br>
12. IBM Corp. -- 646,147 <br><br>
13. Mony Group -- 606,753 <br><br>
14. Qwest Communications -- 567,293 <br><br>
15. General Electric -- 557,000 <br><br>
16. General Motors -- 499,809 <br><br>
17. Delphi Automotive Systems -- 462,357 <br><br>
18. Lockheed Martin Corp. -- 398,165 <br><br>
19. Coca-Cola Co. -- 394,603 <br><br>
20. Fannie Mae -- 378,000 <br><br>
21. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. -- 341,000 <br><br>
22. NCR Corp. -- 330,000 <br><br>
23. Limited Inc. -- 310,500 <br><br>
24. Raytheon Co./B -- 282,698 <br><br>
25. Merck & Co. -- 280,500 <br><br>
Here is the link to that report:
<a href="http://www.sptimes.com/News/102200/Business/The_most_widely_held_.shtml" eudora="autourl">
http://www.sptimes.com/News/102200/Business/The_most_widely_held_.shtml</a>
<br><br>
Finally, here are the holdings, reported as of today on MSN Money, on
WalMart:<br><br>
Ownership Information<br>
Shares Outstanding 4.16 Bil<br>
Institutional Ownership (%) 35.20<br>
Top 10 Institutions (%) 13.30<br>
Mutual Fund Ownership (%) 14.61<br>
5%/Insider Ownership (%) 40.94<br>
Float (%) 59.06<br>
Ownership Activity<br>
Description # of Holders Shares<br>
Total Positions 1,139 1,466,378,240<br>
New Positions 100 42,390,540<br>
Soldout Positions 65 <font color="#FF0000">-15,526,859<br>
</font>Net Position Change <font color="#FF0000">-98</font>
46,759,148<br>
Buyers 513 208,675,872<br>
Sellers 611 <font color="#FF0000">-161,916,720<br><br>
</font>and here is a link to that site:
<a href="http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=WMT" eudora="autourl">
http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor/invsub/ownership/ownership.asp?Symbol=WMT<br>
<br>
</a>At 09:45 AM 1/27/2006, you wrote:<br>
<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite="">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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
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.<br>
robert greene <br>
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