June 2012
32 posts
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Top L.A. mayoral hopefuls won't take campaign cash...
Two leading mayoral candidates vying for labor support said Thursday that they would not accept campaign contributions from Wal-Mart, the global retail giant that is beginning construction this week on a controversial new grocery store in Chinatown.
Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel and City Councilman Eric Garcetti made the pledge after pressure from labor groups, which take issue with...
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More Musicians Join in to Stop Walmart in LA
As we prepare to hit the streets of L.A.’s historic Chinatown on Saturday, June 30, for the largest protest against Walmart ever held in the U.S., several acclaimed musicians, including now three Grammy winners and union members, are joining the growing movement to stop the world’s largest retailer from opening in Chinatown and expanding across Los Angeles with poverty-level jobs and practices...
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212 Walmarts in LA County?
In addition to the proposed Chinatown Walmart, stores in Burbank, Panorama City and Altadena have also been announced. However, it looks like we may have only scratched the surface of Walmart’s aggressive expansion plans for L.A. County. Based on a study that estimates that the world’s largest company owns 21% of U.S. grocery markets across rural and suburban areas. If Walmart is to achieve its...
Wal-Mart's Legal Bribery →
by Peter Dreier and Donald Cohen
This piece was previously published in Dissent. To overcome these obstacles and get its way in the United States, Wal-Mart has resorted to “honest graft.” Its strategy includes giving campaign contributions to politicians, hiring well-connected lobbyists to do its bidding, mounting expensive PR and ballot campaigns to win public support, and buying the...
No Age to Headline Anti-Walmart Benefit in L.A. →
On June 29, No Age will headline an anti-Walmart benefit show in Los Angeles. It will take place at the performance space Human Resources in Chinatown, where the corporation recently acquired permits for a store. The show precedes a June 30 anti-Walmart demonstration at Los Angeles State Historic Park, the largest-scale protest of its kind to date. Proceeds from the show benefit organizations...
No Age To Headline Anti Walmart Benefit in LA... →
Hipsters don’t like big corporations. They especially don’t like it when the biggest giant of all — Walmart — moves into their backyard.
Which is why noise-rock band No Age is headlining at an anti-Walmart benefit show in Los Angeles on Friday, June 29. Full story on Huffington Post.
ATTN GOP SENATORS: Walmart Is The Largest Food... →
Walmart’s intentionally low wages force hard-working employees to need approximately $420,000 per year, per store, totalling $2.66 BILLION annually in Food Stamps and other taxpayer assistance … to survive. Reposted from Daily Kos.
Investigators Find Forced Labor at Louisiana... →
An investigation by the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) has found labor law violations and inhumane treatment of workers at a Walmart seafood supplier in Louisiana.
The 37-page report published Wednesday alleges Mexican “guest workers” are forced to work shifts of up to 24 hours during peak production periods, with as few as four hours between shifts. According to the report, workers are paid 40...
Walmex cuts 2012 investment, store opening plans →
* Lowers investment spending 11 pct to 17.48 bln pesos
* Cuts planned store openings to 325-335
(Reuters) - Wal-Mart de Mexico, Mexico’s biggest retailer, on Wednesday slashed its planned store openings for 2012 and cut its planned investment spending by 11 percent as it investigates allegations it bribed local officials to open stores more quickly. Repost from Reuters.com.
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Watch
Congresswoman Judy Chu Tells Politicians: Don’t Take Walmart’s Money “I have never accepted a dollar of Walmart money and I will never take Walmart money,” Chu told a gathering of reporters on Wednesday. “I call on all Los Angeles elected officials not to take Walmart’s money — and to give it back if they’ve accepted those contributions in the past.”
Wal-Mart PR Rep Poses as Reporter to Infiltrate... →
Wal-Mart, which has made headlines recently for allegedly bribing Mexican officials, was implicated in another public scandal this week. Stephanie Harnett, a public relations associate representing the retail chain in its application to obtain a building permit in Los Angeles, posed as a student reporter in order to infiltrate a closed press conference held by […]
Wal-mart: How Many More Undercover Wal-Mart PR... →
Yesterday, Stephanie Harnett, a young staffer at Mercury Public Affairs in L.A. who was working on behalf of Wal-Mart, was fired after she was caught posing as a reporter in order to spy on a press conference of a pro-labor group.
Wal-Mart's Spying Story Spreads Across the Pond:... →
Walmart on defensive after PR officer found ‘spying’ on union workers Company denies having Stephanie Harnett pretend to be a reporter to interview workers on job conditions A public relations officer linked to Walmart posed as a journalist at a press conference held by a labor group highlighting tough working conditions in the warehouses that supply big retailers. Stephanie Harnett,...
Wal-Mart’s PR Firm Sent This Flack to Pose as a... →
Plaid Bag Connection blog: June 30 – 10,000 march... →
Are you going to be in Los Angeles on June 30? Do you care about equitable development for the city’s poor and working-class people? Wal-Mart is planning to open up a grocery store in Chinatown, and a growing coalition of concerned residents, business owners, students, and union organizers are working to stop it.
Please come to what will be the largest anti-Wal-Mart demonstration in US history...
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NBC 4: Chinatown Walmart Opponents Plan...
Opponents of a Walmart planned for Los Angeles’ historic Chinatown neighborhood announced Wednesday that they would hold the “largest Walmart protest in the history of the U.S.” on June 30. The proposed store would create a Walmart “Neighborhood Market” in a long-vacant commericial space below an apartment building at the northwest corner of Cesar Chavez and Grand...
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March Against the Walmart 1 Percent: One Family,... →
In recent months, an amazing statistic had been spreading rapidly across social media, blogs and traditional media outlets:
The Walton family is the richest family in the United States, with a net worth of $93 billion.
The Waltons’ wealth is greater than the bottom 30% of Americans combined. You got it, one family’s wealth equals the wealth of more than 35 million American families. Something...
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Some Walmart workers want better wages, affordable... →
By Hadley Malcolm and Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY June 8, 2012
[Janet] Sparks belongs to a loosely knit association of Walmart employees called the Organization United for Respect at Walmart — OUR Walmart, for short. They are prodding the giant retailer to provide better wages, affordable benefits and reasonably reliable schedules for store employees nationwide. Their campaign comes not...
Nearly 2,000 Women File Walmart Sex Discrimination... →
Nearly 2,000 current and former Walmart employees filed claims of discrimination on the basis of gender with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Complaints were filed in all but two states – Montana and Vermont – but at least one complaint was filed in every US Walmart retail region. The lawsuits were filed in response to last year’s Supreme Court ruling on a class-action lawsuit,...
RSVP for the March on Facebook →
Stay up-to-date on the latest event speakers and news by RSVPing on our Facebook page for the June 30th rally and march.
Huffington Post: Walmart Outsourcing Depresses... →
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, has driven down wages in its retail supply chain by outsourcing jobs in American warehouses. Read the Huffington Post story
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LA Times Details Walmart Warehouse Workers' Plight →
The report released Wednesday by the National Employment Law Project said Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, has applied its aggressive cost-cutting to logistics, helping drive down pay and benefits for U.S. warehouse workers. The use of contractors and subcontractors represents a domestic “outsourcing” of warehouse operations that often relies on paid temporary workers, the...
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WatchNew report released by the National Employment Law Project shows how much damage Wal-Mart is causing communities. The report, titled “Chain of Greed,” blames the world’s largest retailer for using its influence to hurt workers across the country.
Chain of Greed NELP Report documents Walmart's... →
Major retailers like Walmart are driving down wages and workplace safety standards on a scale far greater that understood before, a report released today by the National Employment Law Project shows.
According to “Chain of Greed”: “Walmart sets the parameters for the working conditions in warehouses…but when things go wrong, it’s the contractors that are blamed,...
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Download our June 30 rally flyer with event... →
March Against Low Wage Jobs SATURDAY, JUNE 30 • 10 A.M. Los Angeles State Historic Park (The Cornfield) 1245 N. Spring St., LA 90012 (213) 381-5611 x.126 • launionaflcio.org
Please call us if you need a black and white version to photocopy.
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WatchWal-Mart Protest Hits LAX! On May 30 at LAX, 100 Los Angeles workers from “Hollywood to the Docks” gave a big send-off to five Wal-Mart associates headed to the annual shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Arkansas. Wal-Mart associates went to demand their employer, the largest retailer in the world, pay its workers decent wages. We’ll be back! Saturday, June 30 at 10AM. Be with...
Plaid Bag Connection: Youth speaking out against... →
Lately I’ve been involved with a group called Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (CCED) which has been organizing against Wal-Mart’s plan to open a grocery store underneath a senior citizen’s home in the neighborhood. Today CCED put on a screening of the documentary Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price aimed at neighborhood youth. Several current and former Wal-Mart employees and the...
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L.A. Labor Gives Big Send-Off for Workers Headed...
Carrying signs that read: “Wal-Mart: Everyday Low Wages,” “Wal-Mart: How the 1% Hurts the 99%” and “L.A. Won’t Be Bought Off,” more than 100 Los Angeles workers from “Hollywood to the Docks” flooded the sidewalk outside of the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) in support of five Los Angeles Wal-Mart associates departing for the annual shareholders meeting in Bentonville, Ark.
Thirty...
