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News :: Labor |
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Release: Wal-Mart Customers Are Winners In National Labor Relations Board Ruling |
Current rating: 0 |
by Wal-Mart
(No verified email address) |
28 Jun 2003
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This is a FYI to show how Wal-Mart handles press releases dealing with their violation of employees' rights. |
March 08, 2001
Despite UFCW allegations, NLRB affirms that Wal-Mart's case-ready meat program Is well-planned and researched
BENTONVILLE, Ark., Wal-Mart customers are the winners in a Feb. 28 ruling handed down by the Fort Worth regional office of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) concerning Wal-Mart's case-ready beef program.
In an effort to stop Wal-Mart from offering its case-ready program, the highest quality meat product available to customers today, the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) last year filed a charge against the retailer, calling the program unlawful and claiming the move was made by Wal-Mart to stop the union's organizing efforts. The NLRB this week dismissed the charge, concluding, after a thorough investigation, that "no violation of the (National Labor Relations) Act could be found concerning the case-ready beef program."
"When we began expanding our case-ready meat program, UFCW organizers not only attempted to stop us but immediately started going into our stores threatening our meat associates with the idea that they were going to lose their jobs," said Charlyn Jarrells Porter, senior vice president of Wal-Mart's people division. "They actually told our meat cutters that if they were lucky enough to keep their jobs, they would soon be working in the lingerie department selling women's panties. It's unfortunate that UFCW organizers resort to using scare tactics like this in an effort to upset our associates. During our expansion of case-ready meat, we made a firm commitment that no associates would lose their jobs or take pay reductions as a result of the expansion of case-ready meat, and we have kept this commitment."
The facts in the case were strong and showed that Wal-Mart began selling case-ready poultry and ground beef in its Supercenters several years ago, and had been working for many months with IBP, a supplier of the product, to expand the product line. Additionally, it was shown that the retailer and its suppliers had invested a considerable amount of time and money to prepare for the program's roll out.
"Our associates see right through these tactics, including the union's main goal--getting into our stores any way they can, ultimately charging our associates union dues," said Porter. "Wal-Mart associates have high integrity, and it is no wonder that UFCW organizers have a credibility problem with them. The bottom line is that this decision by the NLRB is good news for both our customers and our company. The driving force behind our expansion of case-ready meat has always been the desire to provide our customers with the best product available."
Case-ready meat utilizes the leading technology in the meat industry today and is clearly the direction in which retailers are moving. Wal-Mart, in conjunction with its suppliers, has developed a product that offers customers the highest quality packaging used in the grocery industry today.
Case-ready meat offers a variety of customer benefits, including a longer home-shelf life, better overall appearance, enhanced quality control, improved ability to keep meat products consistently in-stock, leak proof packaging and better tracking of the product.
"Customer reaction has been positive," said Hibbing, Minn., Wal-Mart Meat Manager Richard Gibson. "Our meat associates like it because it gives them the opportunity to be out front helping our customers rather than in the back cutting room."
With annual sales of $191 billion, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates more than 2,600 discount stores, Supercenters and Neighborhood Markets, and more than 470 SAM'S CLUBS in the United States. Internationally, the company operates more than 1,070 units. Wal-Mart employs more than 962,000 associates in the United States and 282,000 in other countries. The company's securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT.
Last year Wal-Mart associates raised and contributed more than $190 million to support communities and local non-profit organizations. FORTUNE Magazine has named Wal-Mart the third "most admired" company in America and one of the 100 best companies to work for in America, and Americans named Wal-Mart the company they think of first in supporting local causes and issues, according to Cone, Inc. More information about Wal-Mart can be located on- line at walmartstores.com. The SAM'S CLUB Web site can be accessed at samsclub.com. And more information about Wal-Mart's Good.Works. community involvement is available online at walmartfoundation.org.
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Wal-Mart Wars |
by Ruth Rosen
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
28 Jun 2003
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WOULD YOU LIKE a Wal-Mart "supercenter" store to move into your community? Think of the low prices and the convenience of one-stop shopping! You just park once and get whatever you need -- groceries, drugs, plants, toys, dog food, even eyeglasses.
Sounds great, doesn't it? So why have nearly 200 communities refused to allow such big-box stores to enter their lives? Do they know something we don't?
To find out, I embedded myself in the Wal-Mart wars that have recently broken out in Contra Costa County. What I learned, in a nutshell, is that Wal- Mart's nonunion, big-box stores drag down other workers' salaries, destroy downtown businesses, prevent smart-growth development and increase traffic congestion. What really surprised me though is that we, the taxpayers, end up subsidizing Wal-Mart stores by paying for the health and retirement needs of its workers.
Wal-Mart has announced its intention to open 40 new supercenter stores -- each the size of four football fields -- in such fast-growing California suburban areas as Contra Costa County.
But Contra Costa County has fought back. A year ago, Martinez prevented a traditional Wal-Mart store from expanding into a supercenter that could sell groceries. On June 3, the county Board of Supervisors voted to ban such supercenter stores from unincorporated areas of the county.
In making its decision, the board cited a study done by the San Diego County Taxpayers Association (SDCTA), a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization. It found that an influx of big-box stores into San Diego would result in an annual decline in wages and benefits between $105 million and $221 million, and an increase of $9 million in public health costs. SDCTA also estimated that the region would lose pensions and retirement benefits valued between $89 million and $170 million per year and that even increased sales and property tax revenues would not cover the extra costs of necessary public services. "Good jobs, good pay, and good benefits should be the goal of an economy," SDCTA concluded, "and supercenters are not consistent with that objective."
Wal-Mart, as is its custom, has launched a counterattack against Contra Costa's ordinance. The company parachuted in platoons of signature-gatherers who are stationed outside discount stores and asking shoppers to sign a petition that would place the board's decision on a ballot. If they collect 27, 000 legitimate signatures, Wal-Mart could reverse the board's ban.
In response, a coalition of community groups have mobilized to defeat Wal- Mart's counterattack. But they face a formidable enemy. Over the last 40 years,
Wal-Mart has grown into the nation's biggest employer and the world's largest retailer. Every two days, Wal-Mart opens another superstore. It has more people in uniform than the U.S. Army. Last year, it banked about $7 billion in profits.
The troops fighting Wal-Mart's invasion of Contra Costa County include the Gray Panthers, small businesses, dozens of churches, the National Organization for Women, and environmental and smart-growth activists. Young people, recruited by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), fan out daily to discount stores and try to convince shoppers not to sign Wal- Mart's petition. They even carry cards that allow voters to withdraw their signature if they have already signed the petition.
The generals in charge of this community resistance are union leaders. John Dalrymple, director of the Contra Costa Central Labor Council, admits they face an uphill battle. The giant retailer is infamous for its take-no- prisoners, anti-union policies. Wal-Mart's ability to offer such low prices, as any union member will tell you, has been achieved by paying its workers -- or "sales associates" -- low wages, offering unaffordable health coverage and no retirement benefits and importing most of its products from developing countries, some of which use child and prison labor.
The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 1179, located in Martinez, is headquarters for the war against Wal-Mart. Barbara Carpenter, the union's president, comes from a family whose members have worked for decades at retail companies that provided decent wages, affordable health benefits and pension plans. "It's about saving the American dream," she told me.
Wal-Mart, she points out, lowers wages among working families and crushes family businesses. "It not only pays workers less than most of its retail competitors, two-thirds of workers don't have health-care coverage -- a cost taxpayers are picking up across the country.''
Did she say taxpayers? That's right. We, the customers, get such low prices and convenient shopping because we, the taxpayers, subsidize Wal-Mart profits by paying for county public health services, food stamps and social services for its retired employees.
So should you shop at Wal-Mart? To make up your mind, consider this: If you earn a livable wage or are protected by a union, you can probably buy all your monthly needs at Wal-Mart. But that's because the average Wal-Mart employee, who earns about $15,000 a year, cannot do the same.
Convenience and cheap prices, it turns out, come with hidden costs.
©2003 San Francisco Chronicle
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