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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Wal-Mart- not wanted here. |
Current rating: 0 |
by Pauline Bartolone and Sehvilla Mann
Email: alice_redqueen (nospam) hotmail.com (unverified!)
Phone: (217) 384-0830
Address: Urbana, IL |
22 Mar 2001
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The new Super Wal-mart developing in Savoy is not coming into this community with open arms. Two IMC reporters do some investigating in the aftermath of the February 24th vandalism, in the interest of representing voices of opposition. |
I had not heard of the new Wal-Mart developing in Savoy until I read about the $100,000 in structural damage that was performed by “vandals” last February 24th. I read the News-Gazette article searching for an explanation about what statement the vandals were trying to make. I found no such explanation. Questions popped into my head.
Why in the world do we need another Wal-mart in the Champaign –Urbana region?
How does the public feel about a new Wal-mart developing in Savoy?
What consequences will another Wal-mart have on our community?
I did not find any answers to my questions in the news coverage in the dominant media. In fact, all I received was reassurance that the Wal- mart project would be completed on time, by mid- July. There is little follow –up on the story. Furthermore, there were no allusions made as to why the vandals would be motivated to conduct the damage. There was total absence of in-depth reporting.
It seemed obvious to me and others at the Indymedia Center that the “vandals” were making a statement about their opinion of the Wal-mart. Apparently the structure had been manually arranged so that when the bulldozer rammed into the support beams, the structure would partially collapse.
I decided to visit the Wal-mart site in Savoy, located just before the Willard Airport. Reluctantly, I had to use a car because there is currently no public transportation that far out. I wondered how the elderly, handicapped and non-car users were taken into account when designing and locating the building. Two things struck me immediately when I arrived at the construction site- the 210,000 square foot landscape of machinery and aggressively uprooted earth reminded me of the end of the world. At first disgust with the unnecessary and poorly planned use of land, I was encouraged by my second encounter- labor unions voicing their opinions about Wal-mart by picketing on site!
Again, I had not heard of any public disapproval or involvement on the issue until that point. The three labor unions represented held signs:
“ Tri-State Steel Erectors receive sub-standard wages and benefits. Our dispute concerns only the substandard wages and benefits paid by Tri-State Steel Erectors” –Iron Workers Local #380
“Bland Construction has no contract with Local #143”
“NOTICE: Giberson Electric does not employ members of IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers) Local #601”
I was told that most building trade unions were picketing the Wal-mart because of the company’s refusal to employ union labor. At least three unions have been sending out one picketer to the site every workday since December. Feeling exploited by the way that the media has represented them in the past, the workers were reluctant to talk to me. They did respond to me however when I asked them how we could tell the public to support them. “We just want to work,” I was told by an ironworker, “ these are our jobs and they wont let us in our own backyard.” They went on to tell me that the Wal-mart had hired workers from Tennessee and Kentucky, instead of hiring local union labor. They pointed out a truck driving into the site with a Tennessee license plate.
Sehvilla and I went to the Pages For All Ages bookstore, one of the only locally owned businesses in Savoy, to do public interviews about the Wal-mart. Many people had not known about the new Wal-mart at all, and some didn’t hear about it until the vandalism. Out of the 8 people that we talked to, only one said that having a second one in the region is a good idea. More than half expressed disapproval of the development, but when prodded as to what we can do about preventing it, we received unhopeful, disempowered responses. Perhaps the most constructive answer we received on the topic was to not patronize the business when it opened.
I was not satisfied with these answers. I want to know how we can prevent the Wal-mart from being built using non- union labor and employing people at substandard wages. I want to prevent a poorly and irresponsibly designed development that is consuming 210,000 square feet of natural resources needed to keep our air and water healthy. I want to prevent further car dependency to the site. I want to protect farmland from being consumed by a non-locally owned corporation. I want us to strengthen the local economy so that we do not depend on big box developments to increase our tax base.
I plan to keep on investigating for answers to my questions and solutions to my desires for sustainable development and fair work environments. Stay tuned.
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No such thing... |
by nestor makhno
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
23 Mar 2001
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there's no such thing as sustainable development, just as there's no such thing as a fair work environment.
development can never be sustainable because it requires the depletion of natural resources, and modern capitalism has no tolerance for alternative sources of materials.
and there's absolutely no such thing as a fair work environment, when framed in the context of a capitalist system. worker-run collective? maybe. top-down corporation? hell, no. not possible, no matter if there's a union or not (unless the union members are mad radical and willing to fight back).
forget it, first day they open that walmart, run it, steal everything you can, and then burn the place to the ground.
"steal what you need, and burn the rest." stop trying to come up with band-aids and half-solutions. nobody wants walmart, so take the solution to it's logical extreme... |
See also:
www.anarchistfaq.com
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