"Wal-Mart must feel like a piñata these days -- everyone's lining up to take a shot at it."
That everyone would include me and the gang at NASAW - Neighbors Against Sellwood/Ardenwald Wal-Mart. Our latest "shot" is a showing of Robert Greenwald's devastating new documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Price of Low Cost, at the Moreland Theater this Saturday at 12:30 p.m. Click here for details.
Why Wal-Mart? Here's how Robert Borosage and Troy Peters explain Wal-Mart as pinata:
"If Wal-Mart's size is a problem, its policies are a threat. Wal-Mart is
the model 'low-road' corporation in the global economy. Its efficiency
is celebrated; but its exploitation is caustic. The average pay of a
Wal-Mart employee is $8.23 per hour, or an average yearly income of
$14,000 -- not enough to lift a family out of poverty. Wal-Mart is
infamous for requiring workers to work overtime off the books. It's
been cited for locking workers in plants overnight. The company has
been hauled into court for discriminating against female employees. And
it is viciously, rabidly anti-union, crushing any attempt by its
workers to organize to gain a fair share of the profits they help
generate."
If that's not indictment enough, there's always Wal-Mart's continuing deceit and secrecy about its corporate strategies. The latest is the release of an "internal document" revealing Wal-Mart's true plans for expansion: "...484 stores across the United States next year, over 100 more than previously disclosed... ." That follows the memo detailing various strategies for cutting employees healthcare benefits.
Greenwald's documentary unfortunately doesn't touch on the "Wal-Mart 22", Jonathan Tasini's reference to the twenty-two Democrats who voted against an amendment to a labor appropriations bill that in effect protected Wal-Mart from the prying eyes of the government. The amendment would have have "...barred any spending
of money by the Department of Labor to implement the part of the deal
the department had made with Wal-Mart calling for advance notice of
inspections any time the DOL planned to investigate Wal-Mart."
Tasini concludes that these "lawmakers" are essentially bought and paid for by law breaking corporations. Surprised? You shouldn't be. Remember Hillary Clinton, the leading Democratic candidate for President in 2008, served on the Board of Directors of Wal-Mart for six years.
In the heated battle between Wal-Mart and its adversaries, both sides are turning to religious leaders for support. I don't know how anyone with religious values could possibly join forces with Wal-Mart. But then again, George W. Bush relies heavily on his fundamentalist Christian base, and George W. and Wal-Mart have much in common. Wal-Mart is in fact a big contributor to Republicans and Bush.
On the other hand, I like what a Presbyterian minister in Los Angeles had to say about Wal-Mart:
"They are destroying community, which is a value of Jesus; they are
exercising greed, which is against the values of Jesus; and they are
promoting a culture of greed and extending a culture of poverty, which
are against the values of Jesus."
Amen.
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