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=> What does shopping at Wal-Mart have to..

What does shopping at Wal-Mart have to..
Posted by Eunuch (Guest) eunuch@attoz.com - Wednesday, December 3 2003, 14:27:14 (EST)
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...do with Assyrians?????

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Why you shouldn't shop at Wal-Mart: http://www.workingforchange.com/action_center.cfm?itemid=16042

* Wal-Mart’s average associate makes about $8.00 an hour with about 32 hours of work a week – a monthly gross of barely over $1000. This makes it unlikely that she can afford the company’s family health plan at $218 a month or almost 25% of her gross income. These low wages combined with unaffordable benefits have pushed nearly 700,000 of Wal-Mart’s workers onto their spouses’ health care plan or taxpayer subsidized public assistance. More information.

* While women make up over two-thirds of the Wal-Mart hourly workforce, only one-third of store management jobs and less than 15% of store manager positions are held by women; there are only two women among Wal-Mart’s 23 senior officers. For comparison, women comprise 56% of all managers at Wal-Mart’s major competitors. In addition, women have claimed in a lawsuit against Wal-Mart’s that the company’s work atmosphere is demeaning to women. For example, female managers were required to go to Hooters and strip clubs for meetings and office outings. More information.

* From 1998 through 2002 the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has filed more than 40 complaints accusing Wal-Mart managers in more than two dozen stores of illegal practices, including improperly firing union supporters, intimidating workers, and threatening to deny bonuses if workers unionized. Of those, the board found illegal practices in 10 cases; 8 cases were settled, and the rest are pending. Wal-Mart Supercenter CEO, Tom Coughlin, has worked aggressively to prevent Wal-Mart workers from deciding for themselves about union representation. According to NLRB complaints filed in January of 2001, Coughlin "interfered with, restrained, or coerced" employees before an election at Kingman, Arizona store. More information.

* Wal-Mart is facing 38 state and federal lawsuits filed by hourly workers in 30 states, accusing Wal-Mart stores of systematically forcing them to work long hours off the clock. Most recently, lawyers have filed a suit against the company claiming that it knowingly hired contract cleaners at hundreds of Wal-Mart stores who generally earned $325 to $500 for working seven nights a week, usually for 56 hours or more each week. A July 2000 internal audit of 128 Wal-Mart stores found 127 were out of compliance with company policies concerning workers not taking breaks. The audit found workers nationwide didn’t take breaks 76,472 times in a one week period. More than 8,000 pharmacists filed a class-action lawsuit in August 2002, charging that Wal-Mart owes them $200 million in pay for “off the clock” work. More information.

* Wal-Mart’s vast chain has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors and is helping to accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart has doubled its imports in the last five years, buying some $12 billion in foreign merchandise in 2002. Its pressure on American vendors to lower prices forces companies to move factories outside of the U.S. and lay off American workers. For example, Master Lock, after 75 years of making locks in Milwaukee, began importing more products from Asia to lower labor costs and meet Wal-Mart price requirements. Now its 300 U.S. employees mainly send parts to Nogales, Mexico, where 800 factory workers produce the overwhelming majority of its locks.

NOGALES??? That's where KIKHWA went and lived in a Cardboard Box!



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Eunuch (aka Jeff)

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