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Walmart & economic justice |
Spinning Wal-Mart
Retailer, union activists wage high-stakes PR battle
[11-27-06]Some progressive groups have been working
for months to make the public aware of problems with Wal-Mart – low wages,
lack of health and other benefits, and much more.
A report from the Cox News Service, published in the
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, traces the giant company’s creation and
support of a supposedly "grass-roots" organization,
Working Families for Wal-Mart, which
has been singing its praises, in spite of a number of little
public-relations disasters along the way.
Labor and other groups, including
Wal-Mart Watch, have been
supporting a number of efforts to get more critical information into the
public awareness.
This article traces both sides – their funding, the ways
they are working, and some of their successes and failures.
If you’ve been following this issue, this might be a
helpful survey; if you’re just getting engaged with it, here’s a good
introduction to the players.
And if you have comments on the article,
or on the issue,
please send a note,
to be shared here.
The full article >>
One of our own earlier
discussions of Wal-Mart >> |
| COALITION
TARGETS WALMART IN NATIONWIDE CAMPAIGN
from Gene TeSelle, Witherspoon
Society Issues Analyst
[10-10-05]
Wal-Mart Watch is a new advocacy
coalition, with over 350 partner organizations, committed to reforming the
mega-corporation's destructive business practices. Founder Sam Walton once
said, "High expectations are the key to everything." In keeping with that
principle, the coalition is declaring November 13-19 "Higher Expectations
Week," with house parties and actions outside Wal-Mart stores across the
nation (for information, go to
www.walmartwatch.com/november).
The corporation
received praise for its quick response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, using
its distribution system to provide more than $25 million in support. But
critics say that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott and the Walton family still have a
lot of work to do.
Wal-Mart's annual sales
are greater than Microsoft, Cisco, Home Depot, K-Mart, Sears, Target, and
J.C. Penney's combined. Each year it tightens its stranglehold over entire
industries. It doesn't negotiate, it dictates, with disastrous consequences
for workers all over the world, local businesses, and its own employees.
Here are some
particulars.
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Wal-Mart fails to
provide health insurance to more than half its employees, leaving them
dependent on taxpayer-funded health care programs. Wal-Mart workers are at
the top of Medicare rolls in at least 16 states, costing taxpayers
billions every year.
Read the report >>
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Wal-Mart plans to
nearly double its retail outlets by 2010 and stops at nothing to crush
local opposition to its massive growth. For every new Supercenter, at
least two local supermarkets and countless small businesses will close.
What will be the cost to your town?
Read the report
>>
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Wal-Mart has a long
record of worker abuse, ranging from forced overtime to illegal child
labor to relentless union-busting. Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest
class action discrimination lawsuit in history, including over 1.5 million
current and former female employees who were paid and promoted at
significantly lower rates than male co-workers. For this and other
information,
read the special report >> |
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Some blogs worth visiting |
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PVJ's
Facebook page
Mitch Trigger, PVJ's
Secretary/Communicator, has created a Facebook page where
Witherspoon members and others can gather to exchange news and
views. Mitch and a few others have posted bits of news, both
personal and organizational. But there’s room for more!
You can post your own news and views,
or initiate a conversation about a topic of interest to you. |
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Voices of Sophia blog
Heather Reichgott, who has created
this new blog for Voices of Sophia, introduces it:
After fifteen years of scholarship
and activism, Voices of Sophia presents a blog. Here, we present the
voices of feminist theologians of all stripes: scholars, clergy,
students, exiles, missionaries, workers, thinkers, artists, lovers
and devotees, from many parts of the world, all children of the God
in whose image women are made. .... This blog seeks to glorify God
through prayer, work, art, and intellectual reflection. Through
articles and ensuing discussion we hope to become an active and
thoughtful community. |
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John Harris’ Summit to
Shore blogspot
Theological and philosophical
reflections on everything between summit to shore, including
kayaking, climbing, religion, spirituality, philosophy, theology,
politics, culture, travel, The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), New
York City and the Queens neighborhood of Ridgewood by a progressive
New York City Presbyterian Pastor. John is a former member of the
Witherspoon board, and is designated pastor of North Presbyterian
Church in Flushing, NY. |
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John Shuck’s Shuck and Jive
A Presbyterian minister, currently
serving as pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Elizabethton,
Tenn., blogs about spirituality, culture, religion (both organized
and disorganized), life, evolution, literature, Jesus, and
lightening up. |
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Got more blogs to recommend?
Please
send a note, and we'll see what we can do! |
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