From Youtube.com:
This is Al Norman's keynote address to a rally to stop a Wal-Mart supercenter in Hadley, MA, and to protest corporate practices that hurt women, workers and the environment. Several hundred activists participated in this November 19, 2005 rally outside the Wal-Mart store in Hadley, MA.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Wal Mart: Bad for the Employee
It's no secret that Wal Mart is not typically the desired place to work, but it would seem that in the last decade or so Wal Mart has been stiff-arming its employees, particularly in regards to wages and working conditions.
For example, in 2001, the average pay for a Wal-Mart Sales Clerk was $8.23 per hour. This translated into an average yearly salary of $13,861. However, at the time the federal poverty line was $14,630. Additionally, Wal Mart does not offer decent employee benefits, and seems to actively encourage its employees to seek out medicade and other national aid programs in order to compensate. Additionally, while they do offer medical insurance, it is very expensive, costing around $70 a paycheck.
Wal Mart increased the pay for new employees by 6% in 2006, but they also instituted a cap for how much the older veteran workers could make. This was seen as an attempt to push older employees out of the company, but Wal Mart's official statement on the matter is that it was necessary to remain competitive.
Wal Mart also seems to follow a lot of questionable practices in attempts to keep costs down, many of which they are paying for now with high-profile lawsuits. Wal Mart encourages "off-the-clock" work, which is work done when the employee is not clocked in, and thus not getting paid. This essentially gives Wal Mart free labor, and they have been sued multiple times by angry employees because of it.
For example, in 2001, the average pay for a Wal-Mart Sales Clerk was $8.23 per hour. This translated into an average yearly salary of $13,861. However, at the time the federal poverty line was $14,630. Additionally, Wal Mart does not offer decent employee benefits, and seems to actively encourage its employees to seek out medicade and other national aid programs in order to compensate. Additionally, while they do offer medical insurance, it is very expensive, costing around $70 a paycheck.
Wal Mart increased the pay for new employees by 6% in 2006, but they also instituted a cap for how much the older veteran workers could make. This was seen as an attempt to push older employees out of the company, but Wal Mart's official statement on the matter is that it was necessary to remain competitive.
Wal Mart also seems to follow a lot of questionable practices in attempts to keep costs down, many of which they are paying for now with high-profile lawsuits. Wal Mart encourages "off-the-clock" work, which is work done when the employee is not clocked in, and thus not getting paid. This essentially gives Wal Mart free labor, and they have been sued multiple times by angry employees because of it.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Focusing the Argument
According to facts and statistics gathered from the website Big Box Tool Kit, Big-Box stores play a huge part as far as pollution is concerned. The specific facts can be found here:
As seen on the above website, parking lots are a major cause of pollution, since they block the earth's natural ability to absorb and filter pollutants from rain-water. As a result, this dirty water ends up in streams, lakes and rivers, doing untold damage to the local environments. The water contains significantly higher levels of Nitrogen and Zinc, which wreak havoc on the ecosystems around these bodies of water.
Big-Box stores also generate a huge amount of car traffic, with a single 200,000 square foot Walmart (the average size for this type of store) generating up to 10,000 car trips in a single day. Fast-food chains also generate a high-volume of traffic, and these tend to spring up in areas with a Big-Box store, compounding the issue.
Additionally, several studies have been conducted in the last 2 decades which indicate that the introduction of a Walmart or other "Category Killer" chain store typically has drastic effects on local businesses. In short, businesses already in an area when a Walmart springs up find that they can no longer compete with the larger chain’s lower prices, damaging business.
Also, a study concluded that of every $100 spent at a chain store, only about $45 gets put back into the local economy. The rest is moved into the corporation elsewhere. This is in contrast to the $65 which gets returned by small business owners. In short, money spent with smaller businesses tends to stay local, and vice versa.
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