Article

By Michael Mishak
LasVegas Sun
Sunday, July 26, 2009                                 [back to top]

First, Solis boasted of a hike in the federal minimum wage.

She followed up with news that her department will hire 250 investigators this year to enforce wage-and-hour laws — a dire necessity according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office, which found the Labor Department had failed thousands of wage theft victims.

Solis made it clear the hires were intended to send a message: Government will no longer tolerate labor law abuse.

The actions presage a day of reckoning for Wal-Mart, according to a new book by labor historian Nelson Lichtenstein. “The Retail Revolution: How Wal-Mart Created a Brave New World of Business” traces the retailer’s rise out of the rural South, changing the way business is done and creating a new economic order. As Lichtenstein notes, Wal-Mart’s success is due in part to a corporate culture that squeezes managers and workers alike, putting a premium on “off-the-clock” work.

In December, the retailer settled 63 wage-and-hour lawsuits, many originating in Las Vegas and filed in Nevada, accusing it of systematically cheating employees out of hours they had worked. Specifically, the class-action complaint alleged store managers engaged in a practice known as “time shaving,” clocking employees out one minute after their meal breaks ended — even though they worked for several hours afterward — and erasing overtime from their time cards.

Former CEO Lee Scott has blamed the abuses on a bunch of “knuckleheads,” managers acting illegally without the knowledge of corporate headquarters, and the company’s general counsel has said the allegations in the lawsuits are “not representative of the company we are today.”

But Lichtenstein argues that raising the minimum wage and cracking down on wage-and-hour abuses, in addition to other Obama administration initiatives, attack the core of the Wal-Mart business model. The changes, he writes, will result in increased labor costs, reducing a significant advantage it enjoys over other retailers and grocers.

That advantage changed the business landscape in Las Vegas in the 1990s, when the retailer opened 16 stores here. According to Lichtenstein, Wal-Mart’s rise in Southern Nevada led to the collapse of Raley’s, a unionized California-based grocery chain. All of its 18 supermarkets in Southern Nevada were shuttered by 2002.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Union tried to fight back, mounting an organizing campaign in a few spots across the country, with union-friendly Las Vegas as its focus. Lichtenstein says a Wal-Mart manager-turned-union organizer found the conditions at stores here ideal for unionization: violent shoplifters, alienated associates and sky-high turnover.

Wal-Mart responded aggressively though, and the campaign failed.

Even the union’s attempt to get the National Labor Relations Board to impose a serious companywide penalty came up short when Wal-Mart used its juice to appeal to the Bush administration.

But the political winds have changed, and now the company faces legislation that would make it easier for workers to organize. The retailer, not surprisingly, is a fierce opponent.

And yet Wal-Mart is on board with President Barack Obama’s push for health insurance reform. CEO Michael Duke joined with Andy Stern of the Service Employees International Union and John Podesta, who managed Obama’s transition, in a letter to the president last month expressing support for an employer mandate.

The move, denounced by the Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation, is surprising for a company often criticized for insuring slightly more than half of its 1.4 million employees, many of whom are enrolled in Medicaid or other public health programs.

In an interview, Lichtenstein said the retailer is coming to terms with new political and economic realities.

Faced with rising labor costs, both domestic and foreign, and a stagnant stock price, the retailer has little choice, he said.

“What had made Wal-Mart successful, its claim to fame, is diminishing,” he said. “It’s a different kind of animal now. They are changing the way they do business, to some extent.”

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Atascadero mayor wants more public meetings on proposed Wal-Mart

Partly because the project has increased in size City Council to schedule public discussions Tuesday; mayor wants more time for feedback

By AnnMarie Cornejo
thetribunenews.com
Sunday, Jul. 12, 2009                              [back to top]

A series of public meetings to discuss the expanded Wal-Mart project on the north side of Atascadero will be scheduled when the City Council meets Tuesday.

The project, originally planned to be 146,507 square feet at Del Rio Road and El Camino Real, now is being proposed as 157,000 square feet to include a drive-through pharmacy and a tire and lube express, as well as two separate restaurant pads totaling 15,000 square feet.

The City Council sought and approved the changes earlier this year.

But Mayor Ellen Beraud - who has expressed concern about the project's size since it was introduced - thinks people need more time to give their feedback than the five meetings currently envisioned allow.

An open house hosted by the applicant will be held the first week of August. It will be followed two weeks later by a joint City Council and Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 11.

Beraud is asking for one more meeting to allow the public to express their concerns before the Aug. 11 meeting.

"It is just not enough time," Beraud said. "Our community is very opinionated on a lot of different issues, and we need to make the time to be inclusive of all the comments we receive."

State law mandates three of the five planned meetings. They would be held from early August to the completion of the project's environmental impact report in spring 2010.

The state-mandated study of the environmental impacts that would be caused by the project is set to begin in August.

The increased size of the project pushes it over the 150,000-square-foot cap required for the project site by the city's General Plan, its blueprint for regulating growth.

A General Plan amendment would be required to allow the additional square footage.

Councilman Jerry Clay requested the changes in January, winning majority support of his fellow council members. Wal-Mart submitted the revised plans in March.

At the time, Clay said he requested the changes because the community had asked for them.

"There should be more time for people to realize what's happening - so many people still think it is the same project," Beraud said.

The council and Planning Commission will be tasked on Aug. 11 with directing Irvine-based Michael Brandman Associates, the company hired to study the city's preferred Wal-Mart project and several project alternatives.

The council must also declare any additional environmental concerns it would like studied in the report.

Project has critics

Debate over the Wal-Mart project has been raging for more than two years. Opponents argue that Wal-Mart will drive smaller stores out of business and devastate the local economy, while supporters say it will bring in much-needed sales tax revenue and permit fees.

In November voters defeated a ballot measure that sought to ban any store of more than 150,000 square feet and restrict stores of more than 90,000 square feet from devoting 5 percent or more of their space to groceries.

The environmental impact report must occur before construction can begin.

Issues such as traffic, air quality, grading, flora and fauna and the economic impact on other businesses in the community will automatically be studied in the report, City Manager Wade McKinney said.

The report is expected to take eight months to complete.

"We've had a lot of meetings on Wal-Mart," McKinney said. "We also want to make sure we include all the issues that the community needs to have studied."

Beraud acknowledged that extensively delaying the project would derail much-sought-after tax revenue from city coffers.

"We (the City Council) need to know what the people are looking for," Beraud said.

She added that she wants to make sure that the council has adequate time to reflect on public comments before it makes project recommendations to Michael Brandman Associates.

"The project should adopt somewhat of an Atascadero style. . It needs to be something different and special that our community can embrace because it (Wal-Mart) is going to be ours, and for a very long time. If we feel like it is being shoved down our throats, the community will not heal," she said.

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Walmart, Mi Pueblo Food Centers Win 2009 Hispanic Retail Excellence Awards

By Don Longo
Progressive Grocer                              [back to top]

One is the largest retailer in the world, the other a 12-store, northern California independent. But the one thing they have in common is a strong commitment to serve the fast-growing Hispanic community in the United States.

Walmart, the international giant based in Bentonville, Ark., and Mi Pueblo Food Centers, the San Jose, Calif.-based Latin American supermarket founded by Juvenal Chavez in 1991, will receive 2009 Hispanic Retail Excellence Awards later this year at the fifth Hispanic Retail 360 Summit, scheduled for Aug. 9 to Aug. 11 in Las Vegas.

Earlier this year, Walmart unveiled its first Supermercado de Walmart in Houston, featuring a new layout and product assortment designed to make it more relevant to local Hispanic customers. Jose Antonio Fernandez, VP of business development for Walmart, who will accept the award with Santiago Roces, senior VP of small formats, described Supermercado de Walmart as an evolution of Walmart’s ongoing efforts to be more relevant to its Hispanic customers. Through Walmart’s “Store of the Community” program, stores are merchandised to meet the diverse needs of local customers in each community. “We’ve listened to our customers and have designed the store to include the products and services they need and want,” said Fernandez upon the opening of the new location.

The 39,000-square-foot store carries approximately 13,000 products, including a wide assortment of fresh tropical fruits and vegetables and a bakery that offers more than 40 traditional sweet breads and fresh corn tortillas. The store’s meat department features specialty meats such as milanesa, diezmillo, fajitas, chuleta de cerdo, carnes marinadas and arrachera, to meet the specific preferences of local Hispanic customers.

The store also features an in-store cocina serving traditional Hispanic food like tacos, tortas, aguas frescas, sopes, carnitas and barbacoa, and has a family seating area, a pharmacy, a Walmart MoneyCenter, a baby center and a party center.

Mi Pueblo Food Centers -- named the winner of one of Progressive Grocer’s Outstanding Independents Awards earlier this year -- is described by many industry observers as a model that sets the standards for other retailers to improve their focus on the Hispanic customer. “I’m not in the grocery business. I’m in the people business,” said founder, chairman and CEO Chavez earlier this year. “Los valores de la familia” or “family values” set this San Jose, Calif.-based independent apart from other retailers. Chavez and his management team have the nuts and bolts of merchandising to Hispanics down cold, according to executives who voted for the retailer in this year’s awards survey.

In addition to accepting the Hispanic Retail Excellence Award, Chavez will also participate in a special retailer best practices panel on Aug. 11 during the Hispanic Retail 360 Summit.

The awards are based on a poll of more than 1,000 Hispanic-focused retailer and supplier executives, including members of the conference’s 22-company Retailer Advisory Board. They are designed to recognize leadership among retailers targeting the growing Latino population. Recipients were asked to write in the name of the retailer that “has done the most in the past year to win the hearts, minds and spending dollars of Hispanic consumers.”

Previous award winners have included a wide spectrum of retailers, among them huge chains such as Target Stores; regional grocers and drug chains such as Jewel/Osco, Hy-Vee, and Long’s; specialty chains like Best Buy; convenience store chains like 7-Eleven; and independent grocers such as Pro’s Ranch Market and JAX Markets.

Being held at the Venetian Hotel, the Hispanic Retail 360 Summit will kick off on Sunday, Aug. 9, with a keynote by Teresa Iglesias-Solomon, VP of Hispanic initiatives for Best Buy, followed by a presentation from Cindy Nuñez-Hasman, multicultural marketing manager for Ace Hardware Corp., and José Gonzalez, partner, Revolucion. They will present a case study on Ace’s first foray into Hispanic marketing and provide five “surefire tips” every retailer can use to increase Hispanic footsteps in their stores. Nuñez-Hasman is a bilingual senior manager with a strong record of success with advertising agencies such as WPP’s Bravo Group, and retailers including Sears Roebuck & Co.

In addition, retail and multicultural experts from Nielsen, the world’s largest marketing and media information company, will debut research from the firm’s new national Hispanic household panel about how Latino households are faring in these difficult economic times. They will also provide insights on key areas of focus for retailers and suppliers to be successful with Hispanic consumers in a recessionary economy.

Also on the agenda is an impressive lineup of speakers from retailers, consumer product goods manufacturers and leading multicultural marketing authors, consultants and agencies, including a special retailer panel, moderated by strategic analyst Art Turock. The panel will explore innovation in addressing Hispanic shoppers through “how-to” stories and advance insights from prominent retailers that are leaders in serving Latino shoppers. Panelists include Tracy Krogstie, marketing and promotions manager for Jewel-Osco; Jose Amaya, director of diversity for Hy-Vee, Inc.; and Marco Orozco, territory Hispanic market manager, Southwest USA and Hawaii, Best Buy.

Last year’s summit, held in Miami, attracted approximately 400 attendees composed of retailers from across all channels of retailing, major consumer products goods (CPG) manufacturers, advertising agencies and consultants.

Attendees included representatives from such major retailers as Walmart, Best Buy, Publix, Winn-Dixie, Family Dollar, Supervalu, Navarro Discount Pharmacies, CVS, Advance Auto Parts, Hy-Vee Supermarkets and Kroger.

Hispanic Retail 360 is the retail industry’s only conference designed to give retailers the tools and insights they need to grow their business with the Latino consumer market in the United States. The summit is produced by Progressive Grocer and Convenience Store News, two leading media brands owned by Nielsen Business Media. Brandweek is a one of several media sponsors.

For the fifth consecutive year, Coca-Cola is the presenting sponsor for Hispanic Retail 360 Summit. Other sponsors include Geoscape and Café Bustelo.

Wal-Mart workers tell their health care stories

David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch                                 [back to top]

For the last four years, you've asked Wal-Mart to provide adequate health care for its employees. And yet we still hear stories like these from Wal-Mart workers:

"I have insurance through Wal-Mart. It's not expensive -- about $20.00 a month -- but it has a high deductible and I can only afford to use it for emergencies. I can't afford to buy a plan with a smaller deductible because I can't afford to take $100.00 more out of my paycheck... My 2-year-old is on state medical insurance because I can't afford to pay the high deductible on my insurance."

By now it's clear: Wal-Mart is not going to provide its workers with adequate health care on its own.

That's why we need to make sure Congress does what Wal-Mart refuses to do. Right now in Washington, lawmakers are considering an important health care reform bill that would provide affordable coverage to all Americans -- including you, and including Wal-Mart workers.

Write your members of Congress now, and make sure they support this crucial effort to reform our health care system:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/healthcarestories

We've collected hundreds of stories from Wal-Mart workers who are struggling with the company's poor health insurance -- stories like this one:

"I worked for Wal-Mart for two years and paid for their health benefits. When I had to have surgery for a torn rotator cuff, Wal-Mart's insurance plan left me with $25,000 to pay out of my own pocket. The total bill was $40,000. I struggled to pay it off for a year and finally declared bankruptcy. Their health insurance is a sham and not worth signing up for." Wal-Mart's health coverage is so weak, many workers are forced to turn to public assistance or charities for help with their medical needs. One worker from Wisconsin told us:

"While working for Wal-Mart, I had to get health care coverage through a charity program connected to the Wheaton Franciscan health care system... Their program has literally saved my life on a couple of occasions -- once through surgery on my left foot and again when I had to have surgery to remove a cancerous tumor. Thank God for these charity programs. Even though employees give their blood, sweat and tears to Wal-Mart, they won't do the same for you." If Congress passes a health care reform bill that provides quality and affordable coverage to all Americans, these workers would finally get the health care they need. But there are powerful forces coming out against this legislation, so it's up to folks like us to persuade our representatives to support real health care reform.

Do your part to make that happen -- write your members of Congress today:

http://action.walmartwatch.com/healthcarestories

This issue is far too important for us to sit on the sidelines. I know you'll stand up and do what's right.

Sincerely,

David Nassar
Wal-Mart Watch

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VIDEOS

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Fighting Wal-Martization 25min. (2005)

A new video by The Labor Video Project 25 min. (2005)

Wal-Mart is now the largest private employer in the United States and has the same impact that General Motors had nearly 50 years ago. This 26-minute video shows why working people and trade unionists are fighting back and what Wal-Mart has in store for the communities it is seeking to build stores in. "Fighting Wal-Martization" is a hard hitting documentary that looks at how the constant price cutting not only drives local small businesses out of the community but how this ends up driving down the living conditions of the very people who shop at Wal-Mart. The video also looks at the healthcare crisis and how Wal-Mart increases its profits by sending it¹s employees to public hospitals to get treatment thereby shifting costs back onto the taxpayer. This video can be used at union meetings, community meetings and on cable TV to get the message out about the Wal-Martization of America and what it means to every working person.

Please mail your check of $20.00 and order form to

Labor Video Project
P. O. Box 720027,
San Francisco, CA 94172

For more info: lvpsf@labornet.org, (415) 282-1908

Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices (www.walmartmovie.com)

Independent America: The Two Lane Search for Mom & Pop (www.independentamerica.net)

Big Box Mart (www.jibjab.com)

Garth Brooks Parody (www.walmartworkersrights.org)

"Is Wal-Mart Good for America?" Frontline, PBS Video, (www.pbs.org)
 

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BOOKS

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NON-FICTION

The Case Against Wal-Mart By Al Norman Raphel Marketing ruth@raphael.com

Wal-Mart: The Face Of Twenty-First Century Capitalism Edited By Nelson Lichtenstein The New Press www.thenewpress.com

The Great Risk Shift: The Assault on American Jobs, Families, Health Care and Retirement By Jacob S. Hacker Oxford University Press www.oup.com

War On The Middle Class: How the Government, Big Business, and Special Interest Groups Are Waging War on the American Dream and How to Fight Back By Lou Dobbs Viking, a member of Penguin Group www.penguin.com

Momentum: Igniting Social Change in the Connected Age By Allison H. Fine Jossey-Bass www.joseybass.com

Big-Box Swindle: The True Cost of Mega-Retailers and the Fight for America's Independent Businesses, By Stacy Mitchell, www.beacon.org www.newrules.org

Wal-Mart: The Face Of the Twenty-First-Century Capitalism, Edited by Nelson Lichtenstein, Published by The New Press www.thenewpress.com

 The Bully Of Bentonville - How the high cost of Wal-Mart's Everyday Low Prices is Hurting America, By Anthony Bianco, Published by Doubleday
Email: specialmarkets@randomhouse.com

 How Wal-Mart is Destroying America (and the world), By Bill Quinn, Published By Ten Speed Press, Box 7123, Berkeley, CA 94707, www.tenspeed.com (pp. 163)

Slam Dunking Wal-Mart, By Al Norman, Published By Raphel Marketing, 12 S. Virginia Avenue, Atlantic City, New Jersey 08410, www.sprawl-busters.com (pp. 237)

The Great American JobsScam, By Greg LeRoy, Published By Barrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 235 Montgomery Street, Suite 650, San Francisco, CA 94104-2916, www.bkconnection.com (pp. 257)

Nickel and Dimed, By Barbara Ehrenreich, Published By Henry Holt and Company, LLC, 115 West 18^th Street, New York, NY 10011, www.henryholt.com (pp.221)

United States of Wal-Mart, By John Dicker, Published By Jeremy P. Tarcher (Penguin Group usa), www.us.penguingroup.com (pp.257)

The Wal-Mart Effect, By Charles Fishman www.penguin.com

Megamall On The Hudson, By David Porter and Chester L. Mirsky www.trafford.com

FICTION

Death By Discount, By Mary Vermillion, Published By Alyson Publications, P.O. Box 4371, Los Angeles, CA 90078-4371, www.maryvermillion.com (pp. 275)