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Maine Enacts Landmark Law Requiring Economic Impact Studies of Big-Box
Projects
Daphne Loring,
Maine Fair Trade Campaign
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Augusta, ME - Maine has become the
first state in the nation to require cities and towns to evaluate the
impact of big-box development proposals on jobs, local businesses, and
municipal finances, and to approve only those projects that will not
adversely affect the local economy.
Similar bills have been introduced in
other states, including Oregon, New Jersey, and California. Last year,
the California legislature approved a bill (SB 1523) requiring economic
impact studies for large retail projects, but it was vetoed by Governor
Schwarzenegger.
In Maine, the Informed Growth Act (LD
1810), sponsored by Rep. Chris Barstow, passed the House 86-55 and the
Senate 18-17, and has been signed into law by Governor Baldacci.
"This is a tremendous victory for the
people of Maine, our communities, workers, and local economies," said
Daphne Loring of the Maine Fair Trade Campaign. "It gives communities a
real voice in development projects and enables us to hold these national
retailers accountable for a business model that often directly hurts
workers, communities, and the environment."
"Too often communities must decide
whether to approve big-box stores without any objective information
about the impact on the local economy," said Stacy Mitchell, senior
researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and author of
Big-Box Swindle. "Studies have found that these stores can entail
significant costs in terms of job losses and local business closures.
Maine is leading the nation by giving towns a tool for weighing those
costs before deciding whether to approve these stores."
The bill's passage was the result of
the work of a broad coalition of over 180 small businesses, numerous
municipal officials, and many labor, environmental, and community
organizations. It comes on the heels of several vigorous campaigns by
citizens groups to block big-box development in Maine, most notably a
successful effort last year to stop a Wal-Mart supercenter in the
village of Damariscotta.
Attempts by opponents, including the
Maine State Chamber of Commerce, to characterize the bill as
"anti-business," largely failed because of the strong support from
independent business owners across the state.
Jerry Keay, owner of H.L. Keay and
Son, a hardware and lumber store in Albion, lauded the bill's passage,
"Small businesses are the backbone of Maine's economy. In sharp contrast
to big box stores, we ensure the vitality of downtowns and strengthen
our communities by keeping money in the local economy. This bill will
bolster our small business sector and strengthen local economies."
The Informed Growth Act stipulates
that municipalities conduct an economic impact analysis for proposed
big-box retail stores larger than 75,000 square feet. The analysis is
performed by an independent consultant chosen jointly by the town and
the developer, and paid for by a fee charged to the developer. It
evaluates the effects of the proposed store on existing businesses,
jobs, wages, vacancy rates, the cost of municipal services, and the
volume of "sales revenue retained and reinvested" in the community.
After the analysis is complete, the
town must hold a public hearing. It is then up to town officials to
evaluate the information, consider the benefits and costs, and make a
determination about whether the project would create an undue adverse
impact on the local economy and municipal finances. If so, the law gives
the town the authority to reject the development.
The act ensures that, even in areas
zoned for commercial development, citizens and local officials will
always have an opportunity to evaluate big-box development and make
informed decisions about whether to approve or reject such projects.
Topsham Select Board member, Michelle
Jones sees the Informed Growth Act as a valuable resource, "Towns
throughout Maine stand to benefit from the passage of LD 1810. The
Informed Growth Act will provide an unbiased process for citizens and
local officials to assess the positive and negative aspects of
large-scale retail development and make responsible decisions."
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Pixman to Execute Tactical Marketing Campaign for Orville Redenbacher's
in 100 Wal-Mart Stores
Pixman Nomadic Media Inc.
Friday June 29
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MONTREAL, QUEBEC--(MARKET WIRE)--Jun
29, 2007 -- Pixman Nomadic Media Inc (CDNX:PMN.V - News) announces the
signature of a contract with Armstrong Partnership LP, a Toronto-based
marketing and communications agency, leading to the execution of a
strategic marketing campaign in 100 Wal-Mart stores across six Canadian
provinces in August for ConAgra Foods Canada. Pixman brand ambassadors
will be promoting a joint offer from Orville Redenbacher's and Universal
Studios Home Entertainment, sampling Orville Redenbacher's popcorn and
Sprite Zero and entertaining shoppers with clips from hit TV shows from
Universal Studios Home Entertainment. The TV shows previewed on the
Pixman monitors, including hot titles like House and Heroes, will be
available on three free DVDs inside specially marked boxes of Orville
Redenbacher's popcorn throughout the promotion.
"After testing this innovative
tactical media last year in 37 Wal-Mart stores, which generated great
return for our client, we are very pleased to hire Pixman again this
year to increase our client's coverage to 100 stores", said Colleen
Spicer, Account Supervisor at Armstrong Partnership LP.
Source: Pixman Nomadic Media Inc.
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Wal-Mart
opponents file suit against city of Austin
By Lindsey Mullikin,
The Daily Texan Online
June 29th, 2007
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Opponents of a new Wal-Mart planned
for north Austin announced Thursday that it will sue the city of Austin
for approving a new development plan of a former mall. Responsible
Growth for Northcross Inc., a neighborhood activist group against the
conversion of the old Northcross Mall into a Wal-Mart Supercenter,
announced the lawsuit during a press conference, two days after the city
approved a second plan.
The suit claims that the development
plan poses significant public safety problems by generating a large
amount of traffic that would slow Emergency Medical Services vehicles.
It also claims the plan violates zoning, flooding and tree ordinances,
said Brad Rockwell, the attorney representing the organization.
"All of the issues that are raised in
the lawsuit were raised between the Responsible Growth for Northcross
and the city over the past couple of months, and all of these issues
have been carefully reviewed by the city staff," said Chris Sileo, the
city's attorney.
The city feels the new permit reflects
a positive change in the development plan by reducing the size of the
Supercenter from 225,000 square feet to 192,000 square feet, Sileo said.
"We really drilled down on this second
permit to make sure all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed," Sileo
said.
In addition to the suit, Rockwell said
the group has also filed a temporary restraining order to freeze
construction on the property. He said he hopes the case goes to court
fairly quickly.
"We've spent months trying to get the
city of Austin to enforce the regulations against Wal-Mart and Lincoln
Properties," Rockwell said. "We've failed."
Hope Morrison, president of the
organization, said the group's concerns were not strictly tied to
Wal-Mart. It is concerned mainly with how the city handles its rapid
growth, she said.
Morrison said the group will need
financial support from the community as it pursues the lawsuit.
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Wal-Mart
Still Retail's Big Kahuna; Sears Slips
By Jennifer Waters ,
DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
June 29th, 2007
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Sears Holdings Corp. (SHLD), whose
namesakes stores were once the most powerful in the U.S., lost ground
this year in the industry's annual tally of the 100 top retail chains.
The parent of Sears Roebuck and Kmart
stores fell to No. 6 on the National Retail Federation's Stores magazine
list released Friday, losing two places to Costco Wholesale Corp. (COST)
and Target Corp. (TGT).
Those discount retailers took the
fourth and fifth spots, moving up a notch in the past year in the list.
Rankings are determined by total sales.
"Sears is the one to watch," said
Stores' Executive Editor Susan Rada. "It didn't fall dramatically, but I
don't know what to expect from Sears anymore."
Sears Holdings catapulted to a top-10
spot two years ago when the two retailers were brought under one
corporate umbrella. But sales growth has been sluggish, while
competitors have seen their top lines expand at a faster clip.
In fiscal 2006, for example, Sears
Holdings sales climbed 7.9% to $53.01 billion, while Target's jumped
13.1% to $59.49 billion and Costco's leapt over that with a 13.6%
increase to $60.15 billion.
Hefty as those revenues might be, they
still paled in comparison to the perennial top-of-the-heap retailer,
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT). The parent of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores
rang up $348.65 billion in sales last year, eclipsing all other
companies in the world, according to Fortune's list of the top 500.
In the retail world, Wal-Mart's
revenue is so high that it exceeds that of the next five largest
retailers combined. "Aggregate revenues for the companies on the Stores
Top 100 list are just over $1.6 trillion," the magazine said. "Wal-Mart
accounts for nearly 22% of that total."
Holding on to the No. 2 and No. 3
places - spots they're not likely to lose anytime soon - were Home Depot
Inc. (HD), the world's largest home-improvement retailer, and Kroger Co.
(KR), the nation's largest grocery-store business.
"The same three at the top of the list
is a sign of resiliency in retail," Rada said. "Even though these three
get beat up sometimes and have their share of problems ... they still
continue to innovate and still continue to address customer needs."
Rounding out the top 10 in order were
Walgreen Co. (WAG), Lowe's Cos. (LOW), CVS Caremark Corp. (CVS) and
Safeway Inc. (SWY). Best Buy Corp. (BBY) moved up to the 11th position
after its sales jumped 16.5% last year to $35.93 billion.
Supervalu Corp. (SVU) took a big leap
to 12th after more than doubling its sales, thanks to its acquisition of
Albertsons.
Also losing ground this year was
Limited Brands Inc. (LTD), which fell to No. 33 from No. 31. It was
surpassed by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) and its 26.2% pop in sales to $10.71
billion at No. 32 and Jean Coutu Group Inc. (PJC.A.T), the
Canadian-based drugstore chain whose revenue more than doubled to $11.14
billion through its Rite Aid acquisitions.
At least some of the movement on the
chart came from this year's addition of restaurants to the list. Rada
said restaurants such as Mc Donald?'s Corp. (MCD), at No. 16; Yum Brands
Inc. (YUM), at No. 35; and Starbucks Corp., (SBUX) at No. 42, among
others, were counted in because of their striking importance in the
consumer-spending picture.
"Restaurants are taking an increasing
portion of the consumer-spending dollar, and that is something we need
to consider," Rada said. "Quick-service and casual-restaurant brands are
on par with brand names we frequently refer to in retail."
Moreover, the reigning trend in new
retail centers is lifestyle centers that mix big-name stores with
restaurants and other forms of entertainment on a more manageable scale
than most shopping centers and malls.
"Lifestyle retailing is growing at the
expense of traditional malls because it's more in sync with the way the
customer shops today," she said.
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Husband files 'dead peasant' suit against Wal-Mart for collecting
insurance in spouse's death
According to
several lawsuits, Wal-Mart has taken life insurance policies out on
"rank and file" employees without their consent.
By Emanuella Grinberg
Court TV
June 29, 2007
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When Karen Armatrout died of cancer in
1997, her husband, Richard, collected a modest amount in life insurance
benefits from her employer, Wal-Mart.
But Armatrout claims that, unbeknownst
to him, Wal-Mart also collected on a life insurance policy, one the
company took out on Karen Armatrout years before without her knowledge.
This week, Armatrout filed a
class-action complaint seeking what his lawyers estimate might be
$80,000 in benefits that Wal-Mart supposedly collected "in bad faith" on
a corporate-owned life insurance policy.
Armatrout's "dead peasant" suit, filed
Wednesday in Tampa, Fla.'s U.S. District Court, accuses Wal-Mart
ofmaking money off her death without having a valid claim to her estate.
Typically, such a stake, known as an
"insurable interest," is reserved for individuals so closely connected
to the person insured that he or she would suffer significant financial
damage if the person died.
The complaint also charges that the
Arkansas-based corporation misappropriated Karen Armatrout's name and
personal information for the purposes of taking out the policy.
"Wal-Mart and the insurers used
employees' private information to buy and sell policies," Armatrout's
Texas attorney, Mike D. Myers, told CourtTVnews.com. "As matter of
public policy, Wal-Mart should not be permitted to keep the policy's
benefits because it did not have the necessary insurable interest in the
lives of its rank-and-file employees to warrant being a beneficiary."
From 1993 to 1998, Wal-Mart was not
alone in reaping the tax benefits associated with corporate-owned life
insurance, which came to be known by critics as "dead peasant"
insurance, based on a character in Nikolai Gogol's "Dead Souls" who buys
up the contracts of recently deceased serfs.
Lawyers for Armatrout, who say that
Wal-Mart took out such policies on 350,000 "rank and file" employees
like Karen Armatrout during that time, have also participated in
lawsuits against Golden Corral, Winn Dixie and Camelot Music.
The attorneys, who have brought three
identical lawsuits against Wal-Mart in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana,
say the company made use of favorable tax regulations in Georgia, which
allowed the company to take out corporate-owned life insurance policies
without the employees' knowledge.
Wal-Mart settled the suits in Texas
and Oklahoma, where the company paid back 100 percent of the benefits,
amounting to just over $5 million.
Along with Armatrout's case in
Florida, another suit is pending in Louisiana.
In the previous cases, Wal-Mart
attempted to argue that Georgia law applied because that was where the
policies were purchased and paid out. But the courts found that the
proper venue for deciding whether Wal-Mart had an insurable interest was
thedeceased's state of residence.
Only six states, Delaware, Georgia,
New Jersey, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Vermont, allow companies to
take out life insurance policies on their employees without notifying
them. Most states have laws requiring that companies advise their
employees and seek their consent before purchasing the policies.
Myers says he is hopeful that the
precedents set in the other cases bode well for the Florida case, where
he is seeking class-action certification for an estimated 80 plaintiffs
in addition to Armatrout.
"I'd rather be where we are now rather
than after losing three in a row," Myers said.
Representatives for Wal-Mart did not
return calls for comment.
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High Court Eases Ban
on Minimum Prices
By CHRISTOPHER S. RUGABER
Associated Press
06.28.07
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Manufacturers will have greater leeway
to set minimum prices at the retail level without violating antitrust
laws under a Thursday Supreme Court ruling that could hurt consumers and
small merchants.
By allowing minimum price agreements,
the court's 5-4 decision could lead to higher prices, dissenting
justices said, as it becomes more difficult for smaller stores and
Internet retailers to offer lower-priced goods.
The court said agreements on minimum
prices are legal if they promote competition, meaning accusations of
antitrust violations will be evaluated case by case.
In a 1991 decision, the Supreme Court
had declared that minimum pricing agreements always violate federal
antitrust law. But Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote in the majority opinion
that the principle that past decisions should be left alone "does not
compel our continued adherence" in this instance.
Minimum price agreements can benefit
consumers, Kennedy wrote, by enabling retailers to invest in greater
customer service without fear of being undercut by discount rivals. The
agreements also could make it easier for new products to compete, he
added, because a retailer could recoup the costs of marketing a new good
by charging a higher price.
Dissenting from that view, Justice
Stephen Breyer wrote: "The only safe predictions to make about today's
decision are that it will likely raise the price of goods at retail."
The Consumer Federation of America
said in court filings that the ban on minimum price agreements allowed
"innovative retailers to continually enter the market, offering new and
lower priced alternatives to consumers."
But Roy Englert, an antitrust attorney
at Robbins Russell, said the court's decision does have boundaries that
will protect entrepreneurs. The ruling only allows minimum price
agreements between manufacturers of a single brand of a product and
retailers, Englert said, while other brands of the same product can
still compete on price.
Moreover, if only one brand is
available, retailers and consumers can still sue manufacturers for
anticompetitive conduct, Englert said. The courts will now evaluate such
suits on the merits, rather than automatically finding them illegal.
Englert helped prepare a brief in
support of Leegin.
Some antitrust experts say consumers
shopping on the Internet will be hurt by abandoning the 96-year-old
rule.
Richard Brunell, director of legal
advocacy for the American Antitrust Institute, said price floors pose
little risk to large chains such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (nyse: WMT -
news - people ) because "it is no longer the new kid on the block" and
has sufficient clout to get whatever products it wants without any price
restrictions.
Today, incumbent retailers like
Wal-Mart actually might find price floors to be an effective tool
against Internet discounting, Brunell said.
In recent decades, the Supreme Court
has chipped away at what many economists traditionally regarded as vital
consumer protections against anticompetitive conduct. For example,
exclusive dealer territories and setting price ceilings are no longer
automatically unlawful.
The current case involves Leegin
Creative Leather Products Inc., based in City of Industry, Calif. The
company entered agreements with retailers setting minimum prices for the
Brighton brand of women's fashion accessories.
Leegin said that by maintaining price
consistency among niche retailers it sells to, businesses can offer
improved customer service. This enables smaller stores to compete
against rival brands sold by discounters, Leegin argues.
Several retailers in Dallas selling
Leegin's products lowered prices below the minimum. family operated
Kay's Kloset said it followed suit to stay competitive. Phil and Kay
Smith say that when they refused to raise prices back up, Leegin cut off
their supply.
Kay's Kloset sued and the Smiths won a
$3.6 million judgment following a trial that laid out details of the
price floor arrangement between Leegin and many of its retailers. The
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court's finding.
Joining Kennedy in the majority were
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas
and Samuel Alito. With Breyer in dissent were Justices John Paul
Stevens, David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
The case is Leegin v. PSKS, 06-480.
Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All
rights reserved.
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Group
Holds Protest Against Wal-Mart In City Park
CBS4denver.com
June 28th, 2007
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DENVER Wal-Mart's civil rights record
was the subject of a protest in Denver's City Park Wednesday.
Dozens of people gathered near the
Martin Luther King, Jr. statue early in the afternoon.
Local community leaders and activists
say America's largest private employer has a disturbing civil rights
record.
"Even though 33 percent of Wal-Mart's
employees are minorities, only 23 percent of Wal-Mart's managers are
managers," said a protester.
More than a dozen similar events
happened across the nation Wednesday.
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Protesters
allege discrimination at Wal-Mart
By Jason Wiest ,
arkansasnews.com
June 28th, 2007
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LITTLE ROCK - Protesters roamed the
parking lot of a west Little Rock Wal-Mart store Wednesday handing out
leaflets to shoppers alleging the world's largest retailer discriminates
against its employees who are women and minorities.
The effort by about a dozen protesters
was part of a national campaign by Wake Up Walmart, a frequent critic of
the world's largest retailer's treatment of employees.
Holding up hand-written, neon-colored
signs with phrases like "Wal-Mart Discrimnat's," cq members from several
separate groups, including Wake Up Wal-Mart and ACORN, handed out cards
to approaching shoppers still in vehicles to "get the word out" that
Wal-Mart discriminates, according to Karen Hill, a Wake Up Wal-Mart
coordinator.
The cards allege that about 200,000
black and Hispanic Wal-Mart employees do not have company-provided
health care, that Wal-Mart faces the largest discrimination lawsuit in
U.S. history, and that minority workers comprise a third of Wal-Mart's
payroll but a smaller percentage of its management team.
"We want changes," said Hill, who is
also the local secretary and treasurer of the United Food and Commercial
Workers labor union.
The organization called for Wal-Mart
to, within the next year, even out the percentages of non-management
level employees who are minorities and women, as well as
management-level workers who are women and minorities.
The group also called for Wal-Mart to
provide "real and affordable" health care to all employees currently
without it; increase wages so that no full-time employees live in
poverty; and create an independent diversity committee to guide Wal-Mart
into becoming a "model employer."
Wal-Mart dismissed the campaign.
"These events are nothing more than another in a long line of
politically motivated stunts by these union funded critics," Wal-Mart
spokesman David Tovar said.
The company offers competitive wages
wherever it has operations with an average $10.51 an hour wage for
full-time employees, Tovar said.
Diversity is one of the company's top
priorities, he said, adding that half of the company's board of
directors are either women or minorities.
Additionally, 90 percent of Wal-Mart
employees have health care coverage, Tovar said.
"We're focused on serving our
customers and meeting the needs of the communities in which we operate
and helping people save money so they can live better," Tovar said.
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Busloads of
Protestors Gather at Wal-Mart
By Julie Straw ,
wlbt.com
June 28th, 2007
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A better working environment, higher
wages, and health benefits.
That's what protestors are asking
Wal-Mart to start delivering to its employees. They came by the
busloads. Men and Women from several states gathered outside the
Wal-Mart Supercenter in Clinton, protesting the company's treatment of
its employees.
"Everyone asks me if this is a union
issue and this isn't a union issue, to us it is a human issue," said
Teri Caben.
Teri Craben with the United Food and
Commercial Workers joined up with the Mississippi Workers Center for
Human Rights and the People's Freedom Caravan with members from several
states including Texas and New Mexico.
The groups claim that Wal-Mart does
not provide a livable wage for their employees. They also say the health
care package the company offers to their employees is just too
expensive.
"The wages they make now they are not
able to pay for their health care package for themselves let alone
members of their families," said Latoya Davis with the Mississippi
Workers Center for Human Rights.
State Represenative Erik Fleming
joined in the fight. He said when the Wal-Mart employees are not given
health benefits, it's the taxpayers who end up paying. "My main issue as
a State Legislator is Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the world and
they don't provide health insurance.
That means from a state standpoint,
from a taxpayer standpoint, we have to pick up the slack from the
medicaid program," said Rep. Fleming.
Craben says the United Food and
Commercial Workers have been fighting for Wal-Mart employees for the
last two years. They said the protest won't end until every employee is
treated fairly.
A spokesperson for Wal-Mart released
this statement to WLBT: "Wal-Mart creates thousands of jobs, offers
competitive wages to our 1.3 million associates, reduces costs through
$4 generic medicines and in-store clinics..."
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Group Appears At City Hall, Asks Wal-Mart To Improve Civil Rights
By Neil Relyea ,
wcpo.com
June 28th, 2007
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Union workers gathered outside
Cincinnati's city hall Monday to demand Wal-Mart improve its civil
rights record.
The group wants the company to adopt
four specific civil rights changes to ensure that all minority workers
are treated with dignity, fairness and respect.
A union representative says the group
is here because city leaders are expected to vote on a zoning change for
a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter in Sedamsville this week.
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Wal-Mart,
Sam's Club to access NPD consumer data
by Aarthi Sivaraman
Wed Jun 27, 2007
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NEW YORK, June 27 (Reuters) - Research
firm NPD Group will provide Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT.N: Quote, Profile,
Research) and its Sam's Club unit with consumer tracking data, according
to an agreement announced on Wednesday.
Under the agreement, Wal-Mart and
Sam's Club will have access to NPD information on consumer purchasing
across a wide variety of areas, including consumer technology,
entertainment, fashion, food, home improvement and small appliances, the
companies said.
Information -- including what was
bought, the prices which were paid and where the purchases took place --
will be collected from NPD's panel of over 3.5 million consumers.
Such data is necessary to
"successfully grow our business by understanding what today's consumer
is looking for and tailoring our business to deliver it," Wal-Mart Vice
President Robert Atencio said in the statement.
The agreement comes at a time when the
company is working to improve its U.S. same-store sales, which last
fiscal year faced their smallest gain since it began reporting such
figures in 1980.
Wal-Mart blamed the slowdown on
merchandising missteps, like stocking too much trendy clothing that its
customers rejected, and store remodeling that disrupted shoppers.
It has also said this year could be a
challenging one, as its base of lower-income shoppers feels the pinch
from rising gasoline prices.
Wal-Mart will also use NPD's custom
search options to address other specific information needs, according to
the statement.
(C) Reuters 2007. All rights reserved.
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Illinois pension fund chief joins probe of alleged investor spying
Associated Press
via Chicago Tribune
June 27th, 2007
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The head of Illinois' state employee
pension fund on Tuesday joined New York City's comptroller in saying
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. should turn over records dating to 2002 to show
whether it spied on shareholders who wanted annual meetings to adopt
policies opposed by management.
Wal-Mart has denied allegations by a
fired former security operative that it snooped on investors. But New
York City Comptroller William Thompson said he has "a credible basis" to
believe the company conducted surveillance and investigations of
shareholders.
William Atwood, executive director of
the Illinois State Board of Investment, said Wal-Mart's denials are not
enough to lay the issue to rest.
"This isn't going away," Atwood said.
"Let's open up the files and let an external set of eyes look at it."
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company
received a letter from Thompson last week. "We are studying the letter
and will respond appropriately," he said.
The Illinois state fund has total
assets of $12.6 billion. Thompson oversees five pension funds for New
York City worth a total of about $105 billion.
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ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Wal-Mart Inducted Into Corporate 'Hall of
Shame'
Corporate Accountability
International: Thousands Vote for the Most Abusive Corporations
PRNewswire-USNewswire
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BOSTON, June 27
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Corporate Accountability International today
announced that ExxonMobil, Halliburton and Wal-Mart are the three newly
elected inductees to its Corporate Hall of Shame. The membership
organization, which wages winning campaigns against irresponsible and
dangerous corporate actions, opened online voting in May with five other
potential inductees: Coke, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, Merck and Nestle.
Corporations were nominated for a variety of factors, including
documented abuses that harm people and the environment, political
influence and interference, and public deception.
Approximately 8,592 separate voters
cast online ballots from around the world May 16 through June 20, with
ExxonMobil and Halliburton being selected by half of all voters, and
Wal-Mart just narrowly beating out Kimberly-Clark to become the third
inductee.
Voters also had the option to write-in
their own candidates, and more than 300 people did so, with corporations
such as Monsanto, Lockheed Martin and McDonald's named most frequently.
To read more about the voting results and to read comments from voters,
visit: http://www.StopCorporateAbuse.org.
"The Hall of Shame demonstrates that
thousands of people are fed up with irresponsible corporations," said
Kelle Louaillier, Executive Director of Corporate Accountability
International. "The competition among these corporate abusers was stiff
-- because, unfortunately -- each nominee has a shameful track record.
Fortunately, the public's demand for corporate accountability is
universal, and the voting for Hall of Shame underscores the desire to
eradicate shameful business practices."
The three new inductees were selected
in part because of the following abuses and threats to society:
ExxonMobil
Even though ExxonMobil is the most
profitable corporation in the world, the oil giant is still using its
legal clout to avoid paying $4.5 billion in punitive damages from the
1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. At the same time, ExxonMobil is spending
millions to delay action on global warming. As the only oil corporation
that still denies the urgency of climate change, ExxonMobil spent nearly
$16 million between 1998 and 2005 funding "junk science" from front
groups that confuse the issue. Despite record oil-prices and industry
profits, ExxonMobil continues to receive billions of dollars from
publicly- funded corporate handouts, in the form of tax breaks and
royalty relief (for oil taken from public lands).
Halliburton
At Halliburton, war profiteering is
big business. Since the Iraq war began, Halliburton has been awarded
more than $20 billion in government contracts. Now Congress is
investigating $2.7 billion in waste and overcharging by Halliburton --
including bills for three times the meals that U.S. troops actually
received in Iraq. With these sky-high prices comes an embarrassingly low
level of service, such as water contaminated with feces that Halliburton
delivered to troops for bathing, laundry and even making coffee. Now,
after charging taxpayers billions of dollars for their government
contracts, Halliburton has announced plans to cut and run, moving its
corporate headquarters from Houston to Dubai, which will likely make it
easier for the company to pay less U.S. taxes. But Halliburton had been
violating U.S. laws for years, operating in Iran until April 2007 under
the guise of one of their subsidiaries.
Wal-Mart
The world's largest retailer generates
nearly a billion dollars per day in sales. In fact, 2.5 cents of every
dollar spent in the United States passes through a Wal-Mart cash
register. But the employees who run those cash registers, stock the
shelves, and clean the floors aren't sharing in the corporate wealth.
Most of the retail giant's workers have an annual income close to the
poverty line. Fewer than half are covered by the corporation's health
plan. And now Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest sex discrimination
lawsuit in U.S. history, involving 1.2 million women who are current or
former employees. Meanwhile, Congressional investigators estimate that
each Wal-Mart store receives nearly half a million dollars a year in
government subsidies. (Wal-Mart has padded its bottom line with more
than $1.2 billion in tax breaks and other public subsidies, including
deals that allow them to use sales taxes paid by some store customers to
pay for improvements to the store prop | 
