Feds Arrest 300 Workers at 61 Wal-Marts

[Guest FrigidSoul]

That woman shouldn't speak, the way she talks it sounds like we shouldn't even bother having immigration laws. What a dumb bitch

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Oh, I loved this gem after the Recall -- "It shouldn't be that public officials have to watch their backs every moment for fear of recall."

 

If I were a Democrat, I would much rather have had Harold Ford, Jr. as House Minority Leader, but oh well...

[Guest FrigidSoul]

If I were a Democrat, I would much rather have had Harold Ford, Jr. as House Minority Leader, but oh well...

I live in a state where our Republicans are more Democratic than Republican. The house of Represenatives represent themselves more than the citizens of the state they represent. I'm hoping that John Kerry is our next president so some actual changes can be made

 

Vote Kerry you bastards!

[Firestarter 0]

Vyce, I bet you'd be glad to know that Nancy Pelosi agrees with you on this?...

Nice one, KKK.

[Vyce 0]

Vyce, I bet you'd be glad to know that Nancy Pelosi agrees with you on this?...

Nice one, KKK.

Yay.

 

I'm just thrilled at this.

 

"It instills a great deal of fear in people who are only trying to earn a living and put food on the table for their family," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on a Congressional visit to Mexico.

 

Does this dumb bitch even know that most of the immigrants here were Eastern-EUROPEANS???

 

Christ.

 

Although after rereading the initial story, I must admit that it is pretty goddamn funny for the feds to call this "Operation: Rollback."

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Wal-Mart moves quietly into Japan

U.S. retailer makes inroads by teaming up with a local partner known to shoppers.

 

 

By Yuri Kageyama

Associated Press

October 26, 2003

 

 

YOKOHAMA, Japan -- The new supermarket west of Tokyo has all the trademark Wal-Mart touches -- roomy aisles, price rollbacks and big shiny signs, but shoppers have almost no idea this outlet is run by the U.S. retail giant.

 

Yuki Kitamura, a housewife who swears by the store's vegetable selection, didn't know and didn't care that Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, has a 37.7 percent stake in the supermarket chain Seiyu, the operator of this store and 400 others nationwide.

 

"The store got a liberating feeling, and it got roomier," she said. "It's fun."

 

Despite the $6.4 million remodeling of the flagship store, the Wal-Mart name is nowhere to be seen. Moreover, there isn't a single Supercenter in Japan, and Wal-Mart officials say they may never open one here.

 

Wal-Mart is making its entrance into Japan cautiously and stealthily. The retailer, based in Bentonville, Ark., studied Japan for several years and concluded it was a complex market best penetrated under an alliance with a local partner that understood Japanese shoppers. So it took a stake in Seiyu last year.

 

"For Japanese customers, the name Wal-Mart doesn't mean a lot. The Seiyu name means a lot. For the near future, we'll go with the Seiyu brand," said Billie Cole, spokeswoman for Wal-Mart International Holdings.

 

Wal-Mart, which operates in 10 nations besides the United States, has adapted its approach to different markets, making itself more visible with Wal-Mart stores in places like China, while taking a lower profile in Mexico and Britain, where it has chosen partners.

 

But nowhere else is the total invisibility of Wal-Mart quite as clear as in Japan. Foreign brands are sometimes embraced -- among them, Coca-Cola, Louis Vuitton, Walt Disney, the Gap -- but often face failure verging on total rejection.

 

"If Wal-Mart brings in a bunch of products in bulk, such as candy Japanese can't stand, it's doomed," said Yasuyuki Sasaki, an analyst with Credit Suisse First Boston in Tokyo. He believes it will take two or three more years to see the impact of Wal-Mart management on Seiyu.

 

Many Seiyu stores have yet to get makeovers. The flagship store has introduced Wal-Mart's price rollbacks and discounts that run for an extended time. But it has yet to carry out Wal-Mart's basic concept, everyday low prices.

 

Everyday low prices rely on the advantage of cost cuts that come from global suppliers and from Wal-Mart's sheer buying power, with about 4,700 worldwide stores. Achieving those savings takes time.

 

"We really are focused on making the internal changes that are needed to bring our cost down and to do a better job for the customer," said William Wertz, director of international corporate affairs at Wal-Mart.

 

"There's nothing magic that we can do. There's nothing quick that we can come in and fix overnight. It's just getting in and working with the Seiyu people and gaining a good understanding of the Japanese customer."

 

What's more obvious is the response from major Japanese retailer Aeon Co., which is hurriedly reshaping its strategy and opening stores with the growing threat from Wal-Mart in mind.

 

A new Aeon store in a Tokyo suburb is a sprawling shopping mall with a distinctly American look. Escalators crisscross to popular foreign-brand stores, The Body Shop, Tower Records, The Sports Authority, Talbots -- all visible from the other floors.

 

"The walls are coming down in Japanese retail to foreign giants," said Aeon spokesman Kenichi Arai. "We need to be reborn as a retailer that meets global standards."

 

To one-up Wal-Mart, Aeon has been forging alliances with overseas retailers, signing up suppliers that can produce cheap electronics goods and adding fashionable boutiques. But Arai acknowledges that Aeon, despite its recent growth, remains dwarfed by Wal-Mart, which posted $246.53 billion in worldwide sales last year. Aeon's annual sales total about $27.5 billion.

 

And Wal-Mart is bringing its technological know-how to Japan, introducing a computerized system to track inventory and purchases to boost efficiency and trim costs at Seiyu. Within two years, all the stores will have the electronic system; the technology already has enabled Seiyu stores to reduce the number of full-time workers and replace them with part-time employees.

 

Meanwhile, some Wal-Mart brand products have been introduced into Seiyu stores, such as clothing sold in the United States, although they have been adapted to smaller Japanese sizes.

 

Store manager Kazuo Funakoshi walks up and down the aisles, showing off to a visitor his store's new look -- the remodeled elevator that takes shopping carts straight to the parking lot and a neat stack of displayed wares that can be moved simply by setting a forklift under it. So far, it seems the stealth Wal-Mart strategy is working.

 

"Our business is way up," Funakoshi said.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Vyce, I bet you'd be glad to know that Nancy Pelosi agrees with you on this?...

Nice one, KKK.

Yay.

 

I'm just thrilled at this.

I feel your pain.

 

I agreed with a certain Senator from NY over some bankruptcy bill a few years back and had to take a shower afterward...

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Fake Armored Car Guard Takes $100,000 from Wal-Mart

 

by KYW's Matt Leon

Philadelphia Police are investigating the robbery of a Wal-Mart store in Franklin Mills, where a man dressed as a armored car security guard fooled employees and walked out with a big payoff.

 

According to Philadelphia Police Sgt. Roland Lee, it happened around noon Sunday when a man, dressed as an armored car guard, entered the store:

 

"He went to the Wal-Mart store, posed as the person, and he took over a hundred thousand dollars in cash and checks in a deposit that was supposed to be deposited to an armored car carrier."

 

Employees thought it was a regular pick-up until the real armored car guard showed up about a half-hour later.

 

The suspect is described as a black man in his mid-20s, with a thin build, a goatee, and dark braided hair

[Dr. Tom 0]

He's probably another filthy illegal immigrant, too...

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

For his sake, I hope ex-immigrant now.

 

I know I'd be across the border by now if I were him...

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Wal-Mart soon to offer pay-per-song downloads

Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle News Services

Wal-Mart Stores, the world's largest retailer and the top seller of compact discs, plans to add a pay-per-song download service by year-end, people familiar with the matter said.

 

The Internet store will be modeled after Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, which allows customers to download songs for 99 cents each. Wal-Mart has been in talks with record companies to license music for its own download service, four people who asked not to be named said.

 

The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer, which currently controls 14 percent of worldwide music sales, is seeking a foothold in online music as downloading, legal or otherwise, cuts CD sales. Global music sales fell 11 percent to $12.7 billion in the first half of this year after declining 7 percent last year and 6 percent in 2001, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, a trade group.

 

"Having an alternative makes an awful lot of sense for these retailers who are already losing sales to illegal downloading and facing competition from digital services," said Russ Crupnick, vice president of NPD Group, a market- research firm.

 

Wal-Mart plans to make the download service part of its Web site.

 

In a related development, Apple Computer said Thursday that its iTunes online music store sold five times more songs than rival Napster's service in its first week of operation.

 

Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple said that consumers purchased and downloaded 1.5 million songs from its iTunes Music Store during the same period that Napster reported selling 300,000 songs.

 

Napster, the song-swap pioneer that revolutionized online music and turned the music industry upside down, was bought last year by Roxio in a bankruptcy auction. The revamped service opened for business Oct. 29.

 

Walmart.com Chief Executive John Fleming wouldn't comment on his company's plans for a music service.

 

"There's a number of businesses that we're not in today," he said in an interview last month. "I think we'll get to them all at some point in time."

 

Wal-Mart said in August that second-quarter profits climbed 15 percent. Profits from continuing operations rose to $2.28 billion, or 52 cents a share. Revenues gained 11 percent to $63.2 billion, and sales at stores open at least a year increased 3.2 percent.

 

Shares of Wal-Mart rose 69 cents to $58.61 on the New York Stock Exchange. The stock has risen 15 percent this year.

 

 

 

Return to top

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

If Wal-Mart can't find a way to turn a profit with this idea, nobody can...

[Jobber of the Week 0]

IMAGINE THAT you earn $8 an hour working for Wal-Mart. Then, you learn that the store is recruiting workers, at $10 an hour, to convince neighbors and shoppers to vote against a law that would limit the size of "big- box'' stores in unincorporated areas of Contra Costa County.

 

Great, you think. I'll apply. But Wal-Mart won't hire its own workers because the corporation isn't sure it's legal to use them to promote a political campaign.

 

When you realize that Wal-Mart will pay higher wages to those campaigning to keep your wages low, you get angry -- which is how I've learned about the Arkansas retailer's countywide plans to repeal the ordinance.

 

Last June, the Contra Costa Country Board of Supervisors passed the ban when it recognized that Wal-Mart's seductive low prices come with hidden costs to residents. The retailer's subsistence wages drive down the pay of other workers; its huge super-centers undermine local small businesses and create more traffic congestion. Taxpayers, moreover, end up paying for workers' health care because they can't afford costly benefits on such low pay.

 

In response, Wal-Mart -- which never takes no for an answer -- immediately parachuted in paid workers to gather 27,000 signatures to force supervisors to either rescind the ban or place the issue before the voters. Supervisors have put the question on the March 2 ballot.

 

To fight off these restrictions, Wal-Mart has just launched a campaign to convince the community to vote "no." At its Martinez, Pittsburg and Antioch stores, Wal-Mart has hung banners and posters advertising its new "Consumer Action Network (CAN)," a rather transparent effort to persuade shoppers to vote against the limiting ordinance.

 

Last week, workers at Wal-Mart handed out flyers that describe CAN as a "good government" program. (Many low-income shoppers, who receive some form of government assistance, might mistakenly think CAN is a government-sponsored program.)

 

In exchange for signing a membership card (and providing your personal information), you get "a personal membership card, free newsletters, important bulletins and an invitation to special events."

 

You also get a chance to fill out a voter registration application, which is conveniently mailed to Wal-Mart's CAN, rather than to the registrar of voters.

 

If you want more information, you are referred to an 800 telephone number.

 

But 20 calls to the number elicited the same response: "Only 'Kathy' knows about the program, she's on the other line, so just leave your name and number. " Is it conceivable that Wal-Mart has hired only one person who is familiar with CAN? Or is this just a ploy to gather names and phone numbers to enlist shoppers in its political campaign?

 

Meanwhile, a coalition of community activists is gearing up to support the ordinance. They include the nonprofit group ACORN, which promotes affordable housing and open space; union members; and religious, environmental and "smart growth" organizations.

 

But they face a formidable enemy -- the largest corporation in the world, which has unlimited funds to reach their intended goal of building 40 new super-centers in California.

 

Supervisor John Gioia knows that "Wal-Mart will have a great advantage. It will also turn it into an anti-union campaign. So we need to appeal to the good sense of Contra Costa County voters and explain that this is about losing open space and taxpayers subsidizing Wal-Mart. It's also about Contra Costa County -- not Wal-Mart executives in Bentonville, Ark. -- having the right to make its own decisions about local planning. "

 

Now, the challenge is to convince Contra Costa County voters that the lowest possible prices come at a steep price for the entire community.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGT42MT171.DTL

 

 

On a side note, I have no love for the organization ACORN mentioned in this article. Their backing to keep any national chains from entering my city has nearly driven local government into cutting police and fire services to pay the bills.

 

On the other hand, I hate Wal-Mart even more.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

The suspect is described as a black man in his mid-20s, with a thin build, a goatee, and dark braided hair

Y'know, Ripper hasn't posted here in a while...

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Can’t see him with braids and a goatee.

 

Oh, and JOTW, out here in SW PA, I have heard that my township passed a law forbidding some mega-Wal-Mart frpm being built and the issue has gone to court.

 

No way Wal-Mart's going to lose this...

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

What does Wal-Mart do with all the money they save by hiring old people, autistics, and illegal aliens?

 

Finance coups overseas? Organize teams of assassins for the Freemasons? Rig the papal elections?

[Jobber of the Week 0]

What does Wal-Mart do with all the money they save by hiring old people, autistics, and illegal aliens?

 

Finance coups overseas? Organize teams of assassins for the Freemasons? Rig the papal elections?

Grow, grow, grow.

 

Why? Stockholders, stockholders, stockholders!

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Funny story:

 

My better half, when she was a student at Sappy Valley, had a prof that railed about how Wal-Mart was evil, but some student found out this prof owned stock in Wal-Mart and called him on it, thus drawing the fire of that classroom's pseudo-hippies.

 

And good times were had by all...

[Guest Boo_Bradley]

Illegal Immigrant Workers Sue Wal-Mart

 

Sunday, November 09, 2003

 

 

 

FREEHOLD, N.J. — Nine illegal immigrants who worked as janitors at Wal-Mart (search) until they were arrested during federal raids last month have sued the company, accusing it of discrimination.

 

The nine say they were paid lower wages and offered fewer benefit because they are Mexicans, and they accuse Wal-Mart and its cleaning contractors of failing to pay for overtime, withhold taxes or make required workers' compensation contributions.

 

Their lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Superior Court (search) in Freehold, seeks more than $200,000 in back pay.

 

The plaintiffs, who now face deportation, were among 250 people arrested in an Oct. 23 federal immigration crackdown at 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states. Theirs is the first lawsuit among the immigrants arrested.

 

According to the lawsuit, Wal-Mart employed cleaning contractors "with full knowledge" that they paid illegal immigrants less than legal workers.

 

"Wal-Mart must have known about these violations," the immigrant's lawyer, Gilberto Garcia, told The New York Times (search). "If these people are going to work at Wal-Marts, then Wal-Mart and its contractors should abide by the labor laws."

 

Mona Williams, Wal-Mart vice president of communications, said the company did not know about the alleged labor violations or that the contractors used illegal immigrants. She said Wal-Mart has long insisted that its contractors obey the law.

 

"Clearly, hungry lawyers are converging on these illegal immigrants as if they were accident victims," Williams said. "We have seen absolutely no evidence showing that Wal-Mart did anything wrong."

 

She acknowledged that Wal-Mart has received a letter from federal prosecutors warning that it faces a grand jury investigation into illegal immigrants employed at its stores. An employer can face civil and criminal penalties for knowingly hiring illegal immigrants or failing to comply with certain employee record keeping regulations.

 

The plaintiffs say they worked at least 56 hours a week and were not paid time and a half for overtime, hours worked beyond 40 a week. They say they were paid $350-$500 a week.

 

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and the largest private employer in the United States, has 1.1 million domestic employees and about 3,500 stores

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Revenge of Wal-Mart 9

 

HOW DO people who deliberately set out to break America's immigration law get to sue U.S. employers for breaking labor laws?

 

It's a question I had to ask myself when I read in the New York Times that nine illegal immigrants who worked as janitors at Wal-Mart were suing the retail giant, and the cleaning contractors for whom they worked, for failing to pay overtime and withhold taxes.

 

The nine immigrants, whose suit was filed in New Jersey, were among some 250 illegal immigrants picked up last month at Wal-Mart stores in 21 states during a sweep by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

 

Illegal or not, they've dived into America's biggest melting pot -- the pool of plaintiffs in civil suits. They don't seem overly concerned that they got there by flouting federal law, cutting in front of people who immigrate legally, perhaps obtaining illegal documents and then getting jobs for which they didn't pay taxes.

 

They trusted in the certainty that they could find employers who will use the excuse that illegal immigrants will do the work that Americans won't do. Wrong. If employers pay good wages, they will find good workers. Except some corporate suits think they have the right to pay people substandard wages and then let taxpayers pick up the tab for the public services needed to sustain their underpaid workforce.

 

Wal-Mart spokespersons have denied legal culpability and say the chain insists that its contractors obey the law. But immigration officials also searched Wal-Mart's offices. There were similar raids in 2001 and 1998.

 

There's a pattern here and the pattern shuts out honest contractors. As a Bakersfield cleaning contractor told Forbes magazine, he was offered such a poor deal to clean grocery stores that he had to turn it down, because he couldn't do the work "legitimately."

 

"Like most Americans, I have a sense of outrage that people who violate our laws are then using our laws to get money or reward themselves for their illegal behavior," said Craig Nelsen, director of Friends of Immigration Law Enforcement. "On the other hand, the conditions under which these people worked were truly outrageous." No employer has a right to break labor laws.

 

John Keeley of the Center for Immigration Reform in Washington, believes that big judgments for illegal workers "could have a chilling effect" on employers who cut corners to increase their profits. Keeley wants to see the Wal-Mart plaintiffs win, if their case is solid -- and then be deported.

 

It's not fair to deport somebody who has endured these conditions, responded Steve Reyes, an attorney for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) in Los Angeles, who is involved with a similar lawsuit against Albertson's.

 

That's the sort of selective approach to the law that has muddied the waters. Illegal immigrants decide which laws they can break. Employers decide which laws they can break. In the end, the law has no meaning and would-be legal immigrants and law-abiding employers look like suckers.

 

Gilberto Garcia, the New Jersey attorney representing the Wal-Mart plaintiffs, said, "My clients are in the United States in violation of the law" and are "subject to deportation." Unlike MALDEF's Reyes, Garcia didn't say they shouldn't be deported. Instead, he said, "We're trying to send a message to unscrupulous employers, who are trying to take advantage of these people while other able citizens are in unemployment lines, because these employers don't want to pay (legal immigrants and citizens) what they deserve."

 

The postscript to that message should be: Everyone caught breaking U.S. immigration laws pays the penalty.

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDG702VQRU1.DTL

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Also: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?...EDGP52RU6R1.DTL

HEALTH CARE: A RIGHT OR A PRIVILEGE?

Wal-Mart's welfare dependency

Sally Lieber

 

Our governor-elect and the Legislature are about to embark on another cycle of budget discussions. In normal budget times, it is a moral obligation for lawmakers to spend taxpayers' funds wisely. During the worst budget crisis in California's history, it is imperative. Every dollar spent should be used strategically, effectively and toward meeting our obligation to protect our most vulnerable citizens and to educate the next generation.

 

That is what makes recent revelations about Wal-Mart, one of the world's wealthiest corporations and the largest private employer in America, so disturbing. Wal-Mart is one of many large corporations that skimp on health care for their employees. Inadequate health insurance coverage, high deductibles and cost-sharing that is out of reach for low-wage workers add to the corporate bottom-line. Wal-Mart also reportedly carefully controls the number of workers who achieve full-time status and higher benefit levels.

 

In the marketplace, where one of these giants is competing against a small business that is responsible to its workers and to the community, the giant will win every time.

 

Who picks up the tab for this lack of responsibility? We all do. Wal-Mart provides its workers with access to a Web-based service that allows a county social services worker to immediately verify income and employment. Such access can help to qualify workers quickly for Medi-Cal benefits, food stamps and other taxpayer-funded aid.

 

While the use of this fast-tracked system may help deliver government services to those who qualify for them; it can also raises a number of concerns: In an environment of low wages and meager benefits, it can be seen as encouraging big business to make taxpayer-funded services a part of their business plan.

 

The use of this system obscures information consumers need to make informed decisions. When consumers buy back-to-school clothes at Wal-Mart they should know whether they are encouraging a business practice that relies on siphoning taxpayer dollars out of education and other state needs.

 

Lawmakers must also consider whether it is appropriate for large, wealthy corporations to become welfare-dependent and should close any loopholes that lead to inappropriate use of scarce human service resources. Nothing should encourage corporations to "game the system'' or to claim unfair advantages.

 

It is helpful here to contrast our expectations of individuals with those we have for major corporations. When an individual uses Medi-Cal benefits, they may become subject to California's Medi-Cal Estate Recovery Program. Under this program, the state places liens against the assets of elderly, low- income Californians to recoup the costs for Medi-Cal coverage. Advocates have cited the example of the state of placing a lien on an aging mobile home.

 

If we expect the lowest-income Californians to reimburse the state when they receive benefits, then it makes sense to hold large, wealthy corporations similarly accountable. Despite turbulent economic conditions this year, Wal- Mart reported record profits and sales. Wal-Mart's earnings were more than $2. 5 billion, on total sales of $71 billion in the first quarter and more than $2.3 billion on total sales of $62 billion in the second quarter.

 

Our budget difficulties force to think about what kind of accountability we expect from each other -- and to begin to define good corporate citizenship in terms of what it is, rather than simply what it is not -- as honest partnerships, not just the absence of wrong-doing. Those we serve should expect nothing less.

 

Assemblywoman Sally Lieber represents the South Bay.

 

 

And now, a response from Wal-Mart:

 

Editor -- No doubt Chronicle readers are becoming weary of Assembly member Sally Lieber's attacks on Wal-Mart ("Health care: A right or a privilege?,'' Nov. 7) which are filled with half-truths and unsupported conclusions. There may be some philosophical differences as to how to approach health care, but a little intellectual honesty on Lieber's part would be a breath of fresh air in the debate.

 

Lieber asserts a number of things that are untrue. In fact, Wal-Mart offers affordable health-care options to all of its California workers and pays two-thirds of the cost of coverage. More than 79 percent of our workforce is full time. Nearly 40 percent of our associates had no medical insurance before joining our company.

 

Lieber continues to accuse our company of encouraging our associates to apply for state aid. She knows that assertion is wrong, but she continues to use it to justify her political position. She singles out Wal-Mart from more than a thousand other companies who use The Work Number for employment and income verification. The Work Number clearly states on its Web site that, "The Work Number is an employment and income verification service; it is not a service to help someone apply or qualify for state or federal government- sponsored aid.''

 

At Wal-Mart, we use valid criticism as an opportunity to improve. We also feel strongly about responding directly when we are falsely accused. This is one of those times. Chronicle readers, and Lieber's constituents, deserve better.

 

BOB MCADAM

 

Vice-President, State and Local Government Relations

 

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.