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This topic comprises 8 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
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Author
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Topic: Who do you Boycott & Why?
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 10-23-2003 10:03 PM
Operation: Rollback
I thought I'd dredge up this old thread since Wal-Mart is in the news today. ![[Razz]](tongue.gif) It illustrates Reason #17 why I hate Wal-Mart: They beat their suppliers and contractors to a bloody pulp to get stuff as cheap as possible. Thus encouraging such practices as the hiring of undocumented workers by those contractors. I bet as this story unfolds we'll find out these workers were not paid in accordance with US wage laws. ![[Mad]](mad.gif)
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U.S. Arrests Hundreds of Workers at Wal-Mart Stores
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Hundreds of workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. locations across the country were arrested on immigration charges in an investigation into contractor cleaning crews, and some company executives knew about the alleged illegal hirings, U.S. officials said on Thursday.
They said the investigation, known as "Operation Rollback," involved allegations the contractor had recruited illegal immigrants, mainly Eastern European nationals, to work on cleaning crews at stores of Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer.
Two officials initially said about 300 workers had been arrested at 61 stores in 21 states. But the officials later revised the numbers and said about 250 had been arrested at some 60 stores. They said investigators were still pursuing at least 50 workers.
Federal law enforcement officials said some Wal-Mart executives had direct knowledge of the alleged scheme, based on recorded conversations, surveillance and monitoring.
One official said federal agents conducted searches at the Bentonville, Arkansas, headquarters of Wal-Mart, the largest U.S. private sector employer, with about 1.1 million workers in the United States and 1.4 million worldwide.
Another official said federal grand jury subpoenas have been issued for the Wal-Mart executives to testify. The executives were not identified.
An official said the U.S. investigators believe Wal-Mart has shown a "reckless disregard" for U.S. immigration laws, exploiting workers, and has continued to hire some contractors who were already convicted of felony violations.
A Wal-Mart spokesman said the company was "committed to cooperating" with federal officials, who he said came to company headquarters with specific requests for information.
"These are third-party contractors," spokesman Tom Williams said. "We require that the contractors use legal workers."
"We don't know at this point if the current investigation includes one or more outside contractors. We use hundreds of them," he said, adding that about 1,000 of Wal-Mart's U.S. stores have outside cleaning services.
Wal-Mart already faces dozens of lawsuits alleging discrimination and violations of wage-and-hour rules. The company has drawn fire from labor groups, who say the company has an anti-union stance.
WORKSITE ENFORCEMENT EFFORT
Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security's Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, said the arrests were part of a "worksite enforcement" effort.
"If a company knowingly hires illegal workers it can be penalized up to $10,000 per person," he said.
The latest arrests stemmed from two prior investigations by federal immigration officials involving contractors and Wal-Mart stores, one in 1998 and the other in 2001, the officials said.
One official said the cleaning contractor at issue in the latest investigation was owned by two Illinois men and a Missouri man.
The company, which was not identified, allegedly hired illegal aliens, who had been recruited in the United States and in Europe, the official said.
Kurt Barnard, head of the consulting firm Retail Forecasting Group, said, "This is going to be a major public relations problem, with lots of tongues wagging about it."
Still, he said the news would probably have little effect on Wal-Mart's sales or profits because the company's low prices will continue to attract shoppers by the millions. Wal-Mart estimates more than 100 million Americans visit their stores every week.
On Wall Street, the stock closed up 47 cents at $58.71 on the New York Stock Exchange (news - web sites).
In March, a federal court jury acquitted leading poultry processor Tyson Foods and three of its executives of conspiring to smuggle illegal immigrants to work at its U.S. plants. (Additional reporting by Deborah Charles and Emily Kaiser)
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David Stambaugh
Film God
Posts: 4021
From: Eugene, Oregon
Registered: Jan 2002
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posted 11-18-2005 09:43 PM
Continued from here
quote:
they screw workers out of overtime
That was documented in the past. Is it still true? More recently they've cut back on worker's weekly hours to keep them under the minimum for receiving benefits. That's hardly unique to Wal-Mart but is typical of the way the company operates (as do more and more companies - even exhibitors? ).
quote:
Wal-Mart receives huge subsidies from localities to build stores
Eugene and Springfield offer all kinds of subsidies and tax incentives to attract companies (which means jobs). Blame the communities for offering these give-backs or caving in to Wal-Mart's demands. Don't blame Wal-Mart for accepting them (or demanding them).
Sony came to Springfield with a new CD manufacturing plant back in the 90s. It was huge news, created hundreds of new jobs that paid fairly well. They got all kinds of incentives and tax abatement for locating here. Then the CD market crashed and Sony abruptly closed the plant. I doubt they ever had to pay any local taxes because they weren't open long enough. What does this Sony story have to do with anything? I don't know.
quote:
hideous working conditions of the factory workers in China
EVERYTHING is made in China now. The US has made a pact with the devil to get all its goods manufactured as cheaply as possible. The devil is China. This is much bigger than just a Wal-Mart issue.
quote:
the ultimate version of what happens when corporate suits get their way with everything
That's not limited to Wal-Mart's corporate suits. It extends to hundreds (thousands?) of US companies that have moved their manufacturing offshore to improve their profitability. Or just to maintain any profitability while dealing with customers like Wal-Mart who beat them to a bloody pulp to get a low price.
You can also put some of the blame on American consumers who are fixated on saving $10 on the price of a new Hoover and don't care if American jobs get exported to China in the process.
So having said all that, I HATE Wal-Mart and I won't shop there, never, ever, just not gonna happen. I have browsed there just out of curiosity, and some of their prices are lower than anyone else's. I don't care though. Their bullying tactics with suppliers and track record of shabby treatment of their own employees is despicable, not to mention their stores are butt-ugly eyesores.
At least Target workers are unionized. Aren't they? I'm not a big fan of unions, but in the case of Wal-Mart I'd love to see them be unionized. That'd learn 'em!
[ 11-19-2005, 11:39 AM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]
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Mark Gulbrandsen
Resident Trollmaster
Posts: 16657
From: Music City
Registered: Jun 99
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posted 11-18-2005 11:02 PM
quote:
At least Target workers are unionized. Aren't they? I'm not a big fan of unions, but in the case of Wal-Mart I'd love to see them be unionized. That'd learn 'em!
Ha, Here they are not unionized! Jewtah is a Right To Work State.... The girlfriend worked at Target for a short while till I made her quit. They hired her for a stock position but gave her some other job on day one and she never got to do the job she was hired for.... They also treat their employees like dogs in a slum kennel, just as bad as Wal-Mart from what I've seen. She(and I) endured those assholes for three weeks, about 2 weeks 6 days too long!
When I shop I seek out local independents no matter what I shop for even if the cost is a bit higher. Even the food store chain Albertson's is up for sale because they have had too many Wal-Marts pounded down on top of them and they say they just can't compete anymore. I don't think anyone is going to want to buy them though.
Now on to Wal-Mart..... What a great law abiding company.....
125 Illegal Workers Found at Wal-Mart Site
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer
SCRANTON, Pa. - An immigration raid at a Wal-Mart distribution center under construction led to the arrests of 125 illegal workers, all of whom will be deported, federal officials said Friday.
The workers from Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico were detained Thursday at the construction site in eastern Pennsylvania, according to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. Some of the 125 used fake documents to obtain employment with subcontractors, officials said.
The arrests came after search warrants were executed for six companies at the site outside Pottsville, about 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
"Employers who knowingly hire illegal aliens, and those who utilize false documents to gain employment, face significant criminal and administrative charges," John Kelleghan, acting special agent-in-charge for ICE in Pennsylvania, said in a statement.
Agents obtained the search warrants after learning that 10 workers employed by Destin Drywall & Paint were using Social Security numbers that did not match their names. Another three used Social Security numbers that were never issued by the government, according to an affidavit unsealed Friday at U.S. District Court in Scranton.
Houston-based Destin has worked on Wal-Mart projects around the country, according to office manager Cindy Wyman. She said the company verifies that employees are permitted to work in the United States.
"As far as I know, their Social Security numbers are good," Wyman said of the Pennsylvania workers.
A Wal-Mart spokesman has said the detained workers were not employed by Wal-Mart but by the subcontractors. Wal-Mart's contracts with the companies require that they follow local, state and federal employment laws, the company said.
The Pennsylvania job site remains shut down, Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said Friday. He did not know when construction would resume.
Last month, Wal-Mart shut down work on seven stores under construction in North Dakota to check for illegal aliens after two illegal immigrants working on Wal-Mart projects in Bismarck were charged with molesting two 13-year-old girls. Charges against one of the suspects were dropped after authorities found out he was a juvenile.
In 2003, a raid of 60 Wal-Mart stores in 21 states led to the arrests of 245 illegal workers. An affidavit claimed a pair of senior Wal-Mart executives knew cleaning contractors were hiring illegal immigrants. The retailer agreed to pay $11 million in March to settle the case but denied senior executives knew of the hirings.
Mark
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-18-2005 11:45 PM
The Wal-Mart stuff, even this latest news of "undocumented workers" building a distribution center, should surprise no one. Damn near every American home getting built, or even having a roof replaced or lawn landscaped is being made possible by illegal alien labor. Our elected officials and law enforcement guys simply look the other way. That's because their "friends" are breaking the law instead of some penniless black guy in a ghetto.
The way I see it, this Wal-Mart bust happened because some "friend" in Pennsylvania pissed off some other "friend" at a country club gathering or some shit like that. Payback's a bitch.
We have a bunch of businessmen who are walking contradictions running things. They wave the American flag and talk all high and mighty about "patriotism" and other shit like that. In the same breath they'll say "outsourcing is a good thing" even if it involves selling out to the Communist Peoples Republic of China.
That's something I also don't understand about Wal-Mart. This is a company based in the heart of the bible belt, within the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. But they seem to have no problems making bedfellows with Red China. Human rights violations? Impoverished workers threated with SARS and bird flu? Intellectual property theft? A communist government ramping up military spending to match our own? Who cares!!! The extra profit on the next quarterly report is the only thing that matters. Who gives a shit what predicament the United States falls into 20 years from now? Us rich guys will be dead by then!
The corporate honchos don't give a shit. They live on some kind of "it'll all work out in the end" kind of sappy faith based economics. They have the attitude, "I'll be a greedy shithead and grab all I can from everyone else, but trust in everyone else to do the right thing." Trouble is they're not the only ones thinking this way. Many people copy the same ideology.
Golf courses across America are filled with people seething with hatred for anyone who has the title "employee" instead of "business owner." If you're an employee you're a socialist loser and deserve to starve in poverty. Of course, that doesn't make any sense economically. Most businesses live and die on the basis of what employees do, not what the owner does. That's even true of most small businesses. The vast majority of businesses in this country depend on the employees of other businesses for survival. Business owners are a tiny minority. Their dollars are not what keeps this country afloat. They don't have the spending power to do that.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 11-19-2005 06:05 AM
Since my post three years ago, Virgin Trains has come off the list - they've become a lot more reliable. British Airways (Shitish would be more accurate) is now on it, though. In summer 2003 I had to go to a meeting in Frankfurt with a broadcaster to whom a big footage sale was on the cards, with a lot of potentially valuable revenue for my archive. The Newcastle to Heathrow plane was two hours late ('due to staff shortages'), meaning that I missed my connection. I just made the meeting, but there were delays and hassles coming home, too. Then the following New Year, a friend came to stay from Washington DC. Despite having checked in three hours early, she was 'bumped' from the overbooked flight, and had to wait six hours for the next one. She also asked the check-in agent to 'phone me and let me know. This BA failed to do, meaning that I spent six hours in the middle of the night in the Manchester arrivals area. Even then it was a battle to get the BA staff at Manchester to tell me what was going on. What with that and all the wildcat strikes that have affected them, this all says to me that travelling on BA is one big risk to be avoided.
For both of my US trips this year (one in September and one coming up at the end of this month), their quotes were pretty competitive: but I've still gone with the slightly more expensive KLM/Northwest option, because (so far at least) the extra £20 or so has guaranteed an on-time arrival and a high standard of service.
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