Wal-Mart is driving down wages for warehouse workers, report says

SACRAMENTO —Wal-MartStores Inc.has applied its aggressive cost cutting to logistics, helping to drive down wages and benefits for U.S. warehouse workers, according to a new study conducted by a labor-backed group.

The world’s largest retailer has significantly outsourced its supply chain, hiring third-party companies to operate its warehouses and transport its good to stores. Those firms in turn often rely on poorly paid temporary workers, said a report released Wednesday by the National Employment Law Project, which advocates for low-wage workers.

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Severe Human Rights Violations at Food Processing Facilities Result in Global Labor Issues for Walmart

Sign the petition and tell Walmart to address abuses in the supply chain!

Last week thousands of workers at two different Thai food processing facilities protested their extremely poor working conditions. Both facilities, Phattahana Seafood and Vita Food Factory, are suppliers to Walmart stores across the US. Disturbing reports coming out of the region indicate that the questionable treatment of workers extends well-beyond the US border and signals deeper global issues.

Early reports indicate a series of severe human and worker rights violations, including confiscation of passports and conditions that appear to fit the definition of human trafficking and debt bondage.

In response to these egregious violations, Making Change at Walmart sent a letter to Walmart’s Ethical Sourcing director calling for the immediate defense of migrant workers in the food processing facilities. The letter detailed violations being committed by two separate plants, including one fruit (primarily pineapple) processor and one seafood (primarily shrimp) producer. Phattahan Seafood Factory may be holding as many as 2,000 confiscated passports belonging to migrant workers from Myanmar and Cambodia. A number of the workers have started to illegally flee the plant to return to their country despite lack of documentation.

Excerpt from the letter:

As the largest grocer in the world and the largest importer of shrimp in the United States, Walmart has a responsibility to call for an end to this treatment of workers and do more to ensure that this treatment is not occurring in other supplier factories.

Since the release of Walmart’s Global Responsibility Report on Monday, environmental groups have raised questions about a number of items that may have been overlooked in the report. To be sure, these latest accusations fly in the face of claims of responsible and sustainable sourcing.

Take Action! End the Cover-Up at Walmart

A new website—6degreesofwalmart.com—is looking to change Walmart’s behavior by targeting the company’s political spending for right-wing causes, calling on the company to disclose its political spending and allowing citizens to directly challenge Walmart on political spending.

Among those leading the efforts to reform Walmart are company employees like Venanzi Luna, who created this petition calling for a change in leadership at America’s largest retailer and a thorough and accountable investigation into Walmart’s reported cover-up of bribery in its Mexico operations. Join her call and then share this post with family, Facebook friends, Twitter followers and your local media outfits.

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In this video Luna explains why she’s devoted so much time to working from within the company to improve her status as well as those of her Walmart colleagues.

NYTimes: Wal-Mart’s U.S. Expansion Plans Complicated by Bribery Scandal

Wal-Mart has worked hard in recent years to polish its reputation and give elected officials, community groups and shoppers a reason to say yes to their stores, especially as it pushes aggressively into big — and historically hostile — cities. Now, the revelation of a bribery scandal involving the retailer’s Mexican subsidiary is giving critics a new reason to say no. Read the full story.

Inside Walmart's slow, quiet campaign to crack New York City

This week, following a report in the Times on a bribery scandal in Mexico involving Walmart, the mayor weighed in in favor of Walmart’s right to come to New York, the governor took a pass on the question, and several Democratic office-seekers, mindful of the strong opposition to Walmart by organized labor, weighed in, strongly, against.

Before this renewed debate, Walmart had been out of the news in New York for a while, more or less since late 2010, when the retailer announced plans to open up a store in East New York, and the City Council decided to hold a hearing about it. (They ultimately had to push the meeting to January 2011 because they needed a location bigger than the council chambers after seeing how many union members and others planned to flood the room.)

It almost seemed as if Walmart’s long-held pursuit of a New York location had been put on ice.

But they’ve actually been campaigning here, quietly, the whole time.

Read more and view the slideshow of how Walmart has tried to win over NYC.

The Wall Street Journal: City’s Wal-Mart Foes Rally Around Bribe Probe

Opponents to Wal-Mart’s entry into New York City are pouncing on allegations of bribery in Mexico to fuel a long-running fight to keep the retailer out of the five boroughs.

Anti-Wal-Mart groups gathered outside City Hall on Tuesday, backed by elected officials and union supporters, to draw attention to alleged violations of U.S. foreign corruption and bribery laws. Two likely mayoral candidates, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, called on the city to keep the company at bay and launch its own investigation into Wal-Mart’s local plans.

“We plan to use the bribery and cover up scandal to hammer every last nail into the coffin and keep Wal-Mart out of New York City,” said Dan Morris, spokesman for the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, which helped organize the protest.

Read more.