I think Lee Scott is still infected from the Wal-Mart Kool-Aid.

"The answer was, of course, one place I would have liked to have done more is helping people understand that Wal-Mart jobs, retail jobs in general, are good jobs," Scott said.

"They pay well and they offer extraordinary opportunities. But the fact is, you just can’t do everything."

Retail jobs are not yet good jobs. If you have worked for Wal-Mart and other retailers in the past ten or even twenty years you’ll know why. Personally I hate retail and sales work but that’s just me. I realize that they can be good jobs for many people if new laws concerning the federal minimum wage and worker organizing are passed.

So I know the Wal-Mart assistant manager has since apologized for this but I still find it disturbing. Obviously this mentality came from somewhere.

When an assistant manager emerged from the store, she asked family members to fill out an accident form. Asked to call 911, she allegedly refused, saying it was against company policy, Rita Mixter said.

Obviously Bentonville is saying that this is not the case and that the manger was wrong. However, the manager didn't just pull this out of thin air. There must have been an understanding coming down from the store manager that calling 911 was bad for business or something. It's just like how changing employee hours so that they don't get overtime is illegal but it still happens all the time. It would appear there is one policy for the public to see and another just for employees to follow.

Posted via email from Jason’s posterous

I actually thought that unionized and Wal-Mart were two words that could never be put together but obviously I was wrong.

Saint-Hyacinthe boasts the only unionized Wal-Mart store in North America with a contract after a Quebec arbitrator imposed one yesterday.

Both Wal-Mart Canada Corp. and the United Food and Commercial Workers union are claiming victory after reading Alain Corriveau’s 46-page ruling.

This is significant because Wal-Mart actually closed down the last store that unionized.

It was Corriveau who last summer imposed a collective agreement on Wal-Mart for nine employees at the store’s Tire & Lube garage in Gatineau, calling for 33-per-cent wage hikes for entry-level auto workers.

Wal-Mart subsequently closed that garage and another unionized store in Jonquière before contracts were negotiated, blaming union demands for making those operations unprofitable.

The union is awaiting a Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the closing of the Jonquière store in 2005, four years after it opened.

And the struggle continues but at least there’s a small win.

Wal-Mart Watch also has a website where Wal-Mart employees are encouraged to speak out against the corporation.

Hat tip to Cyber Steward for pointing out this SNL skit. Also Kudos to Saturday Night Live for having the guts to do a skit like this.

CEH – Consumer Watchdog Finds Illegal Jewelry

Oakland, CA-The Center for Environmental Health (CEH) announced today that it has found high lead levels in jewelry purchased from major retailers, including WalMart, Banana Republic, Lane Bryant, Express, Anchor Blue, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Longs Drugs (now part of CVS Caremark pharmacies). The California Attorney General yesterday sent a notice of violation of the jewelry law to WalMart, and has recently notified four of the other retailers (Lane Bryant, Express, Anchor Blue, and Longs) about their illegal jewelry. CEH is notifying Banana Republic today, and recently notified Abercrombie and Fitch that their jewelry violates the state’s Prop 65 consumer protection law.

I wonder if these corporations even realized that there were state laws in California regulating lead levels in jewelry?

A surface coating on a WalMart store-brand green frog charm for a child’s necklace tested as high as 37% lead, more than 600 times over the standard set by the state law that was developed from CEH’s landmark January 2006 settlement with the jewelry industry. The surface coating has variable lead levels, with some pieces testing at more than three times the legal limit.

Will any of these corporations have any comment about this?

Facebook | Billy Talen’s Notes

A young man was trampled at the early morning Black Friday opening of a Wal-mart. He was a stock clerk charged with helping with the crowd, who rushed in, busting open the doors. A pregnant woman nearby also fell and miscarried her child. Our hearts go out to the these neighbors and friends, both the victims and the rushing-in consumers. The Black Friday rush at the door is a symbol of an era that is ending. A moment when people don’t regard one anothers’ needs or safety, the amphetimine rush of greed. We are repairing our relationships, beginning to care for our neighbors again. We were isolated by the product-life. We’re sorry that the two sacrificed to make Love even more clear. — Rev

AP story here

If you don’t know about Buy Nothing Day then after reading about what happened at this Wal-Mart then you should really check it out. This is also all the more reason to support the work of Billy Talen aka Rev Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping.

Dozens of store employees trying to fight their way out to help the man were also getting trampled by the crowd, Fleming said. Witnesses said that even as the worker lay on the ground, shoppers streamed into the store, stepping over him.

This is when I say enough is enough stop with the consumerism. As the economy worsens consumption will lower and honestly there’s going to be a positive side to that my friends. One “consumer” who witnessed the stampede said that people were acting like savages. Yet you have to understand that this is what marketers want you to act like. Why could a President after September 11th, 2001 have as their only message to “go shopping?“

Bush did nothing to mobilize public opinion to accept the sacrifices that war implies — the first thing a leader would do. Tax cuts could go ahead as planned, and energy saving was dismissed out of hand. “Go shopping” was the administration’s message.

We let corporations like Wal-Mart and Madison Avenue marketers treat us like cattle. It has to stop. If it takes an economic recession to bring people back to their senses then so be it. We don’t really know what’s important to us anymore.

Correction: I’m hearing that the woman did not miscarry her child.

This is kind of sad in a way. They’d rather close stores than deal with a union. At least you know what can drive them out of Canada right? 

The closure of a unionized Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express in Gatineau, Quebec “is another attack on its workers, on the community, and one more example of its blatant disregard for Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” says Wayne Hanley, the National President of UFCW Canada.

I came across this site called JobVent.

JobVent is the web site for anyone who has ever said ‘I hate my job’, or ‘I love my job’. JobVent is the web site for people who are about to start a new job, and want to see what other people think of working there.

The top ten most hated places to work on their site are:

Imagine that! Wal-Mart made the list.

I was actually amazed to read this.

In a historic breakthrough, nine employees at a store in Gatineau, Quebec, became the only Wal-Mart workers in North America with a union contract, after an arbitrator imposed a collective agreement on August 15. Effective immediately, the three-year contract provides average raises of about 25%, to $11.54/hour from the current $9.25, and improved vacation provisions. Wages are scheduled to rise again to $15.94 in 2010.

Does this mean that Wal-Mart will try to close up shop to avoid honoring the contract?