wuwm's blog

Last week Virginia's Orange County Board of Supervisors vote to approve the building of a new Wal-Mart Supercenter within the historic boundaries of the
Wilderness Battlefield - and one of the most significant battlefields of the Civil War. The Civil War Preservation Trust has been fighting Wal-Mart on this location for over a year - seeking an alternative location and compromoise - and after last week they desperately need everyones help to stop Wal-Mart from moving forward and opening the door to further destructive development.

Even State Senator Creigh Deeds, the Democratic candidate for Virginia Governor, has written a letter to the president and CEO of Wal-Mart pleading with him to move the location off the historic battlefield. Wake-Up Wal-Mart is helping in this fight and you can too by also writing a letter on the Civil War Preservation Trust's website and also help spread the word yourself.

More from Blue Virginia and the Washington Post below:

Walmart, in one of their worst ways of prioritizing prices above qualities to date, turns to a foreign drug supplier, Ranbaxy Laboratories, LTD, who has repeatedly been investigated by the FDA and the DoJ for "inadequate" safeguards against contamination, falsification of records and submitting false information to the FDA.

On top of that, just eight months before the FDA inspected Ranbaxy's Paonta Sahib plant and found significant violations, Walmart awarded the company a "Supplier Award" for improving shipping times and performance.

In a new report on our website, we detail their multi-year spanning violations, DoJ investigation, Congressional Investigation, and list out all of the drugs made at the facility in questions. Additionally, we detail their recent violations below.

The WSJ's law blog has an update on the discrimination suit in which a 54-year-old Wal-Mart employee from California named Betty Dukes alleged in a discrimination claim that she was denied the training needed to obtain a higher-paying job because of her sex.

The bad news, from where we sit: Neither side emerged as the clear winner during Tuesday’s oral arguments out in San Francisco over class-certification in the proposed Wal-Mart sex-discrimination class-action. (We like finality.) The silver lining: the suspense in the case will continue to build (We like suspense.)

Are analysts utilizing fearmongering to demonize a Walmart unionization?

On Tuesday, Citigroup analyst Deborah Weinswig downgraded Walmart stock from a buy to a hold, reportedly because of fears that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) would "make it easier for employees to unionize [and] would raise the retail giant's labor costs and hurt its competitiveness."

It was hard to view this as anything but an overt political act intended to set off panic in a fragile economic climate (and an an attempt to bulldoze Blanche Lincoln), since the bill hadn't even been introduced yet and its passage is far from assured. In fact, not much has changed since February 19th when Weinswig gave Walmart a "9.5 out of 10" rating.

Not long ago there was a huge upset with Bruce Springsteen fans because the decision was made for Walmart to exclusively offer one of his "best hit" CDs.

Well, it looks like Springsteen is regretting that decision

In a fine profile written by Jon Pareles on Bruce Springsteen, the Boss said the decision to do a deal with Wal-Mart for an exclusive greatest hits package was made too hastily. “We were in the middle of doing a lot of things, it kind of came down and, really, we didn’t vet it the way we usually do,” he said. “We just dropped the ball on it. ... Given its labor history, it was something that if we’d thought about it a little longer, we’d have done something different.”
He added, “It was a mistake. Our batting average is usually very good, but we missed that one. Fans will call you on that stuff, as it should be.”

McCain probably thought that by choosing Sarah Palin as a running mate he could mask his record on women’s issues – or to borrow a timely phrase, put lipstick on the pig that is his platform.

But WakeUpWalmart.com is going to make sure he doesn’t get away with it-- not here in Michigan, and not anywhere else.

In a new ad, WakeUpWalmart.com highlights what is one of the most egregious examples of his standing in the way of progressive reforms like fair pay for women.

Women working at Walmart make notoriously less than their male counterparts (it’s the Walmart way). That’s why WakeUp Walmart joined together with other groups to form the largest discrimination class action in history.

This was a chance for Big Mac to prove those reform credentials he likes to talk about, but instead he case a big, fat, regressive “NO” to fair pay.

Yesterday's New York Times posted a misleading article that uses the relationship between SEIU President Andy Stern and Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott as evidence of a "slowing down" of the Wal-Mart campaigns. (NYT registration required-- it's also re-posted at
HuffPo.)

While we cannot speak for Wal-Mart Watch, everyone should know WakeUpWalMart.com has NO intention of letting Wal-Mart off the hook. None. Zero. Zilch.

Wake Up Walmart has released its first video of 2008. Walmart is a key issue for progressives to focus on- because of their awful health care benefits, North Carolina citizens are estimated to be paying $54,409,985 a year in taxes to cover poor Walmart employees and their families with health care- while Walmart is making huge profits.