Wal Mart

[jennifer7]

Wal mart any official news ?

[therising]

We still haven't heard from the otherwise ubiquitous Mr. Lee C.

I'd still like to know - Who is paying the legal fees for the CARS Group???

I understand he doesn't visit these message boards, but does write for this site. Maybe he could be pursued to write an article about this???

Follow the money???? Funny how that phrase comes in handy only when it's convenient.

[moadib]

THIS IS THE BIGGEST REASON WHATS WRONG WITH UNIONS

THE PURPOSE FOR UNIONS IS TO PROTECT AND PROMOTE THE RIGHTS OF WORKERS, SPECIFICALLY IN SAFE WORKING CONDITIONS, FAIR COMPENSATION, JUSTICE (NO DISCRIMINATION), ETC.

IT MAKES ME SAD THAT UNIONS ARE REPRESENTING CIVIL SERVICE WORKERS WHERE THEY ARENT NEEDED AND WHOSE COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ABUSES ARE KILLING CITIES LIKE BUFFALO (TAXES) AND UNDERMINING THE EDUCATION OF OUR CHILDREN (NON-COMPETITIVE SCHOOLS)

IT MAKES ME SAD THAT UNIONS ARENT REPRESENTING THOSE WHO NEED IT MOST, LIKE COMPANIES THAT BUILD THEIR EMPIRE BY HIGH TURNOVER FULL AND PART TIME EMPLOYEES.

EVERYONE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LIVE A DECENT LIFE AND PURSUE THE AMERICAN DREAM. UNFORTUNATELY OUR CIVIL SERVICE UNIONS ARE CHOKING OFF PRIVATE SECTOR DEVELOPMENT AND PUSHING MORE AND MORE PEOPLE INTO THE HIGH TURNOVER, PART TIME, MINIMUM WAGE JOBS...THAT THE UNION HAS ABANDONED.

[bigjoe]

walmart is awaiting the decision by federal judge elfvin to dismiss the current ridiculous lawsuit filed by the CARS group (and their anonymous corporate sponsor). There is a strong likelihood the project will commence this summer.
Ironically, although the walmart has received tremendous local support, the CARS group has successfully thwarted the associated millions in construction work and hundreds of permanent jobs at a time when erie county so desperately needs them. It is estimated, the area has lost $1million in taxes the walmart would have paid by now in property taxes - money the town, county, and schools could have used to offset increasing expenses.
Congratulations to lee chowaniec and the CARS group for their contribution to our ailing economy!

[ILOVENY]

I guess what bigjoe is saying is he is awaiting the ruling.

The only thing Mr.C did was allow the present owner to fill the back property with trash. If he didnt have deep pockets full of Mr.G's he would have been dragged into court for that mess by now.

He keeps asking who pays the legal costs for CARRS-- well who pays the donations to the current town board.

I think a quid pro quo would be fair. List all the donations and expenditures on both sides and let the people deside who'"s acting for who"s interests.

I am sure your new school board hopeful(MR.M) will help you steer the future construction contracts. OOOPS maybe you didn,t want that to come out yet.

Well sorry if feathers got ruffled but as we all know-"The more things change-the more they stay the same.

This was not ment to insult or slander.This is just my speaking my mind.I could be wrong-maybe thats why i drive a truck.

[avet]

256 BILLIONS PROFIT - 2004

AND WE GIVE THEM TAX BREAKS !

[yokes]

Originally posted by avet
256 BILLIONS PROFIT - 2004

AND WE GIVE THEM TAX BREAKS !

Sales do not equal profits.

If you are going to complain about the evil corporate greed get it right.

[avet]

Ooops. Saw a quick blurb on c-Span, it was revenue.

See if these sound right:
==========================================

"Children of WalMart Workers Have to be Cared for by the State"

"Instead of providing affordable health care, Wal-Mart encourages its workers to sign up for public health assistance. On a Dec. 19, 2003 broadcast of “NOW” with Bill Moyers, former 10-year Wal-Mart manager Gretchen Adams said managers kept “a list of the state agencies so that we could have some place to send these associates…for Medicaid, for well-baby care, for whatever it is that they need.”


"Every minute, around the clock, this colossus of commerce earns an average of nearly $20,000."


"Wal-Mart profits: a 13 percent gain. That's a jump of $2.3 billion in a single quarter."


"Wal-Mart exploits both the workers and their communities. It has shifted much of its costs to local and national governments. Its profits come at the expense of services desperately needed by low-paid workers and oppressed communities--like the workers at Wal-Mart. Their wages are so low that they have to seek assistance in the form of food stamps, medical care and affordable housing."

"There was a study not too long ago about Wal-mart in California. It found that even many full-time employees couldn't make ends meet based on their Wal-mart wages and had to rely on the state for assistance. In other words, the taxpayer is subsidizing Wal-mart's profits in California. That's what I call corporate welfare."

"Wal-Mart is the largest private in employer in the United States. Wal-Mart makes billions in profits while Wal-Mart employees, most of whom are not permitted to work full-time, typically gross less than $11,000 per year. Low wages and high healthcare costs mean most employees are forced to go without insurance. "

"Moreover, Walmart is extremely clever in leveraging its stores into small communities. They often threaten larger communities with moving a Walmart into a smaller community nearby or even putting it up on less regulated county land in order to force the town to take the store."


"I work at Wal-Mart, and know from firsthand experience that workers are treated like ****. The pay is so low that most of my fellow coworkers have to work several jobs — often up to 70 hours a week. Keep in mind that many of these people have children they have to support. A lot of the single mothers employed at Wal-Mart are also on food stamps because they simply don’t make enough money to get by. Finding work elsewhere is extremely difficult — Wal-Mart is one of the few places actually hiring. Other jobs pay a comparable wage — which is part of the problem. Studies have shown that Wal-Mart depresses local wages through a variety of tactics that are, to say the least, ethically questionable. The average wage cited by the article strikes me as too high: where I live, starting pay is $6.25 (sometimes more, depending on experience), and turnover is so high (due to ****ty conditions) that few people earn much beyond that. (In fact, a bulletin in the back places employee wages at $6.93/hr.) "


"Wal-Mart has led a technological revolution in retailing, installing computerized ordering and distribution. It has so streamlined its on-time deliveries that products are often sold at retail even before the wholesale distributor gets paid for them. The company has also lowered wages and benefits by almost 6 percent compared to its competitors."


"Wal-Mart has topped the Fortune 500 list for the last three years. Five of the 10 richest people in the world in 2002 were members of the ruling Walton family of this vast retailing empire, according to For bes magazine. With a total of more than $100 billion in personal assets, the infamous five have become the beneficiaries of a global structure and a primary leader in the drive to lower wages and benefits."


"In the five weeks ending April 3, Wal-Mart sales exceeded $20 billion, far greater than the combined total of the next 10 largest retail giants."


"The average "associate" is rewarded with an annual salary of $13,861 for full-time work, according to a February 2004 report from Rep. George Miller of Cali fornia. But about 70 percent of the "full-time" workers average only 28 hours a week, making their gross average wage less than $11,000 a year. The national poverty-level wage for a family of three is around $16,000. It is clear that the workers can't live on what they earn, leading to a turnover that has reached 150 percent in many of the megastores."


"According to the United Food and Com mercial Workers, the majority of Wal- Mart employees don't have healthcare coverage, which would cost them 20 percent of their wages. Family coverage would cost more than twice that. The Univ ersity of California at Berkeley reported that California taxpayers subsidize Wal-Mart employees by a total of $20.5 million a year in healthcare costs."


"Wal-Mart represents all that is endemic to monopoly capitalism--private ownership by a few of all the productive forces, and the insatiable appetite for amassing profits. "


"The Walton family, which founded and today controls Wal-Mart, lives on blood money. Forbes magazine places the worth of the family at greater than $100 billion."

"The Waltons are using their enormous leverage to carefully construct a banking empire, under tight family control."


"The second part of the myth is that Mr. Sam disdained Wall Street, building his company through his own native genius and hard work.
By extension, this myth is stretched to cover the rest of the Walton clan. They are a chip off the block of ol' Mr. Sam. They use their money to help people. Their savage amassing of a $100 billion fortune hasn't changed them; they're just like you and me.
No one should be dazzled by this myth. The truth is that Wal-Mart made its money by crushing its employees, its competitors, its suppliers, and foreign nations. It grew only through the aid and massive funding of Wall Street, which admires Wal-Mart as the paradigm of what it wants to achieve in a post-industrial society. "


"Wal-Mart is a fitting recipient of the Grinch title. As the United States' largest retailer and largest employer, Wal-Mart is a driving force in setting wage standards wherever its stores are located. Despite nearly $9 billion in profits, its wages are so low that many employees are eligible for food stamps. Even so, local taxpayers often finance Wal-Mart's expansion through tax breaks and development incentives.
Wal-Mart has created such high barriers to qualify for its health care benefits, that many workers are left dependent on publicly financed medical services, a largely hidden taxpayer subsidy. According to a research study in California, Wal-Mart workers seek $86 million a year in state aid because of inadequate wages and benefits. In effect, Wal-mart cleverly shifts a portion of its labor costs to the public.
Earlier this year, Wal-Mart admitted that it routinely locked overnight workers in its stores. Wal-Mart was also sued this year in the largest sex-discrimination case in history, brought on behalf of about 1.6 million current and former employees. "


"Wal-Mart Squeezes its China Sweatshops for More Profits
"We have to constantly cut costs to satisfy Wal-Mart."
Most of the 2,100 workers here are poor migrants from the countryside who have come to this industrial hub in southern China for jobs that pay about $120 a month. A sign on the wall reminds them of their expendability in a nation with hundreds of millions of surplus workers: "If you don't work hard today, tomorrow you'll have to try hard to look for a job."


Washington, D.C. U.S. Taxpayers Pay Tab for Wal-Mart's Low Wages.

That Wal-Mart store you pass by on the highway is costing you a lot of money. A 25 page report released last week by Congressman George Miller (D-CA), the ranking member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, says that American taxpayers are paying the tab for Wal-Mart's low wages and benefits for its 1.5 million workers. The report, "Everyday Low Wages: The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart," calculates that a typical Wal-Mart with 200 workers costs federal taxpayers $420,750 per year, or about $2,103 per worker. Congressional researchers found that Wal-Mart's everyday low wages were being "subsidized" by U.S. taxpayers as follows:
* $36,000 a year to provide free and reduced lunches for the children of Wal-Mart families.
* $42,000 a year for housing assistance.
* $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families.
* $100,000 a year for additional child tax credits.
* $108,000 a year for federal health care costs of moving into state children's health insurance programs.
* $9,750 a year for the additional costs of low-income energy assistance.
The new report concludes that "Wal-Mart success has meant downward pressures on wages and benefits, rampant violations of basic worker's rights, and threats to the standard of living in communities across the country. The success of business need not come at the expense of workers and their families. Such short-sighted profit-making strategies ultimately undermine our economy."

[yokes]

so don't shop there. and convince enough other people to not shop there. Bottom line the American public accepts and embraces wal-mart, or they would have 250 billion in sales would they?

[therising]

Time to go moadib:

DON'T CONFUSE THE ETHICS OF WAL-MART WITH THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE BEEN FIGHTING THIS LAWSUIT.

The people fighting this suit call themselves CARS - Citizens Against Retail Sprawl. An ironic name, considering that fact that most of them moved to new Subdivisions in Lancaster over the past few years. These people ARE sprawl!! They just want to close the door behind them ("We got our nice new house, now lets keep everyone else out")

ANYWAY, THESE PEOPLE DON'T GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WAL-MART, THEY'RE SIMPLY PISSED THAT IT'S BEING BUILD BEHIND THEIR LOVELY NEW PATIO HOMES (which are located about 500 feet from Transit Road!)

These lawsuits have been going on for at least 5 years. WHO DO YOU THINK FUNDS THEM? Is it possible that they're been paying this out of their own pockets? OR ARE THEY BEING FUNDED BY LOCAL SUPERMARKETS WHO WILL PAY ANYTHING TO DELAY THE OPENING OF A SUPER-WALMART!!??

Now don't get me wrong...these people have the right to fight whatever they want to fight. And the local supermarkets have the right to fund them, as well - there is nothing illegal about it.
BUT THE UNETHICAL THING GOING ON HERE IS THAT THE CARS GROUP WILL MANIPULATE THE PUBLIC; ie Wal-mart is inmoral, Traffic will increase, The environment/wetlands/spotted owl, etc etc etc.

All the CARS Group cares about is that the views from their back patios will be changed.

Sucks to be them, but they probably should have thought about that before building a new house withing stone's throw of transit road.

[bigjoe]

ILOVENY - you are clearly ill-informed. Your backhanded accusations, intimations, and insults are demonstrative of the many lies and misinformation that certain individuals have subjected our good community to over the past few years! I see nothing even remotely accurate in any of your comments.
The trash on the property has been illegalyy dumped there by unknown persons - the property cannot be cleaned up until the meritless lawsuit is concluded!
I have no idea who contributes to the town board but I do know it is a matter of public record (unlike the CARS funding).
I have no personal involvement in any schoolboard elections and I have no idea where you expect school construction contracts to be directed. Last I knew they were a matter of public bidding. (By the way, I am not involved in the construction trades)
I understand you claim to be merely speaking your mind,... perhaps you might want to consider saving your energy for a less-taxing and more useful purpose.

[bigjoe]

ILOVENY - you are clearly ill-informed. Your backhanded accusations, intimations, and insults are demonstrative of the many lies and misinformation that certain individuals have subjected our good community to over the past few years! I see nothing even remotely accurate in any of your comments.
The trash on the property has been illegalyy dumped there by unknown persons - the property cannot be cleaned up until the meritless lawsuit is concluded!
I have no idea who contributes to the town board but I do know it is a matter of public record (unlike the CARS funding).
I have no personal involvement in any schoolboard elections and I have no idea where you expect school construction contracts to be directed. Last I knew they were a matter of public bidding. (By the way, I am not involved in the construction trades)
I understand you claim to be merely speaking your mind,... perhaps you might want to consider saving your energy for a less-taxing and more useful purpose.

[jennifer7]

I'm hearing Rumors wal mart is dead, Wal Mart no
longer wants to come to Lancaster, They have wasted too
much time & money on the lawsuits, also I heard that their
gonna put up a pig farm on the corner, What a Waste ?
what could have been ?

[crlachepinochet]

People that complain about Wal-Mart bug me. Usually it's just a complaint about how little they pay their workers. I know they've had some problems with labor (some underage workers, illegal immigrants), but it would make me more suspicious if the nation's largest employer didn't have any of these problems. From what I've read, these problems didn't come from the corporate leadership.

Anyway, aside from those things, they run a pretty clean ship. The billions of dollars in inventory made in China may make people a little angry... that's a reason you might not want to shop at Wal-Mart, but it's certainly not a reason to shut them down. If outsourcing was illegal, everyone but a few mom-and-pops would be shut down. Even the anti-Wal-Mart article above pegged starting salary in the one area at 6.25 and average wage at 6.93. The starting pay is more than a dollar above minimum wage(talking about the federal minimum wage), and the average pay is nearly two dollars more than minimum wage! If these people need to work 70 hours per week just to get by, then maybe the problem isn't with the employers.

There's contradictions that come up frequently when talking about Wal-Mart. We want the lowest prices, but we complain about how much the workers are paid. We want fair wages, but we don't want higher prices to pay for the workers. We don't want gov't interference in business, but we feel outraged by some of Wal-Mart's legal practices. Just imagine if Wal-Mart started everywhere at minimum wage! Just as legal, and they probably wouldn't have too much trouble filling the spots...

[WNYresident]

If these people need to work 70 hours per week just to get by, then maybe the problem isn't with the employers.

Perhaps if taxes and fees weren't so high people would be much better off.