Author: Another Ex Kerry Staffer

Cross posted at Daily Kos and the Wake-Up Blog

I am working for the UFCW’s new Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign, and we are still building out our website to include tools that you can use to change Wal-Mart.  

Post-election, there was a lot of talk about how Kerry could have better used the internet as a force for change, so I figured who better to come to for help than the very community so desperate to reach out and help — if only it were easier or could be done more efficiently.
Feel free to post comments here, or at the new Wake-Up Blog, or if you wish, email them to me at info@wakeupwalmart.com

Thank you for your help, and be creative!

Cross posted at Wake-Up Blog

Commenting to a post I made earlier in the day, one user spoke about the need to expose more of the “tainted tactics” that Wal-Mart uses to manipulate the American people. He’s right. Here are a couple more:

1. “There is reason to believe that Wal-Mart affects public assistance utilization not only through its compensation policies, but also by actively encouraging employees to participate in such programs. For example, the PBS television program Now with Bill Moyers reported that Wal-Mart provides all new employees with a 1-800 number to call to determine benefits eligibility.”

   – From “Hidden Costs of Wal-Mart Jobs” (Dube and Jacobs, UC Berkeley)

2. Wal-Mart has issued “A Manager’s Toolbox to Remaining Union Free,” which provides managers with lists of warning signs that workers might be organizing, including “frequent meetings at associates’ homes” and “associates who are never seen together start talking or associating with each other.” The “Toolbox” gives managers a hotline to call so that company specialists can respond rapidly and head off any attempt by employees to organize.

Regardless of their fluffy advertisements and attempts to whitewash America with their little media fest this week, Wal-Mart’s duplicity is clear as day.  We need to let Wal-Mart know that we do not stand for their tactics.

From today’s WSJ:

Now this is some hard-hitting shit.  Someone over there is going to have to answer some really tough questions, and eventually possibly face a RICO case.  Hopefully this story gets traction coming out of Wal-Mart’s feel-good media fest (which oddly enough didn’t seem to feel good for most reporters down there).

[UPDATE 2:18 PM EST 4/8/05]
The UFCW has responded, in a statement titled “Food and Commercial Workers Calls on Wal-Mart to Publicly Release Documents on Alleged Illegal Slush Fund Dedicated to Denying Workers Union Representation”

link here

Several news sources this morning are reporting on the protest outside of ABC’s Good Morning America yesterday.  Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) delivered a letter signed by 21 Democrats denouncing ABCs relationship with Walmart.  He also gave a fiery speech outside of the show, along with a group of local UFCW representatives and supporters.  

Some great quotes from Weiner’s speech:

More after the fold…
Not only has Wal-Mart been hostile to American values, they have also stated that the only way that they can improve profitability is through cutting better deals with their overseas (read: China) suppliers.  That doesn’t sound like “Only in America” to me.

Here is a quote by ABC VP Jeff Schneider:

Yes, Mr. Schneider, that is ironic, because you are taking wads of money from a giant corporation who you have helped expose as being dangerous to American communities in order to make them appear less dangerous.  Ironic indeed.

Links to articles:

AP – Here
NY Sun – Here

Link to the UFCWs petition calling on ABC to drop Walmart as the sponsor to the “Only in America” segment:

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/abcnews

Please keep your eyes out for more on this from me.  The UFCW is launching an aggressive new campaign, with plenty of new online tools so that we can all be active in this fight.  More to come soon…

Wal-Mart is the primary sponsor of Good Morning America’s “Only in America” series, which highlights patriotic, apple pie American stories. The “Only in America” web page is essentially a bogus Wal-Mart ad attempting to tie the corporation with a Made in America image.

What’s next? A series called “Healthy Living” sponsored by Phillip Morris. Please sign the petition (link below) and hold ABC News and Wal-Mart accountable.

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/abcnews

The UFCW is also planning a demonstration outside Good Morning America’s studio in New York City tomorrow (Tuesday, March 29th) at 6:30am. Local union activists and Congressman Anthony Weiner will be at 44th and Broadway to let ABC News know that we will not allow them to wrap Wal-Mart in their flag.

Only 5 years ago, Wal-Mart had to abandon its “Made in the USA” and “Bring it Home to the USA” campaigns because Dateline exposed them as blatantly misleading and false. And now, Wal-Mart comes up with this.

First, a preface to a preface.  I am an atheist.  I am not agnostic, I am not confused, I am not searching.  I do not believe that there is a greater power or a greater being or some grand scheme of existence.  I believe that humans are animals just like the rest of them, and that we evolved to become what we are today.  

But I am not writing this to discuss my beliefs, and I personally don’t care to discuss the beliefs of others.  To each her/his own, and I sincerely mean that.

So it was about 10 years ago when I began to have the thoughts which were the seeds for my current beliefs.  I grew up in a family very involved in the UCC (I believe Congregational Church was still the going term).  My mother studied to become a pastor until we could no longer afford for her to be in school.  I was confirmed at 16.  

Some of my first doubts about religion were formed around my dislike of the rites, rituals and seemingly mindless tasks performed at my church, and even moreso about those of the Catholic Church (attended Catholic H.S.).  So as time went on and I grew away from the beliefs I had been raised with, I became more cynical and distrustful of the “institution” I saw my church as.  

Fast forward 10 years.  The election was just a few months old, and I was still reeling from it all, and especially angry about the wedge issues (gay marriage in particular) and the bullshit that was brought upon Democrats from the other side.  A news article flashed by without much notice in January.  It was about the advertisements that the UCC had made welcoming EVERYONE into their church (the ads on dKos are about these commercials).  

I wrote my old pastor an e-mail and thanked him from the bottom of my heart.  I expressed how happy I was to have grown up in such an honest and open religion.  I knew that he had given sermons that were too liberal for some, who eventually would leave for another church, generally Catholic.  But I had never imagined that my pastor was part of the larger community of acceptance – TRUE acceptance – that is displayed in these ads.  

My beliefs remain the same today, but I have come to appreciate my upbringing in the United Church of Christ for many reasons — particularly the amazing display that was presented in the message of their ads.  

I have now rambled way beyond the point of bringing this together in a conclusive manner, but I hope that I have explained myself well enough for now.