UFCW Strongly Against Proposed Walmart Neighborhood Markets

[Omaha Steve]

http://pleasanton.patch.com/articles/ufcw-strongly-against-proposed-walmart-neighborhood-markets

Walmart wants to build grocery stores in Pleasanton and San Ramon but is facing resistance from the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union.

By Patrick Creaven
Email the author
February 9, 2012

http://o1.aolcdn.com/dims-shared/dims3/PATCH/resize/273x203/http://hss-prod.hss.aol.com/hss/storage/patch/63523d544a902d04f34cec5fd137b4fe

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union is strongly against Walmart Neighborhood Markets coming to Northern California, the union said in a press release Wednesday.

Walmart is looking to bring its grocery store chain to Bay Area cities, including Pleasanton and San Ramon. There are currently 167 Walmart Neighborhood Markets nationwide, selling everything one would find in a regular grocery store, according to the Walmart website.

What concerns the union is, unlike Safeway and Lucky's, workers at Walmart Neighborhood Markets aren't unionized.

"Walmart's new move into the traditional grocery store sector is a departure in tactics on their part and a direct threat to our members in the grocery industry," said Ron Lind, President of UFCW Local 5. "Thousands of good jobs and the livelihood of tens of thousands of our members are jeopardized by Walmart's plans. We intend on fighting this threat with every ounce of our strength."

FULL story at link.

[Leopolds Ghost]

1. Occupy WalMart Teach-In -- DC McPherson Sq 6 PM -- Action on Wednesday

To stop Walmart from building "Neighborhood" Walmart stores in northeast DC,
under a corrupt bargain with the new (corrupt) DC City Council and Mayor's office.

Thanks for posting the article! Let us know if anything's going on in the Bay Area

[Leopolds Ghost]

14. Action Thursday Morning -- to attempt to barricade a proposed Walmart in DC.

They're going to picket the construction site to prevent them from razing the buildings at Georgia and Missouri Ave.

Things will step up from there, Thursday is just the beginning.

[leveymg]

2. Antitrust laws were made for Walmart. Whatever happened to them?

There should be 20 separate unionized Walmarts, competing on price, quality, and service against each other. That would probably put another 250,000 Americans back to work, at decent wages, right there.

[RKP5637]

4. This is a nation full of monopolies anymore IMO. They seem a cruel joke today.

Walmart being one prime example. AT&T, Comcast, Verizon plus the huge media companies and many others. Congressmen will do/ignore anything for a buck today, apparently, in our 10% approval rated congress.

[Leopolds Ghost]

5. It's the media monopolies that allow all the rest.

Watch the movie "Network".

[Starry Messenger]

3. k&r

[marmar]

6. k/r

[Honeycombe8]

7. There's one near me. I don't think there's a way to stop Walmart. How? nt

[RKP5637]

8. Walmart is like a cancer.

[Bake]

23. Don't shop there.

Encourage your friends not to shop there.

Bake

[jsmirman]

9. Ok, so someone who is legitimately

if tangentially, a friend, liked walmart on facebook the other day.

I'd been looking for the opportunity to ask someone, "what the hell do I do with that," and so I guess I am asking, "what the hell do I do with that?"

I'm pretty sure she's a good person, I just don't even know where to begin. I couldn't fathom seeing it pop up on the right side of my screen. I thought that was like someone declaring that they hate puppies.

[Omaha Steve]

10. Next time in a conversation tell them why you feel the way you do

Good luck.

[Honeycombe8]

12. I shop at Walmart. Most people do. If everyone you know tells you they don't, some of them are...

some of them are lying. At one time or another, the majority of people in America who live within several miles of a Walmart (or have access to internet shopping), shop at Walmart.

They have a great inventory, great prices, and good business model (shipping has been fast for my online buys). Where else am I going to buy from? Target? People on DU hate Target,too. Home Depot? People on DU hate Home Depot, too. Is Best Buy okay? That's where I bought my new TV, because they beat Walmart's price. I also bought my first mp3 player there, on sale.

I also belong to Sam's Club (Walmart).

For groceries, I frequent Albertson's nearby, but because it's pricey (it caters to the millionaire homes nearby), I shop for food at food sections of Target and Sam's, usually, sometimes venturing to walmart, but Walmart Foodmart is further away.

[jsmirman]

13. What do you think of the standard criticisms of Walmart?

I'm pretty well convinced that they treat their workforce terribly and treat women even worse.

Walmart v. Dukes may well have been correctly decided, but what came out of that case was enough to convince me that Walmart has systematically discriminated against women (the lawsuit just went for too much and in the wrong way).

I can honestly say I have never shopped at a Walmart, but geography probably did most of the work.

[Honeycombe8]

17. I'm confused as to why so many DUers hate WalMart.

I haven't seen any info to convince me that WalMart has discriminated against women. As for the union thing, I don't know what to think about it, really. A lot of businesses are not union, which they have a right to be. I actually wasn't aware of the union issue until recently. I will read up on that.

I will say that WalMart tried to open a SuperMart near me (a big, sprawling place with both the dry goods AND the foomart in it). Right now what they have are two separate smaller stores about one block from ea. other, several miles north of me. The SuperMart was slated to be built several miles SOUTH of me. It had to be voted on either by voters directly, or via our City Council. I forget which. WalMart mailed out pretty, colorful spec drawings of the SuperMart, with parking outlined, and trees (to make it fit the area in appearance), etc. I joined with other local residents in objecting to it...either by petitioning our Councilman or voting against it. So the SuperMart failed, which I'm glad of. I mean, how many WalMarts do we NEED?

As for the women discrimination thing, the impression I got, and it was just an impression since I didn't have all the facts, led me to think that the women actually performed their jobs differently, and that's why they weren't promoted as often. I forget what the women did differently, though. I remember thinking that it didn't make sense that WalMart wouldn't promote a good, reliable hard worker because of gender, because all WalMart cares about, really, is profit. I didn't think WalMart would care one iota what color, what gender, or what ethnicity the worker was, as long as s/he showed up, worked long hours, did hard work, didn't complain, etc.

I'll read up on it more, though. It's hard to know all the facts in a big lawsuit...there are a lot of facts that go into a lawsuit like that (I work in litigation at a law firm, so I know how complicated it can be).

[jsmirman]

20. As to the lawsuit

the thing I took away is that there really was a policy in place that not only led to discrimination against good female workers, who were still discriminated against because the "one of us" ethos at walmart meant men promoting men - but that central HQ was well-aware of the issue. Walmart wouldn't spell out the policy, but as much as they had difficulty aggregating that class (I don't know why they had to draw it that broadly, I actually found their statistics compelling, if a bit creative in approach. It seemed a safe takeaway was that women weren't getting promoted at the same rates as men, and that more qualified women were frequently passed over. The fight from there is was there an intentional policy in place and so on, and I think the case was pretty strong that Walmart HQ knew what was going on, and if "the walmart way" had this totally unacceptable result, well, it was far from unacceptable to them.

But that class was always going to get broken apart. I don't think many of us thought they had a real chance with the SC. The SC, for one, is getting better on this, but is not going to grab onto innovative statistical ways of representing a situation, but the problems with the class in the class action were going to be very hard to justify to the Court.

[Honeycombe8]

18. Okay, I've read up on WalMart, Target, Kroger, Albertson's, & Costco

Yeah, WalMart sounds pretty bad. Very upsetting how they treat their workers. Target sounds even worse. That's where I do most of my shopping, household and food. Albertson's is not union in TX, but sounds like things are better there than WalMart or Target. Kroger is union.

I read up on Costco, and it sounds a lot better than Sam's Club, as far as pay and benefits for its workers. But the nearest Costco to me is miles away. They sell online, but I've looked, and they don't carry the daily sort of household things I buy, like sheets and things. It's a higher-brow store.

I'm afraid that WalMart has cornered teh market around here, in some ways. But I could food shop at Kroger w/o much inconvenience. And I could make the drive to Costco on occasion, decreasing my shopping at Sam's. But I'm stuck as far as frequent household shopping to either WalMart or Target, it looks like. Grocery stores are too expensive for pet treats, clothes detergent, & such.

[jsmirman]

19. One does what they can

I mean, like I said, crazy enough, I just have never been very close to a walmart. The cities I've lived in just haven't been the kind of cities walmart's going to force their way into, or at least not into the neighborhoods I've lived in. So I haven't even had the temptation. My family shopped a bit at Costco, back in the day, but it's been a while.

Another thing - for me - about Walmart is that they've got pretty terrible animal welfare practices when it comes to the food at Walmart (and Sam's Club, I believe).

And one thing I didn't mention is that the friend I mentioned at the beginning of this - is an animal person, specifically a horse-welfare advocate. It will come up at some point. My first means of reestablishing contact is through our facebook friendship, but I'm scared to click on her page because I get this one well-meaning but soul-destroying animal-related cause thing that I would truly kill myself if I contemplated too constantly.

I can say that when we were down in Florida for HS baseball spring training, I sure did love my Kroger, as we'd stock the crappy motel rooms with this and that.

One alternative is definitely buying online just from the general internet- have you checked the prices on all that? There are some really cheap ways to get pet stuff on line (same products, of course), and even like a drugstore.com has pretty good prices on detergent, etc.

One tries, that's always the best starting point.

[Honeycombe8]

22. I will check out the online shopping for household. Good idea. Thanks for...

Thanks for enlightening me instead of being all rude to me for shopping at WalMart (in apparent ignorance!).

My local Albertson's has a woman manager, so that's a good sign. With online shopping from good places, Kroger's, and trips to Costco, I think I can pretty much stop giving WalMart and Target business. I do not want to spend money to support the kinds of practices they use.

Thanks!

[jsmirman]

24. Hey

I just found out that as of last year, drugstore.com is now Walgreens - and I don't have a clue what Walgreens situation is with labor or anything else - point it, best we can do is try (and actually, looking at stuff, it looks like they've done some good (environmental) and some bad (they've had labor issues)(although I think Walmart is another level of bad there)). Although the world of online essentials shopping is much broader than just drugstore.com - a lot of the smaller companies are perfectly good, and competitively priced. It's not easy (and I make little unintentional screwups frequently).

[Leopolds Ghost]

15. Well, you only have 5 stores to choose from, that's like living in Soviet Russia.

But I don't imagine most Americans will understand this because they weren't alive when a "free market" existed in this country with lots of local stores to choose from. So they're like a frog in a pot, believing they have a choice because they have two stores to choose from -- in ten different locations.

[Honeycombe8]

16. Unfortunately, I'm old enough to remember no WalMarts, no fast food places.

That's right, folks. There was a time when there weren't fast food places in smaller cities and towns. A Church's Chicken opened up in my small city, as well as a couple of burger joints, when I was in my teens.

I first saw a WalMart...not sure when...when I moved to Dallas in 1985, I think. A WalMart was finally built in my home city in the 90's, I think it was.

My choices for food are (listed in order of nearness to me): Albertson's (caters to millionaires), Target food section, Sam's Club, WalMart Foodmart, Kroger's, Tom Thumb (caters to millionaires and mega-millionaires). I used to shop at Kroger's, when there was one close to me, but it closed. I live in an area that is close to a couple of VERY ritzy areas, which is why 2 of the stores are pricey.

[rucky]

21. The UFCW has a site with all the Wal-Mart facts you'll ever need...

http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/

[jsmirman]

26. Thanks *

nm

[w8liftinglady]

11. We are seeing this in my town,too.

They are building a wal Mart directly in front of our Brookshires.We are a "right-to-work" state,but Brookshires is employee owned,pays good wages and healthcare for it's staff.
This will ruin them.There has to be a limit set on where Walmart can build.

[Snake Alchemist]

25. I can't stand Brookshire's quality though.

I wish there more Central Markets and Tom Thumbs being built. nt