Wal-Mart Twisting the Truth Again

[Omaha Steve]

http://blog.aflcio.org/2006/11/30/wal-mart-twisting-the-truth-again/

Wal-Mart Twisting the Truth Again

by James Parks, Nov 30, 2006

Wal-Mart’s misinformation machine is at it again. JR Monsterfodder at Daily Kos exposes the giant retailer’s latest effort to twist the truth and make Wal-Mart seem like good guys.

He shares a letter he wrote to a junior executive at the Washington, D.C., public relations firm handling the Wal-Mart account. Seems the firm created a fake grassroots organization called Working Families for Wal-Mart and fake blog that preaches against unions. He gives the executive a lesson in union history, debunking Wal-Mart’s claim that unions are acting out of self-interest in highlighting Wal-Mart’s shoddy treatment of workers. Wal-Mart workers don’t vote for unionization is because:

…employers like Wal-Mart have gamed the system in order to destroy the right to organize as enshrined in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 (also known as the Wagner Act after its primary sponsor, Senator Robert Wagner of New York).

And no company has done a better job at hijacking the NLRA than Wal-Mart.

In China, Wal-Mart is closer to agreement on recognizing a so-called labor union—but there’s a hitch. Unlike unions in this country, the only legal labor unions in China are not independent but work primarily in the interest of the employer, not the worker. So when Wal-Mart gets good media coverage for making it’s first unionization agreement, it’s another sham P.R. move.

Meanwhile, the San Diego City Council on Tuesday approved a ban on big-box stores, effectively preventing Wal-Mart’s potential to expand in the nation’s eighth-largest city.

Read JR Monsterfodder’s entire letter here.

[Sherman A1]

1. I consider Wal Mart to be

"Evil Incarnate", but beyond that they might not be such a bad bunch.