Working Life

It was a hoot last night at the great debate over the question “Is Wal-Mart Good For America?” I’m not a good crowd numbers guesser so if I said there were 400 people, I might be off by fifty, one way or the other. Each combatant got to make an opening statement of 6 minutes […]

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I wasn’t there at the media-fest put on by Wal-Mart in Bentonville yesterday but it seemed like a swell affair, though none of the media accounts said anything about what food was served (C’mon, get to the important stuff!). I’ll leave most of my specific thoughts about the flaws in the company’s defense to tomorrow—after […]

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Just as Wal-Mart opens up its doors to a media-fest in Bentonville, it will get a letter from people living in Inglewood. The letter was just released: April 5, 2005 Mr. Lee Scott CEO Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611 Dear Mr. Scott: One year ago, Wal-Mart tried to deny the people of Inglewood their […]

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A quick heads-up on a debate I’ll be participating in on the topic “Is Wal-Mart Good For America?” Below are the details. More to come: there will be a webcast and probably a C-SPAN showing. Those of you in New York might want to get there early–these have been sell-outs in the past. “What’s Good […]

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So, what does this flurry of petty thieves departing the ranks of Wal-Mart management tell us about the culture of Wal-Mart? Even the Financial Times chose to give front-page play today to the resignation of Thomas Coughlin as a company director because of an “alleged unauthorized use of corporate-owned gift cards and personal reimbursements that […]

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They must be popping the corks off the champagne bottles in Bentonville. Wal-Mart makes a ton of money illegally. Once again, the Beast gets to break the law and get away with a slap on the wrist—no jail time for executives and a fine that, by its standards, is puny: it agreed to pay $11 […]

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When you think the Mob is moving in on you, it often is a smart thing to do to just pack up and leave, at least that was true in the old days. Wal-Mart apparently has the same effect. Check out what happens to a local store when the Beast from Bentonville is about to […]

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You gotta give the boys in Bentonville their due: they try to figure out every way possible to wriggle off the hook. In the current issue of Business Week (requires subscription), senior writer and long-time labor reporter Aaron Bernstein describes how Wal-Mart lawyers are trying to completely eviscerate the framework of class action lawsuits for […]

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I think this one got under the radar screen and wasn’t picked up by the media here or in Canada but the Beast of Bentonville got slapped by the Canadians a few weeks ago. Here’s the press release from Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board: Wal-Mart to pay fines totalling $500,000 for multiple Workplace Safety […]

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In Canada, it’s a different story when it comes to trying to form a union–at least workers have some belief that the law might stand by them. On Friday, the labor board in Quebec told Wal-Mart it had to stop initimating workers who were trying to organize a store in a suburb of Quebec. Of […]

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