{"id":608,"date":"2005-11-15T10:04:28","date_gmt":"2005-11-15T15:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/11\/15\/608\/"},"modified":"2006-10-08T12:03:49","modified_gmt":"2006-10-08T17:03:49","slug":"union-newswire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/archives\/2005\/11\/15\/608\/","title":{"rendered":"Union Newswire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nFor Nikolas Schiller<\/b>, it’s Wal-Mart’s attempt to open a bank in Utah a
\nbank that, of course, would not help local people and would run other
\nbanks out of business.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest of the article….
\n
\nsource:
\nhttp:\/\/www.organicconsumers.org\/btc\/walmart112205.cfm<\/a><\/p>\n

ANTI-WAL-MART CAMPAIGN UNITES
\nUNIONISTS WITH OTHER ACTIVISTS<\/h1>\n

By Mark Gruenberg, Press Associates, Inc. Staff Writer<\/p>\n

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (PAI) For Adam Eidinger, Wal-Mart represents a mass
\nretailer that exploits workers and is now trying to horn in on the
\norganic foods market with phony organic foods. For Brendan Hoffman, it’s
\nthe waste of gas as people drive for miles through suburban sprawl to
\nWal-Mart’s “big box” stores, passing up union retailers and mom-and-pop
\nestablishments to buy from a firm that imports 60 percent of its goods
\nfrom China wasting even more energy.<\/p>\n

For Ron Powell and the United Food and Commercial Workers in Chicago,
\nit’s a plan to stop yet another Wal-Mart by passing a city ordinance
\nrequiring such big box retailers to provide a living wage and health
\ncare benefits if they want to do business in the Second City.<\/p>\n

For Nikolas Schiller<\/b>, it’s Wal-Mart’s attempt to open a bank in Utah a
\nbank that, of course, would not help local people and would run other
\nbanks out of business.<\/p>\n

And for Marco Del Fuego, it’s Wal-Mart’s exploitation of Latino workers,
\nand shoppers.<\/p>\n

Hoffman, Eidinger, Powell, Schiller, Del Fuego and the others are among
\nthe thousands of people nationwide who kicked off a week of protests
\nagainst the anti-worker anti-union retail behemoth with demonstrations
\nand rallies on Nov. 13.<\/p>\n

What those rallies and protests, along with the documentary Wal-Mart:
\nThe High Cost Of Low Price, which premiered nationwide that day,
\nsymbolize is how Wal-Mart’s exploitation of workers, communities and
\nshoppers unites union members in one large campaign with activists of
\nother causes, all concerned about the giant retailer’s threat.<\/p>\n

Eidinger [from the Organic Consumers Association] and his colleagues took
\ntheir stand against Wal-Mart on the city-owned strip of grass outside a Wal-Mart
\nin the D.C. suburb of Alexandria, Va. Company managers stationed themselves
\njust inside the entrance to the parking lot and warned the protesters they would
\nbe arrested if they set foot in it.<\/p>\n

Flourishing signs and keeping up a running commentary to shoppers about
\nWal-Mart’s abuses, the Alexandria demonstrators drew some support honks
\nand waves and some indifference.<\/p>\n

The Chicagoans, who have huge community backing and significant City
\nCouncil support, held a press conference featuring exploited Wal-Mart
\nworkers, discussed the big box store ordinance, and then showed the
\nfilm one of 3,000 showings nationwide.<\/p>\n

“Whether its through gender discrimination, poverty wages, violations of
\nchild labor laws or environmental practices, Wal-Mart’s predatory
\nbusiness practices affect the quality of life of us all,” UFCW Local 881
\nPresident Powell said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The Alexandria protesters represented not just workers, but the wide
\nrange of groups and people whom Powell says Wal-Mart impacts.<\/p>\n

Eidinger [from the Washington, D.C. Office of the Organic Consumers
\nAssociation] explained Wal-Mart is trying to muscle into the organic foods
\nmarket “It sells beef from cows that spend their first year of life on a
\n3,000-head factory farm in Colorado,” being fed chemical-laced feed, and
\ntheir second year being fed non-chemical feed. As far as he’s concerned,
\nthat’s fake.<\/p>\n

“This holiday season, give the gift of jobs of a sustainable economy, not
\nsweatshop jobs,” he urged motorists, citing Wal-Mart’s Chinese imports.<\/p>\n

Hoffman, a Service Employees Local 500 member who works for the Ralph
\nNader-organized group Public Citizen a strong labor ally on trade
\nissues says the waste of gas that people use to come to Wal-Mart and the
\nwaste of energy it usses to import goods from China brought him to the
\nrally.<\/p>\n

Barry Weinstein, an AFT member from Fairfax County, actually started his
\nWal-Mart campaign weeks ago, as part of a joint AFT-NEA project where
\nteachers urged shoppers to buy school supplies from retailers other than
\nWal-Mart retailers that pay living wages to their workers, or which are
\nlocal businesses.<\/p>\n

Schiller fears Wal-Mart becoming a bank, as it’s trying to do in Utah.
\nThe AFL-CIO formally opposes the company’s banking application. “It’ll
\nbecome a predatory lender, and end micro-loans in small communities,” to
\nlocal people, he warns.<\/p>\n

For Del Fuego, discrimination is the key. Holding a sign in Spanish
\n“Don’t let Wal-Mart profit from breaking child labor laws” he explained
\nit exploits Latinos both in the U.S. and overseas. In the U.S., Wal-Mart
\nhas been cited for, with management knowledge, using illegal immigrants
\nto clean up its stores after hours. Wal-Mart’s wages for its Latin
\nAmerican workers are also far below those paid by other retailers, Del
\nFuego noted. And its goods are from sweatshops in China and Latin America.<\/p>\n

“Many Latinos are now asking questions” about Wal-Mart, he said.” They not
\nonly work for this monster, they buy at it and are questioning the real
\nprice.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For Nikolas Schiller, it’s Wal-Mart’s attempt to open a bank in Utah a bank that, of course, would not help local people and would run other banks out of business. Read the rest of the article….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-in-the-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":60,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nikolasschiller.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}