Publish to Newswire
Add an EventFrom the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature
UFCW Launches New Campaign to 'Wake Up Walmart'
UFCW Launches New Campaign to 'Wake Up Walmart'; America's Campaign to Change Wal-Mart Begins with New Website and Blog
4/5/2005 2:27:00 PM
To: National Desk, Labor Reporter
Contact: Paul Blank of UFCW, 202-466-1503 or 310-701-3003
WASHINGTON, April 5 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) announced today it is launching a new grassroots, community-based campaign to wake up Wal-Mart. The campaign's website -- http://www.WakeupWalMart.com -- and the campaign's blog --http://blog.WakeUpWalmart.com -- will be at the center of this new grassroots movement that will lead and revolutionize the national fight to change Wal-Mart.
"This is a new day and a new strategy in the fight against Wal-Mart," stated Paul Blank, the new campaign director for the Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign. "Wal-Mart's greed puts profits before people. Today, we are forming a grassroots movement to empower millions of Americans to ask Wal-Mart to put people first."
"The rise of Wal-Mart as the world's largest retailer has come at a high cost to our society. Traditional organizing campaigns are too limited for a greedy, global company who is willing to cut its nose to spite its face rather than do the right thing and stand up for people," said Blank.
"For too long, Wal-Mart's business practice has been to lower our wages, pressure suppliers to ship our jobs overseas, shift their health care costs onto American taxpayers and ask communities to give over $1 billion in subsidies for their expansion," said Blank.
"All across America, consumers and taxpayers are waking up to the high cost of Wal-Mart's poverty wages, reliance on taxpayer funded state health care programs and devastating impact on communities. Wal-Mart's values are not America's values," stated Blank. "There is only one force powerful enough to change the largest corporation in the world, the largest retailer in the world and the largest employer in the world-the American people. We are Wal-Mart's consumers and it is time for Wal-Mart to wake up and start doing what is right for its employees, our families, and our country."
The Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign will give people the tools they need to join together in common purpose in order to change the largest corporation in the world. The campaign will utilize an array of organizing strategies, innovative media, a blog and other internet tools that have been used successfully in previous political and grassroots campaigns.
The website -- http://www.WakeupWalMart.com -- will offer concerned citizens, community leaders, activists and workers an online vehicle where they can learn the truth about Wal-Mart's record, as well as become an active member in this new grassroots movement. The "Take Action" center of the website will even feature a new tool for community leaders to Adopt-A-Store and begin forming community coalitions around every Wal-Mart location in the United States.
The website will also be used to form a new group of current and former Wal-Mart employees called the Wal-Mart Veterans Association. This will be a place for former and current employees to join together and share their Wal-Mart experience.
In addition, the website will feature a blog about Wal-Mart that will be updated throughout the day on news and stories related to Wal-Mart. It will become a vital resource for the millions of Americans who believe Wal-Mart needs to be changed.
For more information about the new Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign or the UFCW please contact Paul Blank at 202-466-1503 or 310-701- 3003.
http://www.usnewswire.com/
-0-
/© 2005 U.S. Newswire 202-347-2770/
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
Another union screed. The grocery unions are terrified of Wal-Mart, for good reason. They offer lots of stuff at low prices. The average consumer couldn't care less about the union or it's problems. Either do I. Looking forward to shopping in that big, new WM near the Oakland airport. Finally, lower income people in East Oakland will have somewhere to shop for kids' clothes, school supplies, etc without having to pay three times as much at the "locally owned, independent" stores.
I hope you enjoy slavery, Steve, because as surely as I stand here, slavery is what will result from the continued deterioration of workers' lives with the ongoing onslaught of unions.
If Walmart continues unchecked, then other capitalists will continue to be emboldened by the vanguardist tactics used by the former to undermine workers' rights. Working conditions will continue to worsen, and the economy will continue to falter.
You DO realize, don't you, that if workers (who make up the vast majority of consumers) do not have any money, it will scarcely matter what sort of prices Walmart (or other stores) charge, because nobody will be able to buy anything. Alternatively, people may indeed shop at Walmart, but they'll have to step over dead bodies in the street to do so, because without health care, many workers will die, and the diseases will spread and others will die too.
I have this nightmare vision of another dark ages (like those that beset Europe for almost a millenium) with people lying dead in the streets from plague and other untreated epidemics surrounding modern corporate suburban big-box sprawl while the rich heartlessly laugh at us within their little enclosed bubbles. THAT is the type of world that will result from your Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman inspired capitalist garbage.
I don't really give a FUCK if this pisses you off, but I will do everything in my power with every last drop of my blood to make sure that capitalism is destroyed once and for all and the political back of the elite utterly broken to the point that it will never be able to reform itself again, and if I ever live to see that day, I will sit back and laugh at idiots like you and your stupidity.
SO THERE!!!!
If Walmart continues unchecked, then other capitalists will continue to be emboldened by the vanguardist tactics used by the former to undermine workers' rights. Working conditions will continue to worsen, and the economy will continue to falter.
You DO realize, don't you, that if workers (who make up the vast majority of consumers) do not have any money, it will scarcely matter what sort of prices Walmart (or other stores) charge, because nobody will be able to buy anything. Alternatively, people may indeed shop at Walmart, but they'll have to step over dead bodies in the street to do so, because without health care, many workers will die, and the diseases will spread and others will die too.
I have this nightmare vision of another dark ages (like those that beset Europe for almost a millenium) with people lying dead in the streets from plague and other untreated epidemics surrounding modern corporate suburban big-box sprawl while the rich heartlessly laugh at us within their little enclosed bubbles. THAT is the type of world that will result from your Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman inspired capitalist garbage.
I don't really give a FUCK if this pisses you off, but I will do everything in my power with every last drop of my blood to make sure that capitalism is destroyed once and for all and the political back of the elite utterly broken to the point that it will never be able to reform itself again, and if I ever live to see that day, I will sit back and laugh at idiots like you and your stupidity.
SO THERE!!!!
For more information:
http://www.iww.org
I meant to say "onslaught ON unions" (in the first sentence).
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!
Donate
$330.00 donated
in the past month
Get Involved
If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.
Publish
Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.
Topics
More
Search Indybay's Archives
Advanced Search
►
▼
IMC Network