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Slav-Mart(Wal-Mart) Moves to Oakland

by Tiny/PNN (tiny [at] poormagazine.org)
Oakland creates big Corporate welfare payoff to bring Wal-Mart ot Oakland without any community input and the community fights Back!
walmart_protest_copy.jpg
"I don't like it to be here, but for a minute, when they open I will apply for a job" 16 year old East Oakland resident Miguel Coelho pushed his wayward ghetto-fabulous fro' out of his eyes as he spoke to me over the grinding traffic sounds emanating from the nearby Hagenburger road. We were huddled on the tip of the medium strip on Edgewater Road near the Oakland Airport as part of a Rally against the impending development of another Slav-Mart (oh excuse me, Wal-MART) Store

"Can I take your picture for the story," I asked Miguel

"Yea, but I want to take it under this sign; " Government Responsibility and Corporate Accountability……

And so it goes, the frightening paradox of low-income, conscious, intelligent youth like Miguel who although he is Not Down with the 40 million dollar Corporate Welfare deal struck between the City and Port of Oakland and Simeon Commercial Properties that will bring the first Wal-Mart store to Oakland, he needs a job, and Wal-Mart, as the largest employer in the US with 1.4 million workers, always has a lot of low-wage, non-unionized,jobs with no benefits, not to mention, unfair racist, sexist employment practices.

Or consider the case of Oji graduate from The YouthinMedia program at POOR Magazine, who is an extremely talented visual artist, musician and poet but due to his poverty was forced to apply for welfare and then told by his General Assistance (Welfare) caseworker that he must find a job, any job. Lacking many other employment opportunities as an African Descendent youth in the Bay Area, he began working for Slave-Mart, there I go again, I meant, Wal-Mart in West Contra County.

"We're out here today, cause we just found out that the City provided a huge amount of dollars to bring a Wal-Mart into Oakland without any community input, Alicia Schwartz, an organizer with Just Cause Oakland was breakin down the reasons that led Just Cause folks to call this rally, " and we are letting folks know that they have a right to deserve more from Oakland City Government and from these kinds of large corporations especially when they are getting our tax dollars"

The proposed location for this new Oakland Wal-Mart is near the Oakland Airport and will be called The Metroport Development Project, and will include several other large chains like N' and Out Burger and Payless shoes, also known for paying its workers low wages and not giving back to the community.

"In Berkeley large corporations are forced to give back to the community by funding youth apprenticeship programs and job development" Alicia outlined the kinds of give- back programs that Wal-Mart, owned by the Waltons, listed as five of the richest people in the world and #1 contributors to The Republican Party could do in the very poor county of Oakland. She concluded, " Our schools need money, our communities need money"

"Wal-Mart believes that paying women a living wage leads to broken single-parent headed families" Ben from The Oakland Coalition of Congregations (OCC) was one of the several community youth and adult leaders that spoke at the rally on the bizarre draconian worker practices of Wal-Mart. His disclosure about Wal-Marts old-school Euro-Centric sexist beliefs reminded me of the whole GW Bush-Jerry Falwell concept of what is a "healthy family" i.e., the way for welfare moms to become economically stable is to get married, no matter who they marry, similar to the welfare/Wal-Mart mandate of a job, any job.

"In this year alone, over 300 immigrant workers were arrested and deported from their jobs, while hundreds more were laid off from their jobs" An organizer from Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride spoke about the flagrantly racist tactics of Wal-Mart, "As well, Wal-Mart pays a very low wage to its workers and gives no benefits," He concluded with a chant that the crowd of over 50 community members, workers and organizers joined in on, "Wal-Mart you are not Welcome here!"

"So we already know that Wal-Mart is shady, that they are unfair to Black people and females, and we know that Wal-Mart has the money to pay its workers more considering that it just received a multi-million dollar payoff to come here", Theresa, a young African Descendent woman was summing up the goals of the community at this rally, "So what I want is a job with a living wage so I can support my family, career development and education and what I want is for Wal-Mart and Simeon development to create a fair partnership with the community so that we can all live while Wal-Mart is here."

For more information on the effort to demand a fair partnership from the developers and elected officials call Just Cause at (510) 763-5877. To read more resistance to unfair labor practices and unfair businesses by the low-income workers themselves go on-line to http://www.poormagazine.org and click on Labor and Unrecognized work
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by Daniel
Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown is running for Attorney General, and guess who's funding his campaign! WAL-MART, among others.

According to a front page article in the Tribune of August 3, 2004, Jerry Brown's campaign for Attorney General is "drawing the maximum $5,300 donations from Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner, music mogul David Geffen, Wal-Mart heir John Walton, Ann and Gordon Getty and designer Diane Von Furstenberg, according to the latest campaign finance reports released Monday. "

http://www.oaklandtribune.com/Stories/0,1413,82~1865~2311653,00.html



Published on Tuesday, August 3, 2004 by the Globe & Mail (Canada)

Wal-Mart Employees in Quebec Win Union Approval

by Tu Thanh Ha with a report from Canadian Press

 
MONTREAL -- A Wal-Mart outlet in Quebec has moved closer to becoming the retailing giant's only unionized store in North America after the provincial labour board granted employees a union certification yesterday.

The certification does not mean that a bargaining unit is in place yet at the store in Jonquière, in the Saguenay region, 220 kilometres north of Quebec City.

Unless Wal-Mart manages to overturn yesterday's decision on appeal, the union hopes to table collective-agreement proposals by September.

The decision marked a reversal of fortune for the union, which had lost by eight votes when 145 employees cast ballots last April.

The union pursued its drive and got enough employees to sign union cards to clinch yesterday's certification.

"My God, I'm very happy and very proud of those workers. They're trailblazers," said Marie-Josée Lemieux, president of Local 503 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union.

"There was a lot of pressure on their shoulders."

Jonquière becomes the second Wal-Mart in Canada to obtain a union certification after one in Windsor, Ont., in 1997. The Windsor outlet lost its certification before a bargaining unit was ever established.

Ms. Lemieux said she was optimistic the same thing wouldn't happen at the Jonquière store, saying that Quebec's laws are more favourable to unions.

An official of Wal-Mart Canada Corp. said the company questioned the way the certification was obtained and would look for avenues of appeal.

"If the labour board has certified that store without a vote, we would have some very serious concerns because we would question whether the true wishes of the employees were being reflected," company spokesman Andrew Pelletier said.

A breakthrough would have a significant impact on some of the 1.3 million employees working in 4,500 Wal-Mart stores worldwide.

There are no unionized Wal-Mart stores, although a handful of meat workers at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Texas have joined the United Food and Commercial Workers.

After losing the vote in Jonquière last April, the union waited the prescribed three months, then applied again before the Quebec Labour Relations Board.

Under the Quebec Labour Code, this time they did not have to hold a vote but only sign enough union cards among the 170 floor employees they had targeted for their bargaining unit.

Wal-Mart tried to dilute support for the union by asking the labour board to broaden the definition of the unit to include other staff, such as some managers, administrative employees, auto-workshop employees and security guards.

However, adjudicator Jocelyne Houle said in her decision that, no matter the unit definition, "the applicant is representative, as required by the law."

A hearing has been scheduled for Aug. 20 to decide the scope of the bargaining unit.

"Of course, there can be an appeal. But I dare hope that they will respect the wishes of the workers," Ms. Lemieux said about the prospect of Wal-Mart challenging the certification.

Mr. Pelletier said various surveys have repeatedly ranked Wal-Mart as an excellent employer.

Ms. Lemieux said employees at present don't have standard, formal wage scales, need better benefits and don't have set schedules so they are too often required to work with little notice.

Union officials had high hopes of success for the store in Jonquière because they saw Quebec's laws as being more favourable to their drive.

Besides Jonquière the UFCW is also attempting to organize Wal-Mart stores in Weyburn and North Battleford, Sask. It is also arguing that it has successor rights to represent workers in a Moose Jaw store.

Some Wal-Mart employees in Saguenay have previously suggested the retail giant would shut down the local store rather than allow it to operate with unionized employees. Mr. Pelletier dismissed the notion.

"We would not close the store because of a union," he said. "The only reason we would close a store would be due to economic reasons."

© Copyright 2004 Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc

###
by sfres
Poor dear! He's such a "talented" artist, musician, and "poet" but he's forced to go on welfare, where they tell him he has to get a job. Quelle horreur!! Imagine, having to work for a living and unable to be a poet! Jesus, fucking grow up. No one owes you a living. Take the goddam job and do your "art" on your own time.
On its own, slav actually refers to slavic people (the word slave derives from slav). Just pointing out that the title of this post is a little bit loaded and in the future you might choose a diff. wording
by matt fitt
wal_slav-mart.jpg
Sorry if the person above (or anyone else) dislikes the "slav" reference, but it's obviously not referring to slavic peoples. If "slave" and "slav" share the same origins, then we've all learned a little more today.
by matt fitt
wal-mart_povertywages.jpg
Or, if you prefer, here's this one.
by matt fitt
wal-mort_killlocalbusiness.jpg
Or this one...
by Old Guy
Let me get this straight, Miguel Coelho is protesting and stands against everything that Wal-Mart represents but as soon as they open he’s going to go work for them?!!!

That makes no sense at all and I think someone needs to hand him a dictionary with the word hypocrisy highlighted.
by pistol whipped
...then you don't understand the mechanics of poverty.
by Old Guy
But PRIDE and standing up for what one believes in despite one's economics. What it tells me is the Coelho is willing to sell his beliefs for for minimum wage.
by matt fitt
It sounds to me more like he feels that he doesn't have much of a choice. His Beliefs come in an unfortunate third, right after Food and Shelter.

Do you blame other sweatshop workers for working in those factories?
by Mayor Brown's role?
What was Mayor Brown's role in bringing Wal-Mart to Oakland? Apparently he had a hand in it since Wal-Mart is helping to fund his campaign for Attorney General, but how did he slip it past the City Council, etc.?
by Just dreaming.
Didn't that happen to a Thrifty Drug store in the Haight about 10 years ago? Unfortunately, that store was next to some apartments that also burned.

Fortunately, I'm sure the Wal-Mart won't be close to any residences. If it burns, it burns alone.

Anyone out there organizing Wal-Mart protests please contact the Peninsula Raging Grannies at peninsula_raging_grannies [at] yahoo.com. We have already demonstrated twice at the Mountain View Wal-Mart and are aware that the Mega Giant has it's eye on a site in Menlo Park. Although we concentrate on the Peninsula side of the Bay, our sister Grans in Berkeley are active as well, and can be reached through us.
by Old Guy
I would buy your argument if Wal-Mart were the only company in Oakland. It’s not and just glancing through the classifieds over the weekend there are several other retail jobs in Oakland. If Miguel Coelho is so opposed to Wal-Mart then don’t work for them, there are other retail opportunity in Oakland and this way he can keep his convictions and still make money.
by RK
Would you rather there be 250 less jobs in Oakland?

You don't have to work for them if you don't want to, you know. Minimum wage, so what? There are plenty out there that will work for it, then there are the lazy a$$es that do nothing but complain all day.

Which one are you?
by MATT FITT (PGASTINEAU [at] INSIGHTBB.COM)
I AM VERY PROUD OF EVERYONE FOR PROTESTING SLAV-MART"S WAGES THAT THEY PAY. I LIVE IN THE UNITED STATES AND EVERYONE THINKS WAL_MART IS THE GREATEST THING THERE IS - BUT I TOTALLY AGREE WITH YOU. ITS SAD THAT THE AMOUNT OF BUSINESS THEY HAVE AND THE AMOUNT OF PROFIT THAT IS MADE THAT THEY WILL NOT BE DECENT AND PAY A DECENT WAGE. IT SHOWS ME THAT THEY DO NOT CARE ABOUT THEIR CUSTOMERS BUT ONLY LINING THEIR POCKETS. TO BAD MORE AMERICANS DO NOT FEEL THE SAME AS YOU. WAY TO GO.
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