Unions protest Wal-Mart (MI)

[struggle4progress]

GRAND BLANC TOWNSHIP
THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION

Friday, April 15, 2005
By Todd Seibt
[e-mail] • 810.766.6315

GRAND BLANC TWP. - Local union members and their supporters have a message for a new Wal-Mart going up here: They'll drop before they shop there.

As dirt devils swirled about the huge store construction site - directly behind the stage set up for an anti-Wal-Mart rally in UAW Local 1292's parking lot - about 200 people shouted their displeasure with the way Wal-Mart does business. <snip>

Several speakers said Wal-Mart's low wages and poor benefits are undermining the standard of living for all Americans.

"Give me a break - how many of these kids go to college on a Wal-Mart paycheck?" asked Mark Johnson, business manager for Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 370, and president of the Flint Area Building Trades Council. <snip>

http://www.mlive.com/business/fljournal/index.ssf?/base/business-0/111357861580060.xml

[C_eh_N_eh_D_eh]

1. Good for them.

"These are some of the unsubstantiated charges that are thrown out at Wal-Mart every day," Scott said.

"This is retail. This is not aerospace. This is not building or making parts for GM. For every dollar that GM brings in, 8.8 cents of that is profit. For every dollar this company brings in, our profit is 3.7 cents. That's a very narrow margin."

Scott said 76 percent of Wal-Mart's associates work full time, when other retailers have an employment pattern that is exactly opposite - 75 percent work part time.

"The things that people rarely mention is the 27,000 associates we employ in Michigan. The thing that people don't talk about is the $2.4 billion in merchandise and services we spent in Michigan last year," Scott said.

"That's products we buy from Michigan, 1,800 suppliers in the state of Michigan. We are a job creator and job maintainer."

Yeah, we've heard all that crap before.

1. How about comparing your profit margin to that of other retailers, not auto manufacturers that, by your own admission, have completely different business practices from your own?

2. I have no doubt that 76 percent of Wal-Mart's "associates" work full time. What I want to know is, how many of that 76 percent are actually paid full-time wages?

3. And how much of those 27,000 jobs and 2.4 billion dollars could just as easily come from the large number of smaller (and much less greedy) businesses that would be flourishing if it weren't for you?

[Fire Walk With Me]

2. Unethical business in Flint, Michigan? Paging Michael Moore...