Wal-Mart - Articles - Zimbio

Wal-Mart's 3Q Profit Rises 10 Percent

Wed, 13 Nov 2008 15:28:47 GMT

posted by rogersarkansas
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is reporting a 10 percent increase in third-quarter profit as the world's largest retailer's renewed focus on low prices is attracting financially squeezed shoppers around the world. The company, however, is reducing its profit outlook amid a weak economy.

Vote Repuglican or Get Fired

Sat, 17 Aug 2008 18:46:00 GMT

posted by free2be2cool
Please spread the word that Wal-Mart and other corporate pigs are lecturing (and probably intimidating) workers on the cons, cons and cons of joining unions. Wrap that up in a nice big “Democrats will make you pay” scary theme bag, and you’re ready for a gigantic baloney sandwich. Here are excerpts from the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of how Wal-Mart coerces their workers to vote repuglican:
Unions Seek Probe of Wal-Mart Over Election Law At Issue Is Talk With Employees On Vote Impact
By Kris Maher and Ann Zimmerman
August 14, 2008
Prominent labor groups are seeking an investigation into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc. violated federal election laws by telling employees that electing Democrats would lead to passage of legislation making it easier to unionize companies.
In a letter to be delivered as early as Thursday, the labor groups are asking the Federal Election Commission to determine whether the company "made prohibited corporate expenditures" by organizing meetings across the country to warn employees that a Democratic president would back legislation known as the Employee Free Choice Act, which the company opposes. The groups say such statements amount to advocating the defeat of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, in the November election.
Companies aren't permitted under federal election law to expressly advocate to hourly employees the election or defeat of specific candidates. The complaint cites as its source an Aug. 1 front-page article in The Wall Street Journal [here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121755649066303381.html] that reported the Bentonville, Ark., retailer held meetings with thousands of store managers and department supervisors across the country to discuss the legislation.
The labor groups are also expected to submit petitions with 60,000 signatures requesting an investigation. American Rights at Work, a worker advocacy group, the AFL-CIO and Change to Win labor federations and WakeUpWalMart.com, a labor-backed group, are filing the complaint.
Mary Beth Maxwell, executive director of American Rights at Work, said Wal-Mart "adapted their unionbusting tactics to influence our federal election system."
Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said the company's policies are clear and that anyone representing the company and telling associates how to vote were "wrong and acting without approval."
[...] Legal experts said election-law complaints against employers are rare but that the complaint against Wal-Mart merits consideration. "I think it's going to be a case that the FEC is going to have to take seriously," said Joseph M. Birkenstock, a Washington attorney specializing in election law. The key to the case will be "exactly what was said" at meetings, he said.
Meanwhile, new details are emerging that show Wal-Mart managers leading the meetings are spreading inaccurate information about the Employee Free Choice Act, according to a digital recording of a Wal-Mart meeting made by a Wal-Mart employee and reviewed by the Journal.
In the hour-and-a-half meeting, held for managers in a Southern state, the leader tells employees that their wages may be reduced to minimum wage for up to three months before a contract is negotiated, that union authorization cards violate workers' right to privacy by including their Social Security numbers on them and that if a small unit within a store votes to unionize, the entire store will be unionized.
"If you have 10 associates in a photo lab and six sign union authorization cars, now the store is unionized," the meeting leader told employees. "Six people can make a decision for 350 people," which is about the average number of workers in a Walmart supercenter.
Labor lawyers say these are inaccurate interpretations of labor law in general and the Employee Free Choice Act specifically, and that could be a violation of labor law. "The statements are not correct representations of what the law would require even under the current law," said Jeffrey Hirsch, a labor lawyer in Boston. "It would be a violation of the national labor relations act to say those things."
[...] According to the recording, the meeting leader, a human-resources manager, began by saying she was going to talk about the company and unions and "a little bit of politics," specifically the Employee Free Choice Act. The leader said that the bill almost passed last year. "If Democrats get the votes they need and elect a Democratic president, they said it will be the first bill presented and that's scary," she said.
Wal-Mart's Mr. Tovar said the meeting leader's use of the word scary was "unauthorized."
The managers and supervisors were told that they could not threaten, intimidate, make promises to or spy on workers interested in a union. They could, however, give facts, opinions and share experiences. During the meeting, employees were shown a video enactment of a union steward telling a manager that the manager could be fined for cleaning up a spill on a store floor because of the union contract. In another clip, a role-playing manager says, "When I was little my dad belonged to the United Auto Workers union. They went out on strike and he had to walk the picket line for six months."
At one point, the meeting leader mentioned that union representatives are already asking Wal-Mart workers to sign cards, which would be valid for a year. Mr. Tovar confirmed that unions are "actively collecting signatures for authorization cards now at our stores."
Jill Cashen, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers, said the union hasn't started an organizing campaign, but locals could be doing organizing on their own.
The battle between business and labor over the Employee Free Choice Act has made the legislation a campaign issue. Sen. Obama co-sponsored the legislation, which also is known as "card check," and has said he would sign it into law if elected president. Sen. John McCain, the likely Republican presidential nominee, opposes the Employee Free Choice Act and voted against it last year. Both labor and business agree the legislation would make it easier for the labor movement to organize more workers.
Write to Kris Maher at kris.maher@wsj.com and Ann Zimmerman at ann.zimmerman@wsj.com http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121867433681738991.html

Wal-Mart Starts Link With Army Reserve

Mon, 11 Nov 2008 22:56:01 GMT

posted by rogersarkansas
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has signed on to an Army Reserve program that allows the company and the Army to work together to recruit and train people interested in serving in the military and working for the giant retailer.

Praise for Wal-mart?

Thu, 17 Oct 2008 13:30:22 GMT

posted by knownhuman

In this day in age, Wal-mart get its fair share of lumps in the press. However, the behemoth that is Wal-mart does have what can only be described as a world-leading supply chain, the technology that moves products from warehouse to store shelf. The system hinges both on automation – when you buy a product, the register automatically orders a replacement – and predictive – meaning supplies deemed to be in high demand soon are shipped before perceived demand hits. Of course, that cold, fairly robotic system operates beneath the surface, transparent to the millions of daily shoppers around the world. What happens on the internet, however, is a bit more obvious.

Earlier this week a link was floated about the internet, coming to me on Monday via Jim Safley. The link was to the Walmart.ca page for Summer’s Eve Ultra Extra Strength Douche. The page was laced with mischief as the image of the product had been replaced with a heavy duty power washing system – the kind used to clean houses or decks, not feminine parts. The link was tossed around, and I myself started a shout thread on Rejaw.com about it.

As more eyes poured onto the problem a few things became apparent. This was not a script or redirect. This was, indeed, a page that existed on Wal-mart’s Canadian website. What’s more, by inspecting the link provided, the method of image insertion became apparent – Wal-mart Canada was calling each parts of the page independently – the item, the image, even the similarly suggested items and a call for the price.

Though this flaw was currently only being used for mischief and amusement, there did exist a potential for much greater damage to Wal-mart’s Canadian website. Please note that I am not a programmer, so my knowledge of such tactics are limited to having worked tech support at a major hosting company, but the potential that existed was that of an easy SQL injection.

What’s a SQL injection? It’s a method for an outside attacker to access a database (from personal experience those databases were almost always MsSQL 2005 or before) by inserting a command through a vulnerable area of a website. All too often, that area is the URL bar of a browser. The rise in 2008 of bot-driven semi-autonomous SQL injection attacks meant that many a hobbyist woke up to find their website overwritten with jibberish. Most large websites, such as Walmart’s Canadian site, took precautions or prevent this, or so we believed.

Thats a big douche

For most people, a SQL injection simply feels like a violation. However, the actual results are usually a database that is incorrectly stuffed with what amounts to junk. Some, the more devious, manage to inject a website with a degree of stealth, and thus a website ends up serving spyware or viruses to visitors who have placed inherent trust in the website. For these script kiddies, a major site like Wal-mart would have been a dream catch.

Wal-mart, to their credit, fixed their Canadian website with amazing speed, plugging the flaw in their database interaction with surprising speed. As of Thursday afternoon (and perhaps earlier) the flaw had been fixed. It appears that the Wal-mart supply chain might just extend to their websites as well.

Some of us, however, were quick enough to screenshot the flaw when it was still live.

Well that was a little drama Thought I had lost the databases for not only this,...

Walmart Continues Employee Intimidation Tactics

Thu, 1 Aug 2008 20:54:00 GMT

posted by barbarany_9
Why am I not surprised? I am not sure about whether Wal-Mart being unionized would be a good thing (it would make them a lot less price-competitive); except that maybe they would clean up their act about how they treat their employees and forcing them to go on Food Stamps and SSI instead of providing health care and a living wage.

But outright manipulation of people's voting & employee intimidation? No!

Wal-Mart Employees Speak Out About Mandatory Anti-Union Meetings, Political Intimidation

Today, the Wall Street Journal reported that Wal-Mart has been warning its managers that a Democratic victory in the fall would lead to unionization at Wal-Mart stores. “In recent weeks, thousands of Wal-Mart store managers and department heads have been summoned to mandatory meetings” discussing the downsides of unionization and not-so-subtly telling employees NOT to vote for a Democrat.

Wal-Mart Watch notes that the article “would not have been possible without the several brave Wal-Mart employees” who spoke out against the company’s policies, including the employee below who e-mailed Wal-Mart Watch:

In a statement, Wal-Mart Watch Executive Director David Nassar said the Journal report confirmed stories they have collected from workers:

We have been receiving the reports described in the Journal for the past week. Some of the reports we received were even more egregious than what was described in today’s story. In one case, a worker said they were shown a slide that said ‘Obama = union’ and then were told why unions were bad.

Wal-Mart employees who wish to speak out should contact Wal-Mart Watch to share their stories. Sign a petition to tell Wal-Mart to stop the political intimidation of its employees.

Change to Win executive director Chris Chafe:

"It should be no surprise that Wal-Mart would stretch the limits of the law in an attempt to deny their workers' rights and kill the Employee Free Choice Act. The company knows what all union workers know: workers in unions earn 29 percent higher wages on average, are 62 percent more likely to have employer health coverage, and four times more likely to have a pension."

SOURCE