Wal-Mart fights back against politicians' attacks

[Regis Philbin]

http://www.todaysthv.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=32798

Wal-Mart Fights Back Against Politicians' Attacks


Wal-Mart is accusing several potential presidential candidates of misguided attacks against the retail giant in events across Iowa this week. The company released a letter yesterday to its 18-thousand Iowa employees, claiming several politicians and elected leaders were wrong to criticize Wal-Mart's wages and health benefits.

The letter said the company would never suggest how employees should vote, but said it also felt an obligation to tell workers when politicians were saying something about their company that isn't true.

Wake Up Wal-Mart, a union-based group that formed last year to pressure the company to improve wages and benefits, is holding a weeklong bus tour across the state this week. Several potential presidential candidates have said they will participate, including Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Delaware Senator Joe Biden, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.

[Venisenvy]

Im in a union job and Walmart has better wages that us, whats up with that?

Yet people like Joe Lieberman are willing to show up at our store but not Walmart. I like my store so dont get me wrong but when we look at which one has made peoples life better in our area its probably walmart. Providing jobs for people at good wages and also providing cheap prices, making everyones money provide more than before.

[db44]

This doesn't explain why a recently higher minority big-wig quit over claims by the company. :o

[Regis Philbin]

This doesn't explain why a recently higher minority big-wig quit over claims by the company. :o

Yeah, it's a good thing this "big-wig" is an African American Liberal Democrat or he'd be absolutely skewered in the media right now (Mel Gibson, anyone? Hello?)

Get a load of this:

http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=FT&Date=20060818&ID=5957738


Young quits as Wal-Mart lobbyist after racial remarks


A drive by Wal-Mart, the largest US retailer, to mobilise political support among America's black and latino leaders has suffered a spectacular setback with the resignation of Andrew Young, its most high-profile advocate, over racially charged remarks.

Mr Young, a former pro-business mayor of Atlanta in the 1980s and the first black US ambassador to the United Nations, said he was stepping down as chairman of the Working Families for Wal-Mart lobby group late on Thursday.

His resignation followed the publication of an interview in the Los Angeles Sentinel, a black weekly newspaper, in which he contrasted Wal-Mart's record on serving low-income communities with the owners of small inner-city stores.

"Those are the people who have been overcharging us, selling us stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables. And they sold out and moved to Florida. I think they've ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans and now it's Arabs; very few black people own these stores," he said.

Mr Young's remarks echoed arguments that have been used in the past by black inner-city politicians, usually within their own community. They also touch on tensions that have been blamed for violence directed against store owners in tough inner-city neighbourhoods.

Mr Young, a former aide of the late Martin Luther King, said in a statement that the comments "run contrary to everything I have dedicated my life to".

"I apologise for those comments. I retract those comments. And I ask for the forgiveness of those I have offended."

[db44]

You must be high tonight. The parts you highlight add all that much more validity to his case.

His comments don't even correspond to what you were originally discussing!