Dkos breakingHuge New Wal-Mart Scandal!

[caligirl]

by JR Monsterfodder


Fri Apr 8th, 2005 at 09:07:00 PDT

From Reuters via CNN Money:

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s former vice chairman may have used undocumented expense payments to pay for anti-union activities, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

Thomas Coughlin resigned from the world's largest retailer in March...

According to the report, Coughlin last year asked a Wal-Mart employee to approve about $2,000 in expense payments without receipts. The employee said Coughlin briefly mentioned the money had been used for an unspecified "union project."

Coughlin told several Wal-Mart employees that the money was actually being used for anti-union activities, including paying union staffers to tell him of pro-union workers in stores, the newspaper said, citing people familiar with the matter.

If Coughlin did pay union staffers for information, it would represent a criminal offense under U.S. federal law. Wal-Mart has strongly opposed unions since its foundation.

The U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas is investigating the matter, the Journal reported.


Diaries :: JR Monsterfodder's diary :: :: Trackback ::

To appreciate this you have to understand that Coughlin was the last Sam Walton disciple with a high position in the company and that he disputed the results of Wal-Mart's investigation of his activities even though he resigned. Therefore, he is a perfect candidate to blow the whistle on the greedheads currently running Wal-Mart.

You know, the Wal-Mart beat is getting more fun every day.


http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/4/8/1170/78039

[Me.]

1. Popcorn Waiting To Be Popped

stock prices falling, bad press, this...getting good!

[Melynn]

16. You took the words out of my mouth

My first reaction was get some :popcorn: this is going to be good.

I guess that I have a love/hate relationship with Wal-Mart.

One the one hand I hate the Bentonville Bully and everything it stands for. Wal-Mart is the perfect symbol of corporate corruption in the Bush era.

On the other hand, I just love the scandals that Wal-Mart keeps getting itself into. And the scandals just keep a-coming. The never ending Wal-Mart series of scandals are America's real reality show. Too funny.

[Kerrytravelers]

2. Corporate America is just out of control... led by the worst of them all-

Wal Mart (yuck!)

[Clark2008]

14. Personally, I think they're led by the cabal in office

Bushie, Cheney, Rummy, et al.

[G_j]

3. Wal-Mart's Culture of Crime and Greed

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3439005&mesg_id=3439005

Wal-Mart's Culture of Crime and Greed

By Jonathan Tasini, TomPaine.com. Posted April 4, 2005.


Manipulation, greed and wrongdoing in the name of profit are as much a part of the Wal-Mart business model as are those low, low prices.
The Beast of Bentonville (better known as Wal-Mart) is grappling with a spate of management dismissals and investigations over the past few months that appear rooted in internal petty thievery. But rather than a few bad apples being rooted out, it's clear that crime, greed, wrongdoing, malfeasance and cronyism are deeply embedded in the Wal-Mart business model. Indeed, Wal-Mart could not survive without manipulating the system and breaking the law.

In case you didn't catch it, Thomas Coughlin--a former vice chair of the company and at one time a potential future CEO candidate--was forced to resign from the board because of, as the British Financial Times reported on its front page, an "alleged unauthorized use of corporate-owned gift cards and personal reimbursements that appear to have been obtained from the company through the reporting of false information on third-party invoices and company expense reports. The amount in controversy is estimated to be in the range of $100,000 to $500,000." Translation: the guy padded his expense accounts.

In the current investigation, three other employees, including a company officer, were also dismissed. And back in December, three other executives and four employees were fired for violating "unspecified" company rules. I would venture to guess that those rules had nothing to do, for example, with treating workers badly (that kind of conduct actually calls for a promotion at the Beast of Bentonville, or at least a one-time visit to the company's executive washroom) but with other financial wrongdoing.

But why should this be surprising? The culture of Wal-Mart encourages and condones misbehavior among its leaders every day. Let me tick off just the highlights--or lowlights, as the case may be.

..more..

[suegeo]

26. What I really don't get about the corporate jackasses is...

What I don't understand about the corporate jackasses is, why steal money when your salary is already outlandish?

How much money is enough for these pigs?

[shoelace414]

4. When I see shows about Sam Walton

he looks like he cared about his employees and didn't try to screw them with poverty wages and no insurance.

[frictionlessO]

8. Sam treated his employees like gold for the most part.

Unless he caught you trying to fuck over the company in any way.

[bvar22]

5. Lets kill Wal-Mart!!

MONEY SPENT AT WAL-MART
KILLS
GOD'S UNBORN CHILDREN!!!

Get some of those bloody posters that the Anti-Choice crowd uses to picket Planned Parenthood, and use them to picket Wally World.
I’m absolutely PRO-CHOICE, but think the Fundies need to face this hypocrisy.

Wal-Mart supports
COMMUNIST DICTATORS!!!

Will the Republicans stand on Moral Values when their wallet is threatened?
Only immoral people (Communist abortion lovers) shop at Wal-Mart!

[caligirl]

12. Didn't mean to get your undies all in a bunch.

[saltpoint]

6. If this bears out, then a thanks to that blog for putting it --

-- on the web for mass distribution, and to hell with WalMart for its disgraceful corporate citizenship.

The richest company in the world cheating the hell out of its employees! Good God.

[frictionlessO]

7. I was one of the last Wal mart employees to get a Customer Satisfaction

Award signed by Sam.

I was also in line to be one of the youngest dept. managers in Wal-Mart history. I also ran my stores Safety and Loss team at age 19.
I was an up and comer and cheerleader-ed that store often.

I also saw my store force out two girls who had abortions by slowly cutting their hours every week and till they had only two shifts a week. As they lost more hours their work became less and less satisfactory. It took about two months for both of them.

I also remember putting up "Made in USA" signs on endcaps that had some thing that had partially manufactured in the US, the res on the shelves was overseas crap.

I have many other bad Wal Mart stories, after David Glass took over the place really became intolerable. I was told to take off my pentacle and not bring in my pagan studies books anymore. I said to the GM sure as soon as you tell everyone to take off their crosses and leave their bibles at home. Being a lay minister he didn't like that and essentially threatened me with termination and suspended me for a few days (I think you need a day off or two, don't come back until you do). I came back and went into the office with him and told him I had been in contact with the ACLU that I was looking at getting a lawyer, and that I would not hesitate to take them to court even if it cost me money in the end and I lost. I then let him know that trifling with religious freedom is the most anti American thing he could do... some other words and I was back to work for about 3 weeks... my hours kept getting more and more cut back. I recognized the pattern, and started a huge scene in the middle of the Toy section that lasted about 10 minutes until the Personnel Manager came over and warned me that if I was going to quit they wouldn't give me positive recommendations. I laughed and said that I didn't want any from the likes of them, he threatened arrest for disturbance and so I left my turd blossom career at Wally World... and thank the gods for that!!!

Fuck Wal Mart!

[G_j]

9. good going

I love to hear stories like this, and yes I despise WM also!

[frictionlessO]

22. Thanks! Read my post #21

I haven't ever jumped on a Wal Mart thread vecause its just not good for my heart, but I actually feel pretty good right now! lol

[caligirl]

10. the suit agaiinst them by a group of women will take place here in the bay

area soon don't know precise date. Discrimination/low pay advancement denials.

[frictionlessO]

21. Yeah it was pretty common to work the women like mules in the front

and then fuck 'em in the back. I had a couple of nice women offer up rides on top of the giant dog food pallets. I saw so many affairs going on that it was truly a loss of innocence of sorts, I never knew how many people really cheated until I worked there for a while, in the parking lot after store hours almost any night of the week you could find someone having sex in their cars, they'd park 'em next to employees vehicles who were currently inside the store.

Not to mention the extra 15-20 hours a week that a lot of us would work just to try and get that extra quarter every 6 months to a year. My safety and loss job was sometimes over 20 extra hours a week all off clock, and man you did everything having to do with safety and loss (anything that will lose the store money). We're talking dept by dept inspections, presentations and education to the employees at least once or twice a week, all kinds of weird programs for internal theft, getting to know who the local cons were.... it goes on and on we did everything but the actual apprehending of theives.

At night I still have these sorta stress-mares where Im back working there, hate 'em they really ruin the nice effects of sleep.

When I left I couldn't go into any sort of big ol' department store without zoning (straightening and placeing product)... hehehe many clerks really thought I was crazy and honestly I think I was. Got so bad that friends wouldn't let me go into stores with them, I wound up yelling at an "associate" at some other Wal Mart about a year after I quit for all the safety violations in his dept and demanded to speak with someone from Safety and Loss. Man that poor guy... he was shitting bricks. Thankfully a friend saw me doing this and as soon the guy left to find someone else for me to go off on my friend told me what a fucking jerk I was. I left before the guy came back, hopefully he just went in back and waited for me too leave. I still feel awful about that.

Yes, I actually have even more wally world stories but we'll leave the first hand accounts alone now.

[ArchTeryx]

25. Outstanding.

Congrats on a brave move. Of course, the Powers that Be won, but it sounds like you moved on to better things.

Wish, with all my heart, there was some legal wall to call bull#*#t on little corporate tricks like hour-cutting, though. I used to be the victim of that sort of thing myself, before I went to grad school.

[frictionlessO]

28. Thanks

Yes, it was a brave move.. in my naivety though I actually thought things would go back to normal after my spirituality showdown with the GM. lol...

One bright spot for a while was this one female Assistant Manager to the GM, she actually would ok my religious holidays for taking off, she didn't stay around but for 5or 6 months though.

[caligirl]

11. Oh I hate WM and they are moving into my town 2 miles away.

I won't be shopping there and hope our heavy union guys SEIU can get in there. That way they'll close a new store. One can hope anyway. Parts of the baay area are heavily unionized, as Arnold knows.

[displacedtexan]

13. Freepin' with the union is a serious crime.

The laws on interfering with union organization-- even exploration meetings-- is a serious crime.

What Your Employer May Not Do During an Organizing Drive

Under Section 8(a) of the National Labor Relations Act, there are a number of actions that your employer and/or supervisors may not engage in, which constitute unfair labor practices (UPLs). These restrictions on the employer's conduct are designed to protect and preserve your right to join a union under Section 7.

Section 8(a)(1) of the NLRA states that the employer may not:
"Interfere with, restrain, or coerce employees in the exercise of the rights guaranteed under Section 7."

Examples of 8(a)(1) violations include:

1. Threatening to fire for union or concerted activity.
2. Threatening to demote, reprimand, or punish in any way because of union activity.
3. Conducting anti-union interrogations.
4. Threatening to close or move the shop to escape the union.
5. Threatening loss of benefits if the employees vote for the union.
6. Promising benefits to employees in return for anti-union.
7. Interfering with communication among employees or with attempts to organize by such means as unduly restrictive solicitation rules.
8. Spying on union meetings.
9. Granting benefits or wage increases timed to defeat union organization.
10. Refusing to bargain in good faith with the union, once the union wins the election.

[G_j]

15. here is an excellent website:

The Hometown Advantage (updated articles and news)
http://www.newrules.org/retail/index.php

================
What Studies Show about Wal-Mart and Big-Box Retail
We recently updated and expanded our list of studies that examine such questions as: Does Wal-Mart create jobs? Do big-box stores boost the tax base? Do independent stores benefit the local economy more than chains? Organized by category, with summaries and links.

http://www.newrules.org/retail/econimpact.html

[Indykatie]

17. I Don't Pray for Much

but I do want to live long enough to see Walmart Unionized before I die.

[stevans_41902]

19. wal mart sucks...

Frictionless - just out of curiosity, how did Wal Mart find out about the girls who got an abortion? I've heard before that they ask you when you apply if you've had one, but I didn't see how they could do that. I used to shop at Wal-Mart, but I have decideded never to spend another dime there EVER again...its been 3 months and I'm definately not losing money by not shopping there. Wal-Mart used to say "Always LOWEST prices, always." but they had to change it to "low prices" because in reality a lot of times the prices at other stores are actually cheaper. (except when Wal Mart first moves into town when they make their prices lower than everything in town to run everyone else out of business.) Reading books like "Nickel and Dimed" and "How Wal Mart is Destroying America" really opened my eyes to how evil this company really is. I remember reading what Frictionless was saying about Wal-Mart running a "buy American" campaign, when in reality they would just put up a "Made in USA" sign in front of a display with foreign made goods. It is appaling to know how many American companies they have forced to move their factories overseas b/c of their endless greed. The only problem I have is trying to get other people to stop shopping there - my mom is a Dem & doesn't agree with everything Wal Mart does, but still shops there b/c of its convienience, my boyfriend disagrees strongly w/ them but still shops there, I think b/c his mom is hugely dedicated to wal mart and refuses to listen to any anti wal mart talk. I don't know her political beliefs, but what I've noticed is that the people who immediately say that any anti wal mart talk is lies are the same who call themselves the true patriots and call dems anti-american. They are also SO proud of the $15 jeans they got at Wal mart, disregarding the fact that they were made by a 14 yr old making 30 cents an hour.

[newyawker99]

20. Hi stevans_41902!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[frictionlessO]

23. Hey welcome to DU!!

I never heard or so them ask either girl openly. What I do know is that within a week of one girl having an abortion that half the store knew about because the father was another married employee. The other girl had to take extra time off and I happened to over hear a couple of higher ups talking about why (mind you not saying they had to get rid of her just despairing such behaviour).

Your relations that are addicted to Wal Mart just haven't been truly informed by an authority that they trust and lets face it for many the convience is just too uhmm convient.
Also the typical pro sweatshop argument is that those 14 yo girls need and want that job because its the only legal money around. There are splendid counter arguments to this depending upon who you're having it out with. Like "those jobs could be for Americans" and "China single handedly destroyed our textile industry in cooperation with Wal Mart" also "If its so good and important that these girls get and have these jobs then Wal Mart should pay them enough to get out of their abject poverty"... be creative and selective in your arguments with people, nobody likes to think they are contributing to worlkd poverty by buying a 15.00 pair of jeans. If you really want to inform them download some literature and articles about the evil enterprise.

Finally, yes you're right about the people who wont let you speak ill of Wal Mart generally being of far right wing thinking. Wal Mart was one of the largest republican donors out there and touts nationalism to help sell product. Commercials from them are not commercials, they are (believe me this is very true) propaganda campaigns, not an ounce less energy goes into the manipulation of emotions of the public mind with wal mart than went into any of Goebles campaigns. Wal mart isn't trying to sell a product its trying to sell the walmart way of life and that means total corporate domination. Wal mart is the PNAC of the business world... believe it.

[Nobody]

24. It seems like every day they come up with new reasons to boycott the place

If I wasn't already boycotting Wallyworld.....

It's true they lock their workers in at night. Spoke to a former employee.

It's also true that they deliberately schedule your shifts to conflict with a second job, though to be fair it may just be an asshole boss. I've worked at many jobs and most of my bosses were never that much of assholes, even the ones I'd like to sentence to minimum wage jobs until they can afford to buy a clue.

Wal Mart also supports the rights of pharmacists to refuse to fill a legitimate prescription.

They are well aware that one out of every three stores planned are opposed by the communities and Wal Mart goes ahead anyway. Like the obnoxious houseguest who drops in uninvited and refuses to leave.

[frictionlessO]

27. Its all very very true... like I said in an earlier post walmart is PNAC

for the business world. They are the leading example of everything that is wrong with capatilism, and yet they keep loosening the checks and balances for these shitheads...

I've really really had it with the corporate snakes!

[caligirl]

18. Look at who is fighting to keep their tax cuts, opposes responsible taxing

Facing off against Gates and Responsible Wealth are families including the widow and heirs of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. founder Sam Walton and influential lobby groups including the National Federation of Independent Business.

Led by Sam Walton's only daughter, Alice, the family spent $3.2 million on lobbying, conservative causes, and candidates for last year's federal elections. ''That's more than double what it spent in the previous two elections combined,'' USA Today reported Wednesday, citing public documents.

The Waltons have sought income tax changes and other legislation that could preserve their shareholding in America's biggest business and the family's $84 billion fortune, the newspaper said.

This is from another thread I'll post a link to in a minute.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1713092

Some of Americas weathiest families have a good concept of what America stands for.

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Algorem]

30. I wonder if Coughlin knows Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Ter-

rence O'Donnell?They went to same Cleveland high school,St. Edward's,though O'Donnel's maybe 4 years older.Reminds me of how O'Donnell had $18,000 stolen out of his car,when he could have parked in a secure lot for like $3.I'm not saying that he's a crook too.

http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/cuyahoga/1109241262221150.xml

Judge says $18,000 taken from car
Thursday, February 24, 2005

Gabriel Baird and Ted Wendling
Plain Dealer Reporters

In what some might call a lapse in judgment, Ohio Supreme Court Justice Terrence O'Donnell lost $18,000 that was in his car parked in the Flats Feb. 16.

The judge told police that he left the cash in his state-issued car while attending a dinner, where he was recognized as the 2004 Alumnus of the Year by St. Edward High School.

When O'Donnell returned to the car -- parked at Washington Avenue and Elm Street -- the rear passenger window was smashed and the money was gone. He also reported the theft of a briefcase containing "private and special papers," bringing the total loss to $18,895, according to a police report.

O'Donnell, who lives in Rocky River, did not return calls for comment Wednesday, but he did release a written statement...