Leave management salaries out of that average...then talk to me
Quote of note:
Mr. Scott cited studies estimating that Wal-Mart saves American consumers $100 billion a year and saves the average family $600 a year, giving "them a raise every time they shop with us." Saying that Wal-Mart's wages average around $10 an hour, nearly twice the federal minimum wage, he added that the company offered "good jobs at fair wages and benefits with unparalleled opportunities for growth."
Opponents of Wal-Mart to Coordinate Efforts
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Led by Wal-Mart's longtime opponents in organized labor, a new coalition of about 50 groups - including environmentalists, community organizations, state lawmakers and academics - is planning the first coordinated assault intended to press the company to change the way it does business.
In the next few months, those critics will speak with one voice in print advertising, videos and books attacking the company, they say. They also plan to put forward an association of disenchanted Wal-Mart employees, current and former, to complain about what they call poverty-level wages and stingy benefits.
The critics have already begun lobbying in 26 states for legislation intended to embarrass Wal-Mart by disclosing how many thousands of its employees do not receive company health insurance and turn to taxpayer-financed Medicaid.
"We recognize that we are much more likely to win the battle against a giant like Wal-Mart if we act on multiple fronts," said Carl Pope, president of the Sierra Club, which has joined the coalition. "You don't want to challenge Wal-Mart just on health care or just on the environment or just on sex discrimination. You want to pressure them on all three. This is an assault on a business model. We're not trying to shut Wal-Mart down."
Wal-Mart, the nation's largest company, is in turn mounting a huge counteroffensive. Last week, it took out an advertisement across two pages in The New York Review of Books in which it defended its business practices and accused its union detractors of being selfish. It is spending millions of dollars on television advertisements in which blacks, Hispanics and women say that Wal-Mart is an excellent place to work. It has invited 100 journalists to its Arkansas headquarters to hear its case this Tuesday.
"When critics pervert the facts to serve their financial and potential interests, it's our duty to speak up," Lee Scott, the company's chief executive, wrote in the New York Review of Books advertisement. "Chief among these myths is that Wal-Mart's wages and benefits have some kind of negative impact on wages across the board. That's just plain wrong."
Mr. Scott cited studies estimating that Wal-Mart saves American consumers $100 billion a year and saves the average family $600 a year, giving "them a raise every time they shop with us." Saying that Wal-Mart's wages average around $10 an hour, nearly twice the federal minimum wage, he added that the company offered "good jobs at fair wages and benefits with unparalleled opportunities for growth."
