Wal-MartThe Groton Planning Commission wisely declined the Wal-Mart SuperCenter. Wal-Mart is a prime example of a monopsonist: a company which is such a powerful buyer that it can pressure its suppliers into suicidal terms. The only way suppliers can meet Wal-Mart's demands is by moving manufacturing to third world countries. The US has lost millions of manufacturing jobs in the last few years. Not only has Wal-Mart devastated thousands of small towns, vigorously opposed labor unions. pushed their minimum wage employees onto the public dole, strained public health facilities, it helped strip the manufacturing base from this country. The US trade deficit has soared, and overseas sweatshops have flourished. Those low prices are not without cost. See the film: Walmart, the High Cost of Low Prices. (free and on-line). Before Ronald Reagan there might have been anti-trust enforcement for Wal-Mart, but since Reagan, Republicans don't enforce anti-trust. That should change. We can only hope that the new big box store development in East Lyme is not a stealth Wal-Mart. How Wal-mart evaded 2.3 Billion in taxes. Tell the FEC to investigate Wal-Mart According to a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart has been threatening employees that if they vote for pro-worker candidates like Barack Obama in November, the Employee Free Choice Act will pass, making it easier to form unions in Wal-Mart stores. Telling employees how to vote in a U.S. election is not only morally reprehensible, it's potentially illegal.
LinksBreaking the Chain: the Antitrust Case Against Wal-Mart Harper's, July 2006 Harper's Magazine: Break up Walmart Walmart (video) The WalMart Effect. Charles Fishman |