Corporate Media Continues to Ignore Clinton's Anti-Union Past with Walmart

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The corporate media is giving Hillary Clinton a free ride when it comes to her affiliation with Walmart. All this talk about the concerns of working class people and the vetting of Obama seem to be divorced from reality. With regard to her now-impassioned concerns for workers’ rights, Hillary Clinton's record on labor issues is roughly zero. She sat on the board of directors of Wal-Mart Stores Inc. from 1986 to 1992. Not surprisingly, her official biography omits this six-year stint. As stated by Ronald Saunders in the "Letters to the Editor" section of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "Hillary Clinton claims to be a fighter, but she didn't fight hard enough for her own campaign staffers to have adequate health insurance. Ask the women at Wal-Mart whether Mrs. Clinton is a fighter. She was on the board of directors at Wal-Mart when Wal-Mart was doing everything in its power to resist unionization. She did absolutely nothing to advocate for the workers who were desirous of unionizing."

Indeed videotapes obtained by ABC News show that at four stockholder meetings where Clinton was present and anti-union activity was discussed she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions. Nor did she resign from the Board due to Wal-mart's anti-union positions. She did nothing. As noted by Barbara Koeppel [HERE] WalMart’s devotion to low wages seems not to have lost Clinton any sleep. Two years after Clinton joined the Board – an Arkansas state senator publicly attacked the company for “dumping its overhead on state taxpayers, saying many of its near minimum-wage workers made so little they had to get by on public assistance.” For more information on Wal-mart's foul treatment of working class people check out the following: 

WAL-MART HAS ADMITTED IT IS ANTI-UNION: The New York Times reports that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with about 5,000 stores worldwide, "has not acknowledged a single union within its operations in the United States, and has vigorously opposed the formation of unions within Wal-Mart." In fact, as an employee handbook documents, Wal-Mart explicitly instructs its managers to bust unions. The company guidebook states that "Wal-Mart is opposed to unionization of its associates. Any suggestion that the Company is neutral on the subject or that it encourages associates to join labor organizations is not true." Read the handbook here.

DENYING WORKERS THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY: Of the many "perks" that should come with being employed at Wal-Mart, workers' right to organize – internationally "recognized as a core labor standard and a basic human right" – is not mentioned. This glaring absence is not a mistake: "Wal-Mart has consistently stated that it will not bargain with any union, and has repeatedly taken drastic steps to prevent workers from organizing in stores across North America." Managers at Wal-Marts even have a "hotline to call so that company specialists can respond rapidly and head off any attempt by employees to organize." The various strategies that Wal-Mart has employed to get around unions have resulted in the company being hit with over 100 charges, complaints, and rebukes by United Food and Commercial Workers, the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions and the United States government. Despite facing grand jury investigations, National Labor Review Board judges, and class action suits, behind closed doors, Wal-Mart applauds its "union avoidance strategy."

ABUSING HOURLY EMPLOYEES: Wal-Mart claims that "seventy-four percent of [its] hourly associates in the United States work full-time." What the company chooses not to address is the nearly 40 wage-and-hour lawsuits currently filed against them. In Washington state for example, a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart alleges that the corporation routinely "engaged in a 'systematic scheme of wage abuse'" in which it "pressured hourly employees not to report all their time worked, failed to keep true time records�?failed to give employees full rest or meal breaks, threatened to fire or demote employees who would not work off the clock, [and] required workers to attend unpaid meetings and computer training." (Be sure to read about other ways Wal-Mart keeps its employees after hours and takes their hard-earned and dutifully deserved wages.) [MORE]

  • Pictured above: Clinton whore George Stephanopoulos, one of the moderators of last weeks debate. Among  other dumb questions posed by him during the debate, he asked "but are you more patriotic than Rev. Wright?"  Describing Stephanopoulos, Tom Shales said [HERE], "he looked like an overly ambitious intern helping out at a subcommittee hearing, digging through notes for something smart-alecky and slimy. He came up with such tired tripe as a charge that Obama once associated with a nutty bomb-throwing anarchist. That was "40 years ago, when I was 8 years old," Obama said with exasperation." Prior to joining ABC News, he was a senior political adviser to the 1992 U.S. presidential campaign of Bill Clinton and later became Clinton's communications director (resigned in 1996). In fact, working for Bill Clinton for four years was his only real job prior to his ABC gig - talk about affirmative action, you go whiteboy!
  • A Constitution-themed debate that ignored critical issues related to -- you guessed it -- the Constitution [MORE]