Paint Stains

Comes to you via child labor. There's something really twisted and sick about putting up a holiday "for kids and kids at heart" while kids in other countries are working over 60 hours a week to produce cheap plastic crap for slave wages. (And is the same reason I hate Disney, BTW.)

I know some news networks have covered it (in brief 20-second pieces), but all the dirty details really need more airing. So, here's (link via plaidder) The National Labor Committee's December 2007 report, A Wal-Mart Christmas Brought to you from a Sweatshop in China. Photos and documents attached, and I assure you, the Chinese translations of the workers' Violation Notification Receipts (in the photographs shown) are legit. Needless to say, it'll be nice to send this link along to Wal-Mart and shopping addicts.

In the summer of 2007, the Guangzhou Huanya Ornaments factory hired 500 to 600 sixteen-year-old high school students, who were promised they would never be required to work more than 10 hours a day, six days a week, while earning more than 1,000 RMB ($132.63) a month. Once in the factory, the teenagers found themselves forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, seven days a week, for wages nowhere near what they were promised. After a few weeks, many students were so exhausted they could barely walk.

The students had had enough and went on strike on July 8, also filing a legal suit against the company. Student representatives went to the local labor bureau not only to denounce the grueling hours, seven days a week, for payment below the legal minimum wage, but also to inform the labor officials that several children, some as young as 12 years of age, worked in the plant. The high school teenagers were able to quickly recognize and document gross human and worker rights violations, including child labor, at the plant, while Wal-Mart—the largest retailer in the world—was apparently unable to discover any such abuses over the course of years.

Heee...

Condoleeza Rice throws a fit in Canada
Because the Canadian press knows how to call crap out when they see it.



The NYT covers Wal-Mart! Wal-Mart Memo Suggests Ways to Cut Employee Benefit Costs

An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.

Link the PDF Memo Oh god yes, they really care. [/sarcasm]

Some gems:

Some of the proposed revisions to the benefits strategy (e.g., the move to consumer-driven health plans, the changes in the retirement program) have the potential to upset Associates, especially more tenured Associates.

Healthcare enrollment will fall several percentage points due primarily to a shift to more part-time Associates, which could draw additional attacks from Wal-Mart’s critics.

You can read it and get the feeling they get REALLY peeved with http://www.wakeupwalmart.com especially when the memo writer is forced to admit the criticisms are true.