Petition against Wal*Mart

This document is petitioning the business, Wal*Mart, for several reasons. I live in the small town of Shelburne, Vermont, and we only have one Wal*Mart, going on two in our state. Recently, I obtained the disgusting knowledge that there were plans for SEVEN more Wal*Marts in Vermont. Wal*Mart disgusts me and many others for many reasons. One is the way that I have seen and heard how they treat employees. When a Wal*Mart comes to town, it puts local family owned business that make Vermont Unique out of business. They epitomize Americas greatest downfall. By selling low quality food, clothing, electronics, and household items for bargain prices, the Wal*Mart smiley face that the company advertises with is just a facade for its soul crushing inhumane interior. Wal*Mart runs adds featuring the American Flag with sales pitches like We buy American, meaning they sell things that were made in America. In 2001, they moved their world wide purchasing headquarters to China and are the largest importers of Chinese goods in the U.S. purchasing $10 BILLION of Chinese-made products annually. These products were mostly made by Chinese women and children in the industrial hell-holes that China is renowned for.
The Average Wal*Mart Employee makes $15,000 dollars a year, or $7.22 an hour, and unless you have worked for the company for over two years, there are NO healthcare benefits WHATSOEVER. The Wal*Mart employee turnover rate is about 50\% a year, so only 38\% of their 1.3 million employees has any medical coverage. In California alone its estimated that the taxpayers pay over $20 MILLION annually to subsidize health care benefits for these employees who get none from this behemoth corporation. Wal*Mart also hold the record for the most lawsuits filed against it by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. A lawyer from Business Week said I have never seen this kind of blatant disregard for the law. Wal*Mart had to pay a $750,000.00 fine in Arizona for blatant discrimination against the disabled.
The National Labors Relations Board has issued over 40 formal complaints against Wal*Mart in 25 different states in the past 5 years. The NLRBs top lawyer believed that their labor violations included illegal spying on employees, fraudulent record keeping, falsifying time cards to avoid paying overtime, threats, and illegal firings for union organizing. Nearly 1 MILLION women are involved in the largest class-action suit filed against Wal*Mart. Although women make up over 65\% of the Wal*Mart staff, only 10\% of them are managers. The women who actually are graced with being promoted to manager make $16,400 a year LESS than the male managers.
In an average community, Wal*Mart replaces three decent paying jobs with 2 part time jobs. In fact, every three days a new Wal*Mart or Sams Club (the Wal*Mart corporations equivalent to Costco) opens somewhere in the World.
Now you know how they can claim, "Always low prices." Wal-Mart is the largest corporation in the world, larger than General Motors and ExxonMobil. Wal-Mart will reap over 250 billion in sales in 2003, which is larger than the entire gross national product of Israel and Ireland combined. It has over 1.3 million employees. It sells more groceries, jewelry, photo processing, dog food, and vitamins than any other chain in the world. Wal-Mart refuses to stock Emergency Contraception at its pharmacies.
They will also never another dime from my wallet, and I hope not yours either. Only we, the citizens of this great country can stop this lethal race to the bottom. Please sign my petition, and protest the decimating, soul and value crushing, dehumanizing business that is Wal*Mart.
Thank You,
Tani Pozirekides