http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article324050.eceWal-Mart: is this the worst company in the world?
It is the biggest private employer in America with a turnover equivalent to that of a medium-sized country, but churches, unions, and an innovative film-maker are set on holding Wal-Mart to account
By Andrew Gumbel
Published: 02 November 2005
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But all the careful public relations work was demolished by the leak of an internal memo last week which acknowledged some shocking home truths about Wal-Mart - including the fact that 46 per cent of the children of company employees either had no health insurance or relied on emergency government programmes nominally set up for the indigent and unemployed. The memo, written by Wal-Mart's executive vice-president for benefits in conjunction with the management consultants McKinsey, also showed the true purpose of rearranging the company's health plan was to cut costs further.
Sure enough, close examination of the health plan revealed that, while monthly insurance payments were being lowered in some cases, they came with a hefty deductible that many company employees were unlikely to be able to afford. The memo went so far as to suggest adding a physical element to sedentary jobs such as cashiering to deter unhealthy people from applying.
This week sees the arrival of a whole new public relations nightmare, in the shape of a documentary film which has already become an organising tool for anti-Wal-Mart activists across the country. Called Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, it was made by Robert Greenwald, a prominent Hollywood liberal who has pioneered a new form of viral marketing in which politics and film promotion are merged, and screenings are arranged - often simultaneously - everywhere from private house parties to traditional cinema outlets.
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And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Last weekend, anti-Wal-Mart activists went Hallowe'en trick-or-treating outside more than 100 Wal-Mart stores to raise money to help meet the healthcare costs of struggling company employees. Starting on 13 November, a Wal-Mart "week of action" promises more documentary screenings, street protests, TV and newspaper advertising campaigns and other, as yet unannounced gimmicks.
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http://agrnews.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1291&Itemid=2Wal-Mart donates millions to right-wing causes By Bill Berkowitz
Oakland, California, Oct. 22 (IPS)— Upon the death of Helen Walton, the frail and aging widow of Sam Walton — who was founder of the Wal-Mart empire — the Walton Family Foundation could receive as much as $20 billion, making it the largest and potentially most powerful foundation in the world.
While members of the Walton family have their own philanthropic projects, the Walton Family Foundation (WFF) and the Wal-Mart Foundations are the family and company’s flagship philanthropic enterprises.
The Walton Family Foundation currently gives out more than $100 million a year — a healthy chunk of it to opponents of public school education. The Wal-Mart Foundation donated more than $170 million in 2004, 90 percent of which went through local stores to small community and faith-based organizations.
The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Political Action Committee for Responsive Government earmarks the vast majority of its contributions to Republican Party political candidates and Republican political committees. Of the $2.1 million the PAC gave in 2004, $1.6 million went to the GOP, while less than $500,000 went to Democrats.
In its new report “The Waltons and Wal-Mart: Self-Interested Philanthropy,” the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP) examines the intersection of corporate philanthropy and public policy by looking closely at the philanthropic efforts of the Walton family.
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