← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Faust
Thread ID: 3300 | Posts: 27 | Started: 2002-10-30
2002-10-30 03:51 | User Profile
If Wal-Mart comes to your town, kill it - by Jim Hightower
"... Then there's China. For years, Wal-Mart saturated the airwaves with a "We Buy American" advertising campaign, but it was nothing more than a red-white-and-blue sham. All along, the vast majority of the products it sold were from cheap-labor hell-holes, especially China. In 1998, after several exposes of this sham, the company finally dropped its "patriotism" posture and by 2001 had even moved its worldwide purchasing headquarters to China. Today, it is the largest importer of Chinese-made products in the world, buying $10 billion worth of merchandise from several thousand Chinese factories..."
url: [url=http://proliberty.com/observer/20021009.htm]http://proliberty.com/observer/20021009.htm[/url]
2002-10-30 06:34 | User Profile
We're getting one in the nearest burg. Man, the fawning sycophants on the city council fell all over themselves in their haste to "assume the position"....
2002-10-30 09:51 | User Profile
Since Wal-Mart has destroyed most of its competition, many of us in rural America no longer have a choice. Most small town main streets in this part of the country are pretty much deserted. For example, if I want to buy a pair of socks I either drive 20 miles of farm-to-market roads and two lane blacktops to the nearest Wal-Mart or 135 miles to the nearest city large enough to offer alternatives, if they exist. Are there any stores that aren't full of Chinese junk? Until the lemmings wise up and stop voting for Democrat/Republicans who give their jobs away I'm afraid there's not much you can do about this.
2002-10-30 10:07 | User Profile
I wonder when Wallmart is going to announce their future merger with the Peoples` Liberation Army. They are the ones who ultimately benefit from the sales of the garbage the Wallmart sells.
2002-10-30 12:32 | User Profile
Originally posted by N.B. Forrest@Oct 30 2002, 01:34 Man, the fawning sycophants on the city council fell all over themselves in their haste to "assume the position"....
What irks me the most is that the government will give them special deals (which ought to be, and often are illegal). Then Wal Mart drive out the local proprieters using their cost advantage. After they drive out the locals, Wally World goes to the city council and tells them that they are going to need a new building, new roads, new breaks, something. Since there is no more competition they can rightly say that if they cant stay in business where will these people shop? The government is creating oligopolies right and left that have complete control of trade. America is becoming a homogenous place, but on all the wrong measures.
2002-10-30 20:02 | User Profile
Wal-Mart buys their meat prepackaged apparently to avoid letting unions get a foothold in the stores through the meat department.
Wal-Mart, like most any big business, does enjoy big tax breaks and other favors from local and state governments. This, of course, is unfair to smaller businesses as well as being anti-competative.
Wal-Mart does import most of their goods. But, don't blame Wal-Mart. Blame the the government for regulation and tax policy that favors foreign businesses. Also, blame the unions for doing their part to make American businesses uncompetative.
Why is a grown man whining that Wal-Mart pays monkeys $15K/year (starting) to stock shelves? Why would a grown man want to stock shelves for a living? They way I see it, that $15K/year means that people with more potential than a monkey will be doing more with their lives than stocking shelves. And, as those people with more skills move on, desparate people without skills (like teenagers) will have more job oppertunity. And, for some reason, if you are a grown man stocking shelves at Wal-Mart, eventually you can move to managment and probably be making a living wage.
If Unions had their way, we'd all be standing in long lines for a loaf of bread.
2002-10-30 22:47 | User Profile
AntiYuppie,
Yes, it does sound like a kneejerk reaction that no doubt comes from being conditioned to think that anyone who attacks a multinational business is a socialist. In their minds that is the only type of person who would dare do such a thing.
So-called "conservatives" can be evey bit as pavlovian as "liberals" on certain things despite their claims of being independent thinkers There are far too many that would rather rely on talk radio for their information than get out there and find out for themselves. That would require them to read.
You have a point. They might as well get out there and defend MTV. Indeed, Neo-libertarians already do that on the grounds of "freedom."
2002-10-30 23:22 | User Profile
**We're getting one in the nearest burg. Man, the fawning sycophants on the city council fell all over themselves in their haste to "assume the position".... **
I know one small town in South Carolina that said no to WalMart.
2002-10-31 12:26 | User Profile
One stupid broad wrote a letter to the editor of the town rag before the decision had been made saying "we need to cooperate with Wal Mart! If we don't, they'll just build it somewhere in the county and we'll miss out!"
I remember this town 25 years ago: it was a thriving place, far more economically vital than it is now; there was a Newberry's department store, a Roses, a Leggett, 2 movie theaters, etc. Now, all of those things are long gone, replaced with friggin' Wal Mart.
That's certainly not what I call progress.
2002-10-31 13:40 | User Profile
Nathan,
**One stupid broad wrote a letter to the editor of the town rag before the decision had been made saying "we need to cooperate with Wal Mart! If we don't, they'll just build it somewhere in the county and we'll miss out!"
**
It was the thinking displayed by this woman that helped accomplish what Gen. Sherman couldn`t do- ruin Atlanta but good.
The same sort of argument, it should be noted, was/is also used to justify trade with Communist countries no matter what.
2002-10-31 18:44 | User Profile
How about the kneejerk anti-corporate response.
I've been to the home of the daughter of Sam Walton (not her current home). In today's market, it wouldn't even cost $200K (excluding the land). Sam Walton himself was famous for driving an old pickup truck in spite of his fortune. Sam didn't flee Arkansas when he made it big, unlike the Clintons. You don't see the Waltons on celebrity news shows because they don't live extravagantly nor get get into trouble. You won't see their homes on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, unlike Bill Gates and his multi-multi-million dollar home. You won't see them trying to get in the lime light like Donald Trump. For their wealth, they are very humble people.
Wal-Mart became a huge success primarly because of their low prices. As far as I can tell, Wal-Mart is very fair with their employees and their customers. Wal-Mart stores have saved consumers billions of dollars over the last several decades.
There are primarily two groups who complain about Wal-Mart. First, is the competition, especially those mom-and-pop retail businesses. Sorry, sales of commodities belong to big business so that the cost of overhead doesn't signficantly drive up the product's cost. Mom-and-pop businesses are essentually as obsolete as the horse and buggy. Thirty years ago if you were growing up in your dad's retail store, you should have been planning on something other than taking over dad's business.
If there's all this demand for mom-and-pop stores in small towns then why is Wal-Mart such a threat? What right do any of you have to make the choice for consumers where they can shop?
The biggest cry against Wal-Mart comes from unions. Unions are those anti-productive, coercive, fear-mongering organizations whose leaders would flunk an entry level economic's course. Unions are simply upset because Wal-Mart employees don't give them money. And, as consumers don't give unions money unions couldn't care less about consumers. Again, the only thing a union wants to do is screw me.
Again, what's wrong with a teenager making $15K/year doing a monkey job? If they don't like it then they don't have to work there. Those mom-and-pop stores never paid any better -- and provided much less in the way of benefits.
I'm all for tariffs (the most legitimate source of federal revenue) and the end to corporate welfare. But, again, don't blame Wal-Mart, blame Congress and those who keep voting these congressmen back into office for any "unfair" advantage Wal-Mart might have.
2002-10-31 19:06 | User Profile
I'm a little torn on this issue but I think we all have to accept that small town America with it's little mom and pop hardware store has been on the critical list for decades. Then along came Wal Mart to take them off life support.
I spend a lot of time in Ocean City Maryland where a Wal Mart recently opened. The people that fought it were primarily small businessmen who were gonna take a big hit. The consumers were all for it.
I bought into the mom and pop arguement and stopped in a hardware store to by a couple of spray bottles that Sam sells for a buck each. Mom and Pop got $3.95 out of me for the same damned bottle. Being basically a tightwad, that ended once and for all my boycott of the new Wal-Mart, such is the depth of my character.
I have now learned to stop worrying and love Wal Mart. I recently purchased a pair of faux leather tasseled Italian (by way of China) loafers there for $14 which I intend to wear until my feet protrude through the soles - which means for at most 3 months. I feel special when I wear these shoes. They give me an aura of superiority and I must fight back an urge to speak with an Italian accent when I address my social inferiors. I am seriously considering writing Wal Mart HQ to demand that they sell faux Italian suits to match my shoes. I informed them - as an incentive - that I would be willing to spend upwards of $69.95 for such a suit- lying dog that I am.
The other reason I enjoy shopping at Wal mart rather than Mom and Pops is because it confirms my deep seated, cynical belief that America is doomed because of loutish, slovenly, fat assed white women preordained to miscegenate with blacks then take their mulatto kids on shopping expeditions to large discount stores.
2002-11-01 18:51 | User Profile
Originally posted by eric von zipper@Oct 31 2002, 19:06 I bought into the mom and pop arguement and stopped in a hardware store to by a couple of spray bottles that Sam sells for a buck each. Mom and Pop got $3.95 out of me for the same damned bottle.
Mom and Pop can't help it. They can't buy a 1000/bottles per order which means they pay a lot more shipping per bottle and they don't get big volume price breaks. Mom and Pop has a relatively very small store so their cost per square foot, the cost of the space that bottle takes up, is much higher. Mom and Pop doesn't have the resources to scour the globe looking for the cheapest supplier. Mom and Pop have to hire outside professional help (accounting, lawyer, whatever) at well over $100/hour can hire the same professionals full-time at a fraction of the cost per hour. Mom and Pop wouldn't even need to hire the accountant if dealing with the government wasn't so complicated (e.g. constantly changing tax laws). When the feds come and force Mom and Pop to put in a ramp (Americans with Disabilities Act) and comply with other unconstitutional reglulations, Mom and Pop has to spend a huge chunk of their income to do it while Wal-Mart hardly notices. And, when Mom and Pop want to move their store to a better location they have to pay full price for everything while WalMart will gets big tax breaks.
Let's cut the cr@p. Unions don't give a sh!t about Mom and Pop stores exept to the extent they can demagogue the issue, like the DemocRATs they are, to use against businesses like WalMart. When Mom and Pop businesses are competing against a union business, the unions are trying to put Mom and Pop out of business. That's why unions are always trying to crank up barriers to entry and otherwise try to get the government to regulate to death small businesses. Is the NEA caring about Mom and Pop businesses when they try to get laws past to prohibit Mom and Pop from teaching, even parents teaching their own children, if those people don't have teaching certification? A user in this forum bitterly spoke against micro steel mills which compete against the big ultra-uncompetative union mills.
It comes down to Mom and pop retail stores (low-cost, high-demand inventory) simply are too inefficient to compete with big companies. And, preserving them is exactly like trying to preserve horse and buggy businesses. It would be a costly charity case.
2002-11-01 19:30 | User Profile
Originally posted by Happy Hacker@Nov 1 2002, 12:51 It comes down to Mom and pop retail stores (low-cost, high-demand inventory) simply are too inefficient to compete with big companies. And, preserving them is exactly like trying to preserve horse and buggy businesses. It would be a costly charity case.
Chances are that somewhere in our lineage, that Mom and Pop were our own mother and father, aunt and uncle or grandmother and grandfather. I guess we now know the exact selling price of the social fabric of our local communities and towns.
Alan Jackson wrote and sang right to the point. "The little man built this town, before the big money shut him down." No hostility intended, HH, but you hold a rather rosy view of the Wal-Martization of America that I don't share in the least. Realizing that Wal-Mart's monopolization does not take place in a vacuum, I do find their predatory practices rather disgusting. Things have gotten out of hand when you drive to any town in America and see the same dang 10 to 15 chain retail stores and restaurants in each and every one. I don't pretend to have the answer to this problem, but I do know that this trend has done a great deal to kill off an American way of life that was a whole lot better than the one we now have. Where we once had local stores owned by local folks in the community you knew, went to church with and saw at the high school football game on Friday nights, now we have impersonal warehouse megastores blazing their lights 24 hours a day seven days a week. Used to have blue laws down here in Texas where stores couldn't even be open on Sundays, so teenagers who worked part-time and other folks could be in church. Well, the Yankees came down and got that changed and now Wal-Mart cranks it up a notch by staying open all the time. Indeed, it's all about the almighty dollar these days. But at what price to our local communities and general societal health?
The Feds have done everything they can to wreck small business, for sure. But unchecked capitalism has lead to monopolies that control our life just as much. The argument for less government control of business is greater consumer choice. But what I see is nowadays I have a choice at shopping at Wal-Mart or Target. Something got screwed up somewhere, but I'll shed no tear if one day we are blessed with Wal-Mart going out of business.
2002-11-01 20:01 | User Profile
I'm no longer down South (to my lasting sorrow - I miss Dixie, bad) but to the folks down there who need to stretch their shopping dollar, WalMart is a necessary evil. (And Sam's Stores are the promised friggin' land!)
It's not that I'm dismissing what Tex and the rest of you are saying - I don't, it's unquestionably true. But that still leaves us at the same place - Joe Sixpack, who's not made of money, has got to get $20 worth of value out of a $20 bill. (And, please - no nonsense about frugality, and 'eat peanut-butter sandwiches instead of sirloin steak', and going without 'luxury' items. People are NOT going to pay $5 for a widget when they can get it for $1.99, ok? They're just not..)
This is only going to get worse as the bill for 9-11 and the War on Terror comes due in mounting taxes (as they've begun to here in The Rotten Apple. And hell - we don't even HAVE any Wal-Marts to ease that burden!) Yes, in the long run WalMarts do more harm than good....but in the meantime, they're damn near indispensable. (And WalMart are not the sole culprit in the Mallification of America, either. There are any number of culprits to point to.)
2002-11-01 20:23 | User Profile
Originally posted by il ragno@Nov 1 2002, 14:01 People are NOT going to pay $5 for a widget when they can get it for $1.99, ok? They're just not..) **
That's true, IR, but let me tell a story. The house my family and I live in is about 20 years old. Not too long ago I had a galvanized pipe fitting crack in my attic. Had to pull the thing off and go to Home Depot to get another one. They had 'em, of course, but the difference in quality between the two was incredible. All the galvanized steel sold at Home Depot was "Hecho en Mexico." And it's not like I have a choice either, there are literally no other hardware stores outside of Home Depot or Loews for miles and miles.
This is but one small example and we all know the cheap Chinese crap that usually breaks within a few weeks that Wal-Mart peddles. So I question, what is that dollar really buying? And what about the folks who once worked at the factory in Pennsylvania that moved to Mexico? The wages they earned and spent in their communities? Are we really saving money and being wise consumers?
Another anecdote, forgive me. Other day I actually had to go to the local Wal-Mart mega-24-7-superduper store for something or other, I don't remember. On the way there I pass a construction site and all the laborers and tradesmen I see working are obviously illegal "migrant workers." I get inside Wal-Mart and there working the registers are young, healthy, White American males. I tell you what, I'm not eloquent or schooled in economics enough to explain all the dynamic principles involved, but there is something definitely screwed up about a society where this kind of thing happens.
2002-11-01 20:32 | User Profile
Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Nov 1 2002, 19:30 [
Texas Dissident, I see myself as taking the middle-ground. As I've been very clear before, the government promotes big businesses and the expense of small business. Free Trade, heavy regulation, tax breaks (rather than tax cuts), the efforts to push all states to have identical laws, etc. are all ways that the government favors big business over small business. And, I'm against all those things that the government does to promote the growth of businesses to monsterous, unnatural sizes leaving only oligopolies.
But, if it weren't WalMart, it would be Target, or some other big retail chain putting Mom and Pop out of business. The cost disadvantages that small general retail stores have is just too great to survive in modern times, regardless of the government and regardless of just about anything. WalMart has been leading the way. I don't think WalMart is necessarily more aggressive than other companies but they do some things better. K-Mart just doesn't know how to attract the customers (hint, it doesn't help to have Rosie O'Donald doing your commercials). Target just had a much later start. WalMart is reaching into small towns because they've already saturated the cities.
The Wal-Martization of America doesn't make me warm inside. I believe that in a Free Market without the federal government, that the biggest companies would be much smaller and they would tend to be more restricted to regions. But, they'd still drive Mom and Pop retail out of business (but not as quickly).
Unions are big supporters of the government's effort to create oligopolies. I'm a bit surprized by the strong pro-union attitudes here. If WalMart were unionized, unions would fall in love with WalMart (they'd still bash management, of course, and throw rocks at other workers during strikes).
WalMart didn't kill community Blue Laws, the increasingly secularization of society (thanks mainly to public schools and leftist judges -- agencies of government) killed Blue Laws. However, the death of Blue Laws is to WalMart's advantage.
2002-11-01 20:35 | User Profile
Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Nov 1 2002, 20:23 And it's not like I have a choice either, there are literally no other hardware stores outside of Home Depot or Loews for miles and miles.
I've got to say, I've been pretty happy with the Home Depot and Loews in my part of town. They've always been very helpful, and the stuff I've bought has worked fairly well. The paint people at Home Depot here were very professional, and my wife was able to get exactly what we needed without my having to come along.
I know there are some alternatives in our area, though, TD. Try looking up Ace or True Value. I believe they work on a franchise basis, and the owners are local.
Best, P
2002-11-01 21:01 | User Profile
Many would call the Mallification of America as inevitable, or progress. Personally, I hate malls and super-stores and I try to support to locals as much as I can, but some times you just have to go to KMart or Home Depot. Unfortunately, I do see many unattractive, overweight, low-class and brain-dead folk in those darn places! Don't mean to be mean, but do people look in the mirror before they exit the house?? The oil companies completely dominate and control every American. The more Walmarts, Kmarts, Targets, and Malls of America, the more each of us will drive our cars more and more, the 18 wheelers keep-a-rollin, ships, planes, motorcycles.....keeping that oil flow flowin'!!!
2002-11-01 21:13 | User Profile
Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Nov 1 2002, 20:23 On the way there I pass a construction site and all the laborers and tradesmen I see working are obviously illegal "migrant workers." I get inside Wal-Mart and there working the registers are young, healthy, White American males.
This I can explain. Those guys in Wal-Mart are probably going to school, working towards a degree. Running a cash register at Wal-Mart is extremely flexible work. You can arrange your schedule there around a 3:00 class. You can't do that at a construction site.
Of course, most of the degrees they're working towards are absolute junk, but in today's climate, you have to one, even if it has absolutely no relation to the work you eventually do in life. It's like a superstitious talisman.
Best, P
2002-11-01 21:18 | User Profile
Originally posted by xmetalhead@Nov 1 2002, 21:01 The more Walmarts, Kmarts, Targets, and Malls of America, the more each of us will drive our cars more and more, the 18 wheelers keep-a-rollin, ships, planes, motorcycles.....keeping that oil flow flowin'!!!
Actually, Mom & Pops require more gas because they have to continually re-stock their limited stores. Plus, customers have to go from one store to the next. Despite that warm haze of nostalgia, not every little business is collected in one convenient location where each is next to the other, all within walking distance. Often they're located on different sides of town. It was like that in most of the South and East Texas towns I lived in.
Best, P
2002-11-01 21:34 | User Profile
Originally posted by Polichinello@Nov 1 2002, 15:13 > Originally posted by Texas Dissident@Nov 1 2002, 20:23 On the way there I pass a construction site and all the laborers and tradesmen I see working are obviously illegal "migrant workers." I get inside Wal-Mart and there working the registers are young, healthy, White American males.**
This I can explain. Those guys in Wal-Mart are probably going to school, working towards a degree. Running a cash register at Wal-Mart is extremely flexible work. You can arrange your schedule there around a 3:00 class. You can't do that at a construction site.
Of course, most of the degrees they're working towards are absolute junk, but in today's climate, you have to one, even if it has absolutely no relation to the work you eventually do in life. It's like a superstitious talisman. **
Aw, come on. I layed floors on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and did 15 hours a semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Nevertheless, I don't think the guys with the baggy pants and all the piercings working the registers at Wal-Mart are seriously pursuing their degrees. Maybe they're community college or something, I don't know. Even then, with the degree being junk like you say and I agree with, there ought to be more high school level tradesman training for our home-grown boys. We're always going to need plumbers, painters, sheetrock hangers, mechanics, etc. I don't see why we have to bring in Mexicans to do it. We managed to arrive where we're at today without 'em.
2002-11-01 22:02 | User Profile
[QUOTE]Aw, come on. I layed floors on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and did 15 hours a semester on Tuesdays and Thursdays.[/QUOTE]
Sounds like real work. That's the problem. Most of these guys don't want that. They like working in an air-conditioned building where they can hang out with friends and punch a register for a couple of hours.
[QUOTE]Nevertheless, I don't think the guys with the baggy pants and all the piercings working the registers at Wal-Mart are seriously pursuing their degrees. [QUOTE]
Sounds like the kids I see at school.
[QUOTE]I agree with, there ought to be more high school level tradesman training for our home-grown boys. We're always going to need plumbers, painters, sheetrock hangers, mechanics, etc. I don't see why we have to bring in Mexicans to do it. We managed to arrive where we're at today without 'em.[/QUOTE]
It isn't so much having the high-school classes available as it is the prestige level. Trades are looked down on; ergo, the Mexicans do them. That's a pity, because you can make a decent living and it takes a great deal of skill to be an artisan. Certainly more than a few professions I know of.
I agree that there is something wrong, but it's societal phenomenon that goes beyond Wal-Mart.
Best, P
2002-11-01 22:07 | User Profile
Originally posted by Polichinello@Nov 1 2002, 16:02 **I agree that there is something wrong, but it's societal phenomenon that goes beyond Wal-Mart. **
Oh, I agree with you, P, and that's why I stated above that Wal-Martization doesn't occur in a vacuum.
Mainly I was just venting a little bit and Wal-Mart is one of my top 10 venting subjects. :)
2002-11-02 16:43 | User Profile
Wal-Mart's cost advantages over local stores may be a free market result. But its existance is not derived from natural law, rather Wal-Mart is a state creation. All corporations are state creations. Wal-Mart owes its existance to the state. It will accomodate its creator, and its creator will use it to persue its will. Big corporations and big government go hand in hand. So I simply dont buy the idea that Wal-Mart is a testament to freedom.
2002-11-02 17:49 | User Profile
Originally posted by amundsen@Nov 2 2002, 10:43 Wal-Mart's cost advantages over local stores may be a free market result. But its existance is not derived from natural law, rather Wal-Mart is a state creation. All corporations are state creations. Wal-Mart owes its existance to the state. It will accomodate its creator, and its creator will use it to persue its will. Big corporations and big government go hand in hand. So I simply dont buy the idea that Wal-Mart is a testament to freedom.
The fact that the state facilitates and enhances commerce, by institutionalizing limited liability and by providing infrastructure, protection, and enforcement of contract to trading enterprise, does not imply that intrusive exploitation of economies-of-scale, collusion in restraint of trade, and all the other negative aspects of the pursuit of advantage, would not arise in the working out of "natural law" absent the artifices of state. All these drawbacks would be merely retarded in their emergence and evolution, at the expense of diminishing the progress of commerce in general and of technological advance vital to national security.
Dispensing with the state in favor of "freedom" merely exchanges one set of problems for another - there having been no showing that the essentially universal historical decision in favor of the state, in preference to anarchy, is of greater cost than benefit, all things considered.
Thus the point, which Jewry grasped long ago - and which continues to elude the goyim - is that THERE IS NO MORALITY TO THE QUALITY OR QUANTITY OF GOVERNMENT.
A "Dictatorship" which fights for YOU is GOOD!
A "Democracy" which fights against YOU is BAD!
2002-11-25 01:22 | User Profile
Unions Rally at Wal-Mart Stores Fri Nov 22,10:22 AM ET
By CARYN ROUSSEAU, Associated Press Writer
A coalition of unions and nonprofit groups staged rallies at Wal-Mart stores in 100 cities in 40 states to protest labor practices at the nation's largest retailer.
"Behind that smiley face is a single mother who makes $7.50 an hour and can't afford health insurance for her family because Wal-Mart charges her $400 a month for it," said Rian Wathen of United Food & Commercial Workers Local 700 in Indianapolis.
In Columbia, S.C., protesters stood near a highway holding signs bearing phrases like "living wages" and "affordable health care."
"It's the great American company, but are they representing American values?" said Donna Dewitt, head of the South Carolina AFL-CIO. "It's not the company that Sam Walton founded."
Walton, who founded Wal-Mart in Arkansas in 1962, died 10 years ago.
Wal-Mart now has more than 1.3 million employees. The company says it offers unrivaled career opportunities and treats workers well.
"We make sure to offer competitive wages and benefits, including health care, in every market we are in," spokeswoman Mona Williams said.
Wal-Mart spokesman Bill Wertz said the workers are nonunion by choice, but organizers say the company keeps out unions by intimidation.
Thirty-one National Labor Relations Board cases involving Wal-Mart are pending before administrative law judges, NLRB spokesman David Parker said.
Wal-Mart also is fighting state and federal lawsuits filed by workers who accuse the company of forcing them to work hours off the clock. More than 400 employees from 24 of Wal-Mart's 27 Oregon stores are involved in a class-action lawsuit in court now that alleges the retailer cheated employees out of overtime pay. On Thursday, dozens of protesters were outside a Portland Wal-Mart.
Pickets were absent in Wal-Mart's home state, however. Union spokesman Greg Denier said members avoided Arkansas because of worries about court response. In March, a state judge issued a permanent injunction prohibiting the union from soliciting inside Wal-Mart buildings.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is the world's largest private company with 3,200 U.S. stores and 1,100 other locations worldwide. The company posted $218 billion in sales last year.