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| WORLD: The Jewel Trade's Fading Luster
by V. Dion Haynes and Rama Lakshmi, Washington Post
March 28th, 2009
The drop in U.S. demand for high-end jewelry in a slumping economy is having ripple effects around the globe as stores close, workers are laid off in mass in the diamond-polishing factories of Gujarat, and countries like Botswana experience a dramatic drop in diamond revenue. |
| US: An Inconvenient Bag
by ELLEN GAMERMAN , Wall Street Journal
September 26th, 2008
It's manufactured in China, shipped thousands of miles overseas, made with plastic and could take years to decompose. It's also the hot "green" giveaway of the moment: the reusable shopping bag. |
| UK: Are we falling out of love with Tesco?
by David Smith and Zoe Wood, The Observer, The Guardian
June 29th, 2008
As the biggest beast in the jungle, Tesco has been accused of monopolisation, exploitation and bullying anyone who dares to stand in its way. It has become a lightning rod for every critic of corporate power, homogenised high streets and the malign influence of multinationals in the developing world. |
| US: Mannatech Settles Holder Suits
by SUZANNE SATALINE, Wall Street Journal
June 13th, 2008
Dietary-supplements maker Mannatech Inc. said it settled several lawsuits with shareholders who accused the company of using improper sales tactics to boost the value of the stock. |
| UK: Retailers in tobacco price probe
BBC NEWS
April 25th, 2008
n the case of Gallaher, Imperial Tobacco, Asda, Sainsbury, Shell, Somerfield and Tesco, there was an indirect exchange of proposed future retail prices between competitors, it adds, allegedly between 2001 and 2003. |
| US: When a Corporate Donation Raises Protests
by STUART ELLIOTT, The New York Times
March 12th, 2008
But a coalition of children’s advocates contends that the hospital went too far by agreeing to name a new emergency department and trauma center after another locally based retailer, Abercrombie & Fitch, in exchange for a $10 million donation. |
| CHINA/US: The Recalls’ Aftershocks
by Louise Story and David Barboza, New York Times
December 22nd, 2007
Toy makers are investigating whether they need to treat their tainted products with stabilization chemicals or if they must seal the toys in giant polyethylene bags. |
| US: Gap plans 'sweatshop free' labels
by Dan McDougall, Guardian
November 4th, 2007
In what would be the biggest commitment to ending child labour ever undertaken by a major retailer, Gap Inc is drawing up plans to label its products 'Sweatshop Free'. |
| US: Wal-Mart Workers Win $62 Million
by Marieclaire Dale, AP
October 4th, 2007
Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania who previously won a $78.5 million class-action award for working off the clock will share an additional $62.3 million in damages, a judge ruled Wednesday. |
| INDIA: Indian Activists' Rising Clout
by Jackie Range, Wall Street Journal
August 16th, 2007
India's Supreme Court is poised to decide whether a British
company has the right to mine in a sacred tribal forest, a case that underlines the complexity of undertaking large-scale industrial projects here. The case's hearing by the court reflects the growing clout of activist groups in India. |
| WORLD: We must count the true cost of cheap China
by Richard McGregor, Financial Times
August 2nd, 2007
In the wake of the multiple scandals over tainted Chinese food and drug exports in recent months, Chinese goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. But the fact that wrongly labelled foods, liquor and pharmaceuticals have routinely sickened and even killed people en masse in China has been largely overlooked. |
| US: Mattel Recalls One Million Toys
by Louise Story , New York Times
August 2nd, 2007
Mattel, the maker of Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels cars, is recalling nearly one million toys in the United States today because the products’ surfaces are covered in lead paint. According to Mattel, all the toys were made by a contract manufacturer in China. |
| MEXICO: Thousands of Unpaid Teens Bag Groceries for Wal-Mart
by Joseph Contreras, Newsweek
August 1st, 2007
Wal-Mart prides itself on cutting costs at home and abroad, and its Mexican operations are no exception. Wal-Mart is Mexico's largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico-and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. |
| US: At Home Depot, How Green Is That Chainsaw?
by Cliffard Kraus, New York Times
June 25th, 2007
As companies rush to carry "environmentally friendly" products, Home Depot encourages suppliers to pitch to have their products included in its new Eco Options marketing campaign. Critics argue that the green label is overused and overmarketed. |
| US: Gag order for former Wal-Mart employee
CNN Money
April 9th, 2007
Wal-Mart (NYSE:WMT) won a gag order to stop a fired security operative from talking to reporters and a judge ordered him to provide Wal-Mart attorneys with 'the names of all persons to whom he has transmitted, since January 15, 2007, any Wal-Mart information.'? |
| US: Laid-off Circuit City workers allege age bias in suit
by Molly Selvin and Abigail Goldman, The Los Angeles Times
April 6th, 2007
A lawsuit by three older Circuit City Stores Inc. employees, alleging that the retailer violated California age discrimination laws by laying them off because they were earning too much, is part of a surge in age bias complaints from disgruntled baby boomers. |
| US: Fired Wal-Mart worker claims surveillance ops: report
Reuters UK
April 4th, 2007
The Wal-Mart Stores Inc. worker fired last month for intercepting a reporter's phone calls says he was part of a larger, sophisticated surveillance operation that included snooping not only on employees, but also on critics, stockholders and the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., The Wall Street Journal reported.
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| US: Wal-Mart Charged with Selling Nonorganic Food as Organic
by Mark A. Kastel, The Free Press
November 14th, 2006
The Cornucopia Institute, the nation's most aggressive organic farming watchdog, has filed a formal legal complaint with the USDA asking them to investigate allegations of illegal “organic” food distribution by Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. Cornucopia has documented cases of nonorganic food products being sold as organic in Wal-Mart’s grocery departments.
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| US: Wal-Mart must pay workers $78m
BBC
October 13th, 2006
The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart, has been ordered to pay at least $78m in compensation to workers who were forced to work during breaks. |
| US: Wal-Mart bank battle escalates
Bloomberg News
August 29th, 2006
A battle over Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s effort to get into financial services might derail the growth of company-owned banks, as well as Utah's ambitions to become to such lenders what Delaware is to corporations. |
| US: Suit Against Wal-Mart Is Narrowed
Bloomberg News
August 29th, 2006
A federal judge Monday dismissed civil racketeering claims against Wal-Mart Stores Inc., narrowing the scope of a lawsuit that accused the retailer of knowingly employing illegal immigrants to clean its stores. |
| CHINA: Wal-Mart Agrees to Unionization
by David Barboza, The New York Times
August 9th, 2006
After years of fighting unionization efforts at its stores, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said today that it would work closely with Chinese officials to establish labor unions at all of its outlets here.
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| US: Chicago Orders ‘Big Box’ Stores to Raise Wage
by Erik Eckholm, The New York Times
July 26th, 2006
After months of fevered lobbying and bitter debate, the Chicago City Council passed a ground-breaking ordinance yesterday requiring “big box” stores, like Wal-Mart and Home Depot, to pay a minimum wage of $10 an hour by 2010, along with at least $3 an hour worth of benefits. |
| US: Judge Gives Wal-Mart Reprieve on Benefits
by Reed Abelson and Michael Barbaro, The New York Times
July 20th, 2006
In a setback to state efforts to force employers to provide more generous health benefits, a federal judge yesterday struck down a Maryland law that was aimed at the nation’s largest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores. |
| UK: Wal-Mart Faces Asda Workers' Strike
by Jonathan Birchall and Andrew Taylor, The Financial Times
June 22nd, 2006
Wal-Mart is facing the threat of a potentially damaging strike at Asda, the UK subsidiary that accounts for about 40 per cent of its international sales, in a dispute with one of the country's largest unions over bargaining rights. |
| US: Wal-Mart Likes Chicago, But Not City's Wage Plan
by Gary Washburn, Chicago Tribune
June 13th, 2006
A Wal-Mart official said Monday that his firm could be interested in building "10 or 20" stores on city sites during the next five years, but he added that passage of a minimum wage measure by Chicago's City Council could have a chilling effect on the company's plans. |
| US: Fendi sues Wal-Mart over fake handbags
Reuters
June 11th, 2006
Italian fashion group Fendi S.R.L. sued Wal-Mart Stores in U.S. federal court on Friday, accusing the world's largest retailer of selling counterfeit handbags and passing them off as genuine at its Sam's Club warehouse stores. |
| US: Three Restaurant Executives Will Admit Fraud Charges
by Floyd Norris, The New York Times
June 8th, 2006
Three former top officers of Buca Inc., an operator of Italian restaurants, have agreed to plead guilty to federal fraud charges in connection with a scheme to create false profits for Buca and allow executives to steal hundreds of thousands of dollars to pay for a wide range of expenses including the use of an Italian villa and visits to strip clubs. |
| US: Biggest pension fund boycotts Wal-Mart
by Terry Macalister, The Guardian
June 7th, 2006
Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer and owner of the Asda supermarket chain, is being boycotted by the world's largest pension fund for alleged "serious and systematic" abuses of human and employment rights. |
| US: Ad Calls for Wal-Mart to Change Principles
Associated Press
May 23rd, 2006
One of Wal-Mart's most vocal union-funded critics took out a full-page ad in The New York Times on Tuesday calling on the company to live up to the ''moral responsibilities'' of being the world's largest private employer by improving wages and health insurance. |
| US: Unwitting Shoppers Recruited for Wal-Mart PR Fight
by Marilyn Geewax, Cox News Service
April 4th, 2006
Last December, Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., created its own grassroots group, Working Families for Wal-Mart. It hired Edelman, a global public relations firm, to organize the group out of its Washington office and launch a nationwide campaign. |
| US: Exxon Dethrones Wal-Mart on Fortune 500 List
by J.W. Elphinstone, Associated Press
April 3rd, 2006
Skyrocketing energy prices propelled ExxonMobil (XOM) to the top of the 2006 Fortune 500 list, and consigned Wal-Mart (WMT) to the No. 2 spot on the magazine's annual ranking of the nation's largest publicly traded companies. |
| US: A Show of Hands on Wal-Mart
by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times
March 24th, 2006
Like almost anything involving Wal-Mart these days, the dispute has less to do with specific legal or regulatory questions than it does with the deep rift the company has opened across the American landscape.
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| US: Wal-Mart to Loosen Health Insurance Limits
by Michael Barbaro, The New York Times
February 23rd, 2006
Wal-Mart Stores, facing a raft of state legislation that would require it to increase spending on employee health insurance, will lift several of its long-standing — and most-criticized — restrictions on eligibility over the next year, the giant retailer said this morning. |
| US: Sales Brisk for "Wal-Mart" Docu As Accusations Fly
Reuters
February 15th, 2006
Berlin's European Film Market became the backdrop for yet another verbal battle between Wal-Mart and its filmmaker nemesis Robert Greenwald on Tuesday. The Greenwald-directed film "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price" made for hot sales but heated words at the market. |
| US: Wal-Mart's Musical Moves
by Abigail Goldman and Charles Duhigg, Los Angeles Times
January 26th, 2006
This latest example of Wal-Mart's "direct procurement" approach continues the company's practice of upending the traditional relationship between the makers of goods and those who sell them.
The deal has some in the recording industry alarmed at the thought of Wal-Mart's establishing direct partnerships with musicians and cutting out the labels. And it may just be the start. |
| US: For One Clerk, Fight for Wal-Mart Bill Is Personal
by Mary Otto, Washington Post
January 12th, 2006
The debate over the Fair Share Health Care Fund Act, commonly known as the Wal-Mart bill, has dominated politics in the run-up to the General Assembly, with the retailer arguing that Democrats have unfairly singled out one company and union leaders arguing that workers deserve better treatment.
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| US: SEC Opens Informal Probe Into Home Depot
Reuters
January 12th, 2006
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has opened an informal investigation into charges that Home Depot Inc. inflated profits through supplier payments meant to cover the cost of damaged merchandise |
| US: Wal-Mart Web Site Makes Racial Connections
by Ylan Q. Mui, Washington Post
January 6th, 2006
Wal-Mart apologized yesterday after its retail Web site directed potential buyers of "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Planet of the Apes" DVDs to also consider purchasing DVDs with African American themes. |
| US: Best Buy Sued for Bias
by Jason Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle
December 10th, 2005
Six current and former employees of Best Buy filed a race- and sex-discrimination lawsuit Thursday against the consumer electronics chain in federal court in San Francisco, accusing it of denying better-paying sales and managerial jobs to African Americans, Latinos and women in favor of white men. |
| MEXICO: Wal-Mart's Plans for Indigenous Areas Under Fire
by Diego Cevallos
August 25th, 2005
Wal-Mart, which last year opened a store near the ancient Teotihuacan pyramids of Mexico despite loud protests from local activists and small businesses, is now seeking a repeat of its earlier victory, this time in two heavily indigenous areas: in Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán and Juchitán, in the southern state of Oaxaca. But local opponents are set for a pitched battle. |
| US: Wal-Mart to be More Like Target
by Emily Kaiser, Reuters
June 23rd, 2005
Wal-Mart, the No. 1 retailer, is widening its array of stylish-but-cheap goods in hopes of winning over middle-income customers, putting it head-to-head with a rival that has proved it can compete and thrive against a company six times its size. |
| US: Wal-Mart Is Focal Point Of Democrats' Health Bill
by By Amy Joyce, Washington Post
June 23rd, 2005
Several congressional Democrats introduced a bill that would force states to report the names of companies that have 50 or more employees who receive government-funded health care, an effort to pressure Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in particular to improve employee health coverage. |
| US: Logging On With Wake Up Wal-Mart
by Amy Joyce, Washington Post
May 31st, 2005
Not much has changed since these staffers were with the Howard Dean, Wesley K. Clark and John F. Kerry presidential campaigns. But this time, they are trying to win one for the Wal-Mart workers. |
| US: Teflon Target
by Chris Serres, Star Tribune
May 22nd, 2005
For years, Target has cultivated an image of itself as the "anti-Wal-Mart," a retailer that refuses to sacrifice workplace standards in the pursuit of higher sales and stock prices. But now, after a decade of meteoric growth at both Target and Wal-Mart, labor groups say the two retailers are no longer very different in the way they treat their workers.
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| US: Clean-Energy Mega-Mall
by Amanda Griscom Little, Grist
May 20th, 2005
The developer of a new mall planned for Upstate New York vows that it will be the closest thing to an "Apollo Project" for renewable energy that America has ever seen -- one that grows the economy, strengthens national security by encouraging energy independence, and protects the environment. |
| CANADA: Closure of First Unionized Wal-Mart Sends Signal
by Paul Weinberg, IPS
May 1st, 2005
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, may be violating international and Canadian laws by using covert strategies to undermine a unionising drive at its Canadian stores, say labour experts and union activists.
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| US: Wal-Mart to Fund Wildlife Habitat
by John Heilprin, Associated Press
April 13th, 2005
Acre for acre, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said it would buy an amount of land equal to all the land its stores, parking lots and distribution centers use over the next 10 years. That would conserve at least 138,000 acres in the United States as "priority" wildlife habitat. |
| MEXICO: Teoti-Wal-Mart
by John Ross, The Progressive
March 14th, 2005
Wal-Mart puts down roots in the shadow of the Pyramid of the Sun in San Juan Teotihuacan. Is the global leviathan any match for Quetzalcoatl? |
| US: Wal-Mart Starts Image Boosting Ads
Reuters
January 13th, 2005
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, launched a national advertising campaign on Thursday to burnish an image tarnished by allegations that it discriminates in hiring and promotions and drives smaller rivals out of business. |
| GUATELMALA: Supermarket Giants Crush Farmers
by Celia W. Dugger, New York Times
December 28th, 2004
Across Latin America, supermarket chains partly or wholly owned by global corporate goliaths like Ahold, Wal-Mart and Carrefour have revolutionized food distribution in the short span of a decade and have now begun to transform food growing, too. |
| CHINA: Wal-Mart Allows Unions
BBC News
November 24th, 2004
Wal-Mart has said it will allow its Chinese workers to join a trade union, marking a u-turn on previous policy. |
| UK: To Be a 'Clone Town,' or Not: That Is the Question
by Lizette Alvarez, New York Times
November 1st, 2004
To survive the approach to the home where William Shakespeare was born, a striking timber-frame house in the center of this bustling town, it would be wise to bid adieu to all bucolic notions of quaint old England and ready oneself for the onslaught of globalization. |
| Wal-Mart to be More Like Target
by Emily Kaiser, Reuters
June 23rd, 2004
Wal-Mart, the No. 1 retailer, is widening its array of stylish-but-cheap goods in hopes of winning over middle-income customers, putting it head-to-head with a rival that has proved it can compete and thrive against a company six times its size. |
| US: Remaking America in Wal-Mart's Image
The Black Commentator
February 19th, 2004
The only competition that exists among the corporate players at the commanding heights of the American economy is the race to determine who can squeeze the workers first and hardest. The Safeway, Kroger and Albertsons chains and their subsidiaries claim underdog status, as they grind $10 an hour workers into the dirt. The real problem the traditional grocery chains face is weak demand and an inability to raise prices in a deflationary environment not Wal-Mart pricing pressure. They eagerly follow Wal-Mart's model that there is no limit to how far they are willing to reduce labor costs. If there is a bottom, Wal-Mart will find it first, and the pack will eagerly follow. |
| CHINA: Wal-Mart Turns Blind Eye To Factory Conditions
by Grant McCool, Reuters
February 9th, 2004
Labor rights groups on Monday accused the world's biggest retailer, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., of turning a blind eye to abusive conditions at a factory in China that makes plastic toys for the company. |
| US: In-House Audit Says Wal-Mart Violated Labor Laws
by Steven Greenhouse, New York Times
January 13th, 2004
An internal audit now under court seal warned top executives at Wal-Mart Stores three years ago that employee records at 128 stores pointed to extensive violations of child-labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals. |
| MEXICO: Wal-Mart Invades
by Tim Weiner, New York Times
December 6th, 2003
The company that ate America is now swallowing Mexico. Wal-Mart, the biggest corporation in the United States, is already the biggest private employer in Mexico, with 100,164 workers on its payroll here as of last week. Last year, when it gained its No. 1 status in employment, it created about 8,000 new positions -- nearly half the permanent new jobs in this struggling country. |
| US: The Great Wal-Mart Wars
by Ruth Rosen, San Francisco Chronicle
June 30th, 2003
Wal-Mart has announced its intention to open 40 new supercenter stores each the size of four football fields in such fast-growing California suburban areas as Contra Costa County. |
| US: Up Against Wal-Mart
by Karen Olsson, Mother Jones Magazine
April 28th, 2003
At the world's largest and most profitable retailer, low wages, unpaid overtime, and union busting are a way of life. Now Wal-Mart workers are fighting back. |
| EU: Boycott of American Goods Over Iraq War Gains Momentum
by Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters
March 25th, 2003
BERLIN - No more Coca-Cola or Budweiser, no Marlboro, no American whiskey or even American Express cards -- a growing number of restaurants in Germany are taking everything American off their menus to protest the war in Iraq. |
| USA: Group Blasts Dental Academy's Deal with Coca-Cola
by Amy Norton, Reuters
March 4th, 2003
A US interest group on Tuesday sharply criticized the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry's new partnership with soft-drink giant Coca-Cola, saying the deal will make the dental group a "captive" of Coke. |
| US: Sweatshop Case Settles for $20M
by Alexei Oreskovic, The Recorder
September 27th, 2002
Three overseas sweatshop lawsuits involving dozens of the United States' largest retailers and a 30,000-member class of garment workers have settled for $20 million. |
| US: Store Customer Cards a Source for FBI?
by Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, FoxNews.com
August 1st, 2002
WASHINGTON -- So you have a secret craving for Little Debbie peanut butter bars and a penchant for Kendall-Jackson merlot? While that customer loyalty card at the supermarket might perceivably save you a few pennies at the checkout counter, your buying habits could end up in the hands of government agents. |
| EGYPT: Protest Groups Boycott U.S. Products
by Khaled Hanafi, Islam Online
July 22nd, 2002
Environment and anti-globalization organizations worldwide called on all citizens suffering from 'U.S. injustice' to give up drinking American soft drinks, especially Coca-Cola, for the day of Monday, July 22, 2002. |
| US: Gap Admits Strategic Errors After $34m Loss
by Mariko Sanchanta and Lina Saigol, Financial Times
February 27th, 2002
Millard ''Mickey'' Drexler, Gap's chief executive, on Tuesday admitted that the company had ''misread fashion tea leaves'' and violated its own principle of ''keeping things simple'' in making a series of fashion mistakes that led to its reporting a $34m loss. |
| US: It's Not Easy Being Green
by Katharine Mieszkowski, Salon.com
December 7th, 2000
The truth is, even policymakers, social scientists, environmentalists and engineers don't really know for sure. Researchers are only now beginning to study what e-commerce means for the Earth. |
| FRANCE: Yahoo! Ordered To Block Users
by Pierre-Antoine Souchard, Associated Press
November 20th, 2000
In a landmark ruling, a French court on Monday ordered Yahoo! to block French Web users from its auction sites selling Nazi memorabilia. |
| NICARAGUA: US Retailers Contract with Sweatshops
by Carrie Antlfinger, Associated Press
August 22nd, 2000
Gonzalez was one of two workers invited Monday to recount conditions at two Nicaraguan factories that human rights, religious and labor groups claim supply Kohl's Department Stores with cheap garments. |
| US:
by Michael Barbaro, The New
Wal-Mart Stores, facing a raft of state legislation that would require it to increase spending on employee health insurance, will lift several of its long-standing — and most-criticized — restrictions on eligibility over the next year, the giant retailer said this morning. |
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