Jim, that movie is a well known one sided hatchet job. Nobody from Walmart was involved in the making of it, and the movie was majority financed through union groups and other "interested" organizations.
Quote:
NBC’s “Today,” CNN’s “Showbiz” and “Lou Dobbs Tonight” all included Wal-Mart’s response to Greenwald’s documentary, saying there were three errors in three minutes in his trailer. None, however, told viewers what those errors were. Wal-Mart made a short video explaining those inaccuracies:
* Greenwald showed a hardware store and stated that Wal-Mart put it out of business. But the store closed before Wal-Mart opened, was sold to a new owner, and is now open and looking to expand.
* The trailer had an African-American woman stating, “He just bluntly told me there is no place for people like you in management.” What she meant by “people like you” was never specified, the viewer is left to guess, but assume it’s either racial or gender. In regard to race and sex, Wal-Mart is one of America’s most diverse companies. Black Enterprise magazine rated it as one of the “30 Best Companies for Diversity,” and more than 40 percent of Wal-Mart managers are women. “Time Magazine” ran a story on September 5 about the growing support that Wal-Mart has from “black America.”
* The trailer showed a man who said “if they don’t pay a living wage, they can’t come to Chicago.” Wal-Mart pays on average more than $4 an hour above minimum wage, and $1 higher than the “living wage” set by Chicago for city contracts.
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That was the three minute trailer.
I like the Michael Moore mentality, I like the "hang them with their own words", but the movie itself starts with too much of a biased point of view to even self-evaluate the points being made to see if they are correct or not.
Blaming a company like Wal-mart for working conditions in China isn't a stretch, but it is a weak causal link. If all companies in China charged 10% more for their good, Wal-mart would likely pay that 10% more than they pay now. Labor is cheap and people work like dogs in China because they need the work and their government permits and encourages such working conditions. If the Chinese government enforced better working conditions, the prices would go up and Walmart would likely pay that higher price (and pass it on to consumers).
Go look around your house. Where you see a label marked "made in china" or "made in taiwan" you probably want to get rid of it, you supported slave labor (and got ripped off by a higher price retailer that made a larger profit than Wal-mart selling it to you).
Alex