Free screening of Walmart doc at N. 3rd tonight! - PhillyBlog

nola · #1 (**permalink**) 11-15-2005, 02:57 PM

Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price
November 15, 2005, 09:30 PM
FREE

DETAILS: Fancypants Cinema is Philly's (only weekly) Free Open-Screening event, held every Tuesday in the Lounge at N.3rd Restaurant and Bar. Hosting the Wal-Mart film on a tuesday night simply had to be done (and there's no conflict with the 1st Unitarian Church Screening) let's get ecumenical, people!

WHERE: N.3RD Restaurant and Bar
3rd and Brown St.
Philadelphia, PA 19123

This is one of hundreds of free screenings around the country this week. Visit www.walmartmovie.com for more info

ofofhy · #2 (**permalink**) 11-15-2005, 03:03 PM

http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vn.../4379912702f54

It sounds like it had a fairly succesful screening in UC.

danroth · #3 (**permalink**) 11-15-2005, 03:55 PM

For both sides of the issue, I recommend reading this:
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/...0199_db016.htm

It provides both pros and cons.

Here's a quote:

"Wal-Mart saved consumers a total of $263 billion last year, or a whopping $2,329 per household...Other studies, however, found that Wal-Mart also lowers workers' wages and benefits."

macks7 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-17-2005, 04:23 PM

My grandfather conducted a big report on the devastating effects of WalMart on local communities back in '97. The most interesting fact I found was that for every one job WalMart creates, it eliminates one and a half jobs in the local community. The WalMart jobs are also lower paying often part-time with little benefits. Here is some access to the report through someone's website. You can also find extensive info by googling "Shils Report". http://www.lawmall.com/rpa/rpashils.htm

Talon1125 · #5 (**permalink**) 11-17-2005, 05:21 PM

Will this be screened anywhere else? I've missed the screening this past weekend. Or will ti be fore rent at the chains (i obviously know one place where i won't be able to find it)

ofofhy · #6 (**permalink**) 11-17-2005, 05:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Talon1125

Will this be screened anywhere else? I've missed the screening this past weekend. Or will ti be fore rent at the chains (i obviously know one place where i won't be able to find it)

http://action.bravenewfilms.org/even...p=19125&track=

SurfDog · #7 (**permalink**) 11-17-2005, 06:01 PM

Some more on Wal-Mart from today's Inky ...

http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/business/13186792.htm

Quote:

Posted on Thu, Nov. 17, 2005

Labor on the move
Service-union leader Andrew Stern lunches with business, then rallies with workers, with one message: Do better for all.
By Jane M. Von Bergen
Inquirer Staff Writer

Somewhere between his luncheon speech at the stately Union League and a raucous anti-Wal-Mart rally at its South Philadelphia store yesterday, labor leader Andrew Stern shed his jacket and tie and donned his union's trademark purple baseball cap and windbreaker.

Stern, 54, who leads one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing labor unions, has a good reason to find a wardrobe that goes from palace of power to parking-lot protest.

From his perch as president of the 1.7-million-member Service Employees International Union, he wants to revive the labor movement even as he tries to nudge unions into the 21st century.

Stern, who cut his labor teeth as a shop steward for social workers in Philadelphia in the mid-1970s, engineered this summer's historic breakup of the AFL-CIO and helped form an alliance of major unions outside the labor federation.

At the Union League, several hundred civic and business leaders listened over lunch in a richly paneled ballroom as Stern spoke of a global economy in which companies, not nations, make the rules. "It's a time of profound change," he said. "The old answers don't apply."

In that kind of world, he said, unions or some other worker-oriented structures also must be global to ensure that wealth generated by companies is fairly distributed to workers.

That may happen, he predicted, through a coming convergence of three forces - the expanding corporate responsibility movement, pressure from nongovernmental organizations and community groups, and growing union strength.

By 2015, 20 percent of workers will be unionized, up from 12 percent now, he said.

The reaction?

Polite applause.

At the Wal-Mart parking lot, several hundred union members and student and community activists listened as Stern lambasted the nation's largest employer. "Walton family members are so rich, yet they want taxpayers to pay for their employees' health care," he said.

The reaction?

Thunderous shouting and a chorus of "Shame, shame," which swelled from the crowd. The protest at Wal-Mart was part of a week of anti-Wal-Mart events around the nation, financed in part by Stern's union.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has responded by running advertisements that portray the company as a benevolent employer with opportunities for its workers to advance.

When Stern walked through the Wal-Mart parking lot in South Philadelphia yesterday, union members grabbed his hands, hugged him and kissed him. Many had known him for decades and had worked with him long before his union's current local drives to organize security guards at area colleges and janitors who clean suburban office buildings.

Despite the difference in milieu, there was a certain coherence to his message, one that was articulated by two Kensington High School students, members of Youth United for Change, a student advocacy group.

"I feel that Wal-Mart is making big money while keeping pennies in the employees' pockets," Terrese Thomas yelled out, standing on the same bench outside the store where minutes earlier Stern delivered a speech that was almost as stirring.

"I want to look forward to a job that pays a living wage, with good health benefits, to put money in the pockets of people," she said. Stern watched, smiling broadly, as if she were his child.

"It was inspiring," he said later, on his way to yet another meeting. "Uplifting. We should do better for these kids. These kids deserve better."

That was the point he had made earlier at the Union League to members of the World Affairs Council, a nonpartisan group dedicated to informing leaders about important issues.

"Today we have not grasped that this is not our parents' and grandparents' economy," he said. The agricultural revolution has given way to the industrial revolution, which has given way to today's revolution, where knowledge is shared globally and Americans no longer believe their children will do better than they did.

While Stern did not suggest any panaceas, he did make some proposals, including more funding for education and for an Internet infrastructure that would be available to everyone, the way highways are.

Most important, he said, America should scrap its current employer-delivered health-care system "because it is destroying the economy."

"American business leaders are the biggest chickens I've ever seen," he said, because they have not been at the forefront of pushing some kind of nationalized health care so that their own businesses can be more competitive globally.

"It's dead," he said. "We should move on to the next system."

tenzo · #8 (**permalink**) 11-17-2005, 08:11 PM

I think it's strange that some people think that big corporations hoard money in a big bank vault. That an inhuman corporation benefits not people.

Anyway.

There are two Walmart movies out. One that blasts Walmart and another that applauds Walmart. I think it would be best to see both of them back to back.

danroth · #9 (**permalink**) 11-18-2005, 12:23 AM

(previously posted on www.fishtown.us)

I read the Abstract of'The Global Insight study of the economic impact of WalMart's expansion from 1985-2004.
It's just over 6 pages long and can be found at:
http://www.globalinsight.com/publicD...05_walmart.pdf

It concludes that because of WalMart, wages are 2.2% lower.
It also concludes that because of WalMart, prices are 3.1% lower.
This would mean the because of WalMart, disposable income is .9% higher.

Additionally, it concluded that in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, where WalMart has a much higher presence, the average person had a 2.6% increase in disposable income due to WalMart.

ChiefSalsa · #10 (**permalink**) 11-18-2005, 12:43 AM

I think it is terrible that all those people with law degrees and MBAs are forced to work for Wal-Mart for under $25 an hour. How horrendous is it that someone with a great education can not make $100k a year like a small town mother of 4 who has not held a job in 18 years makes.

The good thing about closing down Wal-Mart is that the talent pool in many Taco Bells would increase dramatically.