Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions

Source: ABC News

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world's largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

Clinton has been endorsed for president by more than a dozen unions, according to her campaign Web site, which omits any reference to her role at Wal-Mart in its detailed biography of her.

Wal-Mart's anti-union efforts were headed by one of Clinton's fellow board members, John Tate, a Wal-Mart executive vice president who also served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years.

Tate was fond of repeating, as he did at a managers meeting in 2004 after his retirement, what he said was his favorite phrase, "Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living."

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An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=4218509&page=1

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I'll state for the record here. Edwards would've been my choice. Between Obama and Clinton I'm for Obama but I will vote for Clinton if she is the nominee. I'm just posting this because it is posted on ABC News website and is now in the MSM news cycle.

I admit I've always been uncomfortable with Clinton having been on Wal-Mart's board but then I'd still rather her than McCain or Romney in the WH.

What do you know about BigTree's union policy?

John Edwards must NOT endorse Hillary Clinton

that Hilary would still be better than any of the Repub choices, but that's not saying anything! She's still in bed with the lobbyists and corporate America.

"better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick".

A group of small dairy farmers in the southeast U.S. have filed a lawsuit against Dean Foods Co. accusing the company of price fixing. Dean is the largest distributor of milk in the country, and the largest distributor of organic milk in the country through Horizon Organics. The farmers claim that Dean used its influence and multistate network of milk cooperatives to run a monopoly. The farmers in the lawsuit are asking for class-action status, which would allow other regional farmers to join in the case.

-- Organic Consumers Association, 07/11/2007
Source URL: www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6108.cfm

In 2003 two shareholders filed lawsuits against Dean Foods and Horizon Organic Holding Corp. alleging that Dean paid too little for an agreement to acquire the company. The lawsuits, which seek class-action status, also charge that the companies didn't meet their legal obligation to look after the interests of Horizon Organic shareholders. Executives of the companies said the lawsuits were without merit. Dean Foods settled with the shareholders in May 2007.

-- Oakbridge Insurance Services, 05/10/2007
Source URL: dandodiary.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-options-backdating-lawsuit.html

For the second year in a row, shareholders have filed a proposal asking Dean Foods Co. to report to shareholders how it is responding to widespread concern that industrial-scale organic dairies, which supply milk for its Horizon Organic brand, violate consumer trust, seriously jeopardizing share value. Dean Foods has appealled to the SEC for the authority to prevent its shareholders from voting on the proposal.

-- Natural Newswire, 03/26/2007
Source URL: www.naturalnewswire.com/2007/03/investors_conti.html

In 2006, Chairman and CEO Gregg L. Engles earned $11 million in compensation from Dean Foods. This is equivalent to earning $212,028 per week.

-- AFL-CIO, 04/05/2006
Source URL: www.aflcio.org/corporatewatch/paywatch/ceou/database.cfm?tkr=DF&pg=6

In November 2004 Dean Foods paid a $400,000 civil penalty to settle Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it may have aided the Fleming Companies to alter revenue statements in order to look like inflated profits. John D. Robinson, a senior executive for Dean Foods, had to pay a $50,000 civil penalty.

-- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, 09/14/2004
Source URL: www.sec.gov/news/press/2004-129.htm

Human Rights

In July 2001 seven former and current workers at an Dean Foods dairy in California have filed a lawsuit against the company claiming it failed to protect them from alleged workplace harassment by fellow employees, who they say hung nooses and scrawled Confederate flags, swastikas and KKK graffiti. The workers say that Dean Foods either ignored the complaints or dismissed them. The suit demands unspecified money damages for the racist incidents which date from 1993 until May, 2000 when the workers say that the plant superintendent told them that nooses "are an old Southern custom." Dean Foods and the plaintiffs agreed to a settlement of $3.3 million in February 2003.

-- U.S. District Court, 06/11/2007
Source URL: none available

Dean Foods scored 73 out of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's 2006 Corporate Equality Index. The Corporate Equality Index is a tool to measure how equitably companies are treating their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees, consumers and investors.

-- Human Rights Campaign, 09/18/2006
Source URL: www.hrc.org/Content/ContentGroups/Publications1/Corporate_Equality_Ind...

Dean Foods refused to acknowledge same-sex marriage licenses issued in San Franciso. Requests by employees seeking to add partners to their health care plans were denied.

-- San Francisco Gate, 04/06/2004

to the WalMart surrogate. They are too busy trashing Hillary, while they let the other candidates wife get away with sitting on the board. This is our fair and balanced MSM....they want another republican president and the only way they can get it is to try to get that other candidate as McCain's opponent. They want a republican landslide.

And so many of you think that's a good thing.

Also in this article it does say only 4 recordings done for the company. I think they probably don't want to show any perceived negatives on a company tape.

Also, in this same article it says:

The videotapes do show that Clinton used her role to push for more environmentally friendly policies and better treatment of women.

"We've got a very strong-willed young woman on our board now; her name is Hillary," said Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton at a 1987 stockholders meeting in describing Clinton's role in pushing for more women to be hired in management positions.
---

but whatever. This was 20 years ago and I know the company is different now than then, as is she and her position. She is no longer the governor's wife in Arkansas working for the largest employer in the state. Tempest in a teapot is my opinion.

In the 80s, very few stores had unions-Meijer and local grocery stores. We didn't have WalMart in Michigan until the 90s, so I never shopped at one. I worked at K-Mart in the mid 80s, and we never had a union, nor did the local department store I worked in before that.

I do remember their gimmick back then was that they sold as many US made products as they could, which I thought was a good thing.

There are a lot of companies that aren't union for good reasons. When I was growing up in Grand Rapids, Steelecase was a non-union company that took very good care of its employees-profit sharing, good health plans and pensions, employee assistance programs before unions starting asking for them, and so on. I dated a guy whose dad died young, but was a Steelecase employee at the time of his death. My guy got college tuition assistance from them and a low-interest car loan at 18 because his dad had been an employee. If all companies had treated employees and families this well, unions would never have been needed.

Of women." That's what Hillary was doing twenty years ago.

I've been involved in animal rescue for at least that long. One of the firmest rules of rescue is that you do not try to do everything, you do what you can. Hillary got involved in environmental policies and the treatment of women. Small, easy, throwaway issues? Or ones that took time and effort to convince people to change long-established ways?

But she is being condemned for not being a vocal advocate for unions. As the granddaughter of the ILGWU, I have to say that unions have their own, strong, established voice. And they have well-honed techniques for unionizing which they start from the bottom up, not the top down. Unionization does NOT begin in the board room.

But the environment and the treatment of women in the workplace? Those were issues involved with very recent awareness. Those were issues that desperately NEEDED advocates in the board room.

But a lifetime of dedication is worth nothing, because she's not NEW. Can I ask if any woman could ever run for this office as someone NEW? Because to me, this is just another slimy way of saying no matter what any woman does or for how long, it's not as good as any man, especially a smooth-talking one.

Hillary wasn't running then.

only what the CANDIDATE does.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3164312


You folks need to read this. It's the union president addressing this issue.

Forum Name Latest Breaking News
Topic subject Union President Defends Clinton From Attack Over Wal-Mart Ties
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3164312#3164312
3164312, Union President Defends Clinton From Attack Over Wal-Mart Ties
Posted by rodeodance on Thu Jan-31-08 03:43 PM

Source: new york observer



Union President Defends Clinton From Attack Over Wal-Mart Ties
by Azi Paybarah | January 31, 2008


Although Hillary Clinton severed her ties with Wal-Mart years ago (she sat on the board when Bill Clinton was Governor of Arkansas, but now refuses to accept contributions from the company), Barack Obama raised the issue of Clinton's past relationship with retail giant during the debate in South Carolina.

Now, hours before another Democratic debate, Clinton supporter Stuart Appelbaum, who is also President of the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, has sent out a public statement defending her record:

...

“We know from experience that Hillary shares our belief that Wal-Mart and other
retailers have a moral responsibility to respect every worker's right to
organize. She has stood with us and has been and continues to be supportive of
our efforts to call attention to Wal-Mart's business practices that hurt
working families. And she has lent her voice to calls for the giant retailer to
change its ways.

“Over the last seven years American workers and their families have been
brutalized by corporate greed and unprecedented government indifference. Based
on our experience we are convinced that, as president, Hillary would work from
day one to restore workers rights and the institution of collective bargaining.

“Some politicians only stand up for labor at election time, but we know from
experience that Hillary will be there for workers and their unions long after
the ballots are counted.”




Read more: http://www.observer.com/2008/union-defends-clinton-wal-mart-attack

Hillary was quite content to be a union buster in her past. Address that with facts, not a PR handout.

...this is bs

caused any wingers to like her more. I had the unfortunate experience to be in a restaurant tonight within earshot of a brain-dead Limbecile who was going on very loudly about many of your talking points

Congrats! You are now Dittiots! Hope you like President McCain

YARITE.