I really am tired of the hypocrisy that is our nation's government and before they convince me that I've lost my marbles and that bizzaro world's opposite land is really where America resides I have to ask this question...
How does Hillary Clinton get the UNION Nod?
Simple enough question right?
I am confused. Can someone please help answer how Hillary Clinton a former board member of Wal-Mart, the most fiercely anti-union enterprise known to man since...thinks she deserves the democratic nomination?
Is she going to try and pull it off without the endorsement nod of organized labor or will the labor leaders overlook these obvious contradictions to their principles and endorse her anyway?
Hillary Clinton and Wal-Mart: A Love Story
Click here to read the article that brought this up..
Even Wal-Mart, the largest and arguably most powerful corporation in the country, is no match for the triangulation, pandering and obfuscation of Hillary Clinton. With Wal-Mart rating as public enemy number one among many liberals, progressives and just regular voters, Clinton is finding her past ties to Wal-Mart too hot to handle so, presto, over the side the Beast of Bentonville must go.
For those not in the know, Clinton served on Wal-Mart’s board for six years prior to her husband’s run for the presidency. She recently received $5,000 from Wal-Mart. I’ve raised the Wal-Mart relationship repeatedly in my current race against Clinton and it causes deep unease among voters. I believe it speaks to the incumbent’s close ties to abusive corporate power: her large corporate financial contributions, her support for so-called "free trade" (which is simply trade to benefit corporations) and her unwillingness to confront corporate power that denies every American, among other things, universal health insurance.
So, I had to chuckle when I read that Clinton, having never said a bad word about the company in the past, recently said that Wal-Mart should pay more for its workers’ health benefits. And, to boot, she returned the $5,000 she had received from the company. But, when asked what she did about the company’s benefits for workers when she served on the board, she replied, "Well, you know, I, that was a long time ago ... have to remember..."
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t promote an image of being an intelligent woman who has a pile of facts at her fingertips but, at the same time, you suffer a sudden bout of amnesia when asked to answer for your record. And it would be an inconvenient record to defend.
In 1992, Wal-Mart was simply smaller than it is today. But it was still huge, with $43.9 billion in net sales, 1,714 stores and 371,000 employees. Even in 1992, Wal-Mart was already the world’s largest retailer.
And the board Hillary Clinton sat on was rabidly anti-union, was exploiting sweatshop labor around the world, discriminating against women workers, forcing workers to labor off the clock and destroying communities that did not want them. This should not be a shock: Clinton was a partner in the Rose law firm, one of the most active anti-union law firms in the country.
So, the question still remains: what did Hillary Clinton do—or, not do—when she served on the board of Wal-Mart? Maybe, if her memory was refreshed, she could tell us how she protested the company’s relentless union-busting, expressed feminist outrage at the widespread discrimination against women and was horrified that the mushrooming wealth of the Wal-Mart family was made possible on the backs of slave labor around the world.
Her behavior then, when the spotlight was not on and her record did not matter to voters, should tell voters a lot more about her principles and values than the carefully orchestrated image New Yorkers try to figure out now. The voters deserve to know.
For the past 25 years, Jonathan Tasini has been a union leader and organizer, a social activist, and a commentator and writer on work, labor and the economy. From 1990 to April 2003, he served as president of the National Writers Union (United Auto Workers Local 1981) During his tenure, the union tripled in size and became one of the most influential forces in the country for protecting the rights of freelance writers.
So does anyone here have any ideas how labor leaders can explain to their brothers at the union halls how Hillary Clinton would be the best candidate to represent their interests?
I'm reminded of a time about two years ago when Wal-Mart workers, at a store in Canada of all places, tried to organize, the HQ decided to shutter the store.
Wal-Mart Shuts Unionizing Store
Click here to read...
Is this the type of leadership that we can expect when or if Hillary completes her coronation?
I know some of you might think this is unfair as she really only served on the board from 1986-1992 but think about this...
Hillary Clinton Feels Heat Over Wal-Mart Ties
Why Hillary won't take questions...
>snip<...In 1986, when Wal-Mart's founder, Sam Walton, tapped Clinton to be the company's first female board member, Wal-Mart was a fraction of its current size, with $11.9 billion in net sales.</p>
Today, Wal-Mart is the world's largest retailer and largest private employer, with over $312 billion in sales last year and 1.3 million employees in the US alone. But recently, the company has drawn intense scrutiny for its labor practices -- from its wages to the lack of affordable health coverage for employees, to its stiff resistance to unionization.
Throughout the 1980s, both Bill and Hillary Clinton nurtured relationships with Walton, a conservative Republican and by far Arkansas' most influential businessman.
Among other things, Hillary Clinton sought Walton's help in 1983 for Bill Clinton's so-called Blue Ribbon Commission on Education, a major effort to improve Arkansas' troubled public schools. The overhaul became a centerpiece of Clinton's governorship.
And Wal-Mart's Made in America campaign, which for years touted the company's sales of American products in its stores, was launched after Bill Clinton persuaded Walton to help save 200 jobs at an Arkansas shirt manufacturing plant. The Made in America campaign has virtually vanished in recent years, as the company's manufacturing has gradually moved overseas -- another point of criticism by many Wal-Mart critics.
The Clintons also benefited financially from Wal-Mart. Hillary Clinton was paid $18,000 each year she served on the board, plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended. By 1993 she had accumulated at least $100,000 in Wal-Mart stock, according to Bill Clinton's federal financial disclosure forms that year.
Wal-Mart has little to say about Hillary Clinton's board service, and will not release minutes of the company's board meetings during her tenure.
>snip<</p>
And just what happened to that Made in America campaign that built Wal-Mart's brand loyalty?
Oh yeah, Hillary and her husband got Wal-Mart's largest vendors, The People 's Republic of China, permanent status in the WTO.
Maybe I'm wrong, but it sure looks to me that instead of representing the interests of American workers and their families, the Clinton's represented the Chinese government.
Personally, I'm afraid America can't afford 4 or 8 more years of more of the same.