actforchange Action Update: Don't Buy Wal-Mart for the Holidays

[elfwitch]

I just got this as an action update from actforchange in email. I have to say that I've been doing my own little boycott of Wal-Fart for years. It is nice to see other people are taking up the charge.

If you got the time and haven't got the alert, sign the petition:
http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm?itemid=16041&ms=hom002

Don't Buy Wal-Mart for the Holidays

Wal-Mart engages in some of the worst labor practices in the country: paying its employees substandard wages, forcing unpaid overtime on its workers and refusing to provide affordable health insurance.

This holiday season, pledge not to shop at Wal-Mart and to ask your friends and families not to buy you gifts from Wal-Mart until the chain:

Pays its one million workers a living wage
Provides affordable health insurance to its employees
Stops discriminating against women
Stops attacking employees who want to be represented by a union
Ceases forcing unpaid overtime on its employees
Stops pressuring suppliers to lower their labor costs
Tell Wal-Mart that until it changes its ways, you will take your holiday shopping to other stores and will urge your friends and family to do the same.

[realFedUp]

1. Gee, I don't think anything on Oprah's Favorite Things '03 list

can be purchased at WalledInMart.

[blm]

2. No way. Haven't stepped in one in almost 3 years.

And it happens to be one of the few stores in my very Republican town in SC.

[silverlib]

3. done (n/t)

[Fitzovich]

4. Sending to everyone I know

Thanks for spotting this one. Wal Mart is truely the "evil empire" and we must all pull together to force changes in their behavior. The only way to do so is to hit them in the pocket book.

[elfwitch]

5. no problem

I am signed up for their action alerts. I get about one of these a week. I'm also on the ACLU action list as well. Their alert today was about faxing Dallas city council folks about the Patriot Act.

[elfwitch]

6. kick

If you haven't gotten this alert, go to the link to sign the petition.

[Imalittleteapot]

7. Wal-Mart getting attacked by military personel.

I signed the petition yesterday. Funny thing, I received this email today from my neice whose husband just returned from Iraq. She is a Target shopper but has vowed never to shop there again. Target supports gay and lesbian causes? Wahaha.

Dear xxx,

Recently we asked the local TARGET store to be a proud sponsor of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall during our spring recognition event. We received the following reply from the local TARGET management:

"Veterans do not meet our area of giving. We only donate to the arts, social action groups, gay & lesbian causes, and education."
So I'm thinking, if the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall and veterans in general do not meet their donation criteria, then something is really wrong at this TARGET store. We were not asking for thousands of dollars, not even hundreds, just a small sponsorship for a memorial remembrance.

As a follow-up, I e-mailed the TARGET U.S. corporate headquarters and their response was the same. That's their
national policy.

Then I looked into the company further. They will not
allow the Marines to collect for 'Toys for Tots' at any of their
stores. And during the recent Iraq deployment, they would not allow families of employees who were called up for active duty to continue their insurance coverage while they were on military service. Then as I dig further, TARGET is a French-owned corporation. Now, I'm thinking again. If TARGET can not support American Veterans, then why should I and my family support their stores by spending our hard earned American dollars and to have their profits sent to France. Without the American Vets, where would France be today?

Feel free to pass this along to whomever you want.
Sincerely,
xxx

[ldoolin]

9. Hoax email

Target is not French-owned, they are headquartered in Minnesota.

Target *does* donate to some liberal causes such as the Nature Conservancy. As far as I can tell, this email that is circulating about Target being French and not supporting veterans etc. is a Freeper hoax email.

[Beaker]

11. some history behind the Target hoax letter-

http://www.truthminers.com/truth/target.htm

"The original message that began this uproar came from a man named Dick Forrey from the Howard County Vietnam Veteran's in Indiana. Mr. Forrey went to his local Target store to ask for financial sponsorship for a traveling Vietnam Veterans' Memorial Wall exhibit. Individual Target stores can give gift certificates to support area charities. That is the same thing Walmart does. The store did offer the gift certificate, but that Mr. Forrey was interested only in a cash donation. The store failed to tell him that the corporate office had a charitable giving policy in the form of grants. Forrey finally found this out and contacted the corporate office. In their correspondence to Mr. Forrey, they outlined their corporate grant policy as being limited to the following: "education, arts and family violence prevention."

Mr. Forrey was clearly unhappy with this and sent off an email stating that, "Personally, I will NOT be buying anything at Target Stores again. If the Vietnam Veteran does not meet their area of giving then why should I as a Vietnam veteran, spend my hard earned money in their stores?"

In his email, Mr. Forrey correctly quoted Target's grant policy as being, "education, arts and family violence prevention." In March 2003, someone changed Mr. Forrey's words to read, "the arts, social actions, gay and lesbian causes, and education."

Not only does this message misquote Mr. Forrey, it is a patently false misrepresentation of Target's charitable grants policy..."

Target is a major corporate sponsor for the "Wall That Heals" 2003 tour and many veterans organizations, including the national chapter of Veterans of Foreign Wars, have come to the company's defense over this issue. (information gleaned from Break-The-Chain and Snopes- links shown below).

Versions of the message that began coming out in April 2003 also claim that Target is French owned. My best guess is that this was supposed to lend weight to the "anti-vet" stance because, at the time, the French bashing campaign (resulting from their lack of support for the war against Iraq) was in full swing. However, a little research revealed that this is untrue. Target Stores is owned by a company out of Minneapolis that also owns Marshal Fields and Meryvn's. It began in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company out of Minneapolis. The company name was changed to Dayton's in 1953. The first Target Store opens in 1962. In 1971, the company merges with J.L. Hudson, a Detroit company which owns shopping centers and Mervyn's. They now become the Dayton-Hudson Company. They acquire Marshal Field's in 1990. In 1996, the main focus of their community giving becomes education. In 2000 they officially change their name to Target Corportion. The HQ is still in Minneapolis. The company does have publicly traded stocks, so persons residing in France could certainly own stocks.

Snopes has the story too...
http://www.snopes.com/politics/military/target.asp

Claim: Target stores do not "support veterans."

Status: False.

"...Target stores do not directly participate in the collection of toys for the Toys for Tots foundation administered by the U.S. Marine Corps, but this is hardly evidence of an alleged anti-military stance. Other stores have also declined or reconsidered participating in the via in-store toy collection due to security concerns, and according to the USMC, not only are Marshall Field's stores (another chain owned by Target Corporation) taking part in the Toys for Tots program, but Target has donated nearly one million dollars in toys to the Toys For Tots foundation."

[ldoolin]

12. thnx

I figured as much. Thanks, Beaker!

[Beaker]

10. Target is not owned by a french company.

They are owned by Dayton Hudson corporation, based in Minnesota.
Perhaps some people's penchant for pronouncing it "Tar-zhey" has the letter writer confused.

[ldoolin]

8. Alternatives to Wal-Mart

I posted this earlier on the Activism forum and am reposting it here.

For a list of places where you can do your shopping online to buy 100% union-made goods this holiday season, instead of buying non-union sweatshop goods from Wal-Mart, visit:

http://www.blogstudio.com/SearchResults.jsp?Mode=G&Action=BL_Blog&Method=searchPosts&Subject=Introduction&Display=YES&Id=1069609046812000499451108558&OpenNew=NO&TargetMessageId=1070123750562