We met early in the morning with the director of research for the Universidad Obrera de Mexico (Workers University of Mexico)’s direction of investigations, Laura Sanchez. We had already read some of her articles in the bi-monthly magazine, trabajadores, about the way that Wal-Mart was reducing wages in agriculture in Mexico, which had riveted my attention.

Today, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart for wrongfully firing employee Joseph Casias for using medical marijuana after work during off-duty hours in the privacy of his home.

On the news that Whirlpool plans to move an Indiana factory to Mexico, joining so many other manufacturers abandoning America, the president of the largest manufacturing union in North America spoke to an expert on manufacturing about the crisis this exodus is causing the U.S. economy.

In a major restructuring effort, Wal-Mart reduces mid-level workforce

The media love to talk about transparency and accountability when it comes to politicians and the government — they should, it’s an important subject. They, too, have such an obligation of transparency to the American people, particularly when it comes to who can and cannot advertise on their coveted airwaves. On that account, they continue to fail miserably.

It was a lot of fun to be the guest speaker at the annual Labor Lawyers reception to support Philadelphia Jobs with Justice. It was a good, there were people, old friends and comrades came out of nowhere, and once we got to the problems of “majority unionism” as discussed in Citizen Wealth, and the questions were excellent and interesting.

Mumbai Killing time in the Delhi airport on the way to Mumbai, my eye caught the cover of a Forbes – India magazine with a huge headline: “Wal-Mart’s Billion Dollar Baby.” The India FDI Watch Campaign is still determined around these issues, so I was curious how the company was spinning their joint venture with Bharti these days.
Wal-Mart is amazing. You take your eye off the company for a minute, and it explodes on you. Gross sales are now over $400 billion annually. The company has to add $8 billion, just to grow by 2%. But, I digress, because public relations though all of this clearly was, there were nuggets of real interest.

The story that hasn’t been told enough is that the rising cost of private insurance is hurting corporate America. It’s been a terrible strategic mistake. Progressives could have a powerful ally in the fight against Big Insurance/PhRMA: Corporate America itself.

Consider that even Wal-Mart, which spends far less than its peers just to offer it’s employees a junk insurance package, spent an average of $3,500 a year per employee on health insurance in 2002. The way to beat UnitedHealth Care and Blue Blue Cross is by offering Wal-Mart a public plan that is cheaper, yet offers better benefits: Medicare for Anyone Who Wants It.

Allowing any person, business or local/state agency to buy into Medicare is not single-payer, because it allows private insurance to continue to operate. But unlike the other falsely-advertised “robust public options,” Medicare for Anyone Who Wants It will actually lead to a public plan that covers at least 164 million Americans and will control cost. It makes real the false rhetoric for the public option.

Obama had another kind of summit today – a pleasant luncheon with some of the country’s worst unionbusters.

15% of Wal-Mart shoppers have conflicted feelings about the company and the way it does business. Finding out why they still shop there and how they can be motivated to quit is essential in bringing true reform to the American business world.