 It was 28 degrees according to the Bank of America sign on Wall Street here in downtown Bend as I turned the corner to walk to The Grove restaurant on Bond Street. There were a lot of people waiting in the line on the other side of the door a lot of people are concerned about WalMart moving into Bend. There was a petitioner asking folks to fill out forms to help out in future actions against WalMart. Joe Petrosik of the local drum corps held up an anti-WalMart sign complete with frowny face. He said that he got the sign at the World Trade protests in Seattle. Michael Schiden stood up and spoke about an article in the Bend Bulletin of February 11 that described the events in Jonquille Quebec where WalMart closed their store rather than deal with a union. Then the JWJ people showed a brief video about community protest actions that have occurred in St. Paul Minnesota. The people there challenged WalMarts assertion that they were a "Good citizen in the community". There followed a litany of lawsuits that that were in progress against WalMart, and a statement that it had been accused of 173,000 labor violations. A Mr. Bernie Hesse came on, and said that the assertion that lower wages lead to lower costs was false. He pointed out that the percentage of labor cost was a small part of the cost of the items sold in the store. He also pointed out that tax payers in the towns where WalMart does business end up subsidizing the low wage workers who have to depend on assistance from those communities because WalMart doesn't pay their workers enough to make ends meet. There was some general discussion about how to build community involvement in fighting the Big Box invasion. [ Read More ] [ Jobs with Justice - Central Oregon | Portland Jobs with Justice | Reportback from the Walmart Community Meeting | Another Reportback ]
| 
