'Mind-Blowing Abuse of Power': Walmart Spied on Workers With FBI, Lockheed Martin's Help

[Judi Lynn]

Published on Wednesday, November 25, 2015
by Common Dreams

'Mind-Blowing Abuse of Power': Walmart Spied on Workers With FBI, Lockheed Martin's Help

Newly released documents show retail giant used 'every deceptive tactic under the sun' to keep tabs on pro-union employees

by Nadia Prupis, staff writer

Retail giant Walmart enlisted the help of a private military contractor and the FBI to spy on workers pushing for a $15 hourly wage and organizing Black Friday protests in 2012 and 2013, newly released documents (pdf) reveal.

"We are fighting for all workers to be paid a fair wage and enough hours to put food on the table and provide for our families," said Mary Pat Tifft, a Wisconsin Walmart employee of 27 years. "To think that Walmart found us such a threat that they would hire a defense contractor and engage the FBI is a mind-blowing abuse of power."

A document made public Tuesday by worker organization OUR Walmart reveals company testimony to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in January stating that Walmart had enlisted the help of arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor workers who were organizing for higher wages and the right to unionize. OUR Walmart workers said they were illegally fired and disciplined for taking part in the "Ride for Respect" strike during Walmart's shareholder meeting in June of 2013.

But the surveillance had long been in progress. Walmart executives mobilized the so-called "Delta" emergency response team in 2012 when they first got wind of plans for a nationwide Black Friday worker strike. As Bloomberg explained in an investigative piece published Tuesday, "the stakes were enormous." In addition to the NLRB testimony, the new reporting states, "The details of Walmart’s efforts during the first year it confronted OUR Walmart are described in more than 1,000 pages of e-mails, reports, playbooks, charts, and graphs."

More:
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/11/25/mind-blowing-abuse-power-walmart-spied-workers-fbi-lockheed-martins-help

[MisterP]

1. heck, when the Feds took over Hanford, WA, they found GE had tapped every phone in town

built a spy van, and had a *helicopter gunship on hand*

[bananas]

3. Tell us more. nt

[Judi Lynn]

8. Never would have expected to hear this! Helicopter gunship, too?

At what point did this country go straight to hell, anyway?

Who would have believed this could be possible 20 years ago?

[MisterP]

9. that WAS 20 years ago!

https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/plutopia-nuclear-families-atomic-cities-and-the-great-soviet-and-american-plutonium
she also helped expose that fake "Chernobyl biker" in like 2004

[FuzzyRabbit]

2. Terrorism?

". . . Walmart had enlisted the help of arms manufacturer Lockheed Martin and the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force to monitor workers who were organizing for higher wages and the right to unionize. . ."

Since when is wanting a raise in pay an act of terrorism?

[malthaussen]

4. Now, now, the Terrorism Task Force has to justify its budget somehow.

Since there isn't enough work in developing fake "terrorist" plots they can then "discover" and "halt."

Welcome to DU.

-- Mal

[dickthegrouch]

12. It must be terrifying to have

Workers want a better living which might cost them 100,000,000. Remember their family has 1000 times that in the bank between them.
They might lose all those government subsidies too if they paid a living wage.
That would scare me senseless (not!).

If any family is ripe for being taxed out of existence, it's the Waltons.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Walmart and Lockheed: Two of Clinton Foundation's biggest donors

and I think her campaign too, if I'm not mistaken.

[Art_from_Ark]

14. Walmart has donated megabucks to the Clinton Foundation

And Alice Walton recently donated $25,000 to Ready for Hillary

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/politics/clinton-money/

[BainsBane]

17. Whereas Sanders supports continuing to pay over $800 billion to Lockheed

Martin for the deadly boondoggle that is the F=35/. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24583-bernie-sanders-doubles-down-on-f-35-support-days-after-runway-explosion But you go ahead and worry about corporations contributing to charities instead of the corporate welfare paid to them out of your tax dollars. That makes a lot of sense.

I don't actually know if you have any information to support your claim that those two corporations are major donors to the Clinton Foundation or why you think that so objectionable. Are you afraid Clinton might end up supporting $800 billion to Lockheed, like Sanders insists on defending even when the F-35 has been proved to be a disaster? Or is it charitable foundations and the work they do that you find so objectionable as opposed to corporate welfare supported by a candidate you insist is superior?

[99th_Monkey]

19. You got me on guns and the F-35

My fall-back, predictably, is that no candidate is perfect. Bernie included.

Clinton Foundation
Lockheed Martin - $111,000 - $280,000
Walmart/Walton Foundation - $2,250,000 - $10,500,000
http://www.whiteoutpress.com/articles/2015/q3/top-100-entities-funding-clinton-foundation/

As you probably know, Hillary began "distancing" herself several months ago from Walmart as 'pro-labor a sop -- worker-friendly window-dressing -- for her 2016 campaign.: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/07/14/hillary-clinton-walmart_n_7714918.html

[George II]

20. Some people have absolutely no concept on how charitably foundations work or...

....the strict controls on their finances or how they issue their grants.

But they sure are experts on trying to smear the administrators of those foundations.

The Clinton Foundation has raised billions to help people all over the world. If they have the know-how to squeeze that money out of huge corporations to fund their charitable work, more power to them.

[Teamster Jeff]

6. Something to keep in mind when you vote. Walmart and Hillary go way back

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

John Tate who was one of Clinton’s fellow board members, was leading Wal-Mart’s anti-union efforts. Tate was also Wal-Mart’s executive vice president and served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years. Tate favorite phrase was, as he admitted himself, “Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living.”

According to an ABC News report, published in 2008, Clinton appears in videotapes of the stockholder meetings where she never appears to defend the role of labor unions. On the contrary, the tapes show Clinton in the role of a loyal company woman. “I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” she said at a June 1990 stockholders meeting.

Clinton also worked at the Law Firm which represented Walmart. A 1994 New York Times story identified Clinton as the Rose Law firm’s lead lawyer for the company.

Associated Press reported in 2006 that Mrs. Clinton was paid $18,000 annually plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended as a board member. The Clintons had $100,000 in Walmart stock, which was put into a blind trust after the 1992 election. The Clintons also flew for free on Wal-Mart corporate planes 14 times in 1990 and 1991, in preparation for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid.

The ties between the Clintons and the Walton family continue to this day. Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart’s founder Sam Walton, is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. According to filings with the FEC, Alice Walton gave $25,000, the maximum allowed under federal law, to the super PAC Ready for Hillary. According to Clinton Foundation’s disclosures, the Walmart Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation each have given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.

http://www.progressivepress.net/hillary-clinton-was-a-wal-mart-director-for-6-years/

[MisterP]

10. but Ted Cruz! (actually they're being clever when they try and deflect to the Pub candidates

see, what they're doing is--they're pretending this isn't not a primary and that Sanders isn't a Dem candidate

[BainsBane]

18. Something else to keep in mind

Is Sanders continues to support hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds going to Lockheed Martin. http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/24583-bernie-sanders-doubles-down-on-f-35-support-days-after-runway-explosion

But clearly serving on the board of Walmart is worse than ensuring the payments of hundreds of billions to Lockheed-Martin.

The hysterical thing is that you all invoke that sort of thing to infer there will be lead to some sort of nefarious relationship between those corporations and a potential Clinton presidency, when the candidate you all insist is so superior has already gone to the mat to ensure Lockheed gets huge amounts of corporate welfare.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Well. I wouldn't worry. Surely Clinton (Ms.) or Obama ( Pres.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/26/us/a-walmart-fortune-spreading-charter-schools.html?_r=0

would have taken us aside and WARNED us of the THREAT they ( Walmart) posed to working and middle class people.


Somewhere along the line. Yes? No?

NO!

No: Turn over public schools to Walmart: Obama/Duncan

Yes: go ahead. That's a great idea. : Clinton.



Point made. ( If I do say so myself. )


Can we think about nominating for president a *REAL* DEM NOW?


Yes? No?? Maybe?????

[rhett o rick]

11. It's important to note here that the anti-progressives don't generally post in threads

that are critical of corporations. My conclusion is that they support corporate control, NSA/CIA control, control by the billionaires, strong authoritarian control. Where progressives recognize the fight that is necessary to keep the 1% from looting our wealth and resources, the anti-progressives believe that their strong authoritarian leaders will do what's right. They either totally ignore history or are too afraid to take the chance to fight for freedoms and liberties.

This is the motto of the anti-progressives, "We are more than willing to give up our rights and the rights of everyone, for the weak promise of a little security and some social justice."

The anti-progressives believe that their loyalty to the 1% will gain them something (security or maybe some social justice). I hate to tell them that Goldman-Sachs doesn't love them but sees them as a source of resources.

[Panich52]

13. K&R

[Blue_Tires]

15. Snowden was unavailable for comment...

Since he's always maintained corporate surveillance was nothing to worry about

[cprise]

16. K&R