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DO WE REALLY WANT WALMART IN AUSTRALIA?
The Transport Workers Union has today questioned any benefit to Australia of allowing
large overseas retailers such as Walmart easier access to Australian shores.
The truth about how Walmart operate their businesses and the severe impact they have
on their employees, not to mention the impact on the wider community, should be
frightening to the Australian public.
Walmart have an appalling record in the treatment of their employees, with the company
receiving numerous fines for violating labour laws in the US over many years. These
include firing workers while on protected medical leave, wage and working hours
violations, forcing workers to skip rest breaks and employing teenagers to work in
unsafe conditions.*
TWU Secretary Tony Sheldon: “Walmart are known for the way they flaunt the law and
treat their employees. As responsible Australians we need to be ever vigilant to ensure
that these mega retailers are kept away from our shores."
While the current major retailers in Australia like Coles and Woolworths are not perfect
in the way they behave, every Australian should be worried about the future if Walmart
are given easier access to our shores.
If this is how Walmart treat the workers that they directly control, imagine the pressure
that they will put on the other sections of the supply chain.
The transport industry is already one of the most dangerous sectors within Australia,
with 228 needless fatalities as a result of heavy vehicle incidents occurring in the
last financial year.
It is the transport clients who have the economic power that puts so much pressure on
the transport companies and their employees and owner drivers who transport their
goods.
Every Australian should be asking themselves: what will be the cost to every Australian
family if companies like Walmart establish themselves in our country?
* Source: www.walmart watch.com
If you would like to learn more about Walmart visit www.walmartwatch.com
Media Inquiries Josh McIntosh 0408 463 199.
23 April 2008
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