Wal-Mart Wars

Depending on where you stand, Wal-Mart is either the devil or the best thing ever to happen to consumers in the retail business.\nOne of the groups that perceives Wal-Mart as the dark lord are labor unions. This goes back to Sam Walton's belief that unions serve no purpose other than to drive a wedge between managers and employees.\nThe holy war many labor unions have declared on Wal-Mart is taking its toll, but the retail giant has finally found its backbone and is fighting back.\nIt was announced Feb. 9 in an article by The Associated Press that Wal-Mart Canada was closing a store in Jonquiere, Quebec.\nAccording to the article, statements by the company indicated that demands from union officials would have made it impossible for the store to sustain its business. Union demands would have forced the company to add 30 people to a payroll that already topped 190 and guaranteed all workers additional hours. I hope United Food & Commercial Workers Canada is proud of itself.\nForcing store closures isn't the only way unions have been attacking Wal-Mart. The AFL-CIO has dedicated an entire section of its Web site to talking trash about Wal-Mart.\nOn the site, there are gut-wrenching stories, like the one about a guy who was supposedly forced to return to work after cutting off his hand with a deli meat saw, or the woman who says managers had to work off the clock to get the job done.\nWow, imagine having to go the extra mile to get something done. Call me crazy, but I thought that's what leaders were supposed to do.\nAlso listed are the eight deadly sins Wal-Mart is committing all across the country. Among them are the accusations that Wal-Mart is harmful to the environment, steals from taxpayers and exports jobs to other countries. However, my favorite has to be the idea that Wal-Mart forces family businesses to shut down.\nI don't know if anyone from the AFL-CIO has ever taken a business class, but if they did, they'd discover a quirky phenomenon called capitalism.\nThe fact is that capitalism encourages competition and inevitably creates winners and losers. Sometimes family businesses just can't keep up and get left by the wayside. It's tragic, no doubt, but it is the reality of most capitalist countries. \nAfter going through relentless attacks like these for many years, Wal-Mart is striking back.\nAmong other things, it has created a Web site, www.walmartfacts.com, for people to check on certain issues like the effect stores have on employment and local businesses. Just for fun, I decided to see what the company had to say about stores here in Indiana.\nWal-Mart says that there are 36,673 associates employed in our state who make an average of $9.72 per hour. More importantly, during the past year, Wal-Mart has done almost $1.7 billion worth of business with 1,849 suppliers in Indiana. This results in an additional 98,416 jobs with these suppliers.\nThe report goes on to say that Wal-Mart paid $32.1 million in state and local income taxes last year. In addition, the company gave $109,000 in literacy grants and $164,700 in Safe Neighborhood grants.\nDoes this sound like an evil empire?\nI guess because Wal-Mart is the leader in retail, it has become a big target.\nThe fact is that Wal-Mart provides good jobs and treats its employees well. It may have made mistakes in the past, but it's learning and continuing to grow. I can only hope it will continue to stand up to the AFL-CIOs and UFCWs of the world.\nSam Walton would've wanted nothing less.