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14 Sep 2011 00:58

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Biz: After dodging a Supreme Court bullet, Walmart focuses on women

  • june In what would’ve been the largest class-action suit ever, over a million female employees tried to sue Walmart for discrimination. The Supreme Court, however, said it stretched the definition of a class-action suit way too far, blocking the suit from moving forward.
  • september Looking to improve its image after avoiding what could’ve been a hugely damaging lawsuit, the company says it plans to double its investment in businesses run by women, and show in other ways that they’ve changed their ways. Have they? source

01 May 2011 16:11

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Tech: NGOs report bad conditions in iPad factory, anti-suicide pledges

  • Suicides were not connected to bad working conditions. There was a copy effect. If one commits suicide, then others will follow.
  • Foxconn manager Louis Woo • Explaining away last summer’s suicide problem at his factory in China, which is in the business of producing Apple products. The article cites the research efforts of two NGOs, which cast a less than flattering light on the factory — that workers are publicly humiliated if they perform poorly, that they’re treated “inhumanely, like machines,” that they’re paid a stiflingly low wage to force them to work exhaustively long hours, that they have to sign an anti-suicide pledge telling them to “treasure their lives” — it’s a grim and disconcerting read. Woo’s explanation for the problem of his workers killing themselves seems rather lame, as well. If one commits suicide, the others will follow? That’s not exactly a logical process you’d expect to see in a group of people who were otherwise living happy lives. source

29 Mar 2011 10:13

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Biz: Supreme Court: Wal-Mart’s worker discrimination case hits today

  • Today’s a fun day in the Supreme Court: See, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest corporation, will be in front of the nine justices, fending off claims that they discriminated against female workers systemically. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. The women fielding the claim want to bring a huge class-action discrimination lawsuit against the company. If they succeed at the Supreme Court, the lawsuit, which would cover EVERY female employee — current and former — from 1988 onward, would go forward, costing the company as much as $1 billion. But considering they make billons of dollars each year, it’s really not that much, is it? source