In 1996, Sylvester Johnson left his post as a commanding officer in the US Army and began a career managing logistics at Walmart’s corporate headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. Once there, he received a series of rapid promotions, eventually overseeing the HR management of over 26,000 employees in five states. He became friendly with Walmart executive Mike Duke, who became CEO in 2009. In 2002, Johnson received the Sam M. Walton Hero Award, a prestigious company distinction. In 2003, he moved to North Carolina where he oversaw eleven Walmart Supercenters. The company fired him in 2009 for allegedly giving orders to manipulate inventory counts, a claim Johnson denies

The state of California has ordered a Southern California warehouse that processes merchandise for Walmart and other retailers to pay 865 workers more than $1 million in stolen wages. The California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement issued the citations Monday, Jan. 28 against Quetico, LLC, a large warehouse complex in Chino, California. Back wages and unpaid overtime total more than $1.1million and in addition the state issued about $200,000 in penalties.

On September 18, international human rights and labor groups released at statement expressing support and seeking redress for some 200 garment workers locked in a dispute with Kingsland Garment Cambodia Ltd., a supplier of the global clothing brands Walmart and H&M. The workers are owed approximately $200,000 in wages and indemnity by Kingsland, a Hong Kong-based company.

The move by the world’s largest retailer toward cutting waste and energy use and otherwise downsizing its environmental impacts is explored in detail in Edward Humes’s book “Force of Nature” (Times review). Any such push, if it’s more than rhetoric, is commendable, as I pointed out in my 2008 post referenced above. But the company — like any successful enterprise — is indeed marketing consumption as much as any particular product. A case in point would have to be Wal-Mart’s effort to outdo competing retailers in the push to start Black Friday on Thanksgiving Thursday.

How small can a giant corporation get? I don't mean in size, but in spirit. Once again, America's biggest commercial empire — Walmart — is displaying its incredibly shriveled ethical center by whacking the already meager health care benefits that hundreds of thousands of its workers count on.

Alice Walton, the heiress to the Walmart fortune, is opening a museum this Friday, November 11th in Bentonville, Arkansas. The museum was funded to the tune of $1.2 billion by the Walton Family Foundation. At the same time, Walmart, (of which the Walton’s own 48% control) just slashed health care for hundreds of thousands of workers. Many of these workers were already living below the poverty level.

Eighteen years ago, a former professional basketball player named Will Allen made an unlikely career move: He decided to launch a farm in a low-income neighborhood in Milwaukee. His farmhands would be underemployed or unemployed neighborhood teens.

Last week, retail behemoth Walmart announced a $1.01 million donation to Milwaukee-based Growing Power, a well-known urban farming nonprofit, whose founder Will Allen has gained many accolades for his hard work to bring local, healthy food to low-income areas.

What's the reason for the unabated plunge of Wal-Mart's sales for the past two years? We assumed it was because Wal-Mart sucks a big one. In fact, there may be a mathematical explanation!

Walmart's self-branding as the Every Day Low Price retailer has been an essential element of its success. But a recent survey of Walmart shoppers indicates the vast majority – a whopping 86% – no longer believe Walmart offers the lowest prices. With the nation's economic recovery sputtering, this "identity crisis" is cause for concern at the Bentonville Giant. It also offers an explanation for why Walmart's U.S. stores have suffered seven consecutive quarters of same-store sales declines, most recently a 1.1% dip for the quarter ending April 29, 2011. (Walmart will announce its Q2 results later this month.)

US group Wal-Mart is set to make its mark in South Africa, after regulators approved its bid for a majority stake in one of the country's retailers. The world's biggest retailer hopes to buy 51% of Massmart, but its plans have drawn criticism from some local unions and suppliers. Karen Allen reports from Capetown.

U.S. Walmart stores, which represent 62 percent of the company's business, posted their eighth straight quarter of revenue declines at stores open at least a year. The revenue figure compares revenue with the same quarter a year earlier and excludes stores that opened or closed during the year. It's an important measure of a retailer's health.

The Competition Tribunal hearings in South Africa this week about Walmart buying a majority stake in retailer Massmart generated a lot of press in the country:

Today the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Wal-Mart v. Dukes -- the largest employment class-action suit in U.S. history. The retail giant did not ask the high court to review the actual charges that Wal-Mart routinely discriminated against its women employees. Instead, the company's challenge seeks to halt the case, which represents more than 1.5 million women, before it even gets to trial.

South Africa’s Competition Tribunal postponed all hearings into Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s bid to buy control of Massmart Holdings Ltd. until May after unions said a planned partial delay would harm their case.

More than 100 Wal-Mart Stores Inc. workers paint a similar picture in sworn complaints about the company: Local managers made sexist decisions about promotions and pay, and top officials did nothing to stop them.

As the deadline for filing taxes approaches, Walmart is increasingly coming under criticism for its partnership with Jackson Hewitt. The tax preparer has opened kiosks in over 2,000 Walmart stores for the 2011 tax season, as part of the second year of its exclusive national agreement with Walmart. A recent article in Equal Voice Newspaper highlights some of the problems with the partnership.

The co-optation of social justice issues for corporate gain is nothing new. The folks in charge of marketing campaigns make a living sniffing out new ways to sell their company's products, and exploiting people's desires is a crucial part of that process.

Walmart’s taken a hardball approach in its efforts to open stores in New York City, refusing to engage with local elected officials who have questioned the effect Walmart would have on the city.

Margaret A. McKenna devoted her career to education and social justice, and building programs to train teachers. When she retired after 22 years as president of Lesley University in Cambridge, running a charity seemed a logical next act.

On Monday February 7, 2011 Respect D.C. held a rally with various civic and business organization leaders at the John Wilson building on Pennsylvania Avenue, which houses the Washington D.C. Council and Mayors offices. The rally took place at 12:30pm so as to follow scheduled meetings with council members inside the building.

The social criteria of “Love, Earth” also outline “freedom of association and the effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining,” “fair remuneration of employees that is in compliance with the local and national laws and consistent with the prevailing local standards in the countries of operation,” and “maintain reasonable employee work hours in compliance with local standards and applicable laws.”

The Associated Press published several big stories about Walmart this week, including: * Walmart’s plotted comeback from six straight quarters of declining U.S. sales. * An interview excerpt with Walmart CEO Mike Duke.

In an interview with state-run Chinese media outlet Xinhua, Wal-Mart (China) apologized to customers after the Chinese government charged the retailer with cheating on prices.

The following is a guest post from Charles Zimmerman, vice president of international design and construction at Walmart.

Most of the mainstream media coverage of the Walmart announcement seemed to buy the company PR that it was taking valiant steps to improve the affordability and health qualities of the food it sells.

In 2003, after my book Unequal Protection was first published, I gave a talk at one of the larger law schools in Vermont.

Wal-Mart is already preparing a massive media onslaught in order to convince New Yorkers to convince their elected officials that the big box store should open in NYC.

A few blocks from the jewelry factory's entrance in La Paz, Bolivia, Julia and Maria look over their shoulders to see if the night guards are watching. The two young Aymara Indian women shiver in the cold night air and lower their heads as they speak.

In October of 2009, Eduardo Castro-Wright, then Wal-Mart’s vice chairman of U.S, stores, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, “The writing is on the wall, we are going to smaller stores.” Residents in Salt Lake City are learning first-hand how that statement plays out. Residents charged this week that Wal-Mart is trying to bribe some of them with cash payments.

It seems that even the largest retail business in the world is not immune to a public relations faux pas once in a while.

A new report by the Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) and Red Puentes Mexico concludes that although Wal-Mart Mexico (Walmex) has made significant efforts in recent years to improve its corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporting, the company has considerable room left for improvement both on its CSR reporting and on the underlying social and environmental practices

First, it was the new $200 printer—within hours of being extracted from its bubble-wrap womb, the contraption started making an awful wheezing sound.

Five years ago, Walmart began efforts to become a more sustainable company, not only in the U.S., but everywhere we operate around the world. At Walmart Mexico and Central America, we're working toward three global goals to create zero waste, be supplied 100 percent by renewable energy, and sell products that sustain people and the environment.

When Walmart announced plans to buy South African retailer Massmart Holdings for roughly $4.25 billion last week, pundits could not stop talking about the implications for African business.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the nation's largest private employer, plans to end automatic profit-sharing contributions for its employees in a revamp of its benefits package that it says will give workers more chance to share in its financial success.

In the mid-1990s business groups such as the American Trucking Association – then led by Thomas Donohue, currently head of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – launched a crusade to ban union corporate campaigns.

The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which has tried unsuccessfully to unionize Wal-Mart's employees, is urging the Obama administration to broaden its antitrust inquiry into meat, dairy and seed businesses to include the retailer. Wal-Mart's defenders say its policies benefit consumers, ensuring them low prices.

Egg prices are on the upswing in the wake of the massive salmonella recall. Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, two of the ten largest egg U.S. producers, have been pushed out of the fresh-egg market pending investigation. With fewer eggs available, the wholesale price of a dozen eggs has risen dramatically since the recall, as much as 40 percent in some regions.

On Wednesday concerned consumers visited an estimated sixty Walmart stores in the US, Canada and the UK to call on the mega-retailer to help free Bangladeshi labor leaders Kalpona Akter and Babul Akhter.

Wal-Mart Stores asked the Supreme Court on Wednesday to review the largest employment discrimination lawsuit in American history, involving more than a million female workers, current and former, at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores.

Wal-Mart's profits rose to $3.6bn (£2.3bn) helped by cost-cutting and growth in international markets. But Wal-Mart sounded a note of caution, saying the slow economic recovery would "continue to affect" customers.

When I first heard yesterday's announcement that Seventh Generation and Walmart are entering into a long-term strategic partnership to get Seventh Gen's eco-friendly cleaning products, diapers and wipes into Walmart's stores as well as online shop, my initial reaction was to check the weather reports to see if hell had indeed frozen over.

It's not just the low wages or the near-scientific union busting. It's the preference for poverty, the business model built on turnover, the manipulative PR. Is this really the best way to bring jobs and food to the south and west sides?

This June the City of Chicago approved Walmart's bid to open up dozens of new facilities, beginning with grocery stores in the city's chronically underserved South side.

Major U.S. companies are contributing to the destruction of Indonesia's rainforests by sourcing paper from Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a subsidiary of Indonesia-based conglomerate Sinar Mas, alleges a new report from Greenpeace.

You've got to love the irony of Walmart's latest announcement: the mega-corporation, notorious for its meager employee wages, will donate a whopping $2 billion to hunger relief efforts in the United States over the next five years.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $27.6 million to settle allegations that it improperly handled and dumped hazardous waste at stores across California in a case that led to changes in the retailer's practices nationwide, prosecutors said Monday.

As states face budget shortfalls, firing teachers, public servants, and tightening their belts, Walmart is posting huge profits. Some of those profits are gained at the expense of your state because Walmart uses state tax loopholes, possibly costing states millions in revenues.

The Cornucopia Institute has filed legal complaints with the USDA alleging that Wal-Mart, and a North Carolina-based company, HOMS LLC, are violating the USDA organic standards by using conventional agricultural oils, and other ingredients, in pest control products that bear the word organic and the green “USDA organic” seal.

There can hardly be a town without Tesco in Britain. The supermarket controls 30% of the business in the country and has stores everywhere.

Four Detroit public high schools have decided classroom time should be used to train 60 students to work at Walmart.

A new report released today by the Environmental Justice Foundation exposes how cotton production in the Central Asian Republic of Uzbekistan remains one of the most exploitative enterprises in the world.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, has seen sales fall in its home market and said that conditions in the US remain "challenging".

Walmart launched another assault on living and working standards in communities across the country yesterday, by laying off more than ten thousand Sam’s Club employees. The company is outsourcing jobs, many of them part-time, to a company based in Arkansas.

After the New Orleans region was struck by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Wal-Mart scored a public relations coup by delivering emergency supplies quickly while government agencies stumbled.

Poor taste is nothing compared to immorality.

It has beefed up its green credentials, but Wal-Mart's stance on unions and sheer global scale still provoke as much fear as admiration

The success of Wal-Mart is in many ways paradoxical. The world's biggest corporation -- and one of the most technologically sophisticated -- emerged from the poor, rural backwaters of Arkansas, a state regularly at the bottom of most state achievement rankings

From where we shop to where we work, the types of jobs we do and the workplace benefits we earn, from the source of the products we buy to threats to our health and our environment, Walmart has transformed our lives and is increasingly defining our possibilities as workers, consumers and communities.

Yesterday the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services released a report listing major companies whose employees are forced to rely on various state run programs like Medicaid and food stamps.

Every once in while the mainstream media produces an insightful and fair-handed look at Wal-Mart. Even less often, the mainstream business press produces such a piece.

Every year forests are destroyed for the production of paper: habitat is lost, greenhouse gases are released, species are impacted, and fresh water sources damaged. Some companies have begun to move towards more sustainable paper production, seeking paper sources stamped by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) and increasing the use of recycled paper, however other companies in the industry have yet to change their way. The 3rd annual report card conducted by Dogwood Alliance and Forest Ethics focuses both on the companies who continue to make progress toward sustainable paper production—and those who don't.

Previously, Walmart’s health benefits covered about 260 brand name drugs — from Abilify to Zyprexa – according to a Walmart “Quick Reference Preferred Brand List” from January 2009. The July 20, 2009, list contains only about 128 preferred brands.

Less than a month after naming its new Chief Diversity Officer, it looks like Wal-Mart is finally going to cough up a settlement for African-American truckers who have been discriminated against for years by the company.

Remember when Walmart tried to restrict usage of the ubiquitous yellow smiley face? Well, the company's legal team is it again.

Wal-Mart has taken the latest in a long series of steps to make itself look good by imposing burdens on its suppliers.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, is planning to place labels on products that will rate them for sustainability, including their carbon footprint, the quantity of water used in their production, and the air pollution left in their wake.

As the health-care debate continues to heat up the political landscape, the latest PR blitz this week from business groups left the nation's retail industry divided -- with Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, on one side and the National Retail Federation, the world's largest retail trade group, on the other.

Hundreds of anxious shoppers watched as city officials used power saws to cut 2-by-4s during Home Depot Inc.’s ribbon-cutting ceremony for its 102,700-square-foot building center in Bismarck.

As Gwen Ruta of the Environmental Defense Fund, a Wal-Mart partner, writes in her frank assessment of the company's 2009 sustainability report, the problem is that all the good things that Wal-Mart is doing -- increasing its use of renewable energy, driving efficiency in individual stores, improving its fleet operations and pushing up its recycling rate -- are offset by the fact that the company is adding more stores and selling more stuff.

Washington, DC - The Wal-Mart Watch community across the country is taking action to prevent Wal-Mart from using the recession to enter new communities.

Brazil's three largest supermarket chains, Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Pão de Açúcar, will suspend contracts with suppliers found to be involved in Amazon deforestation, reports O Globo.

Over the past few months we’ve heard endlessly about the good auto and manufacturing jobs that are disappearing from America by the thousands. Today, we hear bittersweet news: we are adding some jobs, but they’re Wal-Mart jobs.

Perhaps FFWCC has become another permit dispensing agency, the same way Army Corps of Engineers and Southwest Florida Water Management District have. Many activists have already noticed this trend, but for those who are learning new things, pull up a chair.

The company is associated with a project that would result in the world's longest clearcut through globally rare forests and massive dam building.

As Silverstein notes, Berman runs a network of 15 front groups -- all generously backed by his corporate clients -- that have carpet-bombed the media with press releases, studies and "expert opinion" against the labor legislation that would make it easier for employees to join unions.

According to a new study by the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, Wal-Mart, with 4,796 employees on the list, was the largest user of public health care last year.

It took almost nine years, a National Labor Relations Board ruling and several court orders, but Wal-Mart was finally forced to bargain with its unionized meat cutters in Texas.

An 11-judge appeals court panel heard arguments Tuesday on whether a...gender-discrimination lawsuit against...Wal-Mart can proceed as the largest class-action lawsuit in history...

Via Independent Street, I see a new study on how Wal-Mart affects small retailers. The study found that when Wal-Mart comes into town, local mass merchandisers, supermarkets and drug stores all see significant sales declines.

Arkansas could be pushed front-and-center in the coming months as the showdown over the pro-worker EFCA heats up in the halls of the 111th Congress. The votes of Arkansas' two U.S. senators, Democrats Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln (pictured), could play a deciding role in the passage of the bill.

EFCA'S INTRODUCTION IGNITES LOBBYING FIRESTORM

Wal-Mart’s Mexican invasion just sped up today with the company’s announcement that it will invest $805 million in the country, and open 252 new stores in 2009.

Wal-Mart Stores have paid 17.5 million dollars to settle a class action lawsuit over alleged racial discrimination in the giant retailer's hiring of truck drivers, the company said.

We are extremely excited to announce here on Treehugger, for the first time ever the next phase of the TerraCycle national, non-recyclable waste collection system in the front of major retail stores across the country! For more details, click below the fold.

On the same day that Wal-Mart gutted its Bentonville workforce, the company announced it will seek to outsource up to $500 million of IT functions to India. How many more layoffs might that mean? While Wal-Mart might not be the only one sending U.S. jobs overseas, the timing of the move is pretty crass,

The right of the world's largest retailer to close shop after employees unionized goes on trial Wednesday when the Supreme Court of Canada hears an appeal from laid-off workers at a former Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere.

A move that many analysts have anticipated for a long time is one step closer to reality: Wal-Mart is moving into Russia. The retailer announced that it has joined the Russian Association of Retail Trade Companies (AKORT)

Wal-Mart...agreed to pay $54.3 million to settle a Minnesota lawsuit over wages after a judge ruled the company broke state laws by requiring employees to work off-the-clock

- Children who are forced to pick cotton in Uzbekistan, farmers scratching out a living in Guatemala and salmon fishermen in Bristol Bay, Alaska, would not seem to have much in common. But all are feeling the global impact of Wal-Mart.

Want to understand why so many American workers find it so hard to organize unions in their workplaces? Look no further than Wal-Mart, a researcher for Human Rights Watch says.

Walmart ceases the sourcing of cotton from Uzbekistan in an effort to persuade the Uzbek government to end the use of child labor in cotton harvesting.

Just because the cow moos, doesn’t mean that it’s over. Thanks to giant chains such as Wal-Mart, Safeway and Kroger announcing recently that they would no longer carry milk from cows treated with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), Monsanto – biotech giant and exploiter of genes extraordinaire – then announced in early August that it would be selling the rights to its Posilac brand of rBGH.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) plans to cut its global plastic shopping bag waste by one-third per store by 2013, the big-box retailer said Thursday at the Clinton Global Initiative Annual Meeting.

Within two months of starting an intense campaign to get Wal-Mart China stores to sign collective contracts, the Chinese labor union has declared success.

There are approximately 1,400 guest workers at the Mediterranean factory—from Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and India. All of the guest workers are currently on strike due to the abusive conditions and gross violations of their fundamental rights. The workers sew clothing for Wal-Mart (White Stag label) and Hanes (Champion).

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has taken its legendary frugality to a whole new level by turning its trash into cash

Wal-Mart has, unsurprisingly, been the target of more lawsuits than one can count over the years. The company’s treatment of its workers and “save money at all costs” mentality has resulted in a flood of legal challenges ranging from single plaintiff suits to multi-million dollar class actions. Dukes v. Wal-Mart is of course one large example (the largest class action in American history, actually), as are the myriad wage/hour/overtime class actions the company faces.

· With food prices soaring and more people going hungry, many developing countries are trying to boost their food production. But it's not enough to grow more food; farmers also need better ways to sell it. Small farmer, meet Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is mobilizing its store managers and department supervisors around the country to warn that if Democrats win power in November, they'll likely change federal law to make it easier for workers to unionize companies -- including Wal-Mart.

More than 1,300 delegates to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) Convention were warmed up by Barak Obama and John McCain speeches---but the real heat in Cincinnati came during a debate over Wal-Mart.

Can it be that our green heroes Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt care about the cachet of owning a Prius but not about the abused workers making these feel-good cars?

- Wal-Mart Stores Inc. broke Minnesota labor laws, a state judge ruled, handing the world's largest retailer its third-straight defeat in a wage-class action trial and the possibility a jury may order it to pay $2 billion.

After roundly defeating insurance group Wellpoint in the sweet 16, Wal-Mart has made it to the semi-semi finals of Consumerist’s Worst Company in America contest, this time going head to head with American Airlines. Personally, charging $15 for checked bags just doesn’t seem as bad as systematically undercutting millions of workers and employees worldwide, but we’ll let democracy decide. Show your support - GO VOTE!

Macy's put solar panels on some store roofs, is working to cut energy use, recycling more and generally trying to "green up." But the department store still wants shoppers to use bags. Some bag, any bag.

Everyone who sees the video is shocked: Wal-Mart managers dressed in drag, parading around official Wal-Mart corporate meetings. Bloggers have been weighing in on the never-before-seen footage, and while many note how offensive Wal-Mart’s mockery is (particularly in light of the landmark Dukes v. Wal-Mart gender discrimination case) many go on to add that the real problem here is how Wal-Mart treats its vendors.

Organic food proponents will remember Thursday as the day the ground shifted. Giant food retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced that its store brand milk in the United States will now come exclusively from cows not treated with artificial growth hormones.

Chinese companies may be the next source of job creation in Wal-Mart's hometown, following in the footsteps of U.S. companies that have flocked to northwest Arkansas to work more closely with the world's largest retailer.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said the percentage of its work force enrolled in its health plans has increased significantly from a year ago after it expanded choices, including lower-cost options.

Since Monday, December 10, 2007, three thousand foreign guest workers, 50 percent of them young women--1,500 from Sri Lanka, 900 from Bangladesh, 400 from India and 100 from Nepal - - have been on strike. At least 10 workers were beaten by the police. Before going on strike, the workers had written to the Jordanian Ministry of Labor seeking help, but received no response.

Christmas ornaments made in a factory in China and sold at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. were produced in sweatshop conditions, a report by a labor advocacy group said.

Season's Greetings to Wal-Mart from the University of California / Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education! The UC Berkeley Labor Center has been producing research since 1964, but this week the research team released not one---but two---studies, neither of which you will find under Wal-Mart's Christmas Tree.

Two years ago, Wal-Mart CEO H. Lee Scott announced a bold initiative to turn the world's largest corporation green. After numerous delays, the company has finally released its first progress report. So how much greener are they? To find out, you first need to wade through 40 pages of data on other various and sundry issues. For example, the report boasts that company employees enrolled in a personal sustainability project lost a combined total of 184,315 pounds in 2006 (1.3 pounds per enrollee).

The citizens coalition of the Frente Civico Pro Defensa del Casino de la Selva, Human Rights award of Mexico, Canadian Committee to Combat Crimes against Humanity (CCCCH) in Canada and Social Choice for Social Change: Campaign for a New TIAA-CREF in the United States and Mexico Solidarity Network, demand justice for the destruction of the cultural, historic, and environmental heritage perpetrated by COSTCO and its partner Comercial Mexicana, market symbols: COST and CCM (http://www.comerci.com.mx/comerci/jsp/Comerci.jsp) in order to construct giant warehouses in the center of Cuernavaca.

On Nov 17th communities around the world will come together for the International Day of Action against Supermarkets and Big Box Retailers. In the US, there will be a major focus on Wal-Mart.UPDATE: 16 countries have signed up to take part in the Nov 17th Day of Action.

October is the beginning of India's festive season, a time when shopkeepers' profits soar amidst the gift-giving and all-round revelry tied to Hindu holidays like Dussehra and Diwali. Last week however, some 7,000 small shopkeepers, street vendors and traders shuttered their businesses to gather in the district of Azad Maidan in south Mumbai (formerly Bombay). Carrying placards saying SAVE SMALL RETAILERS, they forewent the day's earnings in order to march in protest against big national and international chain stores like Reliance Retail and Wal-Mart, who the shopowners say are threatening their livelihoods.

Wal-Mart workers in Pennsylvania who previously won a $78.5 million class-action award for working off the clock will share an additional $62.3 million in damages, a judge ruled Wednesday.

The first-ever investigation of Wal-Mart's local property tax records finds that the retail giant systematically seeks to minimize its payment of taxes that support public schools and other vital government services. That is the key finding of Rolling Back Property Tax Payments, a report released today by Good Jobs First, a non-profit, non-partisan research center in Washington, DC.

Once the youngest president of the Sierra Club, Adam Werbach used to call Wal-Mart toxic. Now the company is his biggest client. Does the path to a greener future run through Bentonville?

BENTONVILLE, Arkansas: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. found a decrease in the worst types of labor violations at foreign factories last year during inspections of nearly 8,900 plants where it buys clothes, toys, shoes and other products.

In its first study of how an American company treats its workers, Human Rights Watch asserted yesterday that Wal-Mart’s aggressive efforts to keep out labor unions often violated federal law and infringed on its workers’ rights.