October, 14 2015, 04:15pm EDT
OURWalmart Responds to Corporation's Plummeting Stock Value Today
Today, Walmart is set for its worst stock decline in more than 15 years.
Said Walmart associate Tarcenia Floyd from Winter Haven, Florida:
"This news doesn't come as a surprise after what I've seen and experienced working for Walmart for the last 7 years. As a shareholder and an associate working to keep customers happy and sales up, I can tell you that Walmart's heavy reliance on a part-time workforce and hiring temporary associates is a big part of the problem that we're seeing contribute to long lines, issues with inventory and many out of stock items.
WASHINGTON
Today, Walmart is set for its worst stock decline in more than 15 years.
Said Walmart associate Tarcenia Floyd from Winter Haven, Florida:
"This news doesn't come as a surprise after what I've seen and experienced working for Walmart for the last 7 years. As a shareholder and an associate working to keep customers happy and sales up, I can tell you that Walmart's heavy reliance on a part-time workforce and hiring temporary associates is a big part of the problem that we're seeing contribute to long lines, issues with inventory and many out of stock items.
"Despite working hard to make Walmart a successful company, I come home to an empty kitchen most nights. Though investors today may feel like they lost a lot, I can barely afford groceries since Walmart lowered my pay after I had to switch shifts to care for my mom, recently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. My fellow Walmart associates and I are fighting for $15 an hour and full-time as part of OURWalmart, and hope that other shareholders see today that profits go hand in hand with compensating employees fairly, giving them full-time work and respecting them on the job."
OUR Walmart works to ensure that every Associate, regardless of his or her title, age, race, or sex, is respected at Walmart. We join together to offer strength and support in addressing the challenges that arise in our stores and our company everyday.
LATEST NEWS
Azerbaijan's New Climate Fund, Easy on Fossil Fuel Producers, Denounced as 'Smoke Screen'
The country's new climate finance fund—an initiative watered down by fossil fuel producers—draws criticism as the oil-producing country prepares to host the U.N. climate summit in November.
Jul 12, 2024
Climate campaigners on Thursday dismissed Azerbaijan's plan for a $500 million climate investment fund, arguing that it was a small, poorly designed initiative meant to distract from the nation's oil production.
The criticism came following news that Azerbaijan, which is seeking to bolster its green credentials as it prepares to host the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP29) in November, plans to raise at least $500 million of financing for clean energy investments in the Global South. The money would come from fossil fuel producers, including the state-owned Azerbaijani company SOCAR.
Azerbaijani officials considered introducing a levy on fossil fuel producers to raise money for the fund but, after facing opposition from oil-producing Gulf countries, opted for a voluntary, public-private investment model, an anonymous source toldReuters.
350.org called Azerbaijan's plan a "commercial" venture and said "we must distinguish profit-driven investments from genuine efforts," in a statement.
"The role of a COP presidency is to drive forward highly concessional climate finance, not profit from it," said Andreas Sieber, associate director of policy and campaigns. "We demand accountability through tax levies, not token charity, in this climate emergency. Those responsible for the climate crisis must pay for what they have created."
🧵1/4
BREAKING: @COP29_AZ plans a $500mn fund with the money of #fossilfuel industry to fund the energy transition - sounds good at first, but its a charade to distract us from the #fossil industrys deadly unwillingness to transition. Lets unpack:https://t.co/R1A6gP0x1S
— Andreas Sieber (@ClimateAndreas) July 11, 2024
Azerbaijan's new fund marks the second year in a row that an oil-producing nation has sought to deflect criticism by announcing a climate finance venture ahead of the U.N. summit.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which hosted COP28 last year, announced a far larger climate investment fund, with a $30 billion initial investment and a goal of raising $250 billion. Forbesreported after COP28 that "the reality is the fund is an investment tool with a primary purpose of profits for the investors."
Like the UAE last year, Azerbaijan faces questions as its commitment to climate action.
"Several diplomats and negotiators have privately expressed concerns that Azerbaijan, which relies heavily on oil and gas revenues, is fundamentally reluctant to address the question of how to shift away from fossil fuels," The Financial Timesreported.
In January, Azerbaijan appointed a 20-year oil and gas veteran to lead COP29 talks, drawing criticism from environmental groups. A Global Witness report revealed that the country plans not to phase out fossil fuel use, per an international agreement made at COP28, but to raise gas production by one-third in the next decade.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Sunrise Movement to Biden: For Planet's Sake—and Your Climate Legacy—Step Aside
"Joe Biden's next climate legacy-defining act must be to pass the torch to a new nominee," says Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay.
Jul 12, 2024
The head of a leading U.S. climate action group on Friday joined nearly 20 congressional lawmakers and the growing list of Democratic Party insiders, pundits, and others who are imploring President Joe Biden to step aside and let another Democrat run against former President Donald Trump in November's election.
"For the future of our democracy and our planet, we must defeat Trump this November. If Trump wins, he will demolish President Biden's historic climate achievements, such as the Inflation Reduction Act and American Climate Corps," Sunrise Movement executive director Aru Shiney-Ajay said in a statement. "Another Trump presidency would cause catastrophic and irreversible damage to our climate."
According to Shiney-Ajay:
The Democratic Party must seriously assess whether Joe Biden can successfully convince voters and energize volunteers. After speaking with young people around the country over the last few weeks, I'm concerned that Joe Biden isn't positioned to mobilize young people and win in November.
To be very clear, regardless of who the Democratic candidate is, our plan is the same: to persuade young voters to turn out for the Democratic nominee in order to defeat Trump. With another ticket that energizes young volunteers, we could contact up to twice as many voters this fall.
"To young people: Losing this election could alter the rest of our lives. In order to fight for our generation and our future, we must vote for the Democratic nominee," Shiney-Ajay stressed. "Joe Biden's next climate legacy-defining act must be to pass the torch to a new nominee."
Trump, who has habitually called human-caused climate change a "hoax," filled his administration with officials who were criticized for being inimical to their respective agencies' stated missions. Some of his key appointees—including Rex Tillerson, his first secretary of state, and Ryan Zinke, who headed the Interior Department—were former fossil fuel executives or had track records of supporting the oil, gas, and coal industries.
The debate over Biden's future as the Democratic nominee comes as nearly 20 members of Congress have called on the president to stand down in favor of another candidate, and as poll after poll show him losing to Trump amid a glaring lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy.
"In 2020, Biden was able to energize young people to not only vote, but urge their friends, parents, and neighbors to do the same," said Shiney-Ajay. "We saw that energy at Sunrise, when our volunteers contacted 3.5 million young voters urging them to vote for Biden. Since the debate, already low enthusiasm for Biden has continued to drop."
"The stakes are too high," she added. "We can't afford to ignore the warning signs in front of us."
Keep ReadingShow Less
NGOs Urge UK Labour Government to End 'Complicity in Israeli Crimes' in Gaza
"We are asking this government for leadership and to take a just decision, for the sake of Palestinians in Gaza who are living through 'hell on Earth,'" said six rights groups.
Jul 12, 2024
A week after the British Labour Party won control of the United Kingdom's government, six rights organizations called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to bring the country "back from the brink" and restore its "credibility on the international stage" by ending its military support for Israel.
"The Labour Party now has the chance to start restoring some credibility by ensuring the U.K. abides by international law, thereby extricating the U.K. from the indelible stain of complicity in Israeli crimes that deeply shock the conscience of humanity," wrote the British Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) and Al-Haq, based in Palestine.
The groups wrote the letter with the support of the International Center of Justice for Palestinians, War on Want, the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
Addressing Starmer along with newly appointed Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds, the groups reminded the prime minister that following his election, he promised Britons that the "sunlight of hope was shining once again" after 14 years of Conservative rule, and called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to say there is a "clear and urgent need for a cease-fire."
"Calls for a cease-fire are evidently not enough, in particular when the U.K. is arming one party to the conflict," wrote the groups, pointing out that earlier this week Palestinians in northern Gaza reported that recent bombing there has "matched October 2023 in its intensity—with levels of destruction not witnessed since World War II, nearly all civilian infrastructure is completely destroyed."
"We are asking this government for leadership and to take a just decision, for the sake of Palestinians in Gaza who are living through 'hell on Earth,'" they wrote. "The world should have put an end to their unimaginable suffering a long time ago. Labour must suspend, revoke, and refuse all arms licenses for Israel now."
The U.K. licensed about ÂŁ859,381 ($1.09 million) of weapons to Israel in the last three months of 2023, as the Israel Defense Forces relentlessly attacked Gaza and blocked nearly all humanitarian aid, leading to what 10 independent United Nations experts this week said is now famine across the enclave.
"The new Labour government's calls for a cease-fire are meaningless while it continues to arm Israel. British weapons have killed too many Palestinians," said GLAN lawyer Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe. "This government knows that the only lawful and moral decision is to stop arming Israel. Britons have voted for change: This government must deliver that change."
On social media, GLAN amplified a video posted by Starmer on Sunday in which he pledged to "restore politics as a force for good."
"We are calling on Keir Starmer to put these words into action," said the legal group.
When the war on Gaza's population of 2.3 million people ends, said the groups, Starmer's government must expect that there will be "a reckoning in which Israel will be found to have committed mass atrocities."
But the organizations called on Starmer—who, months before he called on Netanyahu to agree to a cease-fire, said Israel had "the right" to withhold power and water from Gaza—to see that ending military support for Israel "is not only the legal obligation of the U.K., it is a moral obligation."
"Schoolchildren will learn about this period for years to come, just as we have all learned about past genocides and wondered how they could be allowed to happen," reads the letter. "Will they read about a new Labour government that acted with respect for the sanctity of all human life?"
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular