Banks and Business

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Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults

Time For A Fair Deal
Task Force Addresses Urgent Need to Reform Income Security Policies with Unveiling of Report (PDF file - 134K, 8 pages)
Press Release
May 15, 2006
[version française du communiqué:
Un traitement équitable s'impose
Un rapport du groupe de travail indique un besoin urgent de réforme en matière sécurité du revenu] (fichier PDF - 135Ko, 10 pages)

TORONTO, ON – (May 15, 2006) - Today in Toronto an unprecedented coalition of business, labour, academic, non-profit, and think tank leaders released their report “Time for a Fair Deal” calling for fundamental reform of Canada’s income security programs for working-age adults.

Declaring the current system in need of a thorough overhaul, The Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working-Age Adults (MISWAA) identified three key issues plaguing low-income Canadians:

- Many working people cannot earn enough to make ends meet even when working full-time for a full year – at least 30% of low-wage workers fall into this group,
- Employment Insurance (EI) no longer covers the majority of the temporarily unemployed – in Ontario only 27% receive EI benefits, and only 22% receive EI benefits in Toronto, and
- Existing social assistance programs are punitive, make it difficult to escape poverty, and create a “welfare trap” for many.
(...)

Key recommendations to the federal government include:

- Reforming Employment Insurance to address the significant decline in coverage,
- Introducing through the tax system a new national refundable tax credit and working income supplement to support low-income Canadians,
- Providing a national disability income support program for persons whose disabilities are so substantial they cannot enter the paid labour force.

Key recommendations to the Ontario Government include:

- Establishing an independent body, with representation from employers and labour, to recommend periodic increases to the minimum wage,
- Implementing a seamless and integrated child benefit platform for low-income parents with children that pays child benefits to all low-income parents, including those receiving social assistance,
- Reducing the impediments to leaving social assistance by providing prescription drug and dental benefits to low-income workers,
- Strengthening the enforcement of employment standards to protect the rights of workers under the law,
- Restoring the asset limits for those receiving social assistance to levels that allow savings for contingencies and help support the transition to work,
- Improving training and employment supports for social assistance recipients and low-income workers,
- Introducing reforms to the Ontario Disability Support Program, including returning benefit levels to those received by senior citizens who have no other source of income, and
- Uploading social assistance benefit costs from municipalities to the province.

Complete report:

Time for a Fair Deal (PDF file - 271K, 67 pages)

Context

MISWAA was formed in the fall of 2004 by the Toronto City Summit Alliance, a broad-based coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region, and by St. Christopher House, a multi-service neighbourhood centre that works with low-income people in Toronto. The Task Force is a diverse group made-up of over fifty experts and leaders from major employers, policy institutes, labour unions, academia, community organizations, advocacy groups, foundations and governments, as well as individuals with first-hand knowledge of income security programs.

MISWAA Frequently-Asked Questions (PDF file - 106K, 7 pages)

Related Links:

Google Web Search Results:
"modernizing income security, report, Toronto"
Google News search Results:
"modernizing income security, report, Toronto"
Source:
Google.ca

Compromise versus conviction
May 19
By Carol Goar
"Compromise hurts, especially when people come to the table with strong convictions. Sometimes it is the price of progress. Sometimes the sacrifices outweigh the gains. For the past year and a half, 51 of Toronto's most civic-minded people have wrestled with these trade-offs. The result is a not-quite-unanimous report released this week titled Time for a Fair Deal. It sets out a hard-headed plan to tackle adult poverty, a social blight that governments refuse to address and middle-class voters blithely overlook. Given the diversity of the task force — members ranged from senior corporate executives to militant anti-poverty activists — it is a tribute to the group's dedication that it stayed the course. But its report reflects a clash of visions that could not be reconciled."
Source:
The Toronto Star

Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults ("MISWAA")
- incl. links to : In the News · Press Releases · Task Force and Working Group Members · Contact Us · Reports · Frequently Asked Questions

St. Christopher House
“St. Chris has 92 years of experience working with diverse individuals, families and groups. We provide support to people of all ages, including immigrants and people who are lower-income. We are not a religious organization in any way. St. Christopher House is strongly committed to community development in all aspects of our work.”

Toronto City Summit Alliance
"The Toronto City Summit Alliance is a coalition of civic leaders in the Toronto region. The Alliance was formed to address challenges to the future of Toronto such as expanding knowledge-based industry, poor economic integration of immigrants, decaying infrastructure, and affordable housing."

Boston Consulting Group - Toronto Office
"BCG Toronto was created through the merger of The Canada Consulting Group and The Boston Consulting Group, and in the years since then, it has more than tripled in size."

ReclaimDemocracy.org

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Wal-Mart Website home page

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Why the prominence of Wal-Mart links on this page?
(You can skip all of the Wal-Mart stuff by skipping down past this red-bordered box, by the way...)

Because Wal-Mart is a large part of what's wrong with the world today...

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Costco Rules, Wal-Mart Drools
Bucking a big-box myth, a student finds remarkable variations in how two giants do business
By Angela Wilson
February 20, 2007
Big-box business has a bad name. As one-stop shopping becomes the new retail model, specialty stores can no longer compete with multi-national corporations. With employee and growth policies that are fiercely criticized by activist groups, corporations like Wal-Mart and Canadian Tire are setting industry standards. However, emerging from the dismal landscape of the retail industry is an established and innovative competitor. Hidden behind skyrocketing stacks of bulk merchandise in warehouses across North America, Costco Corporation has been softly trying to introduce new industry standards since 1983.
Source:
The Tyee (BC alternative media)

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Internal Memo Reveals Attitudes Toward Employees Within Wal-Mart, Inc.
Vice president views workers as cogs to be replaced before they attain "costly" wages, benefits.
October 26, 2005
By Steven Greenhouse and Michael Barbaro
First published (with different title) in the N.Y. Times, Oct. 26, 2005
"An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart. In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive. To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)." The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefit costs because critics had attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Ms. Chambers acknowledged that 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid. Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which to Wall Street's dismay have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs. The proposed plan, if approved, would save the company more than $1 billion a year by 2011. More...
Source:
ReclaimDemocracy.org (U.S)
"...works to create a representative democracy with an actively participating public, where citizens don't merely choose from a menu of options determined by elites, but play an active role in guiding the country and political agenda."

Complete Text of Internal Wal-Mart Memo:
Supplemental Benefits Documentation - Board of Directors Retreat Fiscal Year 06
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. - Benefits Strategy [Confidential] (PDF file - 375K, 26 pages)

Related Link:

Links to Anti Wal-Mart and Pro Wal-Mart Web Sites
Articles, Studies and Resources on Wal-Mart - links to over two dozen online resources + links
- incl. Articles on Wal-Mart - T-shirts, Bumper Stickers, Buttons - Related Articles of Interest - Studies and Reports on Wal-Mart and Big Boxes (separate page) - Internal Company Documents on Stopping Unions (separate page) - Anti-Walmart & Pro-Walmart Links, Community Organizations Fighting Big Box battles (separate page)

Also related:

BIG BOX MART - a short movie from JibJab.com
"In BIG BOX MART an unsuspecting consumer learns an economic lesson the hard way when his high-skilled factory job is shipped overseas to accommodate the "everyday low prices" he's come to expect from his favorite retailer. Now only one question remains: Paper or plastic?"
NOTE: If you're not able to view this movie from an office or university network, it's likely because of security issues or "Net Nanny" issues.
If so, you can check it out on a private (and preferably fast) Internet connection.

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How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart
Company has succeeded with generous employee compensation
By Steven Greenhouse
First published by the NY Times, July, 17, 2005
NOTE: From the ReclaimDemocracy.org editor: "While Costco unquestionably provides better jobs than Wal-Mart and its Sam's Club division, is its overall impact much better when community, environmental and other concerns are weighed? We urge you to consider that doing your business with community-based enterprise is usually the most responsible choice."

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Can Christians Shop at Wal-Mart in Good Conscience?
By Jeff M. Sellers
Published by Christianity Today, April 22, 2005
"Discerning Christians with varying social/theological priorities will differ on whether to open their wallets to Wal-Mart. Its impact on local communities and on the environment, as well its treatment of minorities and women, also must be examined."

Source:
Articles, Studies and Resources on Wal-Mart - links to over three dozen online resources + links
[ ReclaimDemocracy.org (U.S) ]
"...works to create a representative democracy with an actively participating public, where citizens don't merely choose from a menu of options determined by elites, but play an active role in guiding the country and political agenda."

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Wake-Up Wal-Mart
The "Wake-Up Wal-Mart Campaign" is about Americans joining together in common purpose to change Wal-Mart. There is only one force powerful enough to change the #1 Fortune 500 company in the world – the American people.We are 50,000 Americans and growing. We are grassroots leaders, community groups and activists who have woken up to the high costs of Wal-Mart and recognize Wal-Mart’s negative impact on our jobs, our wages, our health care and our communities. (...) We will be a vehicle through which millions of Americans can join together, from neighborhoods all across our nation, to harness the power of our consumer behavior and use it to reform a company. America’s largest corporation must reflect America’s values."

Related Links:

United Food and Commercial Workers - Washington, D.C.
United Food and Commercial Workers - Canada - Rexdale, ON

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WalmartWatch.com - “To fight Wal-Mart on the streets, in the media, and in the customer’s mind!”
The goal of WalmartWatch is to serve as a virtual meeting place, research hub and strategic “war room” for the growing Wal-Mart reform effort. The Center for Community & Corporate Ethics is formed as a 501c(3) organization and will operate WalmartWatch.com from an affiliated 501c(4) organization, Five Stones.
- incl. links to : About Us * Research Library * Press Releases * Blog * Wal-Mart in the News * Contact Us

New Group Targets Wal-Mart
April 9, 2005
"Five Stones, a new non-profit organization working to reform the business practices of retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said this week it is launching an initiative to build upon and expand the recent vote by the Maryland legislature to force Wal-Mart to boost spending on health care for its employees. The Maryland bill mandates that Wal-Mart, with more than 10,000 Maryland employees, spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health care. The bill was spearheaded by Maryland for Health Care and a statewide coalition of more than 1,000 groups representing the health, business and community interests of Maryland citizens. Five Stones said it plans to distribute copies of the Maryland legislation to every state legislator in all 50 states. The group also plans to help enact similar legislation in statehouses nationwide, it said.
Five Stones is based in Washington and is the advocacy arm for the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, a spokeswoman said."
[NOTE: The Center for Community and Corporate Ethics is headed by former director of the Democratic Party's Senatorial Campaign Committee Andy Grossman.]
Source:
The Morning News (Fayetteville, Arkansas)

Research Library - links to almost two dozen online resources...

Rollback Wal-Mart Campaign
"...fueling a national conversation about the affect the irresponsible corporate behemoth has on our economy. Our goal is to spread the truth about Wal-Mart’s countless abuses on their employees, suppliers, and the communities they do business in."

Full-page New York Times piece (PDF file - 507K, 1 page)

Related Links:

Sweet Victory: Maryland Stands Up To Wal-Mart
April 15, 2005
"With the federal government content to let Wal-Mart run amok, it has been left up to the states to protect workers from the retail behemoth's excesses. This past Saturday, April 9, Maryland showed America's largest corporation who's boss. Maryland's House of Delegates voted 82 to 48 to approve a bill that would require all businesses in the state with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payroll on health benefits for workers (or, alternatively, donate the funds to the state's Medicaid program).
[You might call this targeted legislation --- Wal-Mart has 15,000 employees in Maryland, and it is the only company affected by the new law.]

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Is Wal-Mart Good for America?
"They're rolling back prices, rolling back the competition, and rolling jobs overseas..."
November 16, 2004
- incl. links to : introduction + secrets of wal-mart's success + transforming america + china connection + interviews - producer's notebook + american radio work's companion reports + join the discussion + correspondent's chat
teacher's guide + press reaction + tapes & transcripts + credits

Wal-Mart at a Glance
- stats and facts that capture Wal-Mart's size and scale:
* 100 million: The number of people who shop at Wal-Mart's 3400 American stores every week.
* 1.2 million: The number of Wal-Mart associates in the U.S. Any full- or part-time Wal-Mart employee, up to and including the CEO, is considered an "associate," in Wal-Mart parlance. Internationally, Wal-Mart employs an additional 330,000 associates.
*1979: The year Wal-Mart's sales first top $1 billion.
* $256 billion : Wal-Mart's sales in 2003. In the words of Wal-Mart CFO Tom Schoewe, Wal-Mart's sales are equal to "one IBM, one Hewlett Packard, one Dell computer, one Microsoft and one Cisco System -- and oh, by the way, after that we got $2 billion left over."
* 8 percent: The amount of total U.S. retail sales, excluding automobiles, accounted for by Wal-Mart.
* $9.98: The average full-time hourly wage for a Wal-Mart employee. The average full-time hourly wage in metro areas (defined as areas with a population of 50,000 or more) is $10.38. In some urban areas it is higher: $11.03 in Chicago, $11.08 in San Francisco, and $11.20 in Austin.

Watch Online - link directly to streaming video of the entire show (broken up into smaller segments for faster downloading)
NOTE: if you can't see any video, it may be because you're behind a corporate firewall, e.g., if your Internet connection is from a government or university computer network, for security reasons.
You should have no problem viewing the videos from home, even with a dialup connection.

Source:
Frontline
[ PBS ]

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Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs:
Use of Safety Net Programs by Wal-Mart Workers in California (PDF file - 838K, 16 pages)
August 2, 2004
Wal-Mart workers in California earn over 30% less than workers employed in large retail as a whole, and 23% fewer of them are covered by employer-sponsored health insurance. The families of Wal-Mart employees in
California account for an estimated 40% more in taxpayer-funded health care than the average for families of all large retail employees; for non-health care, this figure is 38%. Many Wal-Mart workers are forced to turn to public safety net programs (e.g., food stamps, Medicare, Earned Income Tax Credit, subsidized school lunches, subsidized housing) to make ends meet. In California, the additional costs borne by these government programs amount to some $86 million annually ($32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance). The authors estimate that this figure would grow to over $400 milllion if other large California retailers adopted Wal-Mart’s wage and benefits standards. These are the hidden costs of the Wal-Mart world we live in...
Source:
UC Berkeley Labor Center

Hidden Cost of Wal-Mart Jobs:
Authors' Response to Wal-Mart’s Statements (PDF file - 19K, 3 pages)
August 3, 2004

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New Report Details Wal-Mart's
Labor Abuses and Hidden Costs
Press Release
February 16, 2004
"MARTINEZ, CA – Wal-Mart’s rock bottom wages and benefits cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars a year in basic housing, medical, childcare, and energy needs that the retailer fails to properly cover for its employees, according to a report released today by Congressman George Miller (D-Martinez)."(...) The report estimates the costs borne by taxpayers for things like medical insurance and housing assistance for Wal-Mart employees that can’t afford them because of their low wages and benefits. The report shows that taxpayers would have to pick up $420,750 per year for a hypothetical Wal-Mart store employing 200 people. (...) The report also provides a comprehensive review of Wal-Mart’s numerous anti-worker practices, including union-busting activities, discrimination against women and disabled workers, violation of child and undocumented labor laws, unpaid overtime, and unsafe workplace policies, like locking workers into stores overnight. Wal-Mart has been the subject of thousands of lawsuits and critical media scrutiny on all of these issues. The Washington Post just reported on labor abuses in China at the hands of Wal-Mart."
NOTE: this press release also includes highlights from the report and links to four recent related articles in the American media

Complete report:

Everyday Low Wages : The Hidden Price We All Pay for Wal-Mart (PDF file - 195K, 25 pages)
Report by the Democratic staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce
U.S. House of Representatives
Representative George Miller (D-CA)

Source:
Congressman George Miller's website