http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-walmart16.html
Wal-Mart's love offensive has begun.
Hoping to counter the blizzard of negative press surrounding the world's fastest-growing corporation, company spokesmen are pounding the pavement, meeting with media and community groups around the city. Their message: Wal-Mart offers better-paying jobs with better benefits than most retailers. Wal-Mart does not hurt other businesses in a community. Wal-Mart hasn't decimated small-town America.
The strategy, the officials said in a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Thursday, is to finally respond to the voluminous attacks against Wal-Mart, many of which are inaccurate, they said. No more will the Arkansas-based retailing behemoth be content to satisfy customers while ignoring the press.
"We've been unfairly maligned,'' said B. John Bisio, Wal-Mart regional director of community affairs for the Midwest. "There is a real misrepresentation of the facts.''
Wal-Mart's bid to open two stores in Chicago has been strongly opposed by unions and some aldermen, who questioned Wal-Mart's treatment of workers and hostility toward unions. But Bisio said the firm is simply giving city residents what they want: from credit card and check purchases, it knows that Chicagoans spend some $500 million in suburban Wal-Marts annually.
Asked why Wal-Mart has opposed any unionizing of its American workers, Bisio said unions are not necessary because their Chicago area workers are paid, on average, $10.77 per hour.
He said union officials have unfairly targeted his company in an industry where there are few unions. "Wal-Mart has been painted into a corner by unions who want to organize Wal-Mart because it is 1.3 million-strong,'' he said.
Asked about reports that managers at some stores routinely altered time cards of workers, cheating them of pay, Bisio said the practice is "not the norm.''
Asked if the company in effect censors magazines, some of which have changed racy or revealing covers so they can be sold there, Bisio said Wal-Mart is simply trying "to appeal to our middle-of-the-road customer.''
Bisio also said letters from officials after a Wal-Mart opened have been "overwhelmingly'' positive. And Wal-Mart will be good for Chicago, he said.
Wal-Mart's love offensive has begun.
Hoping to counter the blizzard of negative press surrounding the world's fastest-growing corporation, company spokesmen are pounding the pavement, meeting with media and community groups around the city. Their message: Wal-Mart offers better-paying jobs with better benefits than most retailers. Wal-Mart does not hurt other businesses in a community. Wal-Mart hasn't decimated small-town America.
The strategy, the officials said in a meeting with the Chicago Sun-Times editorial board Thursday, is to finally respond to the voluminous attacks against Wal-Mart, many of which are inaccurate, they said. No more will the Arkansas-based retailing behemoth be content to satisfy customers while ignoring the press.
"We've been unfairly maligned,'' said B. John Bisio, Wal-Mart regional director of community affairs for the Midwest. "There is a real misrepresentation of the facts.''
Wal-Mart's bid to open two stores in Chicago has been strongly opposed by unions and some aldermen, who questioned Wal-Mart's treatment of workers and hostility toward unions. But Bisio said the firm is simply giving city residents what they want: from credit card and check purchases, it knows that Chicagoans spend some $500 million in suburban Wal-Marts annually.
Asked why Wal-Mart has opposed any unionizing of its American workers, Bisio said unions are not necessary because their Chicago area workers are paid, on average, $10.77 per hour.
He said union officials have unfairly targeted his company in an industry where there are few unions. "Wal-Mart has been painted into a corner by unions who want to organize Wal-Mart because it is 1.3 million-strong,'' he said.
Asked about reports that managers at some stores routinely altered time cards of workers, cheating them of pay, Bisio said the practice is "not the norm.''
Asked if the company in effect censors magazines, some of which have changed racy or revealing covers so they can be sold there, Bisio said Wal-Mart is simply trying "to appeal to our middle-of-the-road customer.''
Bisio also said letters from officials after a Wal-Mart opened have been "overwhelmingly'' positive. And Wal-Mart will be good for Chicago, he said.
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