Please note: the opinions and
views expressed here are those of myself: Patrick Hudson, and not necessarily
the views of the theatres, companies, individuals, or advertisers posted on
BackstageJobs.com
Posted 7/25/05. Updated 7/26/05
Boycott
Wal-Mart.
This is a request
for all BackstageJobs.com users, their theatre companies, families, and
friends to not
shop at Wal-Mart.
Now many of you
may have heard similar requests over the years, and various reasons:
they destroy small stores and towns, they treat their workers poorly,
they are anti-union... etc. You may agree, disagree, or simply not
care about these issues.
My reason for
asking you to boycott Wal-Mart is this: Wal-Mart purchasing policies
are having a direct affect on employment in the U.S.
Up to 70% of
products sold in Wal-Mart stores are made in China.* I'll admit that
these days its hard to find anything that isn't, whether or not you buy it at
Wal-Mart. But Wal-Mart suggests to potential suppliers that they could
make the given product cheaper in China. (Source:
Frontline episode. See below)
This affects new employment in the U.S., and as a consequence, could end up
affecting the live entertainment industry in the long run.
I heard a great
quote this weekend about the last presidential election campaign: "We were
told that thousands of new jobs would be created. We thought they meant
here!"
As live
entertainment professionals, we don't have
much risk of having our jobs outsourced, but we are at risk of having
fewer theatre companies to work for if there is no-one who can afford to come
see our shows. The outsourcing of U.S. jobs will affect all of us
that rely on local money for our employers. If wages and/or overall
employment drops, there will be less people able to spend money on live
entertainment.
Granted, Wal-Mart
is not the only place that you can get products made in China, and there are
plenty of products that Wal-Mart does not sell that are also made in China.
But Wal-Mart is the largest retailer in the U.S., and as such, a boycott of
them can have a large economic and symbolic impact.
Now, there are a
plethora of groups that have multiple reasons that they are boycotting
Wal-Mart, the most vocal of them are the unions. But in the end,
it is the manufacturing and production industries that are the basis for the
majority of cities and towns in the U.S. Union or non-union: when these
jobs disappear, we all suffer.
Please, avoid
shopping at Wal-Mart, and try not to purchase products made in China.
Our employment is dependent on our community's employment.
I encourage you
to get more information on this issue, and I will try to add links to related
sites below.
Patrick Hudson
Webmaster,
BackstageJobs.com
*Source: http://WakeUpWalmart.com
FrontLine:
Is Wal-Mart good for America?
EVERYDAY
LOW WAGES: THE HIDDEN PRICE WE ALL PAY FOR WAL-MART
A REPORT BY THE
DEMOCRATIC STAFF OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES
(Adobe Acrobat document. See especially
pages 11-14 for the US-China employment connection))
In the interest
of fairness, the official "Wal-Mart Facts" site:
http://www.walmartfacts.com/
maintained by Wal-Mart
Bush economic report praises 'outsourcing' jobs
Outsourcing to usurp more US jobs | Tech News on ZDNet
Outsourcing of jobs is accelerating in US