Wal-Mart sues union over protests at Fla. stores

9:26 AM Protests, stores, union, WalMart No Comments

Reuters – 4 days

Wal-Mart Stores Inc has sued a major grocery workers union and others who have protested at its Florida stores, the latest salvo in its legal fight to stop "disruptive" rallies in and around its stores by groups seeking better pay and working conditions.

Wal-Mart does not have union-represented workers in its U.S. stores. Nevertheless, it has long faced opposition from various labor groups including the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), and from a small but vocal group of current and former employees backed by the union and known as OUR Walmart.

The lawsuit filed on Friday in Orange County, Florida state court seeks "to help protect our customers and associates from further disruptive tactics associated with their continued, illegal trespassing," Walmart spokesman Dan Fogleman said.

Defendants, however, charged that the world's biggest retailer is trying to muzzle its critics.

"This is another attempt on Wal-Mart's behalf of ... silencing their employees and also the communities that support them," Denise Diaz, executive director of Central Florida Jobs With Justice Corp and a defendant named in the suit, said before reviewing the documents.

"Rather than creating good jobs with steady hours and affordable healthcare, Walmart's pattern is to focus its energies on infringing on our freedom of speech," the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart), also a defendant, said in a statement.

Other defendants include the 1.3 million-member UFCW and the individuals Angela Williamson, Alex Rivera, and Alan Hanson.

The UFCW was not immediately able to comment on the lawsuit.

Wal-Mart alleged that the defendants violated Florida law through coordinated, statewide acts of trespass in several Walmart stores over the last eight months. It has asked the court for a legal ruling that would prevent future trespassing.

In the lawsuit Wal-Mart cited an example where a group of protesters projected a video promoting OUR Walmart on the side of a store in Orlando and passing out literature inside that store in July, 2012.

It alleged that a group of UFCW demonstrators returned to that same store on October 30, 2012 and "confronted the store manager and handed him a rotten pumpkin painted in support of OUR Walmart. The group left the store only after the manager warned that he had called the police."

Wal-Mart filed an unfair labor practice charge against the UFCW in November, asking the National Labor Relations Board to halt what the retailer said were unlawful attempts to disrupt its business in several states including protests that were planned for Black Friday, the busy shopping day right after Thanksgiving. In January, labor groups said that they would stop much of their picketing against the chain, while still trying to push the company to improve working conditions.

The case is Wal-Mart Stores Inc v. United Food and Commercial Workers International Union et al, 9th Judicial Circuit Court of Florida, Orange County, No. 2013-CA-004293.

Reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago and Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles.

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European Union split over treaty to save euro

3:13 AM European, split, treaty, union No Comments

Prime Minister David Cameron speaks during a news conference at an European Union summit in Brussels.

BRUSSELS — The 17 countries that use the euro, plus nearly all of their European Union partners, agreed Friday to an ambitious treaty tying their finances together in the hopes of solving Europe's debt crisis. Yet opposition led by Britain created a deep rift in the union.

In drafting a new treaty, the countries hope to help European nations struggling with giant debts over the long term, and in that sense there were early indications of success. Such an agreement is considered necessary before the European Central Bank and other institutions commit more money to lowering the borrowing costs of heavily indebted countries like Italy and Spain.

“It’s a very good outcome for the euro area, very good,” ECB President Mario Draghi said in Brussels. “It is going to be the basis for much more disciplined economic policy for euro-area members. And certainly it is going to be helpful in the present situation.” 

Even after Friday's long-awaited deal, watched by governments and markets worldwide, European leaders have huge hurdles still ahead. They are meeting again later Friday to work out what exactly their new treaty will contain and how violators of its strict budget rules will be policed. They want it written by March.

Asian stocks — already trading when the Europeans announced their 11th-hour deal — tumbled Friday as investors grew increasingly pessimistic that European leaders would conclude this week's crucial summit without finding a solution radical enough to fix the debt crisis.

Britain, which doesn't use the euro, led the push against a treaty tying all 27 EU countries to tighter fiscal union, arguing that it would threaten sovereignty and London's esteemed financial services industry. Germany and France, the eurozone's biggest economies, had pushed for a 27-nation accord.

U.K. prime minister blamed
French President Nicolas Sarkozy laid the blame at the feet of British Prime Minister David Cameron.

"David Cameron made a proposal that seemed to us unacceptable, a protocol to the treaty that would have exonerated the United Kingdom from a great number of financial service regulations," Sarkozy said shortly before dawn, after what he called a "difficult" dinner meeting had dragged through the night.

"We couldn't accept this. We consider to the contrary that part of the troubles of the world come from the lack of regulation of financial services," Sarkozy said. "If you want an opt-out clause to not be in the euro and ask to participate in all decisions of the euro ... and even criticize it, this is not possible."

Cameron defended his stance.

"What was on offer is not in Britain's interest so I didn't agree to it," he told reporters in Brussels.

"We're not in the euro and I'm glad we're not in the euro," he said. "We're never going to join the euro and we're never going to give up this kind of sovereignty that these countries are having to give up."

The French president said work was proceeding on an "intergovernmental accord" among the 17 countries that use the euro plus as many as six others, not counting Britain, Hungary, and so-far undecided Czech Republic and Sweden.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt signaled after the meeting it was unlikely his country would join the accord.

"It would be very odd signing up to a treaty pointing out as if we were a eurozone country," he told The Associated Press. "And that was never the aim."

Intervention into national budgets
The governments signing onto the new treaty will have to agree to allow unprecedented intervention in national budgets by EU-wide bodies.

Yves Herman / Reuters

Spain's outgoing Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, left, talks to France's President Nicolas Sarkozy, right.

According to a statement issued after the meeting broke up, governments participating in the agreement will need to have balanced budgets — which is counted as a structural deficit no greater than 0.5 percent of gross domestic product — and will have to amend their constitutions to include such a requirement.

The treaty will include an unspecified "automatic correction mechanism" for countries that break the rules, the statement said.

In addition, countries that run deficits larger than 3 percent will face sanctions.

To prevent such deficits, countries will have to submit their national budgets to the European Commission, which will have the authority to request that they be revised. Countries will also have to report in advance how much they plan to borrow.

But Cameron threatened to complicate the new 23-member treaty.

"The institutions of the European Union belong to the European Union, belong to the 27" member states, he said. The new treaty would rely on the European Commission and the European Court of Justice to enforce its rules.

"One step forward, two steps back," Alan Clarke, U.K. and eurozone economist at Scotia Capital, said before the first day of summit talks concluded. "The eurozone leaders might as well not bother. Pack their bags, go home, enjoy the weekend and do their Christmas shopping."

Despite the challenges ahead, European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi said it was a good result for the eurozone, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel praised it.

"I have always said the 17 states of the eurogroup have to regain credibility," she said. "And I believe with today's decisions this can and will be achieved."

Marathon negotiating session
The summit meeting in Brussels was viewed as a critical step in the effort to save the euro. The currency is losing the trust of the international financial markets, who fear that some debt-laden euro countries may ultimately be unable to pay their debts.

That doubt means that the governments of countries viewed as in a precarious state must pay higher interest to borrow the money they need to carry on — and that, in turn, makes their budget deficits even worse and can be unsustainable in the long run.

EU officials believe that one way of regaining market trust is to beef up the financial governance overseeing the eurozone countries and their budgets. Any intergovernmental treaty will be an effort to ensure that national budgets are brought into balance and large debts are not run up again.

And the officials believe another way to regain the trust of investors is to have enough money on hand to guarantee that eurozone countries won't default on their debts.

Toward that end, Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, said the eurozone, together with some other EU countries, would provide up to €200 billion ($268 billion) in extra resources to the International Monetary Fund, to be used to help countries in dire straits. Non-euro countries Sweden and Denmark already said they would contribute some extra money.

Sarkozy also said the EU's two bailout funds, meant to rescue countries having trouble refinancing their debts — the European Stability Mechanism, or ESM, and the European Financial Stability Facility, or EFSF — would be managed by the European Central Bank, though the details still need to be worked out.

The failure to get agreement among all 27 EU members came despite a marathon negotiating session. The 27 EU presidents and prime ministers began their talks at 7:30 Thursday evening and continued past 4:30 a.m.

A Reuters poll of economists found that while 33 out of 57 believe the eurozone will probably survive in its current form, 38 of those questioned expected this week's summit would fail to deliver a decisive solution to the debt crisis.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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Europe stumbles towards a closer union

3:48 PM closer, Europe, stumbles, towards, union No Comments

From the 1950s, the European Heads of State and Government edges closer. Community coal and steel cartel came first the European. Then with the common market. The European Union contains the now 27 Member States. Then the disappearance of many border controls within the EU. Finally, the euro. Each step on the road gave the Nations of Europe a little more sovereignty, delay, EU officials in Brussels on regulatory issues, the judgments of the Court above, honor and - with some exceptions such as for example UK - power interest rates of the ECB set.

One thing nobody showed: performance of the national budget. Fiscal Union, has a central authority to definitively say about the issues of the country and taxation, was never a possibility. Politically at least, it was too far a step: the nation itself to control was to control the budget.

Now the idea is how never previously discussed. The desperate rescue attempts launched in Europe in the last two years mark a step towards the fiscal Union, although Germany, the most important EU still against. Resistance means that real fiscal Union "really, really still a long way", says Fabio fois, an economist at Barclays Capital in London. Nevertheless, the Europeans seem to be headed in that direction.

Why? First of all with the ECB to buy Italian and Spanish bond of Greek contagion spread, are the Central Bank and its President, Jean-Claude Trichet, de facto financial masters of the States, they are saving: if Italy backslides on reforms, the ECB stop buying their bonds and leave the market wolves.

Long-term solution needed
So far, the ECB cut binge buying yields on bonds of the Spanish and Italian by more than a point. "It is not perfect, but this is sustainable," says Steven major, global head of fixed-income research at HSBC. "The longer-term solution includes a kind of fiscal Union, and we need time to that." The Royal Bank of Scotland Group estimates that the purchases of Italian and Spanish debt by the ECB and the EU can reach €850 billion ($1.2 trillion) bailout funds after all.

Buy European stability financing facility soon do the EU last year to make sure that the Greek crisis should be spread, the bond, which has launched the ECB in the life. The EFSF is all the region's Euro bond to buy more advanced powers of members of the eurozone, so that it can help the Member States, before a full-blown rescue operation is needed. Represented by the Fund, the EU may impose austerity measures on States of the eurozone, which eventually need help. This authority is similar to making, which would have a Ministry of Finance of Europe.

The other factor which brings closer fiscal Union in Europe is the way, that the EFSF is funded. Money for his rescue efforts, the Fund must issue bonds guaranteed by all Member States of the eurozone. The first bond issue of EFSF in February, for € was 3.6 billion a great success from this warranty. Now, two other offers have also done.

This funding method a prototype could be how an EU tax would work. In Member States, that their own bonds that are supported by their own Governments would be issued Eurobonds with the support of all Member States. It would be more difficult for bond vigil front, supported by 17 countries, as the bonds of Greece or Italy alone attack the bonds.

A European Ministry of finance?
Trichet, one of the architects of the Maastricht Treaty, which said the euro, in June that he favoured a European financial Ministry and veto powers for the EU compared to national budgets. "It would be too bold to imagine in the economic field, with a single market, a single currency and a common Central Bank, a Ministry of Finance of the Union?" he asked in a speech in Aachen, Germany.

For a number of officials, still the answer is Yes. "This great risk-pooling exercise not easy come, and the risk of a political consequences will be great," Jacques Cailloux, Chief Economist of the European at RBS, wrote in a recent note.

The German, who have spent the most money to bailout plan for the eurozone neighbours, lead still the opposition. "We need no fiscal Union and should we refuse, since, the resolution of responsibilities, mark," says Michael Meister, spokesman of finances for the Christian Democrats of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Merkel Coalition ally, Christian Social Union, "not, supported", said Horst Seehofer, President of the Party on 7 August. The plan cannot be "left seriously by everyone."

The situation in Italy shows also the desire to preserve fiscal independence. The Government in Rome to the financial markets and officials "Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, London and New York" has ceded newspaper wrote former EU competition Commissioner Mario Monti in an editorial in Corriere della Sera Milan on 7 August. The result of Monti wrote a "political demotion" for Italy, that potential growth will damage. Yet the defeat has taken Italy, for its weak finances, a lot of damage, has also added.

The bottom line: By issuing bonds, all members of the eurozone backed by, EFSF showing how a central Ministry of finance might work.

Copyright © 2011 Bloomberg L.P.All rights reserved.

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