CORPORADOS / LABOR

WAL-MART VS. COSTCO SMACKDOWN

WAL-MART WATCH - Bloomberg News columnist Graef Crystal looks at the
salaries offered by Wal-Mart and Costco, and examines the wide disparity
between the compensation packages of their respective CEOs. Crystal
points out the difference at the bottom of the corporate ladder and
works his way up to the top:

"Costco, the fourth-largest U.S. retailer, pays fulltime employees an
average hourly wage of $17; Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, pays
$9.68."

As for their CEOs, total 2004 pay for James Sinegal of the Issaquah,
Washington-based Costco was $2.7 million; for H. Lee Scott of the
Bentonville, Arkansas, Wal-Mart it was $17.9 million.

He also suggests that Scott's salary isn't necessarily in line with the
stock performance of his company:

"Now if money really motivates executive performance, you would expect
to see Scott lapping the field over Sinegal in total returns to
investors. Just the opposite has occurred.

"Scott became CEO of Wal-Mart on Jan. 14, 2000. Measuring from Jan. 13,
2000, to the market close this Aug. 19, Wal-Mart's cumulative total
return was negative 25.5 percent. That was considerably lower than the
negative 8.2 percent cumulative return on the Standard & Poor's 500
Index for the same period.

"As for Costco, its cumulative return was negative 5.4 percent,
relatively more favorable than that of both Wal-Mart and the S&P 500."

And here's his final "scorecard":

"So here's the scorecard during the overlapping tenure of the two CEOs.
For Costco, the employees won. The shareholders also won in the sense
that, during the period covered by Scott's tenure, Costco's total
return, though negative, was better than that of the S&P 500 and much
better than Wal-Mart's. But Sinegal lost. For Wal-Mart, the employees
lost, the shareholders lost and Scott won."


http://walmartwatch.com/blog/archives/mo_money_mo_problems/

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000039&refer=columnist_crystal&sid=arNjFjq0qpd0


MORE STORIES

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30D10FA3B540C748DDDAE0894DD404482&incamp=archive:search


http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0450/041215_news_costco.php

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LABOR
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CHAVEZ PRESSES CO-MANAGEMENT IN VENEZUELA

IAIN BRUCE, BBC - The heat and the noise are almost unbearable in the
casting room of Line 3 at Alcasa. This is one of two big aluminium
plants in the south-eastern city of Puerto Ordaz, where most of
Venezuela's basic industries are concentrated.

It is also the test bed for a new experiment in co-management, which
President Hugo Chavez says is a key step towards a "socialism of the
twenty-first century".

Alcides Rivero, who works here as a maintenance electrician, says
co-management means that for the first time in this company's 37 years
of existence, the workforce has control. "It's us, the workers", he
says, "who decide on questions of production and technology, and it's us
who elect who will be our managers."

Marivit Lopez, from the personnel department, explains that the workers
are also drawing up a "participatory budget" for 2006. "The different
departmental works councils are discussing and amending the existing
proposal so that we get a budget that really fits the company's needs,"
she says. . .

According to the man steering this whole process, one of the aims of
co-management is to break down the barriers between intellectual and
physical labor; between those who do the thinking and those who do the
work. Carlos Lanz, recently appointed president of Alcasa, and himself a
former guerrilla leader, says the results are already visible.
"Democratic planning is such a powerful lever that even with rather
outdated technology we have managed to increase production by 11%," he
says.

Mr Lanz points out that this is not the co-management of European social
democracy, which in his view has been limited to giving the workers
shares and a seat on the board. "This is about workers controlling the
factory and that is why it is a step towards socialism of the
twenty-first century."

So far, Venezuela's co-management plans have been confined to state
owned companies like Alcasa, and to two small private companies that had
already gone bankrupt. . .

Early this year the government took over the Venepal paper factory and
the Valvulas valve factory. They were relaunched under co-management,
with 51% of the shares owned by the state and the workers organized in a
co-operative holding the remaining 49%.

But last Mayday President Hugo Chavez said he wanted to go further. He
suggested that many more private companies might qualify for government
assistance if they too involved their workers in the management.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4155936.stm