Crofton Sends Wal-Mart Packing

“We beat Wal-Mart in ways we never thought possible,” said Madonna Brennan, Co-Chair of Crofton First, a grass-roots organization, reacting to last Friday’s report that the big box giant had scrapped plans for a new megastore in Crofton, MD. “There is power in people and we used it well in Crofton,” said Brennan, whose day job is at the Laborer’s international union. “By talking to the community, keeping them informed, energized and focused on placing pressure in the right place -- the press and the politicians -- we managed to make this groundswell work in our favor.” The proposed store “met opposition from the Crofton community at every turn,” reported Joshua Stewart Capital Online. “Residents feared that the 121,473-square-foot store off Route 3 would hurt the nearby Little Patuxent River, exacerbate traffic problems on an already congested road, increase crime and hurt locally owned small businesses.” In other Wal-Mart news last week, Human Rights Watch released its first study of how an American company treats its workers, asserting that Wal-Mart’s aggressive efforts to keep out labor unions often violated federal law and infringed on its workers’ rights. Click here  for more on the Crofton pullout, or click here for Steven Greenhouse’s New York Times report on the HRW study.