so here's the deal:

until he resigned last month, thomas coughlin was  wal-mart's vice-chairman and a long time board member. apparently wal-mart executives are as underpaid as anyone else in the organization because an internal audit revealed coughlin ripped off $500 grand using some kinda expense account scam. 

as if poor ol tom didnt have enuff problems, last week there was an article in the wall street journal suggesting coughlin had ordered several subordinates to assist him part of his scheme.  so far three of them were canned as well (one of whom was a company executive.) 

tom musta been drinking or something the day he bragged about what he was doing with all that money.  why else would he tell them he was paying off officials of the united food & comercial workers union--which has been trying to unionize wal-mart employees--in return for names of pro-union employees.

the ufcwu demanded wal-mart provide them with documents; when they didn't get em, the union went to the national labor relations board and filed an unfair labor practices complaint.

here's where it gets almost too good!

despite the fact wal-mart--the largest retailer in the world--has been fighting unionization for years and has yet to lose a union election, the corporation's response was:

"The evidence (which they've refused to provide to coughlin's defense team) shows corporate funds were misappropriated and used for the benefit of specific individuals."

followed by some nonsense about company policy doesn't provide funds to be paid to anyone to gather information about its employees.

it truly warms my heart to know at least one huge wageslaver refuses to let an executive--who rips them off for half a million bucks--spend even a cent of all that money to entice union officials to rat out their brothers and sisters.