Talk:Uline

Notability tag

At least as currently sourced, the material in this article about the company is all sourced to the company. The outside sources are about the owner of the company, who perhaps should have an article, but we need better sourcing on the company itself to justify its presence. --Nat Gertler (talk) 16:07, 30 November 2017 (UTC)

Advertisement

User:Yobbin added an Advertisement template to the Political activity section. I don't understand how the Advertisement template applies to this section. It's all sourced to WP:RS like Politico, and it all contains content that has been reported in multiple WP:RS, complying with WP:WEIGHT. It also seems to be WP:NPOV. The Washington Post just had another article https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/meet-the-little-known-big-fish-megadonor-setting-the-tone-for-gop-primary-races/2018/04/29/2e784d76-3215-11e8-94fa-32d48460b955_story.html which is why I came to this page. Why does this Advertisement template belong? --Nbauman (talk) 05:01, 30 April 2018 (UTC)

Donations

I radically slimmed down the newly created section on political donations and kept information that pertained to the company. Since most of it was about Dick and Liz, that information can go on Dick's article. This should stay focused on the company. Even as modified I think it gets UNDUE coverage relative to other information. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 23:57, 10 April 2020 (UTC)

Agree with your edits. Information about Richard Uihlein should go on his page, not on this page. Marquardtika (talk) 02:18, 11 April 2020 (UTC)

@Barkeep49 and Marquardtika: Thjis is a little off-track from the political donations, but relevant. It strikes me, and this is more of a general thought, that the company has brought politics to the company's operations and there is some room for mention of something about that. For example, I see good coverage for their inclusion of political views in their catalogue and website:

• "Liz Uihlein has long written a newsletter on the company website, covering such topics as the couple's love of Fox News, dislike of government regulation and their complicated views on trade policy." Chicago Tribune (link)
• "Elizabeth Uihlein also opines on politics in a regular letter printed in the company catalog. She has lamented that “government regulations are costing us all,” complained about government spending (“Every time I turn around I hear someone mention they are applying for a grant to pay for this or that”) and called for a renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, saying that current trade agreements “have not worked out so well.” Politico (link)
• A whole article on it in the Chicago tribune titled "Catalog mixes packaging, politics" (link): "Come for the great cardboard boxes — stick around for the commentary on Chicago’s murder problem! That’s the promise of the latest Uline catalog, the face of the packaging empire owned by Republican megadonors Dick and Liz Uihlein. The Uihleins, of Lake Forest and Wisconsin, have never been shy about sharing their conservative politics with their customers and employees: Liz Uihlein has long written a newsletter on the company website, covering such topics as the couple’s love of Fox News, dislike of government regulation and their complicated views on trade policy."
• "Her own views emerge in dispatches she sends out in the company catalog: about her devotion to Fox News, her love for Hall & Oates — they once performed at Uline — and her disdain for marijuana. “Have the politicians gone mad?” she once wrote about the legalization of the drug. “It’s bad news.”" The New York Times (link)

Clearly, per the above, the owners use the company as a political organ from time to time. Since they do not separate their politics fro the company, nor should we do so in the article. I'm just thinking a basic mention of the political use of the company is relevant. Right now we just have "Liz's letters in the catalog sometimes have a political message."ThatMontrealIP (talk) 20:17, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree it's relevant if it is the company, rather than the owners in their personal capacity, engaging in political behavior. The issue with the content that was removed was that it was specifically about personal monetary donations made by the owners and not by the company. It made it seem like the company itself was giving the donations when that's not the case. It was basically making this company article into a WP:COATRACK for the owners' political giving, when they have their own page where that content is appropriate. If you want to take a stab at coming up with some content additions based on what you posted above, I'm happy to take a look. Marquardtika (talk) 20:45, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

I agree with Marquardtika and think the political content of the letters is already covered. But to the extent that Dick and Liz are uber-Republicans (and they are) it belongs on Dick's page (and Liz's page if she ever gets one as I suspect she also is notable). Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 21:27, 23 April 2020 (UTC)

Privately held

@ZimZalaBim: I am restoring the privately held language. The LEAD should only be a summary of what is in the body of the article and thus all of it should be a repeat. The information in the body is also what is cited which is important. So to have it in the LEAD (which I think it should be) it also needs to be in the body and that is the logical place for it. Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 01:15, 13 November 2020 (UTC)

COVID

The COVID section had grown to be a substantial percentage of the article. This no doubt reflects the company's overall press shyness but it had still grown to be WP:UNDUE. I have attempted in a recent edit to summarize the whole response to a single paragraph (while also incorporating a new source that was published yesterday). Best, Barkeep49 (talk) 17:59, 1 March 2021 (UTC)

I scrutinized the before/after and you did a good job summarizing the important parts of it (which is not an easy task). tedder (talk) 17:29, 2 March 2021 (UTC)

Multiple sources have agreed that it is an absolutely unnecessary addition to this article. Wikipedia is not a newspaper classifies recent or developing stories or worldwide topics as invalid/not allowed to be mentioned unless extremely relevant. Uline is a shipping company that is entitled to its own beliefs and political standpoints, as any other company is as well. In order to fully comply with Wikipedia's neutrality initiative, it would be in the best interest of this article to omit all politically based text from this page. It is a shipping company. Relevant, or debated topics, like the Corona virus, are developing, non-neutral areas of thought. It is not effective to include such irrelevant information regarding a shipping product service. Googoobabycake (talk) 15:49, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Content dispute

@Marquardtika: that looks eminently due and impeccably sources, you haven't actually made a policy or guideline based argument yet so I'm interested in hearing it. Horse Eye's Back (talk) 16:38, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

"An August 2020 visit by Liz Uihlein to Canada, in which she was allowed to skip a required 14-day travel quarantine" is really about Liz Uihlein, and would make more sense at her article. Per CBC, "she was granted a special entry exemption into Canada." It's framed as a controversy ("Other COVID-19-related controversies involving the company included") and yet is seems pretty milquetoast. She applied for an exemption and was granted one by Canada Border Services Agency. As for the OSHA content, "A July 2020 complaint with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which was closed by OSHA when it determined the company's response was satisfactory..." this seems WP:UNDUE as OSHA complaints are filed all the time. Nothing came of this one (such as fines or sanctions), so I don't see the value in including it. There is still plenty of covid related content in the article, but including every covid related story is overwrought. Marquardtika (talk) 18:39, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

The source says it was a business trip. Just FYI thats not how WP:DUEWEIGHT works, due weight is about coverage not whether or not something is important so "OSHA complaints are filed all the time" is no relevant to DUE. We aren't using the OSHA complaint as a source we're using WP:RS, how can that possibly be undue? *Not* covering it would be undue, but thats exactly what you're arguing we do... Horse Eye's Back (talk) 18:54, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Another leftie wiki commentary

Who cares that they are “right leaning”? Why is everything on wiki steeped in politics? Grow up and stop the bias. Stop making everything left/right. This is supposed to be factual information not some asshole lefty’s commentary. 68.132.125.135 (talk) 01:37, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

Much of the mainstream media coverage of Uline is in relation to their founders and the political funding. As such, we follow that path, including reflecting the descriptors used. This follows our WP:DUE guideline. I am uncertain why you think the political connections do not count as "facts", nor why they would not be of interest to a substantial portion of the people reading this page. -- Nat Gertler (talk) 01:56, 4 December 2023 (UTC)

The article doesn't say they're right leaning. It says they donate to right-wing, conservative, and Republican causes. I would be surprised if they would object to any of those characterizations based on what I've read of them. So I find it bizarre that the IP would say that the wording is some kind of insult rather than something people can proudly be. Barkeep49 (talk) 02:48, 4 December 2023 (UTC)