Contact: Chris Kofinis 202-486-6422 or ckofinis@tmo.blackberry.net

The following statement is attributable to Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com:

“We welcome Wal-Mart’s attempts to try and defend itself with its employees, political leaders and the American people. The debate over Wal-Mart is of critical importance to the future of our country. Sadly, not one single employee or any citizen will ever hear the truth from Wal-Mart about the negative impact it has on its workers or working families because Wal-Mart does everything it can to hide its real record.

The truth is that Wal-Mart, a company with over $11.2 billion in profits and owned by the wealthiest family in America, should be embarrassed to attack those want this company to change for the better. The real truth is that Wal-Mart fails to provide company health care to over half of its workers, ships good American jobs overseas, costs taxpayers as much as $2.5 billion every year, and fails to reflect the best of American values every single day.

Now, every American is going to have to answer one simple question about the debate over Wal-Mart, ‘Do we want to live in an America where the largest employer pays poverty level wages, fails to provide affordable health care to its employees, ships American jobs overseas, and give workers in China more rights than it gives its own workers in America, or do we want to live in an America where our nation’s largest employer helps to build and to protect the middle class and all working families. The answer is simple. The American people and their elected leaders want Wal-Mart to stand up, do what is right, and change for the better.

Democrats, from Sen. Hillary Clinton to Sen. Evan Bayh, are uniting all across this country to ask Wal-Mart to change, not just because of our campaign, but because the American people desperately want large profitable corporations, like Wal-Mart, to reflect the best of our nation’s values. Our campaign is not about attacking Wal-Mart, this is about growing a movement to change Wal-Mart and America for the better.

What Wal-Mart does not understand is that no elected leader or American, whether they are Republican, Democrat, or Independent, will allow Wal-Mart to take America down the wrong path.

Over the next few months in 2006 and leading into the campaigns of 2008, we plan to launch a comprehensive, nationwide, voter education program of our own because the American people are sick and tired of big, powerful corporations like Wal-Mart taking our country down the wrong path. The truth is that when voters, as well as Wal-Mart’s employees, learn that Wal-Mart is using more than 70% of its employees political money to support right-wing causes and politicians who vote against raising the minimum wage, who vote for shipping U.S. jobs overseas, and who defend special interests like Exxon and Halliburton, it will be clear to all that Wal-Mart has the wrong agenda for America and that, for the good of our nation, it will wake up and realize it must change for the better.”