“SEND WAL-MART BACK TO SCHOOL” - NEW NATIONAL GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGN LAUNCHED

WAKEUPWALMART.COM HOLDS EVENTS IN OVER 100 CITIES NATIONWIDE, ANNOUNCES NEW AD AND NEW LEADERSHIP

AFT CALLS ON WAL-MART TO STOP ABUSING WORKERS, CHILDREN, AND TAXPAYERS

Washington, D.C. - Today, WakeUpWalMart.com, America’s Campaign to Change Wal-Mart, announced a new nationwide grassroots and media initiative to inform citizens and consumers that Wal-Mart’s irresponsible corporate behavior has led to failing grades for its treatment of workers, children and taxpayers.

The new campaign, called “Send Wal-Mart Back to School,” emphasizes Wal-Mart’s immoral business practices of child labor, gender discrimination, poverty-level wages and shifting health care costs onto taxpayers.

As part of the new campaign, WakeUpWalMart.com launched a powerful new ad, titled “Schools, Not Wal-Mart.” The 30-second spot will air in 26 markets across the country, starting on Thursday, August 16. The ad opens with a chalkboard and colorful, hand-drawn images of a school, a taxpayer, and a Wal-Mart store. The taxpayer’s dollars steadily inflate the Wal-Mart store while the school shrinks smaller and smaller, dramatically illustrating that, “Every tax dollar that comes out of your pocket to subsidize a company with billions in profits… Is a dollar that isn’t being spent to build better schools, hire more teachers and help children learn.”

In addition, as part of the grassroots effort to “Send Wal-Mart Back to School,” WakeUpWalMart.com is holding over 100 protests at Wal-Mart stores in 24 states. At the protests, local community leaders, activists, teachers, and students, with blue t-shirts and black chalkboard-style banners, are inviting more than 100,000 citizens and consumers to sign the “Send Wal-Mart Back to School” pledge. This pledge is a promise that he/she will NOT buy school supplies at Wal-Mart this year unless Wal-Mart promises to change for the better by paying a living wage, ending discrimination against women, adopting a zero tolerance policy on child labor, and providing affordable health care so that taxpayers no longer have to foot part of Wal-Mart’s health care bill - a bill with an estimated price tag of $1.37 billion to taxpayers in 2005.

The American Federation of Teachers, a leading national teachers’ organization representing 1.4 million members, also signed a letter calling on Wal-Mart’s CEO Lee Scott to address the company’s irresponsible business practices. The letter states, “As the nation’s largest private employer, with profits of $12 billion in just the past year, Wal-Mart can afford to do better by its employees, its customers, taxpayers and the children of America.”

Today, WakeUpWalMart.com also announced new additions to its team, including Deputy Campaign Director Meghan Scott, and Senior Advisers Nick Baldick, Richie Ross and Jeremy Van Ess. This fall, Scott, Baldick, Ross and Van Ess, plus current staff and more than 380,000 WakeUpWalMart.com grassroots supporters nationwide, will work to build on the tremendous success WakeUpWalMart.com has experienced over the last 28 months and move forward more aggressively than ever before to change Wal-Mart into a responsible and moral corporation.

Information on the new additions to the WakeUpWalMart.com team, as well as a script of the new ad and a list of cities for the ad campaign, and the letter from AFT President Edward J. McElroy are attached.

The new ad can be viewed at WakeUpWalMart.com and Youtube.com.

“Schools, Not Wal-Mart,” Script:

"This is your school.

This is you.

And this is Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart costs taxpayers - that’s you - billions - because Wal-Mart fails to provide affordable health care to its workers.

But every tax dollar that comes out of your pocket to subsidize a company with billions in profits…

Is a dollar that isn’t being spent to build better schools, hire more teachers, and help children learn.

Getting ready to send your children back to school?

Shouldn’t your tax dollars go to schools…Not Wal-Mart?”

Cities Where “Schools, Not Wal-Mart” is Airing:

ALBUQUERQUE-SANTA FE
BOSTON/MANCHESTER
BUFFALO
CHARLESTON-HUNTINGTON
CLEVELAND-AKRON
COLUMBUS, OH
DALLAS-FT. WORTH
DAVENPORT-R.ISLAND-MOLINE
DENVER
DES MOINES-AMES
GRAND RAPIDS-KALMZOO-B.CRK
GREEN BAY-APPLETON
HARTFORD & NEW HAVEN
LAS VEGAS
LITTLE ROCK-PINE BLUFF
MADISON
MERIDIAN
MILWAUKEE
MOBILE-PENSACOLA
OMAHA
PITTSBURGH
SEATTLE-TACOMA
SIOUX CITY
SPRINGFIELD-HOLYOKE
ST. LOUIS
TOLEDO

Text of AFT Letter:

Mr. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, AR

Dear Mr. Scott:

The start of the new school year is an appropriate time to reflect on what people of good will can do to ensure that no child is deprived of the rights and benefits of excellent, universal, free public education; accessible high-quality healthcare; income security; and time with family.

I write out of concern of evidence of Wal-Mart’s practices of illegal child labor, violating wage and hour laws, paying poverty-level wages, discriminating against women, and shifting the burden of employee health care to taxpayers. These business practices damage the general welfare of children and families and set a shameful example of employer irresponsibility and neglect.

The evidence of Wal-Mart’s bad corporate citizenship is as discouraging as it is pervasive.

• More than half of Wal-Mart’s workforce receives no employer-sponsored healthcare. In 2005 alone, taxpayers paid an estimated $1.3 billion to cover Wal-Mart workers’ healthcare. The cumulative amount paid by taxpayers between 2006 and 2010 will likely be more than $9 billion.
• The average full-time Wal-Mart employee is paid just $18,582-an annual income that is $2,000 below the poverty line for a family of four.
• Wal-Mart has been fined repeatedly for violating child labor laws here in the United States. The extent to which Wal-Mart’s drive for lower production costs in developing countries may have resulted in even worse child labor violations overseas has yet to be determined.
• Wal-Mart is the subject of the largest gender-discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history, affecting more than 2 million female employees.

As this nation’s largest private employer, with profits of $12 billion in just the last year, Wal-Mart can afford to do better by its employees, its customers, taxpayers and the children of America.

Wal-Mart has the resources and opportunity to demonstrate that American companies do not need to lead the race to the bottom in order to remain competitive and profitable. Instead, Wal-Mart could set a positive example by:

• Providing healthcare coverage that is good, affordable and accessible to all Wal-Mart employees;
• Adopting a zero-tolerance policy toward abusive child labor, independently monitored and enforceable, at home and abroad;
• Settling outstanding gender-discrimination complaints and establishing independently monitored and enforceable policies for advancing workforce diversity; and
• Providing employees with a living wage, healthcare coverage, family and sick leave, advancement on the basis of merit, reasonable job security, and fair treatment.

I look forward to the day when I can report to the 1.4 million members of the American Federation of Teachers that Wal-Mart has decided to change direction and assume the responsibilities of good corporate citizenship.

Please let me know your response, and tell me when I can expect to see changes in Wal-Mart’s policies and practices as outlined above.

Yours truly,

Edward J. McElroy

President, American Federation of Teachers

New additions to the WakeUpWalMart.com Team:

Meghan Scott. Meghan Scott comes to WakeUpWalMart.com from the American Association for Justice, where she served as deputy communications director for campaigns. Prior to that, she was communications director on the successful campaign to raise Florida’s minimum wage and worked for various Democratic candidates at the local, state and national level, including John Edwards for President in 2004.

Nick Baldick. Nick Baldick is a nationally recognized campaign strategist, having been involved in every Democratic presidential campaign since 1992. In 2004, Nick was the campaign manager for then-Senator John Edwards 2004 primary campaign. Baldick is currently managing partner of Hilltop Public Solutions, a Washington-based public affairs firm.

Richie Ross. Expanding the campaign’s efforts to the west, Richie Ross and his firm will serve as senior advisors to the WakeUpWalMart.com team. Ross is a California-based strategist who has handled hundreds of successful political and union campaigns over the last 35 years.

Jeremy Van Ess. A partner with Nick at Hilltop Public Solutions, Jeremy most recently served as chief speechwriter and deputy communications director for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Prior to that, he served as a member of the message and press teams for a number of Democratic campaigns.