For Immediate Release
April 1, 2008

CONTACT: Meghan Scott
202-721-8014
202-538-0362


STATEMENT FROM WAKEUPWALMART.COM
IT'S NOT AN APRIL FOOLS JOKE: WAL-MART FINALLY DOES THE RIGHT THING IN DEBBIE SHANK CASE

Washington, DC - WakeUpWalMart.com, and its 415,000 members across the country, congratulate the world's largest retailer on finally seeing the light and vowing to do the right thing in the tragic case of Debbie Shank, a disabled former employee.

Since last Friday, more than 450 current and former Wal-Mart associates who are WakeUpWalMart.com members have signed a letter calling on CEO Lee Scott to stop pursuing Debbie Shank's trust fund in their name. [To view the letter and worker comments, please visit: www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/debbie_shank.]

"After months of dragging the Shanks through the courts, and a week of national public outcry, Wal-Mart has finally seen past its own greed and decided that, after the $12 billion it has made in the past year, it will not collect the $470,000 for which it sued Debbie Shank," said Meghan Scott, spokesperson for WakeUpWalMart.com. "Now that Wal-Mart has started down this path of doing the right thing, we have a few more to add to the list. We call on you to do right by Olga Sanchez, the military mom in Big Spring, Texas who left her job at Wal-Mart after 24 years, when her manager refused her vacation request to take a bus from Texas to Georgia to see her youngest son deployed to Iraq. We call on you to do right by Sean Thornton, the airman in Orlando, Florida, who lost his Wal-Mart job after returning from active duty. There are plenty more where these come from, but for now, we'll consider today's decision a step in the right direction and hope it is a sign of better things to come for all Wal-Mart associates."

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