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

Dear Mr. Scott,

We are writing you this letter because we love our company and we believe Wal-Mart can and must treat its Associates better.

Sam Walton, our company’s founder and visionary, understood that Wal-Mart’s success would rise and fall based on how well, or poorly, Wal-Mart treated its employees and their families. While some folks would call this “smart business,” we call it “family values.”

Respecting your workers, treating them with fairness and dignity, paying a decent wage, providing truly affordable health care, and creating a workplace that values families first is what Wal-Mart should be all about. Unfortunately, though, under your leadership and with the assistance of Eduardo Castro-Wright, we believe today’s Wal-Mart no longer reflects Sam’s values and has abandoned the family values that made our company such a success.

Here are the facts, Mr. Scott.

Recently, Wal-Mart has cut the percentage of full-time workers, cut management and Associate positions across the board, cut hours, imposed salary caps, shifted to open availability scheduling, eliminated low–deductible health care plans, and imposed a draconian attendance policy.

Wal-Mart’s recent policy changes are the most anti-Associate, anti-family changes in the company’s history and do not reflect a company that values its Associates. While we understand Wal-Mart’s desire to increase its profitability, it should not be done on the backs of the Associates who help Wal-Mart earn those profits.

As you witnessed, hopefully, with the dramatic rebellion by over 200 Wal-Mart Associates at a Wal-Mart store in Hialeah Gardens, Florida, Wal-Mart Associates and their families all across this country have had enough and are not going to take it anymore.

The many terrible changes Wal-Mart has made, and the many more that Associates are being told “are on the way,” are not only bad for Associates and their families, but will be disastrous for the long-term health and success of Wal-Mart. You and your top executives at the Home Office must understand that Wal-Mart Associates have a right to be paid a decent wage, offered family friendly scheduling and full-time work, provided with a fair attendance policy and affordable health care, and ensured that we are treated with dignity, respect and fairness in the workplace.

Put another way, it’s time for Wal-Mart to stop its anti-family policies and start giving thanks to its Associates and their families whose hard-work and sacrifice make Wal-Mart a success. In that spirit, we call on Wal-Mart to implement the following changes and reverse a series of anti-family policies:

• End Wal-Mart’s “Open Availability” Policy [also known as peak-time or demand scheduling] that has caused chaos in the lives of our 1.39 million Associates and their families
• Institute “Family Friendly Scheduling” that provides stable work schedules and permits Associates to have normal lives and spend time with their children
• Reverse Wal-Mart’s “New Attendance Policy” that punishes Associates who need to take a day off to care for a sick child or family member
• End Wal-Mart’s “New Salary Caps” and allow hard-working Associates to be rewarded for their loyalty, not punished

We are calling on you to make these changes immediately because we believe these are the immediate changes that are necessary to restore employee morale, honor Sam Walton’s vision, increase Wal-Mart’s profitability, and improve the lives of our 1.39 million Associates and their families.

By working together and making these changes, we believe Wal-Mart will be taking an important first step to begin a positive dialogue where we can continue to work together to address the serious challenges of better wages, more affordable health care, and creating a just and fair workplace that will forever ensure not only the success of Wal-Mart, but a good and decent life for all Wal-Mart Associates and their families.

Sincerely,

Wal-Mart Workers of America