Sent to us from the Brennan Center for Economic Justice:

Yesterday a bipartisan majority of the county legislature in Long Island’s Suffolk County voted 17-to-1 to pass the “Fair Share for Health Care Act” - a new local law to ensure that large employers in the grocery industry help pay their employees’ health care costs. This new law puts Suffolk at the forefront of a new national movement. Lawmakers in New York City and Maryland have passed similar legislation by veto-proof majorities in recent months. Other states and cities including New Jersey and San Francisco are exploring related legislation.

“Passing the bill is a huge victory for taxpayers, workers and businesses that already take the high road,” said Brian Schneck, chair of the Suffolk County Working Families Party. By one estimate, the county spends up to $25 million each year on Medicaid services for employees and families of food retailers that do not provide health care.

The new law would require large grocery stores, including “big box” retailers and drug stores that sell groceries, to contribute $3.00 to health care costs for each hour that their employees work. Major grocery employers in the county currently contribute at approximately that rate.

The Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law designed the new law and has been advising policymakers on similar legislation in New York City and other communities. “The Fair Share for Health Care Act is a practical response to the costs that low-wage, no-benefits jobs impose on our communities,” said Paul Sonn, Deputy Director of the Poverty Program at the Brennan Center. “I think we’ll see more cities and states following Suffolk’s lead.”

The new law was supported by major employers in the grocery industry, and enacted through a campaign led by the Long Island Federation of Labor, the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Working Families Party and Long Island Jobs with Justice.

You can read more on this exciting news in the New York Times.

From KSDK NewsChannel 5 in St. Louis, MO:

The inaugural Change To Win union convention is being held in St. Louis this week, and Wal-Mart will be main topic of conversation.

Change To Win now represents seven different unions, consisting of 5 million American workers. Change To Win leaders say the AFL-CIO approach to labor problems no longer works.

Tuesday, the international vice-president of the United Food And Commercial Service Workers will address the new labor group, to discuss Wal-Mart and its effect on the food industry.

But 24 hours before those remarks, a campaign sponsored by UCFW is already on the streets. "There are two Americas being created. There is Wal-Mart's America where they drive down these wages, they don't provide health insurance to their workers. And then there is our America which we are fighting for by joining this campaign, where workers can afford to live," said Wal-Mart critic Paul Blank.

Blank says they hope to force Wal-Mart to offer a living wage, affordable health insurance, end discrimination and provide a zero tolerance policy for child labor. "Now that's ridiculous when you have a corporation with over $10 billion in profits that they refuse to give a health care plan that can compete with our public safety net."

Here is a very powerful article from the St. Petersburg Times:

By ANNE LINDBERG, St. Petersburg Times Staff Writer
Published September 26, 2005

PINELLAS PARK - Rveva Barrett said goodbye to the last stragglers at Wal-Mart's annual teacher appreciation breakfast, which she had organized. Then she was summoned to the boss' office.

Manuel Guzman, manager of Pinellas Park's Wal-Mart Supercenter, asked Barrett to sit down. "I'm sorry," he told her, "but your job's being eliminated."

That was in July. It was the second blow for Barrett, the store's coordinator of community involvement, or "good works," and a 15-year Wal-Mart veteran. In April, Guzman had cut her community involvement hours to 20 per week. The other 20 were to be spent in the fabrics and crafts department.

But this was much worse.

Not only was Barrett's job eliminated, her pay was cut $1.30 an hour, from $19.46 to $18.16. Her hours were shortened. Guzman told her she had to be available to work any time from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. "or leave," Barrett said.

"I was mad," Barrett said. "I was shocked. I couldn't believe it."

For three years, Barrett had been the public face of the company and its main local cheerleader, badgering reporters for positive stories about Wal-Mart's good deeds and schmoozing state and local leaders.

Barrett was, as she put it, a "believer."

No more.

At a time when Wal-Mart is fighting to save its image against lawsuits and workers unions, Barrett has become one of the most outspoken critics of the local store and the chain. She charges that the company does not respect its employees, the environment, the community or the neighborhood. She joined Florida's Wal-Mart Workers Association and filed a complaint with the St. Petersburg Community Affairs Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging she is a victim of sex and age discrimination.

"I can't tell you how upset I am with Wal-Mart," Barrett said recently. "For the first time in 15 years, I'm ashamed I work for Wal-Mart."

Barrett, 61, got her start with Wal-Mart in 1990 working as a sales associate in the men's department. For the next nine or so years, she worked in various departments, including managing the infants and girls department for four years.

In the late 1990s, she became the store's risk manager, and then-manager Pat Riley began shifting his community involvement duties to her. About three years ago, Riley made her the full-time community involvement coordinator.

The beauty of that position, Barrett said, was being able to devote 40 hours each week to promoting Wal-Mart.

And promote it she did. She frequently appeared at Pinellas Park City Council meetings to hand out checks for deserving causes. She was a highly visible member of the Pinellas Park/Mid-County Chamber of Commerce. She participated in the city's business visitation team that offers advice to select businesses.

She was named one of the city's Ambassadors of the Year in 2004 for her high-profile community involvement.

Barrett spread the good word about Wal-Mart to people she met on the street, to the Pinellas Park City Council and to state representatives Leslie Waters and Charlie Justice. And when she set up an event at the store, such as the annual teacher appreciation day, they all showed up.

"Rveva has been a great asset, not just for Wal-Mart but even for the Chamber of Commerce in promoting Pinellas Park," said Mayor Bill Mischler. "She's good. I think she represented her company very well....They're very fortunate to have an employee like Rveva."

Wherever Barrett went, so did the Wal-Mart name.

That changed soon after the community involvement job was eliminated. Barrett, who was upset over the cut in pay and hours, was more irked when she saw some of the community involvement duties go to a younger man, a manager whose main responsibility is to help run the store, she said.

Barrett began talking to other employees, many of them older than 40, who said they also suffered cuts in pay or hours or were forced to work different shifts.

"I don't know why they're doing this to these people except they make too much money and they're older....Some of these people are afraid," Barrett said. "I, and others, believe we are being discriminated against because of our age."

Wal-Mart declined to comment for this story and declined requests to interview Guzman. Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher said the company will not comment on issues that could end up in litigation. The company, she said last week, had not received a copy of Barrett's EEOC claim.

"Out of respect for the privacy of our associates, Wal-Mart doesn't speak publicly about any claims they may bring," Gallagher said.

Barrett's are not the first such allegations against Wal-Mart.

Among other labor-related legal claims are a class-action suit alleging race discrimination; the biggest sexual discrimination suit in U.S. history, charging the company with systematic bias; and an out-of-court settlement involving a child labor case and teens in three states.

Locally, the Workers Association has alleged that thousands of the company's Florida employees have been forced to work reduced hours, lose benefits or quit their jobs as a result of the scheduling stance.

Barrett's complaints came as no surprise, said Rick Smith, an organizer for the group. Smith disagrees that the chain is deliberately targeting older workers. But, he says, Wal-Mart's actions are affecting more older workers than younger ones.

Earlier this year, Wal-Mart lodged a campaign to fight the negative publicity and efforts to organize union workers.

"We ceded too much ground, letting them tell a story about us that is not factual," Lee Scott, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., said in a June St. Petersburg Times article. "Going forward (fighting back) is going to be my life."

Barrett said the company's elimination of her community involvement position makes no sense in view of the need for good publicity.

"Wal-Mart cannot pay for the free publicity that having people volunteer in the community gives them," Barrett said. "Wal-Mart cannot pay for the goodwill ... but Wal-Mart has turned a deaf ear to that."

In the end, Wal-Mart has created a vocal critic who is experienced in getting her point across.

"If a Wal-Mart is coming to your community, you need to be informed. If you work for Wal-Mart, you ... better be informed," Barrett said. "We need a living wage...

"We need Wal-Mart to be a good, responsible employer, and they're not."

From WWMT Channel 3 in Michigan:

Wal-Mart in Portage has been ordered to make changes to its retention pond following a citation from the Department of Environmental Quality.

The store is allowed to drain treated water into a creek, but residents complained last month that the runoff was contaminated with oil and trash.

From The Financial Times:

Wal-Mart's long-running push to establish its own US bank is facing a new challenge after a senior US congressman launched a bid to exclude retailers definitively from the sector.

Jim Leach, a Republican and the former head of the House financial services committee, said on Thursday he wanted Congess to close a loophole that allows retailers to operate industrial banks in certain states, although they are banned by federal law from setting up bank holding companies.

Mr Leach said he was introducing the proposed legislation because he "did not believe in mixing commerce and banking," and that it was not aimed at any one company.

From Business Week, we learn more about Wal-Mart's "secret spin strategy," aimed at making Wal-Mart's negative impact on it's employees, our communities, and America appear to be positive:

In August, seven media-savvy professionals from Edelman, a Chicago public relations firm, flew to Bentonville, Ark., for an unusual assignment. Although they remain on Edelman's payroll, the PR experts, some of them seasoned veterans of political campaigns, now run a new office deep in the headquarters of Wal-Mart Stores (WMT ).

Dubbed "Action Alley," the office -- as well as a similar one in Washington, D.C. -- acts as the nerve center of the world's largest retailer's campaign to soften its public face. Backed by Wal-Mart's own publicity staff, the team responds within hours to any new blast of criticism.

SWEET CHARITY. The troops also try to spin positive stories about the corporate giant. As they sat facing one another around three tables arranged in a U shape one day in mid-September, Hurricane Katrina was still high on the agenda. Action Alley had scored a bull's-eye after just weeks on the job when it garnered widespread national publicity about Wal-Mart's efficient relief efforts following New Orleans' devastation.

Now the team was deep in follow-up, making press calls guided by talking points scrawled on the felt-marker boards lining the perimeter of the room: "EOC," for emergency operations center, which earned so much praise for coordinating the company's disaster response. Plus, "associate stories," referring to the experiences of individual employees during the storm, and "donation-partnership," meaning stories about Wal-Mart's charity.

If you, like us, believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change," please add your name today:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/benton/

In July, Jim Bernard, Mayor of Milwaukie, sent us a letter that he had sent to the Mayor of a neighboring city, expressing his hopes that a plan to build a Wal-Mart in Milwaukie would not succeed.

Here is an update on that proposed Wal-Mart, from the AP:

City officials in Milwaukie are hoping three schools will join to buy nearly eight acres to create a college campus and scuttle plan for a Wal-Mart on the site.

The plan would have Portland State University, Clackamas Community College and Oregon Institute of Technology buy the land from owner Howard Dietrich Junior.

The Wal-Mart proposal has sparked protest from southeast Portland residents who say it would hurt local businesses.

Via Jonathan Rees:

Look on the Wal-Mart web site now and you can see a press release congratulating themselves for winning an award from the National Arbor Day Foundation:

Wal-Mart took home the coveted Award of Excellence for the National Arbor Day Building With Trees Program last night at the Arbor Day Foundation's Building for Greener Communities National Conference in Nebraska City, Nebraska....

The St. Petersburg Times tells you the whole story:

[R]ecords show many of the transplanted trees died in what critics say is an example of the problems with the nation's approach to protecting wetlands...

Transplanting the trees into man-made wetlands was crucial to Wal-Mart getting state and federal approval to build the store five years ago. The store had to offset the loss of natural wetlands by creating new ones that mimic the original.

But man-made wetlands, known as mitigation, often fail.

Sydney Bacchus, a hydrogeologist who examined the site in January with the St. Petersburg Times , scoffed at Wal-Mart's award.

"An award-winner? It depends on what for. If it's for the most absurd suggestion of mitigation, then yes, it would be an award-winner," Bacchus said.

So how did Wal-Mart win the award? First:

National Arbor Day Foundation Vice President Dan Lambe said the contest judges took Wal-Mart's word for its success rate.

The second reason Wal-Mart won the award, as the Times explains:

Wal-Mart was the only entry.

Thanks to Jonathan for his analysis of another attempt by Wal-Mart to improve their public image through a dishonest PR spin strategy.

From The Associated Press:

Lawyers representing about 116,000 former and current Wal-Mart Stores Inc. employees in California told a jury Monday that the world's largest retailer systematically and illegally denied workers lunch breaks.

The suit in Alameda County Superior Court is among about 40 cases nationwide alleging workplace violations against Wal-Mart, and the first to go to trial. Wal-Mart, which earned $10 billion last year, settled a lawsuit in Colorado for $50 million that contains similar allegations to California's class action. The company also is accused of paying men more than women in a federal lawsuit pending in San Francisco federal court.

The workers in the class-action suit are owed more than $66 million plus interest, attorney Fred Furth told the 12 jurors and four alternates.

Today, in Cleveland, Ohio, Congressman Sherrod Brown will hold the first-ever Congressional field hearing on the negative impact of Wal-Mart’s business practices. WakeUpWalMart.com is proud to be a part of this important national hearing and will work to hold additional hearings to highlight the cost Americans pay for Wal-Mart’s so-called ‘low prices.’

Cong. Brown’s “Wal-Mart Hearing” represents a dramatic next step in the growing movement to change Wal-Mart and build a better America. This hearing will help educate consumers about why Wal-Mart needs to change and build greater public awareness and political support to change Wal-Mart into a more responsible corporate actor.

As America will no doubt learn from this hearing, Wal-Mart needlessly chooses to “do the wrong thing” even though they have the means and wherewithal to “do what is right.” The question Wal-Mart must now answer is, when will they stand up and finally address the negative effects their business practices have on their employees, their families, the community, and the nation?

We hope Wal-Mart will finally listen to the growing chorus of community voices and work with us to make Wal-Mart into a company that reflects the best of America’s values everyday.

From The Globe and Mail in Canada:

The Quebec Labour Board has ruled that the closing of a Wal-Mart store this year amounted to a reprisal against unionized workers and has ordered the company to compensate former employees.

The labour board concluded that Wal-Mart Canada, Inc., failed to prove that the closing of its store in Jonquière in April was "real, genuine and definitive" as required under the Quebec Labour Code.

The board will determine the "appropriate remedies" for the former employees later. As many as 79 of the store's 190 former employees filed for compensation under the labour code.

While Wal-Mart is busy planning their super-secret public relations spin campaign, grassroots leaders all across the country are busy telling their communities the real facts about Wal-Mart. In the past two days alone, three different Wal-Mart proposals have been shot down because of leaders like you, taking your concerns about the harmful effects of Wal-Mart to your community. Here is a sampling of news articles that can tell the story:

Monroeville, PA

Grass-roots organizers can take much of the credit for persuading Monroeville council to reject a proposed Wal-Mart store. But even Hurricane Katrina played a role.

Opponents overcame Wal-Mart's impressive array of consultants, professional studies and offers of financial assistance to sway council. Looming over the deliberations were notions of stewardship of the land and governmental responsiveness to the public -- principles that have been brought to the fore by the disaster on the Gulf Coast.

In a vote just before midnight on Tuesday, council rejected Wal-Mart proposals 5-2.

Avondale, AZ

Relentless resident opposition pushed the developers of a proposed Avondale Wal-Mart to pull out.

Kitchell Development Co. withdrew its request to rezone the land, at the northwestern corner of Avondale Boulevard and Van Buren Street.

It's not uncommon for some developers to scrap plans for Wal-Mart stores when facing overwhelming public opposition, said Keith Morris, a spokesman for Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer.

Voorhees, NJ:

Plans for a Wal-Mart at an existing mall in Voorhees, N.J., were withdrawn, the developer said Wednesday.

Instead, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust said it will revamp the Echelon Mall by renaming it Voorhees Town Center and adding 200,000 square feet of "lifestyle" retail space and 450 housing units, including condominiums and apartments.

For tools, strategies, and to discuss your local Wal-Mart efforts with others in your area, visit our "Community First" section today:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/community

From Reuters comes the latest in their series on Wal-Mart. In this edition, we learn that Wal-Mart has a new "secret spin strategy" to counter our campaign. As Chris pointed out in the article, if Wal-Mart did the right thing every day, they wouldn't need a super secret PR strategy to cover up their problems. Here is an excerpt from the article:

And now, Scott has started to drop hints about a secret spin strategy to counter a union-backed, anti-Wal-Mart media blitz that he says is not going to go away.

Scott -- who says his job is to defend Wal-Mart's reputation from those who contend the world's No. 1 retailer pays poverty-level wages and drives competitors out of business -- wouldn't divulge details of the new public relations plan, but he has stressed its importance.

"It is not a matter of Wal-Mart just needing to hire public relations people," Scott said in a recent speech. "This is a significant issue that we face and has to be dealt with ... internally, in the company, without allowing our plans to be public."

From a Dallas Morning News article today comes this from Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott, speaking of Wal-Mart's response to Hurricane Katrina:

"Our associates needed it, and many of them feel good for the first time in a long time." Scott said he's received thousands of supportive employee e-mails. He tells them in his replies, "It has not converted our critics, but it has shut them up for a while."

As we have stated, we applaud Wal-Mart's response to Hurricane Katrina. But we have a message for Mr. Scott: "We will not shut up until Wal-Mart changes not just one day, but every day."

Sign on to our “six demands for change” today and help us extend the first offer to build a true working partnership between WakeUpWalMart.com and Wal-Mart, in order to better the lives of Wal-Mart workers, their families, and millions of Americans - every day:

http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/feature/benton/

From Reuters:

Workers in six countries filed a class-action lawsuit against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Tuesday, claiming the world's largest retailer overlooks sweatshop conditions at toy and clothing factories from China to Nicaragua.

The suit, filed in California state court in Los Angeles, lists as plaintiffs 15 workers in Bangladesh, Swaziland, Indonesia, China and Nicaragua. They claim they were paid below minimum wage, forced to work unpaid overtime and in some cases even endured beatings by supervisors.

The lawsuit also lists four California plaintiffs, including two unionized workers at Kroger Co. unit Ralph's and Safeway Ind. grocery stores, who claim Wal-Mart's entry into Southern California forced their employers to reduce pay and benefits.

Statement by Paul Blank, WakeUpWalMart.com Campaign Director, on today’s “Wal-Mart Sweatshop Suit”

Today, the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart on behalf of sweatshop workers at the retail giant’s suppliers in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Swaziland.

The lawsuit was also filed on behalf of a group of workers from California businesses who compete with Wal-Mart because they lost pay and benefits when their employers forced them to make wage and benefit concessions in order to compete with Wal-Mart’s sweatshop workers abroad.

“We look forward to working with the ILRF to stand up for workers who are being hurt by Wal-Mart’s policies both here and abroad,” stated Blank. “This lawsuit demonstrates that Wal-Mart is not only leading the race to the bottom in the U.S. but is leading the race to the bottom around the world. As the world’s largest company, Wal-Mart should be setting the standard for corporate responsibility; instead, it is needlessly exploiting workers to gain competitive advantage.

I just came across a very interesting study from DataCo, LLC, a provider of multi-faceted research and analytic services. They comparted WalMart.com with six other shopping sites, and actually found that at least two major online retailers [WalMart.com included] with the reputation of having the broadest selection and lowest prices fared the worst of all properties researched.

Here is more from their press release:

The consistency of the results provide a clear indication that to make the best and most informed purchase, a shopper's first stop when researching and buying online should be with comparison shopping engines rather than a specific retailer's site. ... The study pitted Walmart.com, Amazon, and five general-purpose comparison shopping engines -- NexTag, Pricegrabber, PriceRunner, Shopping.com and Shopzilla -- against each other to determine if any consistent patterns emerged that could help consumers navigate the Internet as efficiently as possible. Nearly 50 of the most popular products were researched, and the results showed a significant amount of pricing disparity on identical items between the seven providers. At the highest level, DataCo found that the comparison shopping engines outperformed Amazon and Walmart over 95% of the time on dozens of the most popular products online. In fact, of the products surveyed that are sold by Walmart, the giant retailer failed to provide the lowest price on any of them, and Amazon only provided the lowest price on two items.

Today, the Benton County Daily Record refused to publish a full-page advertisement paid for by WakeUpWalMart.com. The advertisement was a copy of an open letter sent to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, by WakeUpWalMart.com. The letter extended an offer by WakeUpWalMart.com to create a new working partnership and listed “six demands for change.”

Although the advertisement was paid for and accepted for publication on Friday, September 9th, this afternoon, Monday September 12, a representative from the Daily Record contacted WakeUpWalMart.com and informed the group the ad would not run as scheduled on Tuesday, September 13th. The representative of the newspaper stated that the open letter to Lee Scott was “defamatory to Wal-Mart” but refused repeated requests to explain what specific language or phrases in the letter were defamatory.

Officials at the Daily Record also refused to address questions as to whether or not our group was being unfairly targeted. Messages left by the group with the paper’s general manager, Jeff Jeffus, were also not returned.

“Why was our Wal-Mart Ad refused? Our genuine hope with this open letter was to offer Lee Scott an olive branch, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, to build a new working relationship to improve the lives of millions of Americans everyday. Evidently, the Benton County Daily Record believes asking Wal-Mart to do the right thing everyday is ‘defamatory,’ said Paul Blank, Campaign Director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The text of the open letter is available below.

AN OPEN LETTER TO WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT

Mr. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott,

In the wake of the terrible tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart helped ease the suffering of many Americans. This crisis brought out the best in Wal-Mart and we applaud your hurricane relief efforts. We hope Wal-Mart’s response to Hurricane Katrina represents a turning point.

Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?

We believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change.”

1) Living Wage. Pay all Wal-Mart workers a fair living wage so they can support their families.

2) Affordable Health Care. Provide all workers comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage so they can care for their families and no longer be forced to rely on taxpayer-funded public health care.

3) End Discrimination. Ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for women and people of color in your workforce at all levels through a stringent and independent monitoring process.

4) Zero Tolerance on Child Labor. Adopt a zero tolerance policy and institute an independent monitoring program to stop the exploitation of child labor in the United States and abroad.

5) Buy American. Establish a “Buy America” program that annually increases the percentage of “Made in America” goods purchased by Wal-Mart so as to help protect American jobs.

6) Respect Communities. Work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart’s negative impact on issues like traffic, sprawl, the environment, and local businesses.

As you stated recently, "When you do the right thing, good things accrue to you." We agree. Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. We hope you will view our “six demands for change” as a sincere effort to form a new partnership for change.

In the end, we are not your enemy. Our goal is to be your partner in making Wal-Mart a better business. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how we can help Wal-Mart grow and prosper in new ways. But, make no mistake about it, if Wal-Mart refuses to change for the better, we will continue to build this broad-based social movement into one of the most powerful forces for change the nation has ever seen.

Wal-Mart has an incredible opportunity - right now - to work with us to better the lives of all your workers, to set a new standard for corporate America, to be a better business, and to build a better nation. We hope you will and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

WakeUpWalMart.com - America’s Campaign to Change Wal-Mart.

P.S. This November we, along with a broad coalition of community organizations, will be launching Wal-Mart Week, November 13th - 19th, to highlight Wal-Mart's negative impact on America. You can go to www.walmartweek.com and learn more about the actions we will be taking and the movie being released. Our hope is that by then, instead of highlighting Wal-Mart’s failures, we can stand together and celebrate a new day at Wal-Mart - a day when real change improved the lives of millions of Americans.

Today, WakeUpWalMart.com, America’s campaign to change Wal-Mart, released a dramatic open letter to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart. The letter applauds Wal-Mart for its response to Hurricane Katrina and calls on Wal-Mart to meet with WakeUpWalMart.com and establish a new partnership for change.

Given the new standard set by Wal-Mart to do the right thing, the letter highlights “six demands for change” and extends the first offer to build a true working partnership between WakeUpWalMart.com and Wal-Mart in order to better the lives of their workers, their families, and millions of Americans - everyday.

“Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. Our 'six demands for change' are a sincere effort to help Wal-Mart become a better business. The question is: will Wal-Mart now work with us to improve the lives of workers who live in crisis everyday,” said Paul Blank, campaign director, WakeUpWalMart.com.

The open letter will be published tomorrow, Tuesday, September 13th, in the Benton County Daily Record, the hometown newspaper of Wal-Mart’s headquarters.

The open letter presents Wal-Mart with the first “list of demands.” As the letter states, “Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?”

The “six demands for change” include: paying their workers a living wage; providing affordable health care to their workers; and, increasing the percentage of “Made in America” goods sold at Wal-Mart stores.

“We have offered this list of demands to Wal-Mart as an olive branch in the spirit of wanting real change. Our sincere hope is that Wal-Mart will work with us to improve the lives of others and to make this nation a truly better place everyday. We, and America, await their answer,” added Paul Blank, campaign director for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The letter also officially announced the launch of WalMartWeek.com - the new website will highlight many of the activities and events, such as the national release of the movie, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price, scheduled to be released during “Wal-Mart Week,” November 13-19. WakeUpWalMart.com and a broad coalition of partners from all across America will use this week to raise public awareness about the negative effects Wal-Mart has on their workers, the community, and the nation and to officially launch our holiday campaign.

In the letter to Scott, WakeUpWalMart.com states that they hope by “Wal-Mart Week” the two groups and the nation will able to celebrate the many changes Wal-Mart has undertaken to improve the lives of its workers and to better the nation.

Please read the open letter to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, below:

AN OPEN LETTER TO WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT

Mr. Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
Bentonville, Arkansas 72716-8611

Dear Mr. Scott,

In the wake of the terrible tragedies caused by Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart helped ease the suffering of many Americans. This crisis brought out the best in Wal-Mart and we applaud your hurricane relief efforts. We hope Wal-Mart’s response to Hurricane Katrina represents a turning point.

Wal-Mart has a great opportunity to work with us to help improve the lives of so many Americans who face an economic and health care crisis everyday, everywhere in America. The American people want to know, will Wal-Mart do what is right for America or will Wal-Mart lead a race to the bottom?

We believe now is the time for Wal-Mart to address the serious issues facing its 1.3 million workers, their families, our communities and our country by agreeing to the following “six demands for change.”

1) Living Wage. Pay all Wal-Mart workers a fair living wage so they can support their families.

2) Affordable Health Care. Provide all workers comprehensive, affordable health insurance coverage so they can care for their families and no longer be forced to rely on taxpayer-funded public health care.

3) End Discrimination. Ensure equal opportunity and equal pay for women and people of color in your workforce at all levels through a stringent and independent monitoring process.

4) Zero Tolerance on Child Labor. Adopt a zero tolerance policy and institute an independent monitoring program to stop the exploitation of child labor in the United States and abroad.

5) Buy American. Establish a “Buy America” program that annually increases the percentage of “Made in America” goods purchased by Wal-Mart so as to help protect American jobs.

6) Respect Communities. Work with local communities to effectively address Wal-Mart’s negative impact on issues like traffic, sprawl, the environment, and local businesses.

As you stated recently, "When you do the right thing, good things accrue to you." We agree. Just imagine the good Wal-Mart can do if it works with us to become a better company by doing the right thing - everyday. We hope you will view our “six demands for change” as a sincere effort to form a new partnership for change.

In the end, we are not your enemy. Our goal is to be your partner in making Wal-Mart a better business. We welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how we can help Wal-Mart grow and prosper in new ways. But, make no mistake about it, if Wal-Mart refuses to change for the better, we will continue to build this broad-based social movement into one of the most powerful forces for change the nation has ever seen.

Wal-Mart has an incredible opportunity - right now - to work with us to better the lives of all your workers, to set a new standard for corporate America, to be a better business, and to build a better nation. We hope you will and look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

WakeUpWalMart.com - America’s Campaign to Change Wal-Mart.

P.S. This November we, along with a broad coalition of community organizations, will be launching Wal-Mart Week, November 13th - 19th, to highlight Wal-Mart's negative impact on America. You can go to www.walmartweek.com and learn more about the actions we will be taking and the movie being released. Our hope is that by then, instead of highlighting Wal-Mart’s failures, we can stand together and celebrate a new day at Wal-Mart - a day when real change improved the lives of millions of Americans.

The Economic Justice Project at the Brennan Center has just released a new report, titled "What Do We Know About Wal-Mart? An Overview of Facts and Studies for New Yorkers." The study is a comprehensive overview of the available information on Wal-Mart’s wages and health benefits, compliance with workplace laws, cost to the taxpayer, and impact on local economies.

The report is available as a PDF on the Brennan Center website, located here.

Today in Boston, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott spoke at the Prudential Equity Group Back-to-School Consumer Conference in Boston. Over 100 WakeUpWalMart.com supporters went to the event to educate the public and tell Lee Scott that Wal-Mart needs to change.

In an introduction speech, the speaker noted that there were some unexpected guests outside, referring to the WakeUpWalMart.com supporters. Lee Scott also referenced our campaign in his speech, calling it: "the largest, most well financed corporate campaign in the history of business."

Scott's speech can be seen online here:

http://www.wsw.com/webcast/pru21/wmt/

Today we are launching our new WakeUpWalMart.com photo gallery. This gallery will house images from WakeUpWalMart.com press conferences, grassroots actions, and other events where WakeUpWalMart.com supporters can be found.

The gallery can be found at: http://www.wakeupwalmart.com/gallery

There is also a link to the photo gallery on the left tool bar, where you can also find the latest Wal-Mart news, Wal-Mart facts, our action center, tools to stop Wal-Mart from destroying your communities' way of life, and much more.

The gallery is still in its infancy, and we need your help to build it out. You can submit photos for review and posting by sending JPG or GIF files to info@wakeupwalmart.com. If there is a caption that we should include, be sure to put that in the email as well.

Thanks!

- Brendan

From the St. Petersburg Times:

Belva Whitt liked her cashier's job at a Brandon Wal-Mart, even though she still needed food stamps and Medicaid for health insurance.

That is until the discount store in June switched to a central computer at corporate headquarters in Arkansas to create store work schedules. Her bosses gave her fewer hours to work unless she made herself available for night shifts and odd hours on weekends. The only other option: quit.

"I dropped from a full-time employee to part-time. Some weeks I haven't been able to get scheduled to work at all," said the single mother with a 12-year-old at home who relies on a vehicle shared with relatives to get around. "It's difficult enough making ends meet on $7.40 an hour. Now it's choosing between paying the rent or having food on the table."

This week millions of Americans fled Hurricane Katrina. Across the South families abandoned their homes and businesses, not knowing what would be there when they returned.

Hundreds have died in the wake of the hurricane, and thousands need our help.

America is at its best when we come together as one. Please do what you can today to help the relief efforts for those whose lives have been impacted by this disaster:

Network for Good

Red Cross