April 26, 2005

“”LOVE MOM, NOT WAL-MART”” CAMPAIGN GAINS SUPPORT

Washington DC – Today, on Capitol Hill, five distinguished Members of Congress – Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Rep. George Miller, Rep. Linda Sanchez, Rep. Hilda Solis, and Rep. Jan Schakowsky – joined with Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice-President of the AFL-CIO, a plaintiff in the Wal-Mart gender discrimination lawsuit, and former Miss America Carolyn Sapp to pledge their support for the “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” campaign.

The “”Love Mom, not Wal-Mart”” campaign, the latest initiative by WakeUpWalmart.com, unveiled the “”Mother of all Mother’s Day”” card. The card is an enormous 8 foot by 8 foot Mother’s Day card, a symbol of how large Wal-Mart’s discrimination problem is, calling on CEO Lee Scott to stop ignoring Wal-Mart’s record of discrimination and start doing the right thing for all our Moms and all women.

As sign of their support for the “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” campaign, Rep. DeLauro, Rep. Miller, Rep. Sanchez, Rep. Solis, and Rep. Schakowsky, former Miss America Carolyn Sapp, and Linda Chavez-Thompson signed the “”Mother of all Mother’s Day”” card. The card reads, “”Dear Lee Scott, It’s time for Wal-Mart to honor and respect all women. This Mother’s Day, Wal-Mart should stop discriminating against women. Happy Mother’s Day, WakeUpWalmart.com.””

“”We are so pleased that these well-respected leaders have joined America’s campaign to change Wal-Mart,”” said Paul Blank, WakeUpWalmart.com Campaign Director. “”We can only hope that this Mother’s day, on behalf of all mothers and women across America, Wal-Mart will finally do the right thing and end its discrimination of its women workers.””

As part of the “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” campaign, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro released a dear colleague letter for other Congressional members to sign calling for a Congressional review of Wal-Mart’s wage statistics. The letter reads, “”We would ask Wal-Mart to disclose its wage statistics for congressional review, including any documents submitted to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.””

The “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” is kicking off a two-week effort, including blog ads and on-the-ground organizing, to ask all Americans to sign the “”Mother’s Day Pledge”” promising not to buy their Mother’s Day gift at Wal-Mart this year until Wal-Mart finally ends its discrimination against women workers. Already, thousands of Americans have signed the pledge.

“”How can America’s richest company and largest employer of women discriminate against more than 1.5 million of its women workers, many of them Moms? It is time for Wal-Mart to wake up and stop treating its female employees and their families like second class citizens.”” added Susan Phillips, Director of Women’s Outreach for WakeUpWalMart.com.

The “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” campaign highlights Wal-Mart’s terrible record of discriminating against its women workers. Wal-Mart is currently involved in a gender discrimination lawsuit covering more than 1.5 million women. The case is the largest class action lawsuit in U.S. history. The suit documents Wal-Mart’s systematic discrimination against women for lower pay and unequal promotion. In fact, in a recent study, women made-up 72% of Wal-Mart’s hourly workforce, but accounted for only 33% of managers and only 15% of store managers. In addition, women earned from 5% to 15% less than men for the exact same work. This equates to nearly 40 cents less per hour for female hourly workers or nearly $5,000 less per year for female managers.

The “”Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart”” campaign is part of WakeUpWalmart.com, a growing grassroots campaign calling on Wal-Mart to change. As part of the Mother’s Day campaign, supporters can sign the Mother’s Day pledge and send the pledge to their friends. Supporters will also be able to send Mother’s day e-cards, purchase discounted flowers and download a volunteer action toolkit which contains a fact sheet and flyer detailing Wal-Mart’s record of gender discrimination.

CONGRESSWOMAN ROSA DELAURO’S LETTER
TO WAL-MART CEO LEE SCOTT

Dear Mr. Scott,

We are writing to bring to your attention an ongoing matter involving
Wal-Mart and its policy regarding gender discrimination. As you know, pay
inequity is a serious issue in the United States, with women still earning
only 76 cents for every dollar that a man earns. That is why it is of great
concern to us that Wal-Mart, America’s largest employer, does not pay its
women the same wage as men for the same work.

A recent analysis of Wal-Mart’s own payroll record conducted by Professor
Richard Drogin, Professor Emeritus at University of California, Berkeley,
showed that Wal-Mart paid its female hourly workers 40 cents less per hour
than their male counterparts, with female managers earning nearly $5,000 per
year less than managers who were men. In addition, while women comprise 72
percent of your workforce, almost 700,000 overall, women only account for a
third of your managers and only 15 percent of your store managers – this,
despite the fact that your female employees, on average, earn higher
performance ratings than men and turnover less frequently.

In view of this, we would ask Wal-Mart to disclose its wage statistics for
congressional review, including any documents submitted to the federal Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission. In doing so, we seek to further
understand why Wal-Mart pays its women associates less than men and promotes
its female workers less frequently than their male counterparts.

We welcome your new commitment to begin a national discussion about
Wal-Mart’s business practices; certainly, as the nation’s wealthiest and
largest employer and largest company, Wal-Mart has a unique role and
responsibility to do the right thing and set the best standard for America.
But it remains unacceptable for any employer, much less our nation’s
largest, to discriminate against its women workers. We would urge you to
take a personal interest and active role in resolving this issue as soon as
possible.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to
your response.