Updates

ADVISORY: Students, Teachers March From Closing Chicago School to Walmart Site

May 13, 2013 By Cathy

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR

Tuesday, May 14^th 2013

CONTACT

Nick Sifuentes, 310-866-1692, nick@berlinrosen.com

Students, Teachers, Education Advocates March From Closing School to Walmart Site

Marchers to Call Out Walton Family for Undermining Chicago Public School System

Majority of Chicago School Closures In Communities of Color, Low-Income Neighborhoods

Chicago, IL – On Tuesday, May 14^th, over a hundred students, teachers, community leaders, education advocates and their supporters will march from Overton Elementary School (221 E. 49^th St.) to a nearby construction site for a new Walmart store at 4701 S. Cottage Grove Ave. to protest the Walton family’s efforts to undermine Chicago’s public schools.

Marchers will gather at Overton Elementary School and proceed to the Walmart construction site, where they will hold a rally led by the Chicago Teachers’ Union. There, they will call on the Walton family to stop funding efforts to close Chicago’s public schools.

The Walton family, the richest family in America and heirs to the Walmart fortune, have given millions of dollars to initiatives which strip money from public schools, including nearly half a million dollars in support of Chicago Public Schools’ proposed school closures. Meanwhile, in 2012, the family spent $3.8 million—more money than they spent in any other city—opening new charter schools. The vast majority of the schools closing in Chicago serve low-income neighborhoods and communities of color, leaving many of these areas without local schools.

Walmart has eight stores in Chicago and two more under construction. Walmart workers earn low wages and benefits and often lack access to affordable, quality healthcare. Meanwhile, warehouse workers who supply Walmart goods have called on Walmart to require its contractors to guarantee safe workplaces and fair treatment. In addition, the company is notorious for finding ways to finance its operations on the backs of taxpayers; to help build new stores in Chicago, Walmart is leaning on a tax scheme that diverts money to developers and away from schools and other critical services.

WHO: Students, teachers, community leaders, local residents and education advocates

WHAT: March from Overton Elementary School to Walmart construction site in Bronzeville

WHEN: Overton Elementary: 4:00pm, Tuesday, May 14^th, 2013

Walmart site: 4:30pm, Tuesday, May 14^th, 2013

WHERE: Overton Elementary School, 221 E. 49^th St., to a nearby construction site for a new Walmart store at 4701 S. Cottage Grove Ave.

UFCW and OUR Walmart have the purpose of helping Wal-Mart employees as individuals or groups in their dealings with Wal-Mart over labor rights and standards and their efforts to have Wal-Mart publically commit to adhering to labor rights and standards. UFCW and OUR Walmart have no intent to have Walmart recognize or bargain with UFCW or OUR Walmart as the representative of Walmart employees.

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Filed Under: Distorting Democracy, How Rich are the Waltons?, Undermining Public Education, Updates

Marissa Mayer’s Yahoo increasingly dependent on ethically problematic China business

April 22, 2013 By mauerbach

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer reported on the firm’s financial results for the quarter last week – and advertising revenues at the struggling company are down.

Mayer, who also sits on Walmart’s board of directors, attempted to put a positive spin on the company’s results. But Business Insider’s Nicholas Carlson suggests that Yahoo’s core business is “imploding.”

Despite its revenue problems, however, Carlson and the New York Times both report that Yahoo’s stock price has been bolstered by its 24% ownership stake in Alibaba – the successful Chinese ecommerce company.

Yahoo’s China business may provide a short-term boost to Mayer’s bottom line but it also makes the company complicit with the Chinese government’s extensive regime of internet censorship and surveillance. Yahoo’s stake in Alibaba gives Mayer the right to pick one out of four Alibaba directors and Alibaba runs Yahoo’s search operation in China.

Marissa Mayer thus joins fellow Walmart director Greg Penner in the small club of U.S. business executives who have effectively accepted responsibility for carrying out the Chinese state’s internet policies. Penner, an investor and director of the Chinese internet company Baidu, has faced public criticism over this issue.

Increased attention to Yahoo’s China business may pose reputational risks to Yahoo and its celebrity CEO.

The company has already run into serious problems over its role in China. In 2005, Chinese journalist Shi Tao was sentenced to 10 years in prison for pro-democracy activities after Yahoo supplied Chinese authorities with information about his use of the internet. Mr. Shi is still in jail today (see also here and here).

Following negative publicity, Yahoo apologized for its role in the conviction of Mr. Shi and several others. But the company does not appear to have made substantive changes to its operations, other than delegating direct control over Yahoo China to Alibaba.

For its part, Alibaba is clearly on board with the Chinese government’s program. In 2011, Alibaba CEO Jack Ma joined other Chinese internet executives in a public pledge to support government censorship.

According to the human rights group Freedom House, Ma has upheld his commitment.

In its tests, Freedom House found that Yahoo.cn produced search results that were as heavily restricted and dominated by Chinese government links as those of Baidu, and sometimes even more restrictive.

Jack Ma, Alibaba CEO (Source: VentureBeat)

Yahoo has sought to evade criticism by claiming that it does not directly control its own operations in China but Amnesty International isn’t buying it.

… Yahoo! should not consider it an option to arrange a business relationship with a Chinese internet company and then cite its own lack of control over its operations as an excuse for not taking pro-active steps to stop involvement in abuse of freedom of expression or privacy rights.

Does it really matter what Yahoo and other internet companies do in China? Journalist and internet freedom activist Rebecca MacKinnon makes a convincing case that it does:

This censored environment makes it easier for the Chinese government to lie to its people, steal from them, turn a blind eye when they are poisoned with tainted foodstuffs, and cover up their children’s deaths due to substandard building codes. It is a constant struggle, and sometimes literally a crime, for people to share information about such matters or to use the Internet to mobilize against corruption and malfeasance.

That is the information environment that China’s business elites, many of whom have gotten rich running Internet and telecommunications companies, are responsible for helping to build and maintain.

MacKinnon wrote those words in a 2010 article saluting Google’s decision to leave China rather than continue to be complicit with the government’s regime of censorship and surveillance.

It’s ironic that Mayer came to Yahoo from Google, whose motto is “Don’t be evil.”

Here’s hoping it’s not too late for Ms. Mayer to bring a little of that attitude to her work at Yahoo or even – if she’s really up for a challenge – Walmart.

UPDATE April 23, 2013

Yahoo announced yesterday that it will close its email business in China. However, Yahoo suggests that current users move to an email service run by Alibaba. Alibaba will continue to operate Yahoo’s search engine in China. Yahoo continues to own about 24% of Alibaba and retains one seat on Alibaba’s four-member board of directors. The fact that Yahoo is closing its email operations in China does not, therefore, address the company’s complicity with the Chinese state’s internet policy regime.

Filed Under: Updates Tagged With: board of directors, China, marissa mayer, Yahoo

TIME magzine says Mayer is among “most influential” — how could she use that influence?

April 18, 2013 By Cathy

Walmart director and Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer has just been named one of TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People. We know one way she could use that massive influence: to advocate for the brave Walmart associates and supply chain workers who are standing up for respect on the job.

We’ll echo what Walmart associate and OUR Walmart leader Barbara Andridge wrote last month in an open letter to Mayer: “Marissa Mayer, we’re calling on you to act. My hope is that, just like you did in climbing the corporate ladder, you will be a pioneer on Walmart’s board and help change the culture of America’s largest private sector employer. You can be a voice for us. You can be a voice for change and a voice for a better Walmart. You have shattered so many glass ceilings in your career. Help us do the same in ours.”

Mayer should urge Walmart management and her fellow directors to listen to workers and make Walmart a better place to work and shop.

Filed Under: Dismantling Middle Class Jobs, Updates Tagged With: board of directors, marissa mayer

Walmart and Walton Family Funding Sponsor of Arkansas Attacks on Planned Parenthood, Sex Ed Programs

April 15, 2013 By krudiger 1 Comment

Extremist, anti-woman politicians are at it again in Arkansas. And, once again, they have the support of Walmart billionaire Jim Walton and, in this case, of Walmart itself.

Last week, the Arkansas State Senate passed bill Senate Bill 818. The bill, aimed at prohibiting all state funds to organizations that provide abortions or refer women to abortion providers, would have the effect of defunding Planned Parenthood and effectively ending a sexual education program currently run in the state’s public high schools.

The bill was sponsored by Rep. Gary Stubblefield, a state legislator from Branch, Arkansas. Rep. Stubblefield has received multiple campaign contributions from Jim Walton and from Walmart directly.

Unfortunately, Jim Walton’s support for Arkansas’ extremists seems to be emerging as a pattern. We’ve written previously about Walton’s support for Jason Rapert and Loy Mauch.

Rapert attracted national attention by pushing radical anti-choice legislation through the Arkansas State Senate. Rapert’s bill could effectively outlaw abortions after six weeks and force women seeking to terminate a pregnancy to submit to a vaginal probe. Rapert proudly declares himself a birther and attacks the state Supreme Court for knocking down a ban on gay adoptions (which Walton also supported).

Meanwhile, Mauch is an Arkansas state legislator who has called the Confederate flag a “symbol of Jesus Christ” and acknowledged membership in the “neo-confederate” secessionist group known as League of the South. In letters written to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette (D-G) over the years, and recently posted online by Max Brantley at the Arkansas Blog, Mauch called Abraham Lincoln a war criminal on a par with the Nazis, and also suggested that slavery couldn’t have been so bad because it was not condemned in the Bible. On his campaign’s Facebook page, Mauch calls President Obama a “radical Muslim.” Eventually, under public pressure, Jim Walton wrote Mauch and asked that his contribution be returned.

Walmart and the Walton family often use pro-women rhetoric. Now, both Walton and Walmart are caught funding yet another attack on women’s rights and on basic common sense. It’s time for Jim Walton and Walmart to ask for their money back from Stubblefield and, more importantly, to publicly commit to stop funding extremist politicians who are apparently determined to undermine our rights.

Filed Under: Distorting Democracy, Updates

While America Was in Recession, the Walton Family Got Richer

April 10, 2013 By krudiger

We recently heard an amazing statistic on the Melissa Harris-Perry show about how Black and Latino households lost large percentages of their wealth during the recession. It got us thinking, of course, about how, while that was happening, the Walton Family continued to amass more wealth than any family could ever need.

We tracked down the data and here it is:

Overall, during from 2007 to 2010, US households, regardless of race, lost a staggering 47% of their wealth. Not surprisingly, African-American and “Hispanic” households fared even worse, losing 50% and 86%, respectively.

Surely, as the company was suffering, so did the Waltons, right? Nope. From 2007 to 2010, the Waltons’ wealth went from $70 billion to nearly $90 billion, an increase of 28%.

And, as has been covered widely now, the Waltons now have more wealth than the bottom 42% of Americans combined. It’s time for a change.

Filed Under: Updates

Walmart and the Waltons give overwhelmingly to those on the wrong side of marriage equality

March 27, 2013 By Grace Leave a Comment

As the country reaches a watershed moment for LGBT equality, the Walton family and Walmart continue to heavily back opponents of progress, according to our analysis of political contributions and a scorecard prepared by the Human Rights Campaign.

This has been a big week for marriage equality. The Supreme Court heard arguments in two cases: one about California’s Prop 8 and the other about the Defense of Marriage Act. Thousands gathered in front of the Supreme Court to show their support for one side or the other, Facebook was filled with red and pink equal signs, and hundreds of corporations even filed briefs in support of same-sex marriage.

Unfortunately, Walmart didn’t file a brief and the company’s track record tells a different story from the overwhelming support for marriage equality seen elsewhere. Walmart found itself near the bottom of the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for 2013. Among other things, the report noted that Walmart does not offer health, dental, or vision benefits to same sex partners and the company does not have company-wide organizational competency programs highlighting sexual orientation and gender identity. The Waltons, meanwhile, have their own track record of supporting anti-gay organizations and causes.

The latest data are no different. Today we compared the Human Rights Campaign’s scorecard for the 112^th Congress with the Walmart PAC and Waltons’ political contributions in recent years. The figures are striking. From the 2008 cycle to 2012, the vast majority of the Waltons’ contributions to members of the 112^th Congress—93%–went to legislators who oppose or do not expressly support marriage equality.[1] During that same time period, the Walmart PAC spent over $1 million on candidates with scores of 0 from HRC.

[1] This figure reflects contributions to legislators whom HRC did not specifically note as supporters of gay marriage.

Filed Under: Distorting Democracy, LGBTQ, Updates

Why Does the Walton Family Foundation Donate Every Year to Organization with Anti-LGBT Policies?

March 12, 2013 By krudiger Leave a Comment

Revelation Comes on Heels of Growing Concern about Walmart and Walton Family and LGBT Community

We’ve written recently about Walmart’s poor track record with the LGBT community and with the Walton Family’s support for an anti-LGBT agenda. From company policies to family political contributions, a worrisome image of an anti-gay empire is emerging, concerns that were expanded on in a recent article in Out magazine.

As the richest family in the nation, the Walton Family has many avenues to exert their influence. One of the ways they do this is by funding organizations through the Walton Family Foundation. Their ties to one such organization—Christian missionary group Young Life—haven’t received the attention they deserve up until now. Young Life is a Christian missionary organization that has a specific prohibition on gays or lesbians serving as staff or volunteers with the organization.

Young Life’s staff manual reads, in part:

With regard to the delicate matter of homosexual lifestyle and practice, in the light of the biblical data regarding creation, Young Life believes such activities to be clearly not in accord with God’s creation purposes.

On the basis of these theological affirmations which flow from our understanding of the Scriptures, we therefore must state very clearly that Young Life staff members and volunteers shall not engage in sexual misconduct.

We do not in any way wish to exclude persons who engage in sexual misconduct or who practice a homosexual lifestyle from being recipients of ministry of God’s grace and mercy as expressed in Jesus Christ. We do, however, believe that such persons are not to serve as staff or volunteers in the mission and work of Young Life.

When did the Walton Family Foundation give to Young Life, you ask? Answer: Every single year, since 2002, according to our analysis of the Walton Family Foundation’s 990s. Why are the Waltons associating themselves with an organization that bars gays and lesbians from serving as volunteers and staff? If the Walton Family Foundation, a consistent donor, wanted to encourage Young Life to adopt a more inclusive policy, it seems likely they would listen.

To echo the words of Out magazine, “It’s time for the Walton family and the Walmart board to reconsider the importance of its LGBT employees and the LGBT market.”

Filed Under: LGBTQ, Misplaced Priorities, Updates

At $115.7 billion, the Walton family remains the face of the 1% in America

March 7, 2013 By Grace 2 Comments

This week, Forbes released its annual billionaires issue. Predictably, the Waltons, whose wealth is derived almost exclusively from their holdings in Walmart, rank among the richest people on the planet. Six of them appear on the Forbes Billionaires list, and they are collectively worth $115.7 billion. Sam Walton’s heirs rank among the top 20 richest people on the planet and his brother Bud’s children are further down the list—but still miles above the rest of us:

#11: Christy Walton, $28.2b
#14: Jim Walton, $26.7b
#16: Alice Walton, $26.3b
#17: Rob Walton, $26.1b
#276: Ann Walton Kroenke, $4.5b
#346: Nancy Walton Laurie, $3.9b

While the media slices and dices the list (Christy and Alice are the richest women in the U.S.; Alice is among the list’s divorced billionaires), it’s hard to understand what all that money really means.

The contrast between average Americans and the Waltons is starkest at the very company almost all of the Waltons’ wealth comes from, Walmart. The average Walmart worker makes $8.81 an hour. At that rate, it would take a Walmart Associate working Wamart’s definition of full-time more than 7 million years to earn as much wealth as the Walton family has.

To put it another way, the Waltons’ wealth is greater than each of the following, according to a post on Mother Jones: the amount spent by the federal government last year on food stamps, the entire 2012 budget of the state of California, and the combined 2012 budget shortfalls of all fifty states.

Christy Walton is the richest Walton and the richest woman in America. Her wealth of $28.2 billion could cover childcare costs for more than 3.6 million kids this year.[1] Alternatively, it could put over 300,000 kids through four years of college.[2]

These figures might seem farfetched, but really, it’s because the Waltons are the face of inequality in America (in case you needed another Forbes list to prove it).

[1] Based on 2010 average cost of child care center program for four-year-olds, available here.

[2] Based on in-state tuition figures, available here.

Filed Under: How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates Tagged With: Forbes Billionaires, income inequality, inequality, walmart, Walton family

Waltons Give Themselves Huge Raise. Pass the Bill to Workers, Taxpayers

February 22, 2013 By jway

The Waltons, the richest family in the United States, and the owners of nearly half of all Walmart stock, just announced they’ve given themselves a raise of $436 million dollars. The Board of Directors, which includes three members of the Walton family, just voted to increase the annual dividend by 18% over the previous fiscal year. As a result, the Waltons’ Walmart dividends alone in FY14 will top $3 billion.

According to the latest numbers from Forbes, the Walton family is now worth more than $115 billion. We’ve written previously about how the Walton family has more wealth than the bottom 42% of American families combined. And, they just keep getting richer.

Meanwhile, Walmart workers are living in poverty – a full-time worker reportedly averages just $15,500/year. And the Huffington Post revealed recently that Walmart associates face strict caps on annual raises for good performance. For the average employee making $8.81 an hour, the best possible raise for “role model” performance under Walmart’s rules amounts to less than 7%–nowhere near the Waltons’ 18% this year. (There are four performance levels below this top rating.)

While the Waltons pile their stacks of money higher, the American taxpayer subsidizes Walmart’s low-wages and poor benefits. In many states across the country, Walmart is the employer with the largest number of employees and dependents using taxpayer-funded health insurance programs.

In Massachusetts, in 2009, taxpayers paid $8.8 million for Walmart associates to use publicly subsidized healthcare services.

In addition, a 2007 study found that, as of that date, Walmart had received more than $1.2 billion in tax breaks, free land, infrastructure assistance, low-cost financing and outright grants from state and local governments around the country. This number has surely increased as Walmart continues to receive additional subsidies.

Filed Under: How Rich are the Waltons?, Updates

How the Waltons could contribute to real improvements in kids’ educations

February 15, 2013 By Cathy

In Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, President Obama proposed making universal preschool available to all American children. Implementation of early childhood education programs doesn’t come without some upfront costs, of course, but research demonstrates that it’s a great investment that leads to positive long-term outcomes in children’s lives. In particular, it benefits poor children, helping narrow achievement gaps that often exist between them and their wealthier peers.

The Walton family is big into education reform—you’d think they’d be major supporters of broader access to preschool, particularly since it would especially help the children of Walmart’s low-wage associates, right? Nope. In 2006, Walmart director and Walton family member Greg Penner contributed $250,000 to an effort opposing a universal pre-kindergarten program in California. (It would take the average full-time Walmart worker 14 years to earn as much money as Penner dropped on this one race.) The program would have been funded through an additional income tax on the state’s very wealthiest people—individuals making individuals making more than $400,000 a year, and couples making in excess of $800,000.

Rather than support investments and improvements in education that are supported by evidence, the Waltons base their efforts in education reform around their strong ideological belief in undermining public education. So rather than sacrifice a tiny portion of their wealth to a public preschool program, they instead spend hundreds of millions of dollars funding pro-voucher and pro-charter organizations, politicians, political action committees, and ballot issues.

The Walton family became the richest family in the nation by creating a business built on ruthless cost-cutting and low-wage, low-benefit jobs—the kinds of jobs that keep families and children in poverty. If the Waltons are really, truly serious about improving childrens’ educations and lives, they should set aside their privatization ideology, support early childhood education, and use their influence at Walmart to turn millions of Walmart jobs into good jobs with a living wage and benefits.

Filed Under: Undermining Public Education, Updates