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Constituency Groups, Minority Coalition, Press Releases, Retail, Social Justice, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Walmart

WakeUpWalMart.com’s statement on racist recommendations made on Wal-Mart website

Jan 10, 2006

“”Once again, Wal-Mart faces a critical moral test of whether it will do the right thing or ignore the concerns of the American people.

For Wal-Mart’s website to associate movies about prominent African American leaders with “”Planet of the Apes: The TV Series”" is offensive and insensitive.

CEO Lee Scott and Wal-Mart owe all of America, and especially every African American, not only an apology, but a detailed explanation of how and why Wal-mart’s DVD “”mapping system”" would ever make such racist recommendations.

Was the software programmed to do this or was this just some racist joke? In light of recent accusations of racism at a Wal-Mart store in Florida, as well as Wal-Mart’s history of using a Nazi image in its advertising last year, Wal-Mart owes America a more detailed explanation of how and why this could ever happen.

We call on Lee Scott to launch an immediate and independent investigation to find out how this racist and insensitive incident could happen at Wal-Mart. The American people deserve a real explanation as to how this terrible incident transpired and what steps Wal-Mart has taken to prevent future problems.

We can only hope that Wal-Mart will step up and do what is right for the American people.”"

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Wal-Mart Statement on Racist Recommendations Made on Wal-Mart Website:

The following comments can be attributed to Mona Williams, Vice President Corporate Communications, Wal-Mart:

Bentonville, Ark. – January 5, 2006 – We are heartsick that this happened and are currently doing everything possible to correct the problem. The offensive combinations that have been identified will be removed from the site by 5:30 CT today. However, with thousands of movie items available, there is an almost endless number of possible combinations. Because of that, we will be shutting down our entire movie cross-selling system until the problem is resolved.

Our system, like those of most other on-line buying sites, refers buyers interested in a particular movie to other movies through a technical process known as “”mapping.”"

Walmart.com’s item mapping process does not work correctly and at this point is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together.

To further illustrate the bizarre nature of this technical issue, the site is also mapping movies such as Home Alone and Power Puff Girls to African American-themed DVDs.

We are deeply sorry that this happened.

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AP article:

www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2006-01-05-wal-mart-offensive_x.htm

Constituency Groups, Minority Coalition, Press Releases, Social Justice, UFCW Values

Statement of Joseph T. Hansen, UFCW International President

Oct 28, 2005

(Washington, DC) The UFCW will lower the American flag to half staff at its International headquarters building in Washington, DC to memorialize the passing, and to commemorate the heroic contribution to the struggle for civil rights of Rosa Parks.

In an act of individual courage, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white man, and move to the back of the bus. Her arrest sparked the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and led to the end of segregation in public transportation. Her action inspired a movement and brought a new generation of leaders and activists, including Martin Luther King Jr., to the forefront of the fight for civil rights.

All of us are deeply saddened by Ms. Parks passing and all of us are indebted to her for her strength and determination. She truly made our country better. Seeing the flag flying at half staff in her memory should remind all of us that one person with courage and a commitment to justice can change the world.

Constituency Groups, Economic Justice, Minority Coalition, Press Releases, Retail, UFCW Industries, UFCW Values, Walmart

WAL-MART IGNORES INTERNAL INVESTIGATION FINDINGS

Jul 24, 2005

Statement by Paul Blank, WakeUpWalMart.com’s campaign director on the startling new revelations from Wal-Mart’s gender discrimination lawsuit, Dukes vs. Wal-Mart Stores.

According to internal documents and depositions, Wal-Mart was warned that it
may have a discrimination problem and chose to do nothing about it.  Wal-Mart formed a diversity committee in 1996, but, instead of implementing the committee’s recommendations, Wal-Mart disbanded the panel.  Two years later, Wal-Mart’s gender discrimination problem actually got worse.

In fact, an internal Wal-Mart document entitled, “”Minority/Gender Pay Analysis”" dated July 21, 2000 specifically states, “”Generally, average salaries for female and minority males are below the overall average pay for most jobs.  *Average pay increases for minority males and females are generally below overall average income ratio across most jobs.”"

This led Jeffrey Reeves, a former vice president for personnel at the company’s Sam’s Club unit in a January 2003 deposition, when asked about whether or not management wanted to seriously address diversity, to state, “”I would say a lot was lip service.”"

“”Today, we are stunned by Wal-Mart’s blatant disregard for women and minorities.  Wal-Mart’s greed caused more than 1.6 million of its female employees to suffer.  Wal-Mart needs to stop paying, in its own employee’s words, “”lip service”" to its discrimination problems and tell the American people the truth.”"

Unfortunately, this is not the first time Wal-Mart has ignored or disbanded the findings of an internal investigation.  In 2000, for example, an internal Wal-Mart audit found “”extensive violations of child labor laws and state regulations requiring time for breaks and meals.”"  In just one week, the audit found 1,371 violations.  Wal-Mart chose to stop the audit and as a result children suffered.  Just 3 weeks ago, Wal-Mart was fined once again for repeated child labor violations in Connecticut.

“”Wal-Mart wants to ignore serious problems at the expense of women, children and our country.  The American public is going to hold Wal-Mart accountable for the high cost we all pay for Wal-Mart’s $10 billion in profit.”"

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