Working Families for Wal-Mart

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Working Families for Wal-Mart is an advocacy group formed by Wal-Mart and the Edelman public relations firm on December 20, 2005. ^{[1] [2]} It has been used to counter criticism of Wal-Mart from union-funded groups such as Wake Up Wal-Mart and Wal-Mart Watch. ^[3] The group is financially supported by Wal-Mart and is headquartered in Edelman’s Washington, D.C. office. ^[4] It is not organized as a non-profit, and is not required to disclose its sources of funding. ^[5]

Critics have accused Wal-Mart of leaving the impression that Working Families for Wal-Mat is a spontaneous grass-roots organization, without fully disclosing its financial reliance upon Wal-Mart. The groups web site does not reveal the group's connection to Wal-Mart, or Edelman. Its home page features a blog, and with a link stating that the bloggers are employees of Edelman, however, no other mention is made of Edelman on the site. This has led to accusation of Wal-Mart being engaged in astroturfing. For example Wal-Mart Watch has stated “Working Families for Wal-Mart is not a lobbying group or a 501(c)3 (non-profit), but is a sock-puppet for Edelman, Wal-Mart’s public relations firm…”. ^[6]

Contents 1 Mission statement 2 Steering committee 2.1 Initial leadership 2.2 Andrew Young assumes chairmanship 2.3 Other members 3 Public relations firm: The Herald Group, LLC 4 Reaction by groups critical of Wal-Mart 4.1 Wake Up Wal-Mart 4.2 Wal-Mart Watch 4.3 Wal-Marting Across America 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Mission statement

According to the organization's official website, "Working Families for Wal-Mart is committed to fostering open and honest dialogue with elected officials, opinion makers and community leaders that conveys the positive contributions of Wal-Mart to working families. We believe that Wal-Mart provides value to its customers, to its associates and to the communities it serves." ^[7]

[edit] Steering committee

[edit] Initial leadership

The group's initial leader was Bishop Ira Combs Jr. of the Greater Bible Way Temple of the Apostolic Faith in Jackson, Michigan.

According to Lynda Edward's December 22, 2005 story in the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, Combs said, “Some friends I worked with on the 2004 Bush campaign phoned me and asked me if I knew about any good things Wal-Mart was doing in my community...I said Wal-Mart is supplying jobs that may not pay a union wage but they pay twice the minimum wage. They asked me if I would be part of this group. Wal-Mart isn’t paying me.”

One of the group's members, Courtney Lynch, taught seminars at Wal-Mart headquarters on cultivating female leaders. She states that she gets no salary as an advocate but estimated that her consulting firm got 7 percent of its revenue from Wal-Mart this year. ^[8]

[edit] Andrew Young assumes chairmanship

On February 27, 2006, former ambassador Andrew Young assumed duties as "the public spokesman for a group organized with backing from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that defends the world's largest retailer against mounting attacks from its critics," according to Associated Press business writer Marcus Kabel's article. In a telephone interview, he told Kabel that he is not being paid but that the organization that he currently heads, GoodWorks International, has a contract from Working Families for Wal-Mart for consulting work. GoodWorks pairs corporations and governments on global issues. Working Families for Wal-Mart declined to disclose how much Wal-Mart contributes or what it is paying GoodWorks.

Young, a former labor organizer, parts ways unions regarding Wal-Mart. "The union position is talking about the redistribution of wealth, but they're not talking about generating new wealth. Wal-Mart is generating new wealth when it comes in. The pluses outweigh the minuses. They do give benefits, they do have health insurance."^[9]

On January 5, 2006, AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, saying the union had been unable to garner Republican congressional support for a national solution, had announced a "Fair Share Health Care Campaign" in 33 states. The campaign would work to pass state laws requiring large corporations to spend a certain percentage of their payrolls to provide health care benefits for employees or pay into a state Fair Share Health Care Fund. The percent of payroll would be set by the state legislature or based on the average percentage paid by large employers in the state.

Sweeney cited the example an Alliance, Ohio Wal-Mart employee who went on Medicaid when her wages would not cover the cost of the corporation's health insurance. “Why should a company like Wal-Mart—which made $10 billion last year alone—be able to force taxpayers to foot the bill for their health care costs?” Sweeney asked.^[10]

[edit] Other members

According to organization's website (as at February 28, 2006), the advisory board in addition to Combs, Young (who is listed as the Chairman) and Lynch were:

• Charles W. Baird, Ph.D.--Professor of Economics at California State University, East Bay and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the College of Business and Economics.^[11]
• Pat Boone--entertainer.^[12]
• Honorable Jennifer Carroll--Florida House of Representatives (R-13).^[13]
• Tom Chung--CEO of Asian Rehabilitation Service, Inc.^[14]
• Carroll Cocchia--Carroll Cocchia founder the Native American Chamber of Commerce in June, 2000.^[15]
• Lupita Colmenero--2005 President of the National Association of Hispanic Publications^[16]
• Maria de Lourdes Sobrino--Founder and CEO of Lulu’s Dessert Corporation.^[17]
• Ron Galloway--investment advisor and producer of Why Wal-Mart Works & Why That Makes Some People C-R-A-Z-Y^[18]
• Barbara Kasoff--President and CEO, and Co-Founder, of Women Impacting Public Policy, Inc.^[19]
• Rev. Dr. Barbara L. King--Founder/Minister of the Hillside Chapel and Truth Center, Inc., in Atlanta, Georgia.^[20]
• Chris Lewis----Vice President of Public Education for the Wheelchair Foundation^[21]
• Betty Miller--retired Florida English teacher^[22]
• Martha Montoya--Founder and President of Los Kitos Entertainment LLC and a Board Member of the Latino Business Association.^[23]
• Catherine Smith--Vice President for iVilliage Inc. divisions of Diversity Best Practices, the Business Women's Network and Best Practices in Corporate Communications.^[24]

[edit] Public relations firm: The Herald Group, LLC

According to the December 22, 2006 article by by Lynda Edwards, the campaign is directed by the Washington, D. C. public relations firm, Herald Group, LLC. One of the founding principals in Taylor Gross, 30, an experienced Republican party operative. A 1996 graduate of The Citadel, his alumni magazine’s spring 2001 issue described him as “steeped in the cutthroat lifestyle of politics in Washington.”^[25]

[edit] Reaction by groups critical of Wal-Mart

[edit] Wake Up Wal-Mart

According to Edward's story, the previous week, the group Wake Up Wal-Mart announced a campaign by 13 religious leaders from Texas, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Colorado and Oklahoma to persuade Wal-Mart to adopt labor reforms. Its spokesman, Chris Kofinis, expressed frustration by what he sees as a media chess game.

“It should be easy for Wal-Mart to reach out to genuine Republicans, patriotic Democrats and independents who can sit down together to find ways Wal-Mart can treat its workers and communities better...Instead, it hires right-wing attack dogs.”^[26]

In reaction to Young's role with the organization, Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake Up Wal-Mart issued a statement on February 27, 2006. “We call on Ambassador Andrew Young to use his new position to help us change Wal-Mart for the better, rather than defend its abysmal record of child labor violations and poor health care. As a consultant to Wal-Mart, Ambassador Young is now in a unique position to reach out to Wal-Mart and CEO Lee Scott and urge them to change. We hope he will work with WakeUpWalMart.com and help our efforts to create a better Wal-Mart and build a better America."^[27]

[edit] Wal-Mart Watch

On December 20, 2005 in response to the announcement of the organization, Wal-Mart Watch issued a statement inviting "this new group...to review the latest data on the company.

"Some facts on Wal-Mart and working families:

• The average annual pay for a cashier is $14,000 a year, $1,000 below the federal poverty line for a family of three.
• Wal-Mart fails to provide health insurance to over half of its 1.3 million U.S. employees.
• By its own admission, 46% of the children of Wal-Mart employees are uninsured or covered by Medicaid."^[28]

[edit] Wal-Marting Across America

In 2006, the group sponsored the web site Wal-Marting Across America [1] which saw an anonymous Jim and Laura visit Wal-Marts across the country to meet and blog about employee experiences. According to Business Week, the couple was flown to the west coast, provided with an RV and gas money, and Laura was paid a freelance fee by Working Families for Wal-Mart. Critics have pointed out that the original website created the false impression that this was a self-funded trip, unaffiliated with Wal-Mart. [2] It was later revealed the "Jim" was James Thresher, a photographer for The Washington Post newspaper (whose freelance work on Wal-Marting Across America was a breach of contract; also in the Business Week article), and that “Laura” is Laura St. Claire, a freelance writer who works with the United States Department of the Treasury.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Criticism of Wal-Mart

[edit] External links

• PR Newswire release on January 2006 poll commissioned by Working Families for Wal-Mart
• December 2005 Pew Research Center Poll Results sponsored by Pew Charitable Trusts
• December 2005 Zogby poll commissioned by Wake Up Wal-Mart
• Partial list of Wal-Mart Watch partners from the group's website
• Good Works International LLC, Andrew Young's consulting firm's website