4-25-05, 8:28 am
WAKEUPWALMART.COM LAUNCHES MOTHER'S DAY CAMPAIGN AGAINST WAL-MART
From UFCW
'Love Mom, Not Wal-Mart' Campaign to Highlight Wal-Mart's Discrimination Against Women
Washington, D.C. - , America's Campaign to change Wal-Mart, announced today a new grassroots initiative to highlight Wal-Mart's systematic discrimination against women workers. The 'Love Mom, not Wal-Mart' campaign, the name of the initiative, will ask all Americans to sign a 'Mother's Day Pledge' promising not to buy their Mother's Day gift at Wal-Mart this year until Wal-Mart stops discriminating against women.
As part of the campaign, the group will also be mailing Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart, Inc. the 'Mother of all Mother's Day Cards.' The enormous card, a symbol of how large Wal-Mart's discrimination problem is, will ask Lee Scott to stop ignoring Wal-Mart's record of discrimination and start doing the right thing for all our Moms and all women.
'This Mother's day, on behalf of all mothers and women across America, Wal-Mart must do the right thing and stop discriminating against women,' stated Paul Blank, Campaign Director. 'Wal-Mart's systematic discrimination against women is simply un-American.'
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, women make-up 72% of Wal-Mart's hourly workforce, but account for only 33% of managers and only 15% of store managers. In addition, women earn 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.
'How can America's richest company and largest employer of women discriminate against so many of its women workers, many of them Moms? It is time for Wal-Mart to wake up and stop treating its women workers 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 launches today on . The Mother's Day campaign includes discounts on sending flowers and tools for Americans to join the 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 and download a volunteer action toolkit which contains a fact sheet and flyer detailing Wal-Mart's record of gender discrimination.
The text of the Mother's Day pledge is as follows:
As a symbol of love and respect for my Mom, and all women across America, I pledge not to shop or buy any gifts for Mother's Day at Wal-Mart.
Wal-Mart's company-wide policy of discriminating against so many hard-working women is terribly wrong. I stand with all of the 1.5 million Wal-Mart women who are part of the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.
In my America, Wal-Mart should do better than pay women and mothers less than men for equal work.
In my America, Wal-Mart should do better than disrespect all women and mothers by providing them with poor pay, poor health care, and poor working conditions.
As the largest employer of women in America, Wal-Mart has a responsibility to do the right thing!
I can easily say that my mother deserves better than Wal-Mart.
Until Wal-Mart changes for the better, I have one thing to say:
'Love Mom...Not Wal-Mart.'
