NOW Joins Mother's Day Challenge to Wal-Mart

May 11, 2007

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday, NOW joined 13 other women's groups in a letter to Lee Scott, CEO of Wal-Mart. The letter encourages Wal-Mart to address its record of discrimination, poverty-level wages, unaffordable health care, and anti-family policies that negatively impact its women workers, many of them moms. Read the letter below.

Lee Scott, CEO
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc
Bentonville, AR

Dear Mr. Scott,

On May 13 th, Mother's Day, families across the nation will come together to celebrate our mothers. On this special day, it's especially appropriate to honor all mothers and all women who work as hard as they can, often in two or more jobs, often without health care, trying to provide a better life for their families.

To some rich and powerful corporations, these mothers are invisible, representing mere numbers on a balance sheet whose hours, wages, and benefits can be cut without thought or consideration of their endless and tireless work to support not only themselves, but their entire families. It seems that Wal-Mart, more than any other company, sees these women workers as "invisible."

As you are the CEO of the #1 company on the Fortune 500, the United States' largest private employer with over 1.39 million employees, and the largest employer of women, our nation expects more from Wal-Mart and from you.

Wal-Mart leaves too many of its women workers and their families in a perilous and desperate position. Too many of your employees and their families have to deal with the brutal struggle of working for a company that pays poverty-level wages, fails to provide affordable health care, and has adopted some of the most anti-family policies in United States corporate history.

Mr. Scott, the facts speak for themselves:

Discrimination — Over two million women are suing Wal-Mart in the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in U.S. history.
Poor Healthcare — According to Wal-Mart's own statistics, 53 percent of Wal-Mart's Associates have no company health care and 46% of the children of Wal-Mart's Associates are either uninsured or depend on taxpayer-funded public health care assistance.
Poor Wages — The average full-time Wal-Mart Associate earns over $2000 below the poverty line for a family of four.
Anti-family policies — Wal-Mart's new attendance policy punishes mothers who need to take a day off to care for a sick child.

Regardless of these disturbing facts, we still believe that Wal-Mart can change for the better.

In this spirit, we are calling on you and Wal-Mart to lead by example and make a public commitment, to be announced on Mother's Day, that Wal-Mart will pay its workers a real living wage, provide good and affordable health care, end its anti-family policies, adopt a zero tolerance policy on child labor, and make a public commitment to a truly diverse and just workplace.

Just imagine the incredible positive effect Wal-Mart could have on the United States and all of our nation's hard-working families if you announced, on Mother's Day, that you will change in real and substantive ways to improve the lives of the women and Moms who work at Wal-Mart.

In the end, when you consider all that mothers do for Wal-Mart and for their families, is it really so much to ask that Wal-Mart sacrifice just a fraction of its $11.3 billion in profits to fairly compensate mothers for their work, treat them as they deserve to be treated, and make this Mother's Day a better day for Wal-Mart and all working families?

We look forward to your positive response. You can make this Mother's Day the best ever for Wal-Mart's Associates and mothers all across our country.

Signed,

National Council of Women's Organizations
Kimberly Otis, Executive Director

National Organization for Women
Kim Gandy, President

CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Gael Murphy, Executive Committee

National Congress of Black Women
Dr. E. Faye Williams, National Chair

National Committee on Pay Equity
Michele Leber, Chair

Wider Opportunities for Women
Joan Kuriansky, Esq., Executive Director

National Women's Conference
Mal Johnson, Co-Chair

Women's International League for Peace and Freedom,
United States Section
Mary Day Kent, Executive Director

International Women's Democracy Center
Barbara Anne Ferris, President

Coalition of Labor Union Women
Marsha Zakowski, President