A grassroots campaign is providing Americans the opportunity to teach Wal- Mart a lesson - that their goods bear too high a cost for workers and their children.

The campaign, supported by NEA and the American Federation of Teachers, asks parents throughout the nation not to purchase back-to-school supplies at Wal-Mart. Simultaneous news conferences and protests were held in 34 cities and 24 states on Aug. 10.

 

"Wal-Mart is the largest private employer in the world with over $10 billion in profits. Yet Wal-Mart lowers our wages, ships our jobs overseas, and shifts their health care costs onto American taxpayers," says Paul Blank, campaign director for the grassroots organization, WakeUpWalMart.com. "We believe it's time for Wal-Mart to wake up" and realize that it has a responsibility to do the right thing by its customers and its communities.

 

Teachers in at least three California locations - Oakland, San Jose and the Los Angeles community of Lakewood - joined other union members, elected officials and clergy at the press conferences urging parents to "Send Wal-Mart Back to School."

 

"Many people aren't aware of what is happening. They think Wal-Mart is a place to get cheap items for their families and don't realize the implications of shopping there," says San Leandro Teachers Association President Sabrina Ramirez. "We asked parents and students not to buy back-to-school supplies at Wal- Mart because we wanted to raise community awareness about the types of policies Wal-Mart has towards schools and towards their own employees."

 

The news conference Ramirez participated in was in front of a new Oakland Wal-Mart that was scheduled to open within days of the event. She and other protesters displayed an oversized "report card" giving Wal-Mart failing grades in many different areas.

 

"The report card showed that Wal-Mart is anti-family, antipublic school and anti-worker," says Ramirez.

 

Campaign organizers based the failing grades on the following:

 

Low wages - The megastores do little to keep their own employees out of poverty, despite generating $10 billion in profits for shareholders.

 

Taxpayer abuse - Wal-Mart costs American taxpayers up to $2.5 billion per year in taxpayer-funded public health care and public assistance programs for Wal-Mart employees and their families.

 

Poor benefits - Fewer than half of Wal-Mart's 1.3 million workers are covered by the company's health plan due to long waiting periods for eligibility and high costs.

 

Discrimination - The chain is facing the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in history, affecting more than 1.6 million female employees who, in some cases, earned $5,000 a year less than men doing the same job.

 

Child labor - Wal-Mart recently agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges that it broke child labor laws.

 

"The Walton family is hostile to public education, and has shown a desire to support vouchers and made other attempts to undermine public education," says Bill Balderston, a member of the Oakland Education Association. "I think there's an integral link between the expansion of employers like Wal-Mart and attempts to downsize public education."

 

From the "corporate Wal-Mart point of view," he says, the type of public education that existed in the past is not necessary in today's world - especially for people employed in the type of jobs available at the retail giant. "It's time to stand up to people like this. It's time to insist on reasonable working conditions."

 

The late John T.Walton, an heir to the Wal-Mart fortune, contributed $100,000 toward passage of Prop. 75, the so-called "paycheck protection" initiative on the November ballot. It would restrict the ability of union members to make political contributions.

 

"The Walton family is one of the biggest contributors to the Small Business Action Committee that's behind Prop. 75," says CTA Board member Bob Nichols, who participated in the San Jose press conference. "The fact that they support Prop. 75, plus vouchers and private school tuition tax credits - things that take money away from public education - means that Wal-Mart is not a good community citizen."

 

"Wal-Mart's low-wage policy affects our students," adds Nichols. "If their parents are working at Wal-Mart, they are working for substandard wages, and their children live in poverty and probably don't get health care."

 

Organizers of the "Send Wal-Mart Back to School" campaign urge others to let the company know its behavior is unacceptable. For more information, visit the campaign website