LOCAL RESIDENTS PROTEST AT WMT SHAREHOLDER MEETING

Group Plans Shareholders Protest [(Ark.) Morning News]What would a Wal-Mart shareholders meeting be without a protest?

Around 40 to 50 people are expected to meet at the Fayetteville High School parking lot Friday and then march to the Wal-Mart shareholders meeting at Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus. They are part of Against the Wal, a local group that has held similar protests at the world’s largest retailer’s annual meeting for the last four years, said spokeswoman Rozlyn Grace.

“The core group is built of local people because we feel that Wal-Mart controls the local community here in Northwest Arkansas,” Grace said in an e-mail to The Morning News. “We are completely independent and not supported or connected to any other project, such as Wal-Mart Watch or Wake-Up Wal-Mart,” union-backed groups based in Washington that are highly critical of the company.

Against the Wal will first meet at 6 p.m. on Wednesday and Thursday at Bike City in Fayetteville for some “radical clowning” on Dickson Street in order to “bring our message of change to the shareholders with laughter and mockery,” Grace said.

The group has put forward a list of demands from Wal-Mart, which run the gamut from providing higher wages and affordable health care to respecting the environment. Its final demand asks that the retailer “stop spying on us.”

“In case you haven’t heard, Wal-Mart is very scared of our annual protest—so scared that an employee wearing a wireless microphone was sent to infiltrate our meetings,” the group said in a news release.

Wal-Mart spokesman Dave Tovar said that, while Wal-Mart has admitted in a previous statement that it has researched some shareholder groups that might be disruptive, he said the company has not spied on Against the Wal.

“While we’re excited to celebrate another successful year with our shareholders from around the world, our critics are planning another misguided publicity stunt,” Tovar said.

Posted by Jason Korta on Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Click Here for a Printer-Friendly Version