Sample Letters to the Editor

We’ve developed these sample letters to help you write your own to local papers in your area. Please feel free to use and adapt this language. To get the best results write it in your own voice and add details specific to your area.

General Letter to the Editor

TO THE EDITOR:

I am delighted that committed members of our community are sponsoring the Higher Expectations Week awareness campaign to expose how Wal-Mart’s business practices affect our local economies, our environment and our culture.

Wal-Mart has distinguished itself as our nation’s largest private employer with stores that deliver consistently low prices. But a new Wal-Mart store often signals the death knell for local retailers who cannot negotiate low prices on cheap foreign goods. Wal-Mart’s pricing pressure is not only pushing local stores out of business but American manufacturers as well. As Wal-Mart purchases the majority of its products, or their parts, from China it forces suppliers to move jobs overseas.

Wal-Mart’s stewardship of its workforce, now 1.3 million strong, is a sorry story. Amidst staggering profits the company has failed to provide health care to more than half of its employees and shockingly, its executives are scheming to make further cuts. It hides behind a stingy, high-deductible plan that can take two years to join for a part-time employee. As a result, Wal-Mart’s employees are top recipients of public health care, paid for by our tax dollars, according to studies.

And Wal-Mart has amassed a shameful record of gender inequality. Women who work there are paid less and promoted less than their male coworkers. Last year the company was sued by 1.6 million current and former female employees for gender discrimination, the largest class action suit in history.

The next time you buy a box of Tide or some school supplies from a female cashier at Wal-Mart who is underpaid and undervalued, remember your tax dollars are likely helping pay for her or her child’s healthcare as well as the subsidies her company enjoys. And on the drive home, don’t forget Wal-Mart helped harm or eliminate numerous local businesses by selling products manufactured mostly overseas. Those savings, perhaps several dollars, just can’t feel that good.

We must raise our expectations. We don’t have to let Wal-Mart bargain away our security. Together we can hold Wal-Mart accountable to its employees and their communities. It is time for this industry giant to conduct all its business in ways that respect our American values, from hometown to headquarters.

Sincerely,

Your Name

Issue Specific Letters

HEALTH CARE

TO THE EDITOR:

I am delighted that committed members of our community are sponsoring the Higher Expectations Week awareness campaign to expose how Wal-Mart’s business practices affect our local economies, our environment and our culture.

I find it particularly shocking that as profits soar, Wal-Mart executives are scheming to avoid paying for quality employee healthcare. A secret, internal Wal-Mart memo revealed the company is planning to reduce its already skimpy health benefits. Employer-sponsored insurance is the backbone of our nation’s health care system. Yet America’s largest private employer covers fewer than half of its 1.3 million workers. And 47 percent of the children of Wal-Mart employees are either uninsured or covered by taxpayer funded programs. That alone is shameful but given that Wal-Mart routinely demands tax breaks just to enter a community, it is deplorable.

Wal-Mart should give up its corporate free lunch and begin honoring its responsibilities as an employer. More than two-thirds of Americans who work for large firms have employer-provided health insurance. But at Wal-Mart part-time workers can wait in excess of two years for coverage by restrictive, high-cost plans.

We must raise our expectations. We don’t have to let Wal-Mart bargain away our security. Together we can hold Wal-Mart accountable to its employees and their communities. It is time for this industry giant to conduct all its business in ways that respect our American values, from hometown to headquarters.

Sincerely,

Your Name

WOMEN & DISCRIMINATION

TO THE EDITOR:

I am delighted that committed members of our community are sponsoring the Higher Expectations Week awareness campaign to expose how Wal-Mart’s business practices affect our local economies, our environment and our culture.

Last year 1.6 million current and former female employees sued Wal-Mart for gender discrimination in the largest class-action lawsuit in history. This year Wal-Mart was fined $188,000 by the California Fair Employment and Housing Commission for refusing to reinstate a woman after she completed her maternity leave. The women of Wal-Mart’s workforce are paid less money and promoted less often than their male coworkers. Women comprise 92% of the company’s cashiers but only 14% its store managers. What is fair about Wal-Mart’s record with women? And will we tolerate it for our wives, mothers, sisters and daughters?

We must raise our expectations. We don’t have to let Wal-Mart bargain away our security. Together we can hold Wal-Mart accountable to its employees and their communities. It is time for this industry giant to conduct all its business in ways that respect our American values, from hometown to headquarters.

Sincerely,

Your Name

LOCAL ECONOMIES

TO THE EDITOR:

I am delighted that committed members of our community are sponsoring the Higher Expectations Week awareness campaign to expose how Wal-Mart’s business practices affect our local economies, our environment and our culture.

Wherever a Wal-Mart store goes up—often after receiving generous subsidies—local retailers shut down. The symbiotic relationship between small businesses and local communities has long been a boon to America’s economic viability as well as our values. Local retailers may not be able to negotiate prices on cheap foreign goods for their consumers but they fuel and support the local economy. One study found in Iowa that 84 percent of total sales from new Wal-Mart stores came at the expense of existing local businesses. If new Wal-Mart stores continue to act as wrecking balls in our towns and cities, we won’t be able to afford its low prices much longer.

We must raise our expectations. We don’t have to let Wal-Mart bargain away our security. Together we can hold Wal-Mart accountable to its employees and their communities. It is time for this industry giant to conduct all its business in ways that respect our American values, from hometown to headquarters.

Sincerely,

Your Name

OUTSOURCING

TO THE EDITOR:

I am delighted that committed members of our community are sponsoring the Higher Expectations Week awareness campaign to expose how Wal-Mart’s business practices affect our local economies, our environment and our culture.

Sadly, Wal-Mart has discarded founder Sam Walton’s commitment to reverse the serious threat of foreign imports to our economy, when he said his company would “Buy American.”

As American jobs continue racing overseas, Wal-Mart is hastening the chase for cheaper foreign labor with its policy of pricing pressure. Wal-Mart imports a minimum of $15 billion worth of Chinese goods annually, but by its own estimates admits that number could be much higher. Seventy percent of merchandise in Wal-Mart contains components made in China.

What does the future hold for our nation’s good middle-class jobs now that our largest private employer has all but deserted them? Wal-Mart may not be supporting U.S. jobs, but Chinese jobs have the company’s steadfast support. If Wal-Mart were an independent nation, statistics show, it would be China’s eighth largest trading partner.

We must raise our expectations. We don’t have to let Wal-Mart bargain away our security. Together we can hold Wal-Mart accountable to its employees and their communities. It is time for this industry giant to conduct all its business in ways that respect our American values, from hometown to headquarters.

Sincerely,

Your Name