Wal-Mart Watch Statement On New Polling Data

For Immediate Release
Friday, September 15, 2006

Washington, D.C. – Wal-Mart Watch executive director Andrew Grossman issues the following statement in response to a new NBC/Wall Street Journal survey which found 52 percent of respondents and 41 percent of conservatives said that companies like Wal-Mart “should be reviewed and regulated more” on the adequacy of health and pension benefits:

“The public believes Wal-Mart is failing to live up to its moral obligations as America’s largest and most important corporation. Since last year when Wal-Mart Watch started exposing the intent of Wal-Mart’s corporate policy to shift its benefit costs onto the workers and the taxpayers, public attitudes about the company have been changing. 

All of Wal-Mart’s new consultants cannot tell them what Sam already did: ‘If you want people in the stores to take care of the customers, you have to make sure you are taking care of the people in the stores.’ We urge Wal-Mart to stay true to his legacy and to treat its employees with more respect.”