Please give a warm welcome to Lee Scott, our

President and Chief Executive Officer, Walmart

stores, incorporated.
Whoah! I know... Thank you... Thank you...
I know...
Alright, alright.
Every year.
Okay, okay.
It would be a pleasure for anybody to be the
CEO of this company because y'know it doesn't
matter if you're Sam Walton, or you're David
Glass, or you're Lee Scott.
When you come to this meeting, year after
year, you get to say -we had record sales.
We had record earnings. We had record reinvestment
back into our company.
But you know I say all that, but let me tell
you my friends, you better be ready to be
better. Because today, for whatever reason,
whether it's our success or our size -Walmart
Stores, Incorporated, has generated fear -if
not envy, in some circles.
And that makes it more important than ever
that we focus on doing the right thing, and
doing things right -every time.
There are two things that we should do. Number
one, is tell the Walmart story. Get the message
out there. And the second thing is -stay the
course. Walmart is too important to individual
families who are stretching a budget. We're
too important to the suppliers who employ
millions of people. We're too important to
our associates -for whom we have so much love,
and value so much.

And your company will continue to demonstrate

our citizenship as a good employer -and a
member of the communities that we serve so
well around this world. Ladies and gentlemen,
I'll promise you this -we're going to stay
the course. And this company is going to continue
to grow.
Actually [we] started in 1962. Started on
Main Street and Middlefield. Little country
store that at that time was started in the
family, and it was pretty difficult to know
-it was a big decision. And my brother and
law and I decided we were going to take that
step and we went into business. We started
in a little one room building that had a full
basement but we didn't have any plumbing in
the basement -but the upstairs retail area
was very small.
We were there for a year and a half to two
years, then we moved on to a larger store
in a shopping center. We spent several years
there and proceeded in 1992 -we built this
facility here.
This gentleman here, that happens to be my
son. He's been my right hand man for many
years. It was much easier to retire in 1996
when he was here to take over.
One of the biggest parts of our store being
in a rural area is what we call our hardware
section -we've got the nuts and the bolts
and the nails, and those types of fasteners.
That's always been good because a lot of farmers
were always mending machinery and things around
the farm. And some of the kids that were -kids
when I was growing up, y'know, in here, now

they've got families, they come in here for

the fix it up type things.
Since I was eight, come down on Friday nights
after school. I'd work until nine.
I worked here since I was six. I swept, or
helped customers when I was young, too. At
the end of the day, grandpa or dad would give
us their pocket change. I spent a lot of late
nights in here, too. Especially when we were
building it.
I generally arrive here about 7:15 in the
morning and I unlock the door. I come in and
turn the lights on, and I get the day money
for each drawer in the registers, and I open
up the registers. And usually at that time
Tom is here, Tom goes ahead and kind of tidies
up the front of the store and sets out the
American flag and the benches for our customers
to sit on. A lot of times the Amish fellas
on their way to work will stop here for things
they need for their day's projects. They'll
come and get plumbing or electrical supplies
-or a lot of times, sporting goods. We have
a busy sporting goods division.
John has been preparing for trying to change
some of the stock and inventory. Keeping in
mind basically to stay with service. If you
can't compete in one area, we're going to
stay with something that is not offered, or
that you can compete in.
Oh, I've been shopping here for 32 years or
so. All my needs that I need for hardware.
The mass merchandisers, to a great extent,
do not provide excellence in service. I'll
use Walmart as an example. And you're really
lucky if they have anyone in the plumbing

section who knows anything about plumbing.

We've been trying to get ready for them, probably,
for the last ten years.
We had a meeting with all the guys, explaining
the purpose of our job, and to make sure we
do everything right. Explain what Walmart
did, and what we do, and what we do different.
This was brought to us by an Amish customer
of mine. He is so much against the Walmart
movement after reading this book that he wanted
to start passing them out, or start selling
them to friends. So that's basically... I've
got a few extra ones, and I'm getting rid
of them, and he's doing the same.
I have never been in a Walmart store, and
I never intend to go into a Walmart store.
I've never had the need, and I've never like
their principles. That's not nice to say at
all, probably, but I've seen a lot of small
communities crucified and forced out -ma and
pa operations that had been in business for
years, that are out on the street. They just
had to close their doors. Just because of
one entity. And it appears that is their intent.
To come into the community, and force everybody
out.
They did nothing but lay down the red carpet
for them. I know how hard it was for my dad
and my grandfather to build this building
on this lot. They went through everything
to try to get the commissioners and stuff
to allow them to build here. I mean, we had
sign issues, they've gotta be a certain size.
We had to make sure we had enough green around
the area.

I'm all for free enterprise, but when you

look at the big picture, the people that own
the company are the richest people in the
world. So, the reality is they could spread
that out. I'm curious to see how much they'll
actually give back to the community.
To even use American with Walmart in the same
sentence is just... I don't agree with at
all. It's... It's like a Chinese company to
me, only with American board members.
It's not a mystery, they've come right out
on record and say they don't buy American.
And all it's done is give China better distribution
centers, where as before, they'd have to find
contacts, who to sell to, and develop their
own markets. Now they've got a pipeline into
everybody's living room by going through Walmart.
I think the government should have more control.
You talk about monopolies! If Walmart is not
a monopoly, I don't know what is.
I'm not at all in favor of any kind of communism
or socialism, I believe that America should
always and forever remain free. However, I
think that there needs to be regulations established
where... and y'know. they busted up Standard
Oil. And they busted up Ma Bell. But Walmart
seems to be going on a rampage through the
American economy and nobody is even paying
attention.
The logic of it escapes me. And I spent a
lot of time thinking about it.
I'm a Republican, I'm a conservative, but
I'm following very closely what is happening
with the Unions. It used to be that the union
wage was something that everybody would look

up at and say, "Wow, he's a Union Worker,

he's making $18 or $20 per hour." And I realize,
that's what we're paying our people. We're
not Union. Yeah, I'm all for the Unions doing
whatever they can do and y'know... Whether
it be Walmart or K-Mart, or any story that's
not gonna pay a fair wage.
I'm a staunch American, I love America -it's
the finest, free-est country in the world.
And I'd still, at my age, I'd fight and die
for this country. But it seems that there
are things going on within this country -particularly
from a business and economic standpoint that
aren't for the good of the people. I mean,
the people en masse. Y'know, small segment
of the population is doing well by what is
happening, but the greater majority of the
people are being made subservient.
I mean, Sam Walton, I don't think would be
comfortable with the way things are going
right now. I don't think this is why he started
the store, it wasn't to crush other competition.
We have people in this town -families who
can't feed their children. And families who
have their entire belongings in a car or in
a trailer, and are spending most of their
life in their car or at the mall because they've
been evicted from their homes. Because they
can't find work. They can't find work.
And I think there's a lot of people that don't
realize there are those people in town. You
say that's in Milderford, and they say no,
that's not the case.
I was dreaming, all of the sudden that the
people in this town caught on to a great extent

and we were all out in the street, protesting.

But I think the likelihood of that happening
is... we'll probably see pigs fly before then.
I put this business plan together with the
help of different hardware organizations.
I went to several different banks to check
on some funding, and when I got an appraisal
on my business and the buildings, the appraiser
actually came in and devalued the building.
Here, I figured it'd be appreciating after
like ten years... And he came in and said
a lower value, and I questioned myself -I
said "How could this be?" Because y'know,
with inflation, and the economy isn't great,
but... it still should at least be holding
it's value. He said no, any time a Walmart
comes into town, they knock the values down
because sooner or later, there's going to
be a bunch of empty buildings and none of
them are going to be able to sell.
Any community in a grand opening is going
to see a change. A drop in sales, it happens,
regardless of whether it's Walmart or somebody
else. You'll get a drop in sales. So there'll
be a dramatic change in something. How long
it'll last? It can't last forever, because
you can't stand the overhead if you don't
have the business. So something has to happen.
Unless you just hope it doesn't come to that
point. But you never know.
Well right now, after we liquidate product,
I'm in the process of trying to sell the building,
as well as get somebody in here that'll be
able to lease... I've got a couple of people
on the line right now that want to talk to
me within the next couple of days. And hopefully

we'll work something out. We're going to sell

the property and I'll be able to pay all of
my bills and walk away without any debt. That's
if it all works out right. I pray that it
will.
I remember that like it was yesterday. To
hell with it. Walmart'll buy the whole damn
town. We'll shut them down. We used to drive
through towns, going "6 months, 3 months,
6 months", and then they'd be closing.
Drive up all the way to New York City on Route
80, you can pull off to Clarion on or any
of those towns up there, and you'll see a
Walmart up in the hill. You'll see a Perkins,
maybe a Burger King. And then you'll drive
further into the town, and you'll see an empty
town.
It looks like a neutron bomb hit it.
They don't get it. We start talking about
quality of life, they start talking about
cheap underwear. I keep saying, "You can't
buy small town quality of life at a Walmart,
they don't sell it." But once they steal it
from you, you can't get it back at any price.
We thought it was the most fantastic thing
in the world when Walmart was coming to Hearne,
Texas. I mean, it was like they bestowed some
great honor to the community. And we welcomed
them literally with open arms.
We could not say enough good about them. We
could not do enough for them to help them
come. When Walmart first made the decision
to come here, you could come to town on a
Saturday evening, and not find a parking place,

anywhere.
I came to downtown Hearne on Saturday before
Christmas, and there was twelve cars in downtown
Hearne. I counted them. Twelve cars in downtown
Hearne. That is pathetic.
Walmart was a great thing for our community.
It's really awakened the west side of our
town.
I think Sam Walton would tell us, just as
he did before he passed away, that the number
one thing in this company is our associates.
And we've got stores that aren't treating
associates as well as they should be treated.
And, you know, it's a community college. I
didn't have much for anything else. And I
was doing really well. Y'know, I had a 4.0
average, but life happens, y'know. My dad
got sick, my mom got sick -and things happen,
and it just didn't work out the way I thought
it was going to.
When I started working there, I had so much
pride in my job. I did. Um, I didn't mind
being there when they needed me. I didn't
mind doing -I knew that we were short staffed
-at that time I didn't know it was a purposeful
thing that um, that's their intention.
They had stacks like this of applications
in the back. They just didn't hire them. And
then we're told, "We don't know what to do,
we don't have the people. We don't have this,
we don't have that." And I really did, at
first, I was really, I felt bad for them,
I was like "okay, 'l'll give you an extra
hour here, I'll come in early tomorrow, okay,
I won't take my day off."

Always having to stay late. You're supposed

to work until eleven, you stay until twelve,
twelve thirty.
Keep the number of associates from being full
time as many as you can, you keep them part
time as much as you can. And just keep reducing
that expense.
The company doesn't allow the stores enough
payroll dollars on their budget to get this
job done. And the job is enormous. This company
is rowing in the, raking in the dough in sales.
I mean, my store alone did over 100 million
dollars in sales the year that Ieft.
Having to get up with the kids, get them just
-getting them out to school, after four hours
sleep.
They don't care about what you sacrifice,
it doesn't matter how many people lose their
families. It doesn't matter if the associates
have good health care. It doesn't matter -anything,
other than what the bottom line profit is
for that store that month.
It just makes it really difficult to have
a good family life at Walmart.
Y'know, if you can squeeze every dime out
of them, you go for it! And it doesn't matter
what happens to their families, if they fall
apart, they get sick, y'know. The hell with
them.
We're troubled by the fact that there are
people who work full time, who in fact cannot
provide enough for their families to live
decently.
It was just impossible for me to pay my bills
and pay for day care, and work.

You should have plenty of time to go into

the office.
The money that I did get went right back into
Walmart. I'd get my check, have it deposited,
go shopping.
I had -when I first started Walmart, I had
my kids on the um, Walmart insurance. It got
to the point where it just was too much for
me to handle, I just couldn't afford it. I'd
have to pay my premiums at work, and then
when I took them to the doctors, I still had
to pay.
I always had to pay a chunk of money.
I'm proud of the fact that we have the benefits
that we have, and we have the wages we have.
People that's making seven dollars an hour
that has to go to the doctor, they're not
going to be able to meet their deductible.
Y'know, I have an eighteen month old baby,
and he didn't have any kind of insurance.
When he was sick, I would have to try and
fix him myself, like get him medication myself.
If he had to go to the doctor, I would have
to take him, and pay it as I could.
Sam Walton believed that it was inappropriate
for an associate with illness in the family
to have to worry about how are they going
to survive the financial impact.
I was under my mom's insurance plan, with
a local grocery store that she worked for.
And any prescription it was, it didn't matter
what it was, it was five dollars. And now,
through Walmart, that one bottle of pills
I'm paying seventy dollars.

But I can't afford to put my children on the

Walmart insurance, because it's too expensive.
There's no way I can afford to have seventy
five dollars taken out of each check, just
for medical -that's why -because I'm such
low income I am able to get the Medicaid for
the kids through Colorado state.
But they're a billion dollar corporation,
so I don't see why they cannot offer a better
medical package for their associates so that
we can afford to uh, get our families on uh,
insurance.
You start weighing, "Okay, he's sick -we eat.
Which one do we do?" Well, let's give him
an aspirin.
No matter what anybody says -they're at poverty
level. I watched so many people go without
lunch in the lounges that I stopped eating
in the lounges because I just had my managers
eating there because I just couldn't stand
it. They just wouldn't eat, and we weren't
allowed to offer them any money. And, uh.
There were people that didn't eat nothing.
They'd take an hour lunch and they'd just
sit there.
We have full time employees that worked at
Walmart. And they had medical. But the medical
was so high, so they had to go out and get
Medi-Cal, some type of government medical.
While I was working at Walmart I was on WIC.
It's an excellent program. It saved my life,
really - because we got all the formula and
cereal and stuff you needed for the baby,
and I also went to the MedicAid office. It
can be a real hassle, having to deal with

the offices, but y'know, at least they're

there.
I'm thankful for the programs that are available,
y'know. It's not a fun situation, it's demeaning.
I always heard people say, well, they're just
y'know, oh, there are so many people that
just abuse the system... I can't imagine that,
because there is no way I would want to spend
any length of time having to do what you have
to do to get assistance.
You talk about using the system. Look at the
way Walmart is using the system. They're promoting
people to go to Healthy Kids, and to get food
stamps and section 8 housing.
They're the ones that are using the system.
Yeah, it's pretty bad when you need to tell
your employees that all these programs are
available for you, because we're not paying
you enough money.
Retail giant Walmart is encouraging its workers
to go on welfare. Instead of paying for its
employees to have health benefits, she says
Walmart is making the government take care
of it.
In Florida, Walmart has more employees and
family members eligible for Medicaid than
any other company.
Critics accuse the retail giant of using Medicaid
and state programs for the poor as it's health
care plan.
This report from UC Berkeley concludes Walmart
costs state taxpayers $86 million dollars
per year, and county taxpayers as much as
another $25 million to pick up the tab for
public healthcare, income tax credits, housing

subsidies, and food stamps.

Evelyn Dee used to work full time for Walmart,
but didn't have company health care benefits.
She literally couldn't afford to pay for it,
so she turned to government assistance.
What the public doesn't understand is that
those everyday low prices are based on taxpayer
subsidies. Walmart is getting away with it
because they can.
I talked to the regional personnel manager
about who is going to take care of the Walmart
associates, and their health care needs, and
he said -let the state do it.
The personnel manager told me personally that
there's assistance out there for people, they
should be able to go use it. Use your taxpayer's
dollars.
I had a list of all the government agencies
and different places that people could go
if they needed money for their utility bills,
if they needed to apply for food stamps, or
if they needed to apply for WIC, or for MedicAid.
So your dignity is not there, your pride is
not there, you go to work knowing that you're
not going to be making enough money to really
make ends meet, but yet you've gotta go with
a smile on your face and fake it. Yeah, that's
pretty bad.
Come up with some type of health care that
a full time person can afford, and don't have
to put on the scale -health care, or feed
my family.
Why is it that a corporation that in 2003
had announced over 240 billion in sales cannot
provide a livable wage and affordable health
care for their employees.

There's nowhere around that there's a company

that makes this much money and still turns
around and makes their associates go to the
state for aid.
I think my company takes family very seriously.
And they'll help you achieve anything you
want. The possibilities are absolutely endless
at Walmart.
Think of the careers that get started in this
company and the difference it makes in people's
lives. But most importantly to me, jobs that
come with the opportunity for personal development.
When I first started working at Walmart, I
was still in high school, I didn't have any
plans to go to college later on. The other
people I was working with were just so nice,
and I just thought that was awesome.
My job function is entirely express technician.
Its performing oil service, to tire changes,
battery service, stocking the inside shelves.
Writing up work orders, which is greeting
the customer. Running the cash register. Y'know,
ringing people out for just groceries that
they bought throughout the store. And they
want it all done at the same time.
All I'm worried about is the one 4 percent
raise per year that you get from Walmart.
I've worked there three years, and I've got
a $1.07 raise. I don't have good health benefits,
and I can't afford to live on my own anymore.
It just -most of it is poor treatment from
management at Walmart.
I don't know, it's just weird -I've always
been kind of... quiet and shy. And now, y'know,
I kind of need to stand up for myself and

my community.
So I just y'know searched the internet for
a while, and whatever I typed in brought up
the same thing, y'know, I type in Employee
Rights, and it'd bring up the Union. Fair
labor practice -it'd bring up the Union.
These corporate people in the Walmart corporation
-they don't even really like to say the word
union. To them, it's like a curse word. They
just say "third party representation" is the
way they put it.
Walmart is very opposed to unions, one of
the most anti- if not THE most aggressively
anti-union companies in the history of the
United States.
It's just relentless in their search for union
activity, and try to squash it, kill it. Look
at that, Ed Dupontis.
He gave you a call, right? He gave me a call.
He said he didn't want nothing to do with
the union. He says there was no.
I had a worker that came to me with a piece
of paper that someone had typed up a computer
in big bold black letters that said "We need
a Union!". No signatures, that's all it said.
That in itself is enough to require me as
a store manager to go and make a phone call.
And the phone call comes to Dentonville, and
that afternoon I had to personally drive to
the airport and pick up three guys that flew
in a corporate jet, and pick them up and take
them back to my store.
We have to do this for the reasons we started
it.
What they do is they basically walk in and

tell the store manager that you're no longer

in charge of this store. Every decision goes
through us.
They taught me how to profile people. Of course,
I didn't know that was the term, then. And
it was identifying people that were the strongest
representers of the petition to organize,
or at least get a vote.
Anita, we need to contact, still. Possibility
there.
You walk up to a couple of associates, and
they're both talking, they walk away from
each other -they gotta go. They're conspiring
to do something.
Be noisy, be happy, be boisterous. We're here
to support folks who are trying desperately
to fight against the world's largest, richest
and probably meanest corporation.
The associates in the automotive department
were flooded with brainwashing material against
the union.
I got fooled by a union. Fooled bad. All the
unions work at is taking a cut out of my pay.
Yeah, take your money and spend it on political
campaigns and help people I don't even vote
for.
Because they know a union would just mess
it up. But don't take my word for it. Just
ask an associate working here in the building.
I'm not going to get in the store even 50
feet before somebody approaches me, or they're
gonna send someone following me around the
store.
I was never alone. I was followed wherever
I went. Truly, the managers would follow me.

During the process of intimidating them, they

just make their lives miserable. They do illegal
surveillance, they put cameras up in work
stations, work areas, break rooms.
You've got a target on your back and you let
everybody else know -I've got to stay away
from this person because I can get fired for
talking to this person.
They're targeting a lot of it at Josh. Y'know,
they're like -cause they were talking about
Josh being like held up on their shoulders
and parading him. They're like "Yeah, he's
just using it for uh, a way to get y'know,
like attention."
One of their favorite tactics is to come out
and say, "We have to freeze all of our raises
in the store because we can't appear to be
bribing anybody.
It was a great political ploy by Walmart in
my mind, to say that's why they weren't getting
raises. Because some of those employees started
putting pressure on the TLE people -the tire
lube express people.
They said, "We can't get raises because of
YOU".
I was like so scared to go to the break room,
because they made us all go to break together
because it was really dead after that, so
we'd start walking through, and they'd like...
customers and other associates were like giving
us dirty looks, I'm like "I'm not going to
sit in the break room, they'll jump me or
something!"
Alicia is way good. I've talked with her quite
a bit.

And Cody, we know Cody is good.

Right
Cody is with us, here.
They'll instruct the managers to start hiring
associates in the store. And what they do
this for is to try to dissolve the percentages
of the people in the store that are for the
union.
See James. James is another new hire.
I'm not even sure who that is.
But you know, that's just -this is OUR store.
This isn't their store. We're the ones -we're
making them money. We're the little worker
ants, y'know.
So what is your prediction?
Uh, right now, I'd say fifty fifty. Y'know,
I mean the few people in the middle are just
going to make it or break it right now.
I think you lost Alisha.
No, I've talked with her quite a bit.
She's just kind of hard to read type of person.
I hang out with her and stuff on the weekends,
but she's definitely into it. She's real strong.
I believe it's just gonna go like - done.
Because y'know, Cody isn't voting, Ryan isn't
voting yes, and I'm still kind of... I kind
of really don't want to vote but then I kind
of have to, because.
You're getting all freaked out because of
y'know, what they're saying -they're not going
to know how you vote. All it's gonna be is
just a bunch of numbers.
So we've got six for no, another six yes.
So we've got one, two, three, four, five,
six, seven on the fence.

The company does everything that it can and

that means ANYTHING. And they will kill it
-they'll kill the campaign.
Walmart winning out, as you said, seventeen
to one, but the union says-It's not a fair battle, it's not according
to the National Labor Relations Act -but when
they find that there's a campaign going on,
everything that can be done -fair or unfair,
legal -maybe not so legal -is done to keep
the union out.
Walmart was very lucky to acquire two really
good companies. But of course they were already
unionized. Walmart had no choice. Because
of the union, we get thirty six days of vacation
per year. Usually people take three weeks
in the summer, three weeks in the spring.
It depends.
You can split your vacations into two or three
times per year. Or even more often, if you
prefer.
My job is very important and if I have to
fear for my job, it's a bad thing. A very
bad thing.
If Walmart says we're all a big family, and
we have nothing to hide, everything is great
-then... I don't understand why the colleagues
in America can't have a worker's council.
Can't establish a union. I can't understand
that.
Walmart is a career; it's not just a job.
Good quality of life, good educational opportunities
for my children. It is right for the 1.2 million
Walmart associates, including more minorities

and more seniors than work at any other company

in America. Walmart offers the right job at
the right time in their lives and it gives
them a step up that economic ladder. My name
is Edith Arama. I live here in Southern California.
I have two girls. I go to school to be a preschool
teacher. I worked for Walmart for six years.
They explained to me the different things
they offered and the type of company Walmart
was. I said that's a company I want to work
for. I always found it rewarding to me to
help the customer find what they were looking
for. I could work wonders. Do more with less.
I know the true meaning of doing more with
less. They want the associates to do more
and they are going to pay them less. They
would come in the office or on the floor it
didn't matter where you were working. They
would say you know we have no overtime there
is to be no overtime whatsoever. You may have
five baskets of clothes and merchandise that
needs to be put back. You may have 30 minutes
left on your eight-hour shift; but we need
those baskets put away. And they usually do
it with a smile. You would go along with it
because you needed that job. And there was
no if- ands- or buts- about it. They would
let you know, one way or another, if you can't
do it, I'll just get somebody else to do it.
You're not a person that cannot be replaced.
And you know we're hiring all the time. And
in your mind, you go look; I've got these
kids at home; I'll just have to make that
sacrifice. And you will. They are asked to
work off the clock with the implication that
if they don't work off the clock, that is

what is expected at this particular store,

they are going to lose their job, and they
do it a sa matter of survival. And it comes
from the top. Walmart is fighting legal battles
with scores of former employees in 31 states.
Hourly workers who say the company has cheated
them out of hundreds of millions of dollars
in overtime pay. The Walmart corporation paid
approximately 50 million dollars to settle
an off-the-clock class action suit in Colorado.
In Texas, it is estimated that they cheated
workers out of up to 150 million dollars in
unpaid wages. Our policy is that we pay everyone
for every hour worked. (Chanting). You're
the CEO of Walmart and that's the best you
can do?: "If you work here, we'll pay you!"
That's it? "Work at Walmart, it's better than
getting kicked in the nuts!" Our district
manager actually explained to us how to cheat
workers out of overtime. He said, this is
how you can come in on your payroll budget
on this week. He said say you have three workers
that had overtime, maybe an hour or even 20
mins over 40 hours, he explained to us how
to go into the system under a false user ID,
to get into the computer and move that time
to the next week. I've seen managers go in
when someone worked 41-42 hours and change
it to 40 hours. The people that are struggling
to live just on the basics everyday or do
without need that extra minute or two on their
paycheck, and those are the ones that are
victimized the most. I'm not the only one
that did it, I seen every manager except for
one General Manager do it. Walmart refuses
to follow the very American ethic that to

serve the country well over many years, people

should be paid for the work they do. Walmart
currently faces lawsuits in 31 different states
for wage and hour abuses, potentially involving
hundreds of thousands of workers. As a store
manager, you're responsible for reducing your
expenses every single month, and the only
way to do that is to keep the associates numbers
down. I was given about 19 hours a week, and
that's just...you can't pay bills with that.
I mean it's just, it's not right at all. If
you're not getting those fulltime hours for
that week that's devastating. It may help
them on their bottom line but it doesn't help
you at home/ When it comes to jobs, we have
good jobs. Seventy four percent of our people
are full-time. Most people in America don't
know that. Although most people in America
also don't know that Walmart considers full
time employment 28 hours a week, which their
starting wage works out to under $12,000 a
year.
ICE agents arrested 250 undocumented workers
in 61 Walmarts across America. I was working
from 9 pm to 7:30 am. It was a lot and the
stores they could leave store until store
manager come in the morning. Walmart is paying
11 million dollars to settle federal allegations
it used illegal immigrants to clean its stores.
I understand that they would employ illegal
immigrants. I'm stunned. You're stunned they
hire illegal immigrants for nearly no pay;
lady you just bought a sweatshirt there for
29 cents! Walmart, the world's largest retailer
could be facing the largest lawsuit ever brought
against a private employer,. Lawyers suing

Walmart will file their motion today and if

a judge agrees, the company could be facing
a class-action lawsuit for discrimination
against 1.6 million current and former female
employees. I had no idea about the lawsuit
and there were people in my store that had
no idea about it also. members of management
in the upper echelons of Walmart management
talk about how women at Walmart are useless.
I had been receiving manager, I was operation
manager, I was merchandise manager, so it's
like I kinda did it all. I cleaned the bathroom
every single day, Ken coulw come to me and
he'd say to me "Oh, it's your turn again."
I looked at him and I said it was my turn
yesterday, you know, and he'd laugh and he's
joke about it and we'd go back and forth and
I'd say I know I'm the only female that's
working out here, so hence, I'd have to clean
the bathroom. Nobody said, so why had a woman
been this all these years, you look at the
value, every general manager stated, she should
be a GM, every evaluation, what's wrong with
this picture. The company hides the fact that
these practices are very systemic, meaning
that they come out of the home office. Bottom
line, if you were a female you just weren't
worth it. You just weren't worth the time,
the money, the effort, nothing. A blind man,
my grandmother was blind, she could see better
than what you guys were seeing because you
take it and put the blinders on you didn't
wanna see. When I called, I called to file
a petition,. or to file a claim against them
just to say that they discriminated against
me because I was a woman.

I'm Betty, I'm a Walmart associate, I love

working at Walmart. I love that they pay me
less than him, because that means I can't
afford to eat as much. And I get to keep my
figure. Jim got promoted to management over
me, but that's okay cause he's a cutie. You
go get him, honey! When I applied for the
asst. manager's training program, I didn't
get any response back at all. I went through
everything I had done for my store manager,
and I had done it like you would do a checklist,
said you told me to do this, I did it,. He
agreed on it, and I said so now I want what
you promised me, he just bluntly told me "There's
no place for people like you in management."
And I said what do you mean people like me?
And I said because I'm a woman? Or that I'm
black? He said well two out of two ain't bad!
I was called milk-boy, nigger, at this particular
store, there was an incident where this one
guy's bicycle. they hung it form the ceiling
and put a rope around it, you know they literally
put the lynch bicycle, this is what they said.
But I complained, because it was to me offensive,
and it was unacceptable. What happened after
that? Nothing. I don't know if I was more
devastated than humiliated. But in my mind,
the way I love people, I just couldn't see
another person, maybe they're not as strong
as I am to be able to take that. This woman
walked through the hallway and said enie menie
minie mo catch a nigger by the toe. I reported
this incident, nothing happened. If you complain
about discrimination, they just see if they
can get more people to try and work you out
of there or whatever and that's basically

what happened to me, I just got tired. I started

going backwards in my mind of all the different
stuff, and it started clicking and clicking,
and the more I thought, the worse I felt because
I felt to myself, you're an idiot. How could
you have not known. I was devastated. The
time that I spent on hose roads, I could've
been at home with my husband. But I wasn't
because I was doing my end of the Walmart
promise You do this, we will do this. And
it was not worth my husband's life. And the
worst part about it is no one will ever know
how big this is. What happens to people, there
have got to be more people like me out there,
but they're too afraid to say anything.
I love my job. It's challenging, But it's
really satisfying. We truly are living the
American Dream. It's out there, and it's at
Walmart.. Great citizenship also means that
we're going to support the communities that
we're in to support our charities and the
organizations that exist there. You know,
by the time I was born out in Hoover, I have
lived under about 36% of the presidents of
the United States. Hoover and Roosevelt, Truman,
Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford,
Carter, Reagan, Clinton, Sr. Bush, and Jr.
Bush. So that's 13 presidents out of 43 I've
lived. We came here in 1959. And started an
IGA store which is independent grocers. They
had approx. 150 employees and of these 150
the fulltime employees were a great number
of them, they had full coverage insurance,
health insurance. We also had 401k pension
plans that they really appreciate it. You
know, in small-town businesses, you do become

attached to your employees and they're very

important to you. We always had a Christmas
Party or dinner where all the employees came
and we'd close the stores. And every day after
school I'd get off the bus and run up to the
store because we lived a couple blocks from
it. This was left over from when we closed
down the stores in the late 90's. I don't
believe it's fair the way that Walmart has
come in with the funding that they get to
put their sewers, roads, parking signals,
grass etc in compared to what the independent
retailer gets, no I don't believe it's fair.
Certainly it isn't fair, and I think he at
one time did go talk to them in Cameron and
say, if we're going to run a business here
can you help us? no they couldn't do that/
I don't think it's fair to help them to build
roads for their business and at the same time
the store open puts others out of business.
The competition we're up against hasn't caused
a problem as much as the competition being
helped by our government. From one level to
the other they get all the breaks. Walmart
is coming in and is pushing us out. We know
you give them tax abatements, will you give
us tax abatements? And no they couldn't do
that, so the county nor the city would do
that. And everyone knew it was unfair, but
we couldn't do anything. I'm sure water, any
of that stuff, as far as I know we didn't
receive a dime from the city, county or any
place like that. If you tell them that you
don't want them in your city limits there's
nothing to stop them from buying five acres
outside the city limits, hooking up to rural

water and having all the negative effects

on the city and none of the positive effects.
In Cameron, it took 40% of our business and
about 1/3 of our business here in Hamilton.
In Brookfield it took over 50% of our business
overnight. It's hard to make those payments
with a wholesaler having problems themselves,
so everything culminating in everyone having
problem's. To pay employees you use the cash
from the inventory and then you didn't have
any inventory. In the process of all this
I had to borrow money to put into stores and
with the farm as collateral. It went down
from there. So we had no recourse but to just
close em up. It was 40 years of hard work
that seemed to disappear all at once. It wasn't
very easy thing to adjust to. And now you
can see Erwin still saddened a lot. It wasn't
what he planned. But we had a lot of good
times, he did a lot of things, he knows a
lot of people, they respect him, and so I
don't know what else you're going to get out
of life. On the closing of that store, it
was a Sunday morning, and just.... I remember
coming down stairs and sat down on the couch
and mom told me and I started crying. It's
like a family member, we were there every
day and it was very a part of my life It was
probably my favorite place. They wanted it
from me. And I love him to death for it, but
they wanted it for me and my family. And if
Walmart gains ground and has a monopoly, where
will our families and where will our children
be and what will they have to do to work,
and to be competitive, in ten years or so,
it could be very, very serious for the nation.

It might happen that way and I hope it doesn't

for our children's sake, but it could be real
serious, be a revolution, I won't say it'd
be a civil war but it'd be a revolution and
I don't think anybody wants that. I'm Kim
Marcetta and I'm a 4th and 5th grade bilingual
teacher in Denver CO at Newman Elementary
School, and Walmart received subsidies of
about 1.7 million dollars and with that our
Denver metropolitan area, that could've kept
the three schools we closed this year open.
I'm Monica Jefferson, I'm a speech/language
pathologist and I work for special school
district of St. Louis county. Walmart receives
over 31 million dollars in subsidy from the
Mo. government. Cathedral City made a 1.8
million dollar investment but because of Wal-Mart's
lies and not stepping up to the plate with
their commitments, we're short on policemen,
we're short on fireman, we've eliminate the
recreation commission of the city, we're not
able to provide the services to our services
to the residents that they need and deserve
and we're going to have lives hanging in the
balance because we're not going to be able
to provide these services. My name is Charles
Haas I've been a 4th grade teacher in Washington
state for many years and when I think of the
million dollars that Walmart received for
its distribution center, and what we could
be don't there for students it's outrageous.
Taking revenue away from our community that
will have a direct impact on our ability to
continue to provide some level of service.
In Illinois, Walmart has received 100 million
dollars in subsidies and that has affected

our school systems that money could go into

our school systems to rehire all of the support
teachers we need back, the support personnel,
we could have our psychologist back out social
workers back, our counselors back, we could
pick up and these programs are being cut because
Walmart has received subsidized. What we're
experiencing currently is that Walmart has
for business purposes have decide that they
are going to leave our community. They're
moving 2 miles away. Not very far away, in
fact one is being built on the property line
of our city which we still will not receive
any benefit from. Just outside the city limits.
Just as we were about to start to receive
a better part of the sales tax revenue, from
the deal, we found out that we'd been the
chumps. To end it with a vacant building of
the size that most businesses cannot fill.
So you have a huge building that sits vacant
for months
and years.
You know, responsible citizenship also means
looking out for the environment. We can make
a difference in this area's sustainability.
One of the most exciting things about the
Riverkeeper organization is working with the
public. We have a lot of volunteers that volunteer
to keep their part of the Catawba River. Because
the Catawba River's dammed 11 times and has
11 lakes on it. We have lakes with coves and
so we call our volunteers cove-keepers. And
these cove-keepers want to safeguard and protect
the Catawba River. Essentially what we did
was an investigation and we visited about
seven Walmarts in the Catawba River Valley

to see what their environmental practices

were and judge whether their current environmental
practices would have an impact on the drinking
water of the town of Belmont. And what we
found in every single case was that Walmart
had a practice of storing herbicides pesticides
and fertilizers in the parking lots. What
concerned us most about this particular case
was the proximity of this Walmart and the
creek running right by the Walmart site and
that creek empties right here at the intake
site. For me when I'm out on patrol and I'm
on the river and there's a drinking water
intake right there what I know is that there's
a mom somewhere who's at a kitchen sink and
she's putting water in bottle to make for
a baby and that baby is drinking...the labels
on some of the herbicides and pesticides said
"this product known to cause reproductive
harms by the state of California, and birth
defects." These pallets with bags and bags
of this material, many of them broke and busted
and spilling on the pavement, when it rained
all this material was washing right into the
storm water, and eventually making it here
to the Catawba River, a source of drinking
water for almost 2 million people in the region.
So we'd be calling Walmart to really express
our concern about these chemicals making their
way into the public drinking water and they
game me a name and a phone number for somebody
in Arkansas headquarters to call. And that
person when I talked to him it wasn't the
right person they said they didn't think they
had a person in charge of environmental affairs
but they would try and find out. They never

called, so again I called back, this time

I called their attorneys and said look I'm
not getting an answer from anyone at corporate
Walmart and because I haven't I'm gonna start
a web blog, and every contact I have with
you I'm going to put on my website and report
what your response it. And if there's no response,
that's what's going to be on our website.
So that's what I did. Two or three days later,
they still didn't call back we then sent them
the law, and I elevated the rhetoric and said
it appears to us as if you're violating the
storage laws, and we're getting ready to contact
our attorneys, still no one called, finally
the attorneys gave me the name of a person
that they thought was their contact and I
finally reached that person at Walmart Headquarters
in Arkansas, and he said he had just started
the job. He has been in training for the last
two weeks and he didn't know what to tell
me. So at this time I started calling the
newspaper media and asking them to do a story.
We got a great local news station here in
Charlotte, North Carolina that responded on
camera showing these pallets and pallets of
chemicals, herbicides, fertilizers, stored
in the parking lots right beside the storm
water drain. It ran in the morning. The noontime
the six o'clock and the evening news that
day. It just so happens that the Walmart manager
for the local store where most of the video
was shot had 81 pallets of this material out
in the parking lot saw the story. Called his
regional manager the next day and said you
won't believe what I saw on the news last
night. For all his stores in the region, we

had them pull those chemicals from the parking

lots and put them under cover. As I read the
case history and all the environmental crimes
and particularly the consent decrees from
the attorney general's office ordering Walmart
to establish better environmental protection,
what flabbergasted me most about the lack
of corporate response was their apparent disregard
for these consent decrees and they had not
taken them very seriously. It's only the local
guys. I can say in my history as river keeper,
I don't think I've ever encountered a corporation,
be it a power company, an oil company, as
unresponsive as Walmart. Wildlife conservation
is very important to me, but it's really exciting
when a company like Walmart makes it a priority,
too.
We have a great relationship with the Chinese
government. They have treated us very fairly
in and what they have done. They actually,
much like in the USA hold us to a higher standard
-higher standard of sanitation, higher standard
of employment.
My name is Wendy. I am 21 years old. I am
from the Shenzhai province.
My family plants corn, paddies and potato.
I wanted to earn some money so that their
life could be easier.
At least, I didn't want their life to be too
hard.
They would work from dawn until night.
They would begin to work on the farm at daybreak,
and wouldn't get back until night.
I thought about working in the factory when
I was in middle school. At the time, I thought

it would be exciting and interesting to work

in the factory.
I left my home town on April 29 this year,
and then began to look for a job in Shangzhen.
At that time I had a friend working in that
factory who also came from my hometown.
So I went to see my friend each day at the
factory gate, which is just in front of Wen
Yi's room.
My name is Wen Yi, and I come from Hunan Province.
He heard my dialect when I was talking with
my friend.
Then he spoke with me using the same dialect
he asked me where I was from.
I didn't tell him the truth I said it was
from
Shawn King area
He served for the army of Shon King for a
couple of years, so he can speak the dialect.
That's the way we've got to know each other.
My girlfriend and I work in the same Walmart
factory.
She works in the old workshop and I work in
the new one.
I'm on the night shift and finish work at
seven in the morning.
She begins to work at 7:30 each morning
and works overtime until 10 p.m.
We don't have much time to spend together,
but whenever there is an opportunity I'll
cook some delicious food for her.
We like singing karaoke, shopping around,
and buying some little things. In that way,
we feel more relaxed. Most of the time we

go to Karaoke singing songs and listen to

music.
We tend to rent a room outside and cook by
ourselves because the meals offered by the
factory are really disgusting.
However the dilemma is whether you live
in the dorms at the factory allocated or not,
they always deduct the rent for our wages
-you have no choice but to live inside.
if you're going to move out of the dorms the
factory will tell you - you can move out and
we will not charge you
electricity or water, but rent will still
be charged.
You see, if we live inside the dorm we pay
not only the rent, but also the utilities
- which is charged by how much he use.
There are very few fans installed in my current
workshop. It is extremely hot inside. If they
plan to install a new fan, then the others
will tell us that we can only have one fan,
or the fans that are there.
In my working position, there is no wind at
all. Can you imagine -I'm sitting there and
dripping with sweat all day long. My body
never gets dry.
Walmart informed the factory that it was going
to send people here for the inspection, and
they will tell us how to lie for the inspection.
For example, the workers must respond, "six
days", when asked how many days they worked
- even though they actually worked for seven
days.
The workers don't dare to say anything wrong,

because we're really afraid of being punished

by managers.
Management has a meeting in advance and has
a meeting to teach us how to lie. If you lie
well, you'll be rewarded. If not, you'll be
punished or fired.
The worker is given a fake pay slip, and they
never let you have the chance to speak out
the truth, but threaten you to deliver false
information.
We really worked day and night in order to
get the wage of less than three dollars per
day. My mom wants me back home because she
feels it's too toilsome, but I don't think
so.
Everybody else here has the same situation
as me. If they can do this I can do it also.
I'll think about my mom when I am very tired.
It would be wonderful if she could be with
me. She takes care of me very well when I'm
sick. She'll let me have a good rest, and
cooks anything that I'd like to eat. She's
really very nice to me.
I would respectfully like to ask the boss
of Walmart to give the Chinese workers some
consideration, and a chance for a little time
off.
Customers Walmart -when you wear expensive
clothes, when your children play with high
quality toys
think about china and the far east.
Those profits you made and the wonderful life
you have are the sweat and tears and overtime
working
of Chinese people.

If one day in camera lady who just bought

a toy from Walmart, I'll say respectable customer
-respectable Walmart customer, "Do you know
why you can buy such cheap toy from Walmart?"
That's because we workers work all day every
day and night.
We added 125,000 new jobs around this world
this past year. Good jobs!
Jobs with benefits, jobs that have profit
sharing and retirement savings accounts for
associates. But most importantly to me, jobs
come with the opportunity for
personal development.
189,000 young women in Bangladesh who are
sewing garments for Walmart. These workers
are getting up at 5:30 in the morning, they
brush their teeth with their finger using
ashes from the fire because they can't afford
toothbrush. Forced to work from eight in the
morning until ten o'clock at night, 14 hours
a day seven days a week on wages from 13 to
17 cents an hour.
These are women who are hit by their supervisors,
trapped in utter mystery - as the largest
company in the world, Walmart sets the standard
that other companies are going to follow.
So Walmart right now is sucking down standards
all across the world.
These are workers who have no rights.
The outlook for this company today is very
positive. In every country that we operate
in, the Walmart model works.
Because once your associates know that you
will stand up for what is right, then when
they see wrong occurred there

are more likely to contact you. And we have

a we have very aggressive program underway
to make sure -and have had now for the last
couple of years.
I was Global Services Manager for Mexico,
Central and South America. My job function
entitled three things.
Oversight of all factory certifications. Which
means you go in there and you make sure there
are humane working conditions. The big deal
with factor certifications is
to make sure that the workers are in a clean,
safe, humane environment.
When I was in the factory, you you talk to
the
people and the people are so nice. And they're
so good and they were just working for so
little money, and without any condition of
fairness whatsoever, with their compensation
and their working conditions.
I went back to my hotel room and I just wept
my first time. And you know after dinner I
picked up the phone to call my wife, and just
tell her what I'd seen, y'know, I just started
crying about that, telling her.
And she was like "It's gonna be alright".
I know we're doing the right thing, I just
couldn't imagine it was this way.
I thought that a company like Walmart -once
started reporting the truth of what was happening
in the factory, would take quick action to
try and make the working conditions better.
I believed in the mission and the culture
which I thought existed at Walmart.

I led more Walmart cheers than just about

everybody that I know. I didn't even mind
being the squiggly.
I mean, if you would have cut me, I would
have bled Walmart blue blood.
I didn't know that we weren't going to make
it the goal to correct the violations. And
I didn't think that any retaliation would
be brought against me for doing my job. I
now realize I was pretty naive.
But it just didn't occur to me that Walmart
would do anything except for the right thing
once they were faced with the truth.
I kept going into other factories and seeing
the same things over and over again. And it
became apparent to me that this was not an
isolated issue.
All you've got to do is follow the money,
and the ones who are in power right now have
tremendous pressure on them to perform like
never before.
The system was designed to keep the goods
flowing to the United States. When push came
to shove, they did not stand up and do the
right thing. What really happened was -they
were getting fired for telling the truth about
the factory certifications. And that was shocking.
It was embarrassing. Ripped my heart out.
To have all of that ripped from you and then
to get sold out and lied to... Walmart let
me down when I needed somebody to look out
for me. Even though I was trying to look out
for Walmart for years.
We want to make sure that our suppliers comply
with local country codes, with human rights
standards, that people are not underage, that

they're paid well...

Made in the USA. It means something.
Made in the USA. Means a job for somebody.
But we've made it our policy to find more
US suppliers who can compete. Because American
goods mean American jobs. At Walmart. We pledge
to support American sources whenever we can.
So you can too.
If we keep our prices low, and raised our
average wage substantially, we would, in fact,
decrease our profitability disproportionally,
and we would sacrifice a healthy chunk of
what it is our shareholders expect from us.
It is written in the New Testament -the love
of money is the root of all evil. This does
not say that money itself is evil. The fact
that I shared a room last night with Tom Shooley,
our CFO, while we were in New York -saved
$200. The fact that my dinner was ten dollars
last night, saved money.
You shall not steal. Doesn't this teach us
that keeping everything for ourselves is a
form of stealing? Or are we commanded to help
those less fortunate to find enough to eat.
Today I want you to know, however, the five
members of that family -together -are worth
more 102 BILLION dollars. The widow and four
children have in the last twenty years, emerged
on the list of the top ten wealthiest people
in the United States.
They could easily take ten billion of that
and see to it that every employee of Walmart
in the United States has health care, adequate
pension, and adequate wages.
Walmart after the 9-11 attacks on the World

Trade Center and Pentagon, they apparently

decided that they needed to have a bunker.
There is a facility for the Walton family
in case of an apocalyptic attack -a residence
that they can live in and reside in, in case
they had to do that. There's a helipad behind
the facility back there, where they can come
in by helicopter, and there's satellites dishes
behind the facility. And most of it is underground.
As you can see, you can't really see much
from the gate, which is all fortified.
Faith means nothing at all, if it does not
involve us loving one another as neighbors,
in compassion for the poor.
When you hear these bells at Walmart, do you
remember the people who they're ringing for?
They remind us of our friends and neighbors
who could use a little help.
That's why at Walmart, we give back throughout
the holidays and all year long.
Of course the most important beneficiary of
this store is our customer. It's the customer
who lives in that neighborhood.
I was actually selling cars for about six
months, but prior to that I actually had my
own business, I was doing my own wood finishing
on boats. And I actually did quite well at
that. So, I'm getting a little too old for
that.
If I was going to go through all that I went
through, I want something to come out of it.
Something good. There was a truck on one side
that had a camp shell and there was a van
to one side, and I thought, y'know. I've always
said you know you don't want to be in the

spot where nobody can see you. But I thought,

"Four car spaces from the front door." And
I thought they had security outside. Okay,
well I should be fine. And uh, when I got
out, there was two of them.
Unfortunately he caught me. I got outside
but he caught me. And thats when I realized
he had a gun, because he had a gun and he
was holding me. And thats when they told me,
"Get back in the car or I'm going to blow
your head off".
The year before, when I worked at the phone
company, we had a safety meeting. And it was
around Christmas time. And they had the Sheriff's
department out there. And they were talking
about, if you're ever in a parking lot and
this happens, what do you do? Don't go with
them. If you go with them, you're likely not
going to live. Because statistically, that's
what happens. They'll kill you. That's what
first went through my mind -that I'm not going
to survive this. Um... Sorry. Um... so that
is why the decision to jump out, y'know, I
wanted to choose. I didn't want. I thought
he was going to rape me, too. He said he didn't
want the car. I thought they were going to
rape me. So when they got me back in the car
after looking at the gun, I just kind of resigned
to y'know, like there was nothing I could
do. And I just kind of went you know, kind
of cold inside.
This is the parking lot where Laura Tanaka
faced her attacker. Inside the store, Walmart
had more than two hundred security cameras,
and four security guards on patrol. Outside,
there was nothing.

The police did recommend on site security.

And that there was none. That they had assured
the people in the neighborhood that they would
provide security and make sure it was safe
for the neighborhood, and that wasn't done.
It was evident that Walmart knew they had
substantial problems in their parking lot.
Walmart was aware that the majority of the
crime throughout the state occurred in their
parking lot, despite the fact that 80% of
the crime that occurred in the parking lot,
they had done almost nothing to protect the
customers in the lots.
Rape, murder, kidnapping -all of these shocking
allegations, and they come from Walmart shoppers.
Report of a Walmart parking lot attack tonight
-North Texas police are on the hunt for a
would-be kidnapper.
A violent attack in the parking lot of an
Orange County Walmart -at least one man tried
to carjack, rob, and shoot a woman.
Who shot and killed 33-year-old Mark Korenek
in the store's parking lot.
A bold and deadly shooting -it happened this
morning at the Walmart.
A Taylor woman is recovering tonight after
fighting a thief in a Walmart parking lot.
A man is arrested after a tire iron attack
-it happened in a parking lot of this Walmart.
Two teenaged workers shot while gathering
carts in the parking lot yesterday at this
Glendale Walmart.
It happened at 1:48 this morning in the Walmart
parking lot in Riverdale.

She turned to run from this subject and was

shot in the back.
Walmart has conducted research on crime in
its parking lots, and critics accuse the company
of a nationwide pattern of covering up that
research -of failing to turn it over in lawsuits.
Here's what Walmart did not want to show.
As early as 1994, as you can see in this internal
document, a Walmart study showed that 80 percent
of crime at Walmart locations occurred in
the parking lot. And when the company added
roving patrols at several sites, the crime
rate dropped to as low as zero.
A district judge is filing Walmart stores
eighteen million dollars. Judge James Mahathey
is sanctioning Walmart for what the court
believes is a pattern of deception. It involves
the case of a southeast Texas woman who was
sexually assaulted and raped in the parking
lot of Walmart.
The court found that Walmart did not disclose
that it had conducted a safety study -a study
that found if Walmart put employees in golf
carts patrolling its parking lots, crime there
would drop to zero.
Judge Sharolyn Wood heard a case against Walmart
in Houston, Texas in 1999, involving an assault
in a Walmart parking lot. She says that in
seventeen years on the bench, and over twenty-five
thousand cases, she's rarely seen such flagrant
abuse of the system.
It was very disturbing. To see such an intentional
course of conduct -it was corrupt.
She is charging Walmart with cheating in court
-and she is not the only one.

This is one judge. Is there something in the

drinking water in Arkansas that says perjury
is alright? Another judge -rarely has this
court seen such a pattern of deliberate confiscation,
delay, misrepresentation, and downright lying.
True.
Unfortunately for the customer, they really
don't care what goes on after you spend your
money in there and come out into the parking
lot to go home.
Police found Holden shot to death along the
side of a road in Stanton, Texas. Four hundred
miles from where she was abducted.
Megan was uh, very special. We grew up together;,
we lived together.
She is really going to be missed a whole lot,
because she had a lot of people that loved
her.
She was just a very sweet person. She never
wanted a whole lot out of life, she just wanted
to live, y'know, be happy. That's all she
wanted.
Just recently, before she died. We were in
her room. Listening to a CD. We were singing
together. And we could just be open with each
other. We didn't care.
Police say Megan Holden was chosen at random
on the way to her pickup truck in the Walmart
parking lot just before midnight. After that
crime was caught on surveillance video, police
say Williams - a marine veteran with a history
of drug offenses, sped off in Holden's truck,
heading west -where he apparently murdered
the 19-year old junior college student and
dumped her body near some railroad tracks

in the West Texas town of Stanton.

I just think that there's a lot of things
Walmart could have done. There should be somebody
watching the cameras.
Somebody should have been watching the cameras.
Walmart has those cameras out there in their
parking lot, and I thought that they were
watching.
A security camera, without someone watching
it, is of no use at all.
The abduction and murder that happened in
Texas happened at a store where the loss prevention
team was sent in to set up a security system
outside that would track the union activity
in that store. And the only reason they had
the pictures that they did, was because they
had the union package on the outside of the
store.
Walmart focuses on protecting their property,
and not their patrons.
When you're a multi-million dollar company
can't you pay somebody like $12 an hour to
watch the camera?
If people are putting profits before safety,
they're putting profits before uh, human life,
I don't think there's anything you can say
to them.
A man is suing the Walmart in New Castle,
saying his mother died after a botched robbery
attempt in a store's parking lot.
A random shooting happened here, three people
are dead, and three others injured.
The shooting happened right in the middle
of a busy shopping day.

At least one man tried to car jack, rob, and

shoot a woman.
Report of a Walmart parking lot attack.
Tonight, North Texas police are on the hunt
for a would-be kidnapper.
Bold and deadly shooting.
Shooting rampage.
It happened at 1:48pm.
Random shooting.
(MONTAGE OF NEWSREEL AUDIO)
Walmart stores has a responsibility to society
to make sure that what we do fits in and represents
what it is society expects from a big company.
We need to figure out, how do we in fact work
together to cause them to want to have a Walmart.
On December 6th, there was an article on the
front page of our local paper, and it said
that Walmart was going to build a Supercenter
on the corner of Queen Creek, just a short
distance from my house.
And this particular location was within our
planned community and it was within walking
distance of an elementary school and a junior
high school.
And I felt it was an inappropriate location
for something of that magnitude. So, I decided
to form a campaign and say, "No Walmart in
our Neighborhood".
Living as Christ has taught us, we begin to
transform the world. This transformation is
visible in the reading that we have from Acts.
We're really trying to show why the work that
we're doing is the work of the gospel.
The lesson that we learned in Inglewould was

that we have the ability, through our democracy,

to take power. And take control. And actually
hold the companies accountable. As a nation
in this world, the most powerful, the most
affluent -we have the power to make sure that
all have what they need.
That this is not some pie in the sky vision,
but instead -this is our call as Christians
to make this happen. My neighbors and I went
and handmade some little posters and we decided
that we were going to have a meeting in the
local park, which was about a block from here.
We had no idea how many people would show
up. We were absolutely amazed -and all of
them wanted to do something.
In the beginning, there was only a few of
us -not a lot of people came to the meetings,
only some supermarket workers, and a couple
of churches - remember? And then, little by
little, more people, until they started feeling
the pressure.
They wanted to build a Walmart in this whole
parking lot -it was going to be two hundred
and fifteen thousand square feet. And there
was going to beWalmart was going to take this whole space,
and like seventeen football fields big. And
they were going to build one big box that
was Walmart, and then little stores in between.
And then another big box with Sam's club.
We volunteer to do the various chores that
we had, and then we solicited what I call
a core committee, that was a group of people
who would be responsible for the strategy,
the press releases, it was everything that

needed to be done to organize our campaign.

So then the coalition started getting bigger
and bigger, and before you knew it -everybody
signed up, like they were part of a coalition
for a better Inglewood. They were standing
up to defend the community.
And I think the other lesson learned in Inglewood
is that there's no magic potion to suddenly
put this together and suddenly you're going
to win. It's a hard process, there are a lot
of things that you have to put in place -but
when you put those things in place, you can
win.
It includes the ability to organize regular
people -small business owners, workers.
We got our message focused, we've hammered
away on the phones, hammered away on doors,
people saw us coming and going when they went
to church. Every time they went to a store
in Inglewood, there was a flyer about our
efforts. We held rallies.
A legal strategy enough resources to have
the research to be able to make your case.
To be able to have the materials.
It includes the ability to get your message
to the press, and to do media events.
We grew to 187 volunteers, and we had plot
captains, and we had an area chairman, we
proceeded to collect signatures on our petitions.
And we started out with fifteen hundred signatures,
and by the time we got through, we had four
thousand signatures. And they were all from
people within our -what I call our area code.
Zip code.

Inglewood is the first test for Walmart's

ambitious plans in California, and activists
say the stakes here are huge.
This is like Godzilla eats Tokyo. This is
much bigger than David and Goliath.
All of the information that was coming from
Walmart kept saying its a done deal, there's
nothing you can do about, we have our zoning,
don't waste your time. But we knew better.
Then, we had numerous public meetings to let
the public know what was happening, what the
status was.
It was not like they came into the small towns
in the south, or towns that have no business,
and they brought in business. No, no no, this
is something completely different.
They represent from Bentonville, Arkansas,
plantation capitalism. The future of this
community depends on our ability to stop the
monster in its tracks.
Walmart sponsored the ballot initiative after
Inglewood city council opposed building a
Walmart super center on the site. Today, Walmart
opponents charged the initiative, measure
4A, hijacks the city's planning process.
It is seventy-one pages of legal fine print
that seeks to cut the community out of its
own development process.
What they did was essentially tell the city
of Inglewood -get out of here. We are the
biggest corporation in the world, we can go
in and essentially buy an election.
We held public meetings, we did our letters,
we held private meetings with city council
members.

We went out on the streets and doing the work

to ensure the people understood that to those
who much has been given, much will be expected.
I'm sure the Walton family believes that they're
a good, Christian family. But I think they're
going to make billions at the expense of poor
workers. And I'm sure there's a lot of people
who think that they're good, Christian companies.
Not if they're going to make money off the
backs of the people who are suffering.
A lot of people sacrificed an awful lot to
have the freedoms that we have. And that flag
to me represents all of our freedoms. Our
freedom to fight Walmart, our freedom to live
where we want to, work where we want to, have
a say in our government.
They can say and believe whatever they want
about y'know, trickle down theories of capital,
and whatever nonsense they want to invent,
to hold onto their capital. But, um, that's
not our option. But as Christians we don't
have that option. That's not our option. That
we're not about capital. That we're about
people.
We came before city council for the final
vote, and the council voted six, nothing to
deny Walmart and the developer the right to
build the store on that property.
Residents of Inglewood, California, are voting
today. On whether to approve the construction
of a new shopping development dominated by
Walmart.
The other night we gathered at a local restaurant,
hoping for a miracle. But braced to go back
to court if the measure passed.

And now, the votes were coming in on a proposed

Walmart superstore in Inglewood.
(CHEERS)
This one group of people took on a giant and
won.
I think it was really meaningful.
David Beat Goliath! David Beat Goliath!
The
city council
of Monroeville, Pennsylvania handed Walmart
their hat today.
Walmart packs its bags in Cobb County, Georgia.
Community resistance paid off in Hickory,
North Carolina, Walmart hit the road.
Anti-Walmart Candidates sweep the Helotes,
Texas election.
Another trip down the long and dusty for Walmart
in Biloxi, Mississippi.
When you have a group of people, a small group
of people, who don't want you in a community
-does that mean you aren't going to go there?
Thornton, Colorado defeated Walmart.
Plainfield, Illinois.
Las Vegas, Nevada defeated Walmart.
When you have a small group of people that don't want you in a community.
VICTORY!