H. Lee Scott, Jr.
Chief Executive Officer
Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72717
Via Fax: 479-273-4329

Dear Mr. Scott:

I am writing to express my serious concern about the evidence that Wal-Mart regularly violates its US workers’ right to organize as documented by Human Rights Watch.  When workers want to improve their working conditions, forming and joining a union is a natural option.  But when Wal-Mart workers try to organize, it seems they are undermined at every turn.

At the first sign of union activity, Wal-Mart managers call the company’s Union Hotline to notify headquarters, which sends out its Labor Relations Team to squash the effort.  The team holds meetings with workers to warn them of the terrible consequences of union formation, often showing anti-union videos to drive the message home. 

Wal-Mart workers are often cowed by the company’s anti-union mantra and too scared to organize, in large part because they have little or no chance to hear the views of union organizers and supporters.  The company’s relentless, one-sided anti-union message convinces many workers that they will suffer dire consequences if they form a union, and many are also afraid that they will face retaliation if they defy Wal-Mart by organizing.

Wal-Mart has made the climate of intimidation worse by sometimes resorting to illegal tactics in order to keep unions out of its US stores, including spying and eavesdropping on pro-union workers, threatening benefit loss if workers organize, and discriminating against union supporters.  It has even illegally fired workers for their union activity. 

Wal-Mart’s complex and sophisticated anti-union apparatus denies workers their right to choose freely whether to organize and could set a precedent that jeopardizes this fundamental right throughout the United States. 

Wal-Mart must change course.  It should stop coercively interfering with workers’ decisions on organizing.  As the world’s largest retailer, the company should go even further and pledge to remain neutral during union campaigns, allowing union representatives reasonable opportunities to present their views to workers. 

If Wal-Mart takes these steps, the company will have gone a long way towards fulfilling its professed goal of “Becoming an Even Better Place to Work,” listed on one of Wal-Mart’s Internet pages as a key component of the company’s recently launched transformation.

Sincerely,