SHOP UNION, NOT WAL-MART

WHEREAS, reliable documentation has shown that Wal-Mart has consistently violated the spirit and the letter of the National Labor Relations Act and other applicable federal and state laws through such actions as consistently paying employees at lower rates according to gender, repeatedly and knowingly hiring subcontractors for janitorial services who employ undocumented aliens for the purpose of cheating them out of the wage-and-hour protections to which they are entitled, violating occupational safety and health laws, pressuring managers to hold down labor costs through falsifying time cards and replacing more senior workers with lower-paid new hires, and firing and otherwise directly intimidating workers seeking to organize; and

WHEREAS, Wal-Mart's substandard pay forces substantial numbers of its employees to rely on government subsidy for healthcare, housing, school lunches, and food stamps; and

WHEREAS, Wal-Mart enters saturated retail markets, either forcing competitors into bankruptcy or inducing them to join its race to the bottom in wages and benefits, then spends millions of dollars in advertising to paper over its bad neighbor policies; and

WHEREAS, Wal-Mart's continuing pressure on its suppliers has contributed to the decline of good domestic jobs in favor of worldwide outsourcing and sweatshop labor; and

WHEREAS, communities lose three jobs for every two Wal-Mart "creates"; and

WHEREAS, Wal-Mart's "lower prices" rise after competition has been eliminated, leaving purchasers with higher prices; and

WHEREAS, funding for schools and public services is harmed by Wal-Mart's exportation of profit and erosion of local tax bases; and

WHEREAS, Wal-Mart's top officials provided significant funding for recent anti-public education, pro-voucher initiatives in California:

RESOLVED, that the AFT, in cooperation with our community and labor allies, support the struggle of Wal-Mart workers to organize for collective representation; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT work with the AFL-CIO, and with community, business and religious organizations to expose Wal-Mart's abusive social, labor and economic practices and support efforts to hold this corporation accountable for its illegal actions; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT urge all affiliates and members to refrain from patronizing Wal-Mart, Sam's Club, or any other subsidiary or related enterprise until such time as they adopt appropriate labor and community-friendly policies; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT redouble our efforts to educate and remind the general public and our own members that the most effective way to defeat Wal-Mart's abuses and race-to-the-bottom tactics and assure a strong tax base and a fair and decent standard of living for all working families is always to look for the union label whenever shopping for groceries, services and goods; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will educate our members to refrain from buying Wal-Mart stock as individuals and urge our pension system board members to refrain from buying Wal-Mart stock.