Walmart Watch

Walmart Watch, formed in the spring of 2005, is a joint project of the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, a non-profit organization studying the impact of large corporations on society and its advocacy arm, Five Stones. The Wal-Mart Watch group is based in Washington with the goal to challenge Wal-Mart to become a better employer, neighbor, and corporate citizen in order to improve the wages, health benefits, and treatment of workers. One of Wal-Mart Watch’s initial attacks against Wal-Mart was setting up an automated phone system that called 10,000 people in Arkansas in efforts to find individuals who would share secrets about the practices of Wal-Mart on their workers. As a result of this automated phone system attack, Wal-Mart Watch created a 24-page report revealing the company’s wages and benefits. Wal-Mart Watch’s goal was to get the inside scoop on Wal-Mart’s practices, in hope that they would be less than respectable, to show the public the “ugly truth” behind Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Watch launched a “Higher Expectations” campaign called “Higher Expectations Week” as an attempt to bring the business practices of Wal-Mart to the public eye. “Higher Expectations Week” was supported by many labor unions and liberal groups that partnered and participated with Wal-Mart Watch during the week of the campaign. It has recently merged with Wake Up Wal-Mart to form Making Change at Walmart.

Walmart Watch was originally funded by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and is today part of United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. According to the Wall Street Journal, Walmart Watch is mainly funded by Five Stones, a 501(c)(3) organization that received $2,775,000 in 2005 from the SEIU. The SEIU reportedly gave Five Stones $1 million in 2004 to start Walmart Watch.

Wal-Mart Watch obtained a copy of a Wal-Mart draft memo in which suggested ways to cut employee benefit costs. Wal-Mart Watch asserts that the memo portrayed worker’s wages and benefits as being too low. The memo proposed ways to reduce spending on workers’ benefits without damaging the reputation of Wal-Mart. Specifically, one proposal suggested that Wal-Mart begin hiring more part-time workers because they would not be bound to offer the same benefits as they do for full-time workers. This would also help Wal-Mart cut costs buy being able to pay worker’s a part-time wage rather than a full-time wage. Therefore, Wal-Mart Watch took action by exposing this internal draft memo to the public to illustrate the worsening conditions of Wal-Mart employees.

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