Last call: Wal-Mart call-in Friday, Jan. 29

Please contact Wal-Mart and pass on this call-in information.  Jan. 29 is
the last scheduled call-in date for the People's Right to Know Campaign.
Wal-Mart still refuses to release the list of its contracting factories,
but publicity and "many little people" do count! - Dale
----------------------------------------------------------------------

HELP END SWEATSHOPS AND CHILD LABOR - PROMOTE A LIVING WAGE

Contact Wal-Mart Friday, January 29, and ask them to release a list of all
their supplying factories (including addresses) worldwide so that we can
know what products we can buy in conscience.  These are national call-in
days for the People's Right to Know Campaign - the 1998 Holiday Season of
Conscience to End Child Labor and Sweatshop Abuse.

If you already called or e-mailed Wal-Mart about this issue, you can do it
again.  Repeat contacts are helpful, and Wal-Mart still hasn't agreed to
release the information.

The tone of your call should be polite.  If the person to whom you speak
says that Wal-Mart will not release this information to protect its
competitive position (a standard Wal-Mart response), you might reply that
you don't feel you can rely on Wal-Mart to respect workers' human rights
unless independent monitors can have this information to verify factory
conditions.

Contact:  1-800-WAL-MART (1-800-925-6278) or (501) 273-4000
          E-mail:  letters@wal-mart.com
          Fax:  (501) 273-4894 (fax may be disconnected on call-in days!)
          If you prefer to write a letter:
             Mr. David D. Glass, CEO, Wal-Mart Stores,
             702 S.W. Eighth Street, Bentonville, Arkansas 72716


Background information on this campaign -

What this campaign is NOT:
* It is NOT a boycott
* It is NOT an effort to have Wal-Mart "buy American"

What this campaign IS:
* An effort to make Wal-Mart ACCOUNTABLE to us - the consumers of
  their products - and to make Wal-Mart's own code of conduct
  independently verifiable
* An effort to promote a LIVING WAGE for workers in the Third World
  AND in the US - an effort to stop US and overseas workers from
  being pitted against each other by raising the wages and
  conditions of the most oppressed workers around the world
* An effort to create a space in which WORKERS CAN EMPOWER
  THEMSELVES - "Employment yes, but ... with dignity!"

WHY THIS CAMPAIGN?  The goal of the People's Right to Know Campaign is to
press Wal-Mart to release the list of all its suppliers worldwide, so that
human rights and religious groups can begin to check working conditions at
these factories.  This would give consumers a way to discern which products
were made in factories where workers' human rights were respected. Wal-Mart
has a record of contracting with factories that use child labor (for
example, 13-year-olds in Honduras and 10- to 12-year olds in Bangladesh),
and with factories where workers are abused verbally, physically, and
sexually at jobs paying subliving wages for very long work hours, where
labor unions are repressed.  The existence of such working conditions
globally also threatens a living wage for people in the US who "compete for
jobs" with these oppressed workers.  Wal-Mart contracts with suppliers in
at least 49 countries.

Many other US companies besides Wal-Mart have relied on sweatshops or child
labor, but the People's Right to Know Campaign focuses on Wal-Mart because
it is the world's largest retailer.  If Wal-Mart releases information on
its suppliers, it will be easier to get these other companies to follow.
Such information is essential to establish a system of independent
monitoring of factory conditions - a key to stopping abuses and promoting
better working conditions abroad and in the US.

The People's Right to Know Campaign is spearheaded by the National Labor
Committee (NLC), the same organization that successfully pressed Kathie Lee
Gifford to act against the child labor used to make her clothing line.  The
NLC, originally founded in 1981 to support workers threatened by violence
in El Salvador, is backed by many labor unions, religious groups, and human
rights organizations.

For more information, contact the National Labor Committee, 275 7th Avenue,
15th floor, New York, NY 10001.  Phone (212) 242-3002, fax (212) 242-3821,
e-mail natlabcom@aol.com, www.nlcnet.org.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Many little people in many little places making many little steps will
change the world. - Brigitte Hauschild, Nicaragua

(If you can translate this sentence into languages other than Spanish,
German, French, or Russian, please contact Brigitte at
cwalter@nicarao.apc.org.ni)

Dale W. Wimberley
dale.wimberley@vt.edu
Department of Sociology
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University