Walmart workers invited a special guest to crash the company's annual meeting June 5: Bernie Sanders

[Donkees]

By Abha Bhattarai May 21 at 7:00 AM

Excerpt:

For years, Walmart workers have attended the company’s annual shareholders meeting to call for higher wages, better benefits and more predictable schedules.

This year they’ll have someone new delivering the message on their behalf: Sen. Bernie Sanders.

The presidential candidate, who has repeatedly called on Walmart to improve its working conditions, is heading to Bentonville, Ark., on June 5 to introduce a shareholders’ proposal that would give hourly Walmart workers a seat on the company’s board.

“These workers need and deserve a seat at the table,” Sanders (I-Vt.) told The Washington Post. “If hourly workers at Walmart were well represented on its board, I doubt you would see the CEO of Walmart making over a thousand times more than its average worker."

Sanders will hardly be the only well-known personality at the company’s shareholder festivities, where surprise headliners like Katy Perry, Blake Shelton and Mariah Carey have become the norm. Thousands gather at the University of Arkansas’s Bud Walton Arena every year for the multi-day event, which is part pep rally, part pop concert, and includes shareholder votes on a range of matters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/21/walmart-workers-invited-special-guest-crash-companys-annual-meeting-bernie-sanders/

[Prosper]

1. Wal-Mart destroys very important low volume items.

Every tool or accessory or item cannot meet Wal-Mart's criterion for survival. One tool I know of that has disappeared is the 4" pipe wrench. I'll think more and recall other items that have dissapeared because they don't draw the volume required to get a place on a Wal-Mart shelf. Not a big deal? Wal-Mart is changing our culture to reinforce their profit numbers.

[Donkees]

2. Walmart to Skip VIP Treatment for Bernie Sanders at Shareholder Meeting

By Matthew Boyle
May 21, 2019, 12:28 PM EDT


Excerpt:

Sanders, a longtime critic of labor practices at the nation’s biggest private employer, will introduce a shareholder proposal at the June 5 meeting in Rogers, Arkansas, a spokeswoman for his campaign said. The proposal, which has no chance of passing, calls for Walmart to give its hourly workers a board seat.

He will speak as a proxy for Cat Davis, the Walmart employee who filed the latest action, according to United for Respect, a workers’ rights organization. The Vermont senator, who is originally from Brooklyn, may have little more than the proverbial New York minute to speak on workers’ behalf, however. Last year Walmart rushed through all shareholder proposals in less than half an hour.

“Walmart is trying to silence folks,” said Taylor Campbell, a spokesman for United for Respect. “We’re not anticipating that this will pass; this is more about creating a conversation on this issue.”

The proposal that Sanders will introduce is buried at the end of Walmart’s annual proxy statement under “Other Matters.” In the proxy, Walmart said that even if the plan is “properly presented,” it will be voted down. Walmart has separated shareholder proposals and other formalities of its annual meeting in recent years, conducting them a few days before the big “Celebration Event” at the University of Arkansas’s Bud Walton Arena that has featured performances from Katy Perry and Jamie Foxx.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-21/walmart-to-skip-vip-treatment-for-meeting-crasher-bernie-sanders

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