February 2012

For months now, we have been asking Sallie Mae to meet with us to talk about the burden that student debt causes us and our communities. We’ve only heard silence in return.

Now we’re asking Albert Lord, Sallie Mae CEO, to step up and resolve this situation. We need to talk.

Hundreds of students marched to their DC office last October, only to be met by security and police officers. Rather than meet with the students, Sallie Mae employees were escorted out the backdoor by police as they looked at the ground rather than the students drowning in debt.

Re-posted from http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/national-community-labor-and-food-leaders-explain-why-walmart-cant-fix-new-york-citys-food-system/

New York – Today on the steps of New York City Hall, national, community, food, urban and labor group leaders hosted a press conference to address Walmart’s negative impact on the food system. Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and Stuart Appelbaum, president of the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union (RWDSU), spoke at the event, which also marked the release of the new Food & Water Watch report, “Why Walmart Can’t Fix the Food System,” an analysis of the rift between Walmart’s marketing claims and the true impact the company has on the food system.

This week, as the largest food retailer in the United States released its fourth quarter earnings, community leaders in New York gathered to call attention to the company’s business model, which squeezes farmers, workers and processors, and drives food production to become more consolidated and industrialized. While Walmart has been busy promoting itself as the solution to lack of access to healthy food in urban communities, the message from City Hall today was loud and clear: Walmart is not the answer and they are not wanted in New York City.

This weekend as the world's attention focuses on the award-winning film, "The Help" and the courageous domestic workers that are portrayed in the movie, domestic workers and allies from around the country will be hosting viewing parties to highlight the struggles today's domestic workers face, and the need to pass labor protections like AB889.

Since 2006, the US Postal Service has been forced by Congress to massively pre-fund future retiree health benefits – a practice called “pre-funding.” This burden was forced onto no other government agency or private firm. It costs the USPS $5.5 billion annually and is responsible for 84 percent of current debt. That debt has provided the rationale for those in Congress who want to dismantle the Postal Service and destroy thousands of jobs by shutting down mail processing plants and service locations across the country.

This weekend, members of the Warehouse Workers United joined a small reception of the Excluded Workers Congress to share their experiences with wage theft, poor conditions and general disrespect in the Walmart backed warehouses of southern California. The overwhelming majority of goods that move through the warehouses end up the shelves of Walmart stores around the country. The warehouse workers are calling on Walmart to implement their own code for holding suppliers accountable, a code which in writing sounds wonderful, but is not realized in the daily lives of the warehouses. The standards demand that employers in Walmart’s supply chain abide by labor and employment law and provide safe and healthy workplaces for their employees.