Author: Erica Smiley

By compensating former CEO Mike Duke nearly $116 million in performance pay, Walmart essentially received a taxpayer subsidy totaling over $40 million from 2009 to 2014.

Walmart, the world’s wealthiest corporation, has avoided an estimated $104 million in U.S. taxes by granting extravagant “performance pay” bonuses to top executives, according to a new report by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies. The company utilizes a loophole that allows companies such as Walmart… Read More»

America’s richest family contributes almost none of their personal wealth to the family’s charity, according to a new report by the Walmart 1 Percent. The Waltons are the wealthiest family in the United States and control a majority of shares in Walmart. Six members of the family are among the 85 wealthiest individuals… Read More»

Photo via Wikimedia.

In a recent report, Americans for Tax Fairness revealed the true costs to U.S. taxpayers of Walmart’s low prices. The company, and specifically the Walton family members who control it, receive an estimated $7.8 billion per year in tax breaks and taxpayer subsidies. The extent of corporate tax breaks in… Read More»

The Rana Plaza garment factory collapsed on April 24, 2013 in the worst garment catastrophe in history. Photo via Wikimedia

April 24 marks the one-year anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh, where at least 1,138 people were killed and more than 2,500 were injured. Known as the worst garment industry catastrophe in history, the building collapsed only months after the deadliest factory fire in Bangladesh’s… Read More»

Restaurant Opportunities Center action

Today many workers who try to band together to improve their jobs through traditional workplace organizing face significant impediments at the hand of hostile employers and outdated labor laws. Those challenges are even more noteworthy for the nearly quarter of the workforce that has no protection under the federal National… Read More»

Walmart employees picket outside of the Walmart store in Pico Rivera, California. Photo via Flickr.

In a new trend, low-wage employees at some of the most profitable companies are turning to social media to expose rampant abuses and violations of labor law. Walmart associates could see more hours in their future through a new company program called “Access to Open Shifts.” What started as a… Read More»

Walmart announced the closure of its store in Chengde, China by posting a notice to employees

In the first organized resistance to Walmart in China, hundreds of workers in the Hunan and Anhui Provinces are demanding compensation after the company abruptly closed a store in Chengde last month. In a letter to the AFL-CIO, one worker from the store described employees being literally dragged from their… Read More»

D.C. residents, community activists, and labor advocates delivered 30,000 signatures on a petition to urge Mayor Gray to pass the Large Retailer Accountability Act Image courtesy @WorkingAmerica

Right now, Washington, D.C., residents are waging a mighty struggle to guarantee living wages from the most profitable retailers in their city. Last month, the D.C. Council passed the Large Retailer Accountability Act (LRAA), which would require large businesses in the district to pay a living wage to employees. The… Read More»

On Thursday, August 22nd, nine former Walmart workers were arrested in front of Walmart’s federal lobbying offices in Washington, D.C., demanding to go back to work.  These workers had been questionably terminated after they went on strike against unfair labor practices at the company in June leading up to Walmart’s… Read More»

After hundreds of workers returned to their stores after striking against unfair labor practices, and after thousands of community activists around the country organized actions at local stores, Walmart has predictably responded by retaliating.  Instead of engaging workers in a conversation about treatment, plummeting customer service ratings, weak store sales… Read More»