FAYETTEVILLE --Wal-Mart Stores Inc. shareholders and employees are in town for the global retailer's annual meeting, and management is hoping to proactively counter the effects of anti-Wal-Mart protesters who are planning to be in the area today and Friday.
Gizel Ruiz, chief operating officer of Wal-Mart U.S., told employees of the company's domestic operations Wednesday that they were likely to encounter people outside the meeting "shouting bad things about our company." She was referring, she said, to members of OUR Walmart, or Organization United for Respect at Walmart. The group is backed by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has sought without success to unionize the nation's largest private employer.
"They are paid to disrupt this week's activities," Ruiz said of OUR Walmart. "We all have the right to express our opinions, but there is a respectful way to do it. Their tactics are not respectful.
"They claim to want to make Wal-Mart a better place, but let me tell you -- you make Wal-Mart a better place," she said.
About 2,200 U.S. Wal-Mart workers were hand-picked from the roster of 1.3 million to attend Wednesday's three-hour U.S. employees meeting at Bud Walton Arena, the site of Friday's big show. A separate meeting for chosen international employees took place about the same time at nearby Barnhill Arena. This year's theme is focused on the Wal-Mart customer, "a place where [employees] can make the most impact," Ruiz said.
OUR Walmart's political public-relations firm, BerlinRosen of New York, said rallies were planned for 7 a.m. today at Wal-Mart's Bentonville headquarters and 3 p.m. at the home of Wal-Mart board Chairman Rob Walton, the eldest son of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, in the gated Pinnacle subdivision in Rogers, the firm said.
Protests are nothing new to Wal-Mart shareholders who attend the meetings. Protesters have gathered here every year in recent history. But there may be some new faces in the crowd Friday, as the group of protesters is said to comprise working Wal-Mart moms. They're calling for better pay, more-regular hours and for an end to retaliation by Wal-Mart against employees who speak out against their employer.
Also Wednesday, another Food and Commercial Workers organization, Making Change at Walmart, sent an email to potential donors asking them to contribute $3 to help support the working Wal-Mart moms who went on strike starting Saturday in more than 20 cities, including Chicago, Los Angeles and the Washington, D.C., area.
Those protests didn't appear to affect Wednesday's U.S. employees meeting. The gathering resembled a pep rally for employees and showcased all the top-ranking executives at Wal-Mart U.S., headed by President and CEO Bill Simon as well as Michael Bender and Joaquin Gonzalez Varela, presidents of Wal-Mart West and Wal-Mart East, respectively.
Two workers, Iwalani Janann Muifa Opupele-Pszyk of Wyoming and Donna Williams of Virginia were surprised with promotions to assistant managers of the stores in which they work. Simon called them onstage individually to make the announcements.
"How do you say 'promotion' in Hawaiian?" Simon asked Opupele-Pszyk before announcing her new job.
Ruiz, who also raised a family while working up the ranks at Wal-Mart, countered OUR Walmart's claims that the retailer treats its workers unfairly. She said 75 percent of the company's management team members started as hourly employees and that Wal-Mart promotes roughly 170,000 people each year.
More than 40 percent of the employees at the meeting had worked at Wal-Mart more than 10 years.
"We all have the opportunity to go as far as we want to go," she said.
Business on 06/05/2014