Support Walmart Workers

Walmart Stores Inc. — notorious for years for trampling the basic rights of American workers¹ — has become the focus of a historic strike by its store workers.

In an unprecedented move, recently Walmart workers went on strike across the country,² informing Walmart management that strikes will spread throughout November if Walmart doesn't listen to their demands.³

We need to show solidarity with the Walmart workers who are standing up to Rob Walton, Walmart chairman of the board and the rest of Walmart's management for a safe workplace and a decent standard of living.

Tell Walmart Chairman of the Board Rob Walton: Meet with Walmart workers about their demands for better pay and working conditions. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Walmart's 2.1 million employees make it the largest private employer in the world, trailing only the U.S. Department of Defense and the Chinese People's Liberation Army in overall employment.⁴ Fully 1.4 million of them work at Walmart stores in the United States.⁵

And while Rob Walton raked in at least $420 million in Walmart dividends alone last year, because low pay and arbitrary schedulig force many of Walmart's workers to rely on public assistance to make ends meet.

In nearly all of the 23 states which have disclosed the information, Walmart has the largest number of employees on the public rolls of any employer. As reported by Mother Jones:

In 2004, a year in which Walmart reported $9.1 billion in profits, the retailer's California employees collected $86 million in public assistance, according to researchers at the University of California-Berkeley. Other studies have revealed widespread use of publicly funded health care by Walmart employees in numerous states. In 2004, Democratic staffers of the House education and workforce committee calculated that each 200-employee Wal-Mart store costs taxpayers an average of more than $400,000 a year, based on entitlements ranging from energy-assistance grants to Medicaid to food stamps to WIC-the federal program that provides food to low-income women with children.⁶

Walmart always counters these facts by talking about low prices. But the profits of Walmart are enormous. The Walton family, which owns nearly half of Walmart, is as wealthy as the bottom 42 percent of American families combined.⁷ An average Walmart worker, who earns about $8.81 an hour, would need to work one year to earn as much money as the Walton family earns in Walmart dividends every three minutes.⁸

Tell Walmart Chairman of the Board Rob Walton: Meet with Walmart workers about their demands for better pay and working conditions. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Too often, when the workers at Walmart stand up for their rights they are subjected to retaliation and intimidation.⁹ Walmart's appalling record of treating workers poorly also includes blatant disregard for their human rights, discrimination against women, and infliction of damage on small businesses and the environment.¹⁰

Walmart needs to know that we have those workers' backs on this. That is why we are joining our friends at Making Change at Walmart campaign to turn up the pressure on Walmart to end its exploitative employment practices.

Tell Walmart Chairman of the Board Rob Walton: Meet with Walmart workers about their demands for better pay and working conditions. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Walmart has set the standard for driving wages down and maximizing profits. Forcing its executive to meet the workers at the negotiating table would be a major milestone. It would have reverberations throughout the retail world and be a victory for those who are fighting for higher wages and better working conditions for American workers.

Click below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6986350&p=walmart_strike&id=49476-2593817-kGJPvVx&t=11

Thank you for taking action.

Murshed Zaheed, Deputy Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. Pallavi Gogoi, "Walmart's Record on Human Rights," Bloomberg Businessweek, May 1, 2007.
2. Dave Jamieson, "Walmart Strikes Mark New Chapter In Labor's Fight With Mega-Retailer," HuffingtonPost.com, October 15, 2012.
3. Harry Bradford, "Walmart Black Friday Strike: Workers Threaten To 'Take Action' On Retailer's Busiest Day [UPDATE]," HuffingtonPost.com, October 11, 2012.
4. Mike Ivey, "Biz Beat: Walmart's low-wage reach runs deep," The Capital Times, July 10, 2012.
5. Henry Blodget, "Walmart Employs 1% Of America. Should It Be Forced To Pay Its Employees More?," BusinessInsider.com, September 20, 2010.
6. Sasha Abramsky, "America on $195 a Week," MotherJones.com, January/February 2009.
7. Josh Harkinson, "To Match Walton Heirs' Fortune, You'd Need to Work at Walmart for 7 Million Years," MotherJones.com, September 20, 2012.
8. Ibid.
9. Josh Eidelson, "Wal-Mart punishes its workers," Salon.com, July26, 2012.
10. Walmartat50.com.

Romney Ties to Voting Machine Company

Could a voting machine company with deep financial ties to the Romney family help Republicans steal the presidential election in Ohio?
It could happen. If this year's presidential election comes down to the electoral votes in Ohio, the deciding votes could be cast on electronic voting machines manufactured by Hart Intercivic.
Tell the Department of Justice: Don't let Republicans steal the election in Ohio with Romney-owned voting machines. Click here to automatically sign the petition.A 2007 study conducted by Ohio's Secretary of State showed that Hart Intercivic's touch screen voting machines could be easily corrupted. The New York Times reported:
At polling stations, teams working on the study were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. At boards of election, they were able to introduce malignant software into servers.¹Hart Intercivic is majority owned by H.I.G. Capital which controls two of the five seats on the Hart Intercivic board. An investment fund with deep ties to the Romney family and the Mitt Romney for president campaign, H.I.G. Capital was founded by Tony Tamer, a major bundler for the Romney campaign, and it is one of the largest partners of Solamere Capital, an investment fund founded by Tagg Romney and Spencer Zwick, Mitt Romney's chief fundraiser from the 2008 presidential campaign.² This makes the Romney family part owner of the voting machine company, through its interest in H.I.G. Capital.
Tell the Department of Justice: Don't let Republicans steal the election in Ohio with Romney-owned voting machines. Click here to automatically sign the petition.What's more, three other H.I.G. Capital directors are major fundraisers for the Romney campaign, and H.I.G. Capital is the 11th largest contributor to the Mitt Romney campaign.³ Two of the company's directors, Douglas Berman and Brian Schwartz, were even in attendance at the Boca Raton fundraiser⁴ where Romney infamously declared:
There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what... who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it... These are people who pay no income tax...[M]y job is is not to worry about those people. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.⁵And as if the ties between Tagg Romney's Solamere, Romney contributors at H.I.G. Capital, and Hart Intercivic weren't astonishing enough, two members of Hart Intercivic's 5-member board of directors made direct contributions to the Romney campaign. That's right. Directors of the company that makes touchscreen voting machines that could decide the presidential election in Ohio, have made contributions to the Mitt Romney for President campaign.
It is disturbing and dangerous that Hart Intercivic, the company that makes the machines that will count many of the votes in Ohio on election night has deep financial ties to family members of Mitt Romney. And that its leadership has been actively involved presidential campaign by donating and bundling hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Mitt Romney. The fact that these machines are easily corruptible touch screen voting machines makes matters even worse.
Gov. Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama are locked in a tight election race which could very well be decided by Ohio's 18 electoral votes. We must take action now.http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6985911&p=romney_ohio&id=49405-2593817-s2DkOpx&t=10Thank you for all you do to protect the integrity of our Democracy.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets1. Bob Driehaus, "Ohio Elections Official Calls Machines Flawed," New York Times, December 15, 2007.
2. Rick Ungar, "Romney Family Investment Ties To Voting Machine Company That Could Decide The Election Causing Concern," Forbes, October 20, 2012.
3. "Mitt Romney (R) Top Contributors." Open Secrets, October 1, 2012.
4. Dave Gilson, Who Was at Romney's "47 Percent" Fundraiser?, Mother Jones, Sept. 18, 2012.
5. MoJo News Team, "Full Transcript of the Mitt Romney Secret Video," Mother Jones, September 19, 2012.

Romney Endorses Mourdock

Stand with us and demand that Governor Mitt Romney pull his television ad in Indiana endorsing Richard Mourdock for U.S. Senate.

It is intolerable that a presidential candidate would continue running such an ad in light of the Murdock's extreme position on rape. This is the only ad Romney has released endorsing a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate and revealed Romney's ultra conservatism in such selection.

Sign the petition and demand Romney drop his ad endorsing Mourdock now.

In case you have not heard, last night in the Indiana Senate debate Mourdock said, "I believe life begins at conception. The only exception […] to have an abortion is in the case of the life of the mother. I struggled with myself for a long time but I came to realize life is that gift from God, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape. It is something that God intended to happen."

Does Mourdock mean that God intended for that rape to happen, and for it to result in a pregnancy? Is the next step not to prosecute the rapist, and to force her to marry the rapist? This is not so far-fetched and is happening in Afghanistan and Morocco.

Religious extremism threatens women's lives – in fact, threatens all of our lives, and religious freedom itself.

Governor Romney now says he would allow abortion in cases of rape, incest, and to save the life of the woman. But Romney has also said he supports the Personhood Amendment that states that life begins as the moment of fertilization and would outlaw all abortion (it has no exceptions) and may outlaw the pill, the IUD, and some medical treatment for critical illnesses of the women. Now Romney has chosen to single out Mourdock for his only TV ad endorsement of a Senate candidate.

If women's lives count at all to Governor Romney, he must pull the ad. Religious extremism has no place in public decision-making that can cost women their lives and freedom.

For women's lives,

Eleanor Smeal
President
Feminist Majority

Clear Channel's Voter Suppression Scheme

It's one of the nastiest voter suppression schemes we've seen: this week, in African American and Latino neighborhoods in Ohio and Wisconsin, an anonymous group started running outrageous billboards that try to scare people away from voting.¹ The billboards are hosted by Clear Channel, a media conglomerate owned by Bain Capital — the same company that Mitt Romney co-founded.²In key battleground states nationwide, Republicans are hyping an irrational fear of "voter fraud" to provide cover while they work to disenfranchise eligible voters. The truth is, voter fraud is exceedingly rare. More Americans are struck by lightning than commit voter fraud. The real problem, the one that can affect the outcome of our elections if we're not vigilant, is voter suppression.
Allowing an anonymous advertiser to create an atmosphere of fear around voting just as the early voting period begins is unacceptable. There should be an extremely high standard to ask a media company to refuse to erect a billboard based on content. But we believe these anonymously funded billboards, which have no other purpose than to intimidate minority voters and take away their voting rights, meet that standard. And as Clear Channel has rejected billboard ads many times in the past,³ the company should have no problem rejecting these.
CREDO is joining with our allies at ColorOfChange to demand that Clear Channel immediately take down these misleading billboards erected on behalf of an anonymous client.
Join the members of ColorOfChange in demanding that Clear Channel take down these billboards. Click here and we will automatically sign your name to the following letter, which we'll send to Clear Channel on your behalf.Dear Clear Channel CEOs Bob Pittman and William Eccleshare,
I am writing to demand that you take down the billboards that have cropped up in African American and Latino neighborhoods in recent weeks and that employ tactics meant to scare people away from voting. While you may not have crafted the message, your company is in fact the messenger.
These billboards, which read "Voter Fraud is a Felony," are clearly designed to intimidate voters of color and keep those communities away from the polls. That these billboards did not appear in white or suburban neighborhoods is proof of their discriminatory nature.
Allowing an anonymous advertiser to create an atmosphere of fear around voting just as the early voting period begins is unacceptable. I ask that you remove these billboards at once. I know that in the past, you have rejected billboard ads. This campaign of misinformation fits that criteria and is a dangerous disservice to the African American and Latino communities in which they are placed.
Please remove these billboards immediately.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
Click here to automatically add your name to the letter to Clear Channel demanding that it immediately take down those billboards.Thank you for taking action.
Becky Bond, Political Director
CREDO Action from Working Assets1. Similoluwa Ojurongbe, "Ohio voter fraud billboard accused of intimidating black voters," thegrio.com, October 5, 2012.
2. Richard Meyers, "Does Romney's Bain Capital Support Voter Suppression?," DailyKos.com, October 10, 2012.
3. Noah Pransky "St. Pete Pride gay-themed digital billboards rejected by Clear Channel Outdoor," WTSP.com, June 11, 2010, "Clear Channel Rejects Billboard Highlighting Heartland Institute's Corporate Funders: "You can't criticize a corporation"," Forecastthefacts.org, May 17, 2012, and "Clear Channel Rejects Times Square Peace Billboard Timed for RNC," Democracynow.org, July 14, 2004. 

Hold Halliburton Accountable

What will it take for major corporations like Halliburton to stop treating our safety like it was just a speed bump along their way to obscene profits from fracking?

It will take levying major fines on the corporation when it makes reckless, unbelievable mistakes — like losing, for nearly a month, a radioactive rod used in the process of fracking wells in Texas, after it apparently just fell off a truck.¹

That's right. Fell. Off. A. Truck.

Tell the Nuclear Regulatory Commission: Hold Halliburton accountable for its carelessness with radioactive material. Click here to automatically sign the petition.

Last week, Halliburton finally found the device — a 7-inch rod and "category three" source of radiation used in prospecting well locations for fracking — along a highway seven miles from the fracking site, after losing it on September 11.

This is of course far from Halliburton's biggest mishap. The company knowingly² used faulty cement to seal the infamous Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, which likely contributed to the worst oil spill in American history — for which Halliburton has yet to pay any fines or spill costs, claiming its contract with BP indemnified it of any responsibility.

Not only is Halliburton's reckless behavior a danger to us — but the company is actively hostile to the rules needed to protect us. Halliburton and Dick Cheney worked in 2005 to exempt fracking from regulation under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, now known as the "Halliburton Loophole."

The only way to change Halliburton's hostility toward public safety and environmental protection is to make it extremely costly for the company to ignore.

Please click below to automatically sign the petition:
http://act.credoaction.com/r/?r=6973571&p=halliburton_radioactive&id=48741-2593817-iOkzwex&t=9

Thank you for holding Halliburton accountable.

Elijah Zarlin, Campaign Manager
CREDO Action from Working Assets

1. "Halliburton's Radioactive Rod Found Alongside Texas Highway After Going Missing," Huffington Post, 10/8/12
2. "Panel Says Firms Knew of Cement Flaws Before Spill," New York Times, 10/28/10

National Popular Vote Bill

Only 9 swing states matter in this year's presidential election, and your state may not be one of them.  Let’s put all 50 stars back onto the flag. A voter in Idaho should matter as much as a voter in a swing state such as New Hampshire, Nevada, Iowa, Ohio, Pennsylvania, or Florida.

The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states. It makes everyone’s vote equally important. The National Popular Vote bill ensures that every voter, in every state, will matter in every presidential election.

Your action NOW can make the difference. Please take a moment to e-mail your legislators and officials to tell them to support the National Popular Vote bill. For your convenience, we provide a suggested letter (which you can edit).

Presidential campaigns ignore Idaho because electoral votes are currently awarded to the candidate who gets the most popular votes within each separate state. Candidates ignore states (like Idaho) where they are comfortably ahead or hopelessly behind. 

In 1960, presidential campaigns paid attention to 35 states. In 2008, Obama campaigned in only 14 states after being nominated. In 2012, the presidential campaigns have been concentrating on just 9 swing states for the past five months.

The states have the constitutional authority to change the method of awarding electoral votes and thereby establish a national popular vote for President.

The National Popular Vote bill has already been enacted into law by Vermont, Washington state, Illinois, New Jersey, Maryland, California, Massachusetts, the District of Columbia, and Hawaii. In addition, the bill has passed at least one legislative house in an additional 12 states.

If you believe that a vote cast in your should count as much as a vote cast in a swing state, please take a moment to e-mail your legislators and officials to tell them to support the National Popular Vote bill when it comes up in the State legislature.

The National Popular Vote bill is endorsed by the League of Women Voters, Common Cause, FairVote, Sierra Club, Brennan Center for Justice, NAACP, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, ACLU, the National Latino Congreso, Asian American Action Fund, DEMOS, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Public Citizen, U.S. PIRG, and Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund.

The bill has been endorsed by newspapers such as the Hartford Courant, New York Times, Chicago Sun-Times, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, Sacramento Bee, Daily Astorian, Kent County Times, The Columbian, Connecticut Post, Westport News, Fairfield Citizen News, Baxter Bulletin, Fayetteville Observer, and many more.

As the Sarasota Florida Herald Tribune said: "The most compelling and practical alternative is promoted by a bipartisan group called National Popular Vote. The NPV proposal calls for legislatures to pass bills committing their state's electoral votes to the candidate who receives the most popular votes nationwide; the bill would take effect only when enacted by states that together have enough electoral votes to elect a president."

So far, the National Popular Vote bill has been enacted by states possessing 132 electoral votes. This is about half of the 270 electoral votes needed to bring it into effect.

The current system has elected a second-place candidate in 4 of the nation’s 56 presidential elections. The National Popular Vote bill would guarantee the Presidency to the candidate who receives the most popular votes in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The National Popular Vote bill fixes the  shortcomings of the current system of electing the President while preserving the Electoral College, preserving state control of elections, and leaving our Constitution unchanged.

Your action NOW can make the difference. Please take a moment to e-mail your legislators and officials to tell them to support the National Popular Vote bill.

Learn more at www.NationalPopularVote.com.

Click here to "Like" NPV on Facebook:  

Thank you.

-Demand Progress and Idaho National Popular Vote