Take Action! Urge Wal-Mart to Publicly: Respond to Violations in its Supply Chain

One month after the release of the report Wal-Mart’s Road to Sustainability: Paved With False Promises?, Wal-Mart has still failed to issue a formal response to violations at Hantai or Wah Sheng factories. On August 13, Wal-Mart’s Vice President of Ethical Standards, Rajan Kamalanathan, wrote a letter to CLW stating that Wal-Mart completed audits at Hantai and Wah Sheng Factories and was ready to discuss the results. CLW looks forward to meet with Wal-Mart Sept. 30th to discuss improvement strategies.

In the meantime, CLW has issued an open letter to Wal-Mart CEO, Mike Duke, asking Wal-Mart to publicly release its response to the report, including its investigation results for the two factories and any assessment it has conducted on systemic problems targeted in CLW’s report. This transparency will ultimately benefit workers in the factories whose rights continue to be violated, and concerned consumers around the globe await the corporation’s response.

Take Action! Write a letter to Wal-Mart asking them to publicly respond to CLW’s report, improve conditions at Hantai and Huasheng factories and address systematic issues in their supply chain. Use the Word doc template to create your own letter to mail to Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke, send to Wal-Mart online or call Wal-Mart’s Ethics Department at 1-800-WM-ETHIC and let your voice be heard!

Pdf of CLW’s open letter below.

________________________________________________________

Open Letter to Wal-Mart CEO, Mike Duke

August 24, 2009

Mike Duke
CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 Southwest Eighth Street
Bentonville , AR 72716 -8611

Dear Mr. Duke,

Four weeks after its release, Wal-Mart has yet to issue a formal response to CLW’s July 27 report on two Wal-Mart suppliers. On August 13, Wal-Mart’s Vice President of Ethical Standards, Rajan Kamalanathan, wrote a letter stating that Wal-Mart completed audits at Hantai and Wah Sheng Factories and is ready to discuss the results. As we stated at the time, CLW will meet with Wal-Mart in New York at your team’s earliest convenience.

In the meantime, CLW asks Wal-Mart to publicly release its response to the report, including its investigation results for the two factories and any assessment it has conducted on the systemic problems targeted in CLW’s report. Ultimately, workers at Hantai, Wah Sheng and elsewhere in Wal-Mart’s supply chain stand to benefit from this transparency in Wal-Mart’s response, and concerned Wal-Mart consumers around the world are also awaiting Wal-Mart’s reply.

In “Wal-Mart’s Road to Sustainability: Paved with False Promises?” CLW called upon Wal-Mart to act swiftly and decisively to improve serious violations in Hantai and Wah Sheng Factories. In fact, the Hantai investigation was a follow-up on issues left unresolved after CLW’s 2008 Hantai Factory report, in spite of similar pledges that Wal-Mart issued in July 2008 to improve conditions at the factory. This time around, publicly announcing specific issues and changes will assure the world that Wal-Mart will stick to its word, hold these two factories to its standards of sustainability, and address systemic problems that allow these standards to go unmet.

We look forward to Wal-Mart’s public response, and hope to meet soon to discuss these matters further.

Best regards,

Li Qiang

Executive Director
China Labor Watch

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