In December, Jobs with Justice teamed up with Wake Up Wal-Mart for a holiday campaign aimed at getting Wal-Mart to change their unfair business practices. With no end in sight for their unjust treatment of workers, poverty wages, insufficient healthcare and discriminatory practices, it is high time that we start treating Wal-Mart as a serious threat to workers' rights everywhere. Coordinated actions were happening simultaneously around the entire country, ensuring that a strong message was being sent to Wal-Mart that corporate greed will not be tolerated.

The campaign was wildly successful. Wal-Mart had their lowest holiday sales in over 5 years! Wake Up Wal-Mart exceeded their goal of 150,000 supporters by getting 165,000 (and counting) to sign up to commit to working against Wal-Mart.

Jobs with Justice helped coordinate a candlelight vigil outside of the Renton Wal-Mart. With help from APRI we recruited leaders of the faith community, Reverend Gwen Hall from Sojourner Truth Church and Reverend Kabul-Komoto from Saltwater Unitarian Church, to speak out about Wal-Mart's immoral behaviors. Over 40 people came out to sing Wal-Mart inspired 'carols' and hand out information about Wal-Mart to shoppers.

The next week there was an action in Renton and Bellingham called "All Mommy Wants for Xmas is Healthcare". Decked out in holiday outfits and Santa hats we handed out candy to kids while educating people about the 'Fair Share Healthcare' legislation that is being considered in Washington State. This bill would ensure that large companies that do not provide adequate healthcare to their employees would have to pay into state-funded healthcare programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid. This would prevent taxpayers' dollars going to support healthcare for the employees of the richest companies.

Have you seen the movie Wal-Mart -'The High Cost of Low Prices' yet? It is an impressive documentary highlighting all the ways that a community and its' workers are negatively affected when a Wal-Mart comes to town. There were showings all over Seattle and in Whatcom County. During the Wal-Mart week of action, over 375 people in Bellingham viewed the movie at local events put on by Whatcom County Jobs with Justice. To purchase a copy of the movie, visit www.walmartmovie.com.

If you are interested in hearing about upcoming Wal-Mart actions or if you want to be added to the Wal-Mart Hotlist contact Washington State Jobs with Justice at 206-441-4969.