NYSUT.org: Avoid Wal-Mart in Back-to-School Shopping
 

NYSUT is showing solidarity by urging members to avoid Wal-Mart in shopping for back-to-school items in August.

"If teachers partnered with us and didn't buy their back-to-school supplies at Wal-Mart, the impact could be huge," said Paul Blank, director of the Wake-Up Wal-Mart campaign, organized by United Food and Commercial Workers International. "Teachers are great deliverers of this message."

"We are asking all our members to make this point to Wal-Mart any way they can—respect workers' rights," said New York State United Teachers President Dick Iannuzzi.

New York teachers have protested Wal-Mart's poor labor practices and staged buy-American events at Wal-Mart stores to show how few of the products the store sells are, in fact, U.S. made. The world's biggest retailer has an extensive track record of suppressing workers' rights to organize.

With individual teachers spending an estimated $400 a year on classroom supplies, Blank said the decision to boycott Wal-Mart could leave the stores with a glut of construction paper, glue, pens, scissors and thumb tacks in the fall.

For more information, check out www.wakeupwalmart.com.

The article originally appeared on the New York State United Teachers' web site on June 9, 2005. 

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