For Immediate Release: August 15, 2019
Media Contact: Taylor Campbell, 202-854-9571, [email protected]
Walmart Associates Respond to Company’s Q2 Earnings
NATIONWIDE — Today, Walmart — the country’s largest corporate employer — reported its Q2 earnings, showing same-store sales grew by 2.8% and total revenues rose 1.8%, compared to $128.03 billion last year. At the same time, the company faces distrust from Walmart associates nationwide following recent white supremacist violence in an El Paso, TX store.
In response, Gabriela Enriquez, a United for Respect leader and 10-year Associate of Walmart who lives in El Paso, TX, issued the following statement:
“These earnings come on the backs of Associates. We feel unsafe in the workplace, all of us, but particularly Latinx associates who were explicitly targeted in El Paso by a white supremacist inflamed by the rhetoric of President Trump. Walmart execs have a duty to protect us and our customers, but Doug McMillon has tacitly approved of Trump’s dangerous anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies by remaining silent about them. It’s time for Walmart’s CEO to distance himself from the President’s demonizing rhetoric and inhumane treatment of migrants who come to the U.S. seeking refuge.”
Walmart associates of United for Respect are calling on Walmart CEO Doug McMillon to step down from his advisory role to the President and to publicly reject the racism and xenophobia that drove the recent hate crime in El Paso and to change Walmart’s policy to disallow open carry in all stores.
If you’re covering Walmart’s earnings and would like to speak to Gabriela or another United for Respect leader, please contact Taylor Campbell at (202) 854-9571 or [email protected].
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United for Respect (UFR) is a national non-profit organization. UFR is a multiracial movement of working people throughout the U.S. advancing a vision of an economy where our work is respected and our humanity recognized. UFR is not a labor union and does not intend or seek to represent retail employees over terms and conditions of employment or to bargain with retail employers.