Poor Walmart. The Arkansas-based retail giant just can’t catch a break. On Wednesday, employees began striking across the country, demanding higher wages. The move is the latest in a long-standing battle between the company and labor interests. And on Friday, labor’s allies in the world of activist investment are hoping to open up another front by convincing Walmart to disclose its membership with trade groups.
On June 6, Walmart shareholders will convene on the campus of the University of Arkansas for their annual meeting. As they do with publicly traded companies across the country, activist shareholders will be there as well to propose an innocuous-sounding “request for annual report on lobbying.” The proposal, if adopted by the shareholders, will require Walmart’s board to produce a report disclosing the money it spends on “direct or indirect lobbying” or “grassroots lobbying communications” as well as any of Walmart’s membership in tax-exempt organizations. The activists say they simply want “transparency and accountability”–and who can argue with that? No true shareholder-minded company would oppose such a proposal, right?
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