Are you a Walmart worker?

Are you a Walmart worker?

Aida Alvarez

Aida Alvarez participates in corporate astroturfing in California

December 11, 2013

AlvarezAT&T customers in California have experienced dramatic increases in the cost of landline service with the state’s largest local phone company in recent years. Following deregulation of most landline services in California in 2006, the flat rate for a landline is up from $10.69/month in 2006 to $23/month earlier this year, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. And fees for some other services have risen even faster. Republican Rachelle Chong, who at the time was a California Public Utilities Commissioner, was credited as the driving force behind the plan to deregulate.

Why’d they vote that way?

June 18, 2013

Before the shareholder meeting, WMTS reviewed how some large public pension funds and proxy advisors were voting their shares for the different Board of Director candidates. Well, the results are in, and Directors Christopher Williams, Mike Duke and Rob Walton, yet again tallied high “no” votes. In an effort to shed some light on why large institutional investors voted against various director candidates, WMTS has looked into the reasoning of the two large public pension funds—Wisconsin (SWIB) and California (CalPERS). Both are among the largest public pension funds in the world with CalPERS ranking 6th and SWIB in 30th place, both with assets in the billions.

The Votes Are Coming In…

June 7, 2013

No one is expecting the election for Walmart directors to be a nail biter. What with the Walton family controlling more than 50 percent of the votes, you’d be foolish to bet against their reelection. However, how the non-Walton shares are voted will be revealing. Will the no-votes this year will be as large as last year when Lee Scott, Chris Williams, Mike Duke, and Rob Walton garnered the most no votes? The early numbers are starting to come in and it doesn’t look good for those four again this year.  The NYC Pension Funds announced yesterday that it will vote its 5.1 million shares of Walmart stock against nine of Walmart’s 14 directors. NYC is casting its vote against Messieurs Scott, Williams, Duke, and Walton, as well as voting no on Directors Aida Alvarez, James Cash, Douglas Daft, Steven Reinemund, and Linda Wolf. CalSTRS is voting against all directors standing for election. Add to that the recommendations of two proxy advisers, ISS and Glass Lewis, who are each advising clients to vote against select directors – ISS recommends voting against Duke, Walton and Williams, while Glass Lewis is suggesting no votes against Duke, Williams, Scott, Alvarez, and Cash – and it could be another year of record no votes.

In June, Walmart’s Board of Directors becomes weaker and more compromised

May 2, 2013

After the Walmart annual meeting in June, three of the company’s directors will be stepping down from their positions. The exit of Jim Breyer, Michele Burns, and Arne Sorenson will leave Walmart’s Board of Directors will be even weaker and more compromised than it already was.

The FCPA Fallout Continues

April 18, 2013

In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing late last month, Walmart said it expects to incur a loss as a result of investigations and lawsuits related to the alleged systematic bribery scheme in its Mexican subsidiary. “Given the on-going nature and complexity of the review, inquiries, and investigations,” the company wrote, “we cannot reasonably estimate any loss or range of loss that may arise from these matters.”