Ms. Akter served as proxy for the New York City Pension Fund, a Walmart shareholder, which proposed which proposed a shareholder resolution urging Walmart to require its suppliers to publish an annual, independently verifiable sustainability report. The resolution did not pass, but received good coverage in The New York Times and other media.
Ms. Akter thanked New York City Comptroller, John Liu, for giving her this opportunity. "It was a great opportunity to interact directly with decision-makers at Walmart like CEO Mike Duke,” Ms. Akter said after the shareholder meeting. “Afterwards I spoke with several Walmart associates. They told me things like, ‘Well said,’ ‘Great that you brought this issue here,' 'I appreciated hearing your story,' and 'I sympathize with you.'"
Making connections: Workers who make, warehouse, and sell Walmart products
Following the Walmart Shareholder meeting, activists distributed fliers at Walmart stores across the country while Ms. Akter joined Making Change at Walmart in a West Coast speaking tour called, “Sweatshop, Warehouse, Walmart: A Worker Truth Tour,” which built on a similar Midwest and East Coast tour two months earlier. She met with a broad range of community organizations and with Walmart associates and Walmart warehouse workers who are employed by temp agencies rather than Walmart itself.
After meeting a worker in California who had sustained an injury to his eye while on the job and another worker who had injured his leg at the warehouse, Ms. Akter reflected that these workplace injuries are no different from what happens in Walmart's supplier factories in Bangladesh. In Seattle, Walmart associates were visibly moved by Ms. Akter’s story of persecution, imprisonment, and beatings of labor rights leaders. Her courage in the face of such challenges was deeply inspiring to them. The Walmart associates shared their own fears of losing their job in economic downturn or being fired for standing up for their rights. A member of the Puget Sound Alliance for Retired Americans termed the meeting "history-making"—the beginning of a movement that goes beyond Walmart, beyond big box stores, and connects workers at different ends in global supply chains for dignity and rights on the job.
