posted on: Monday, March 06, 2006

Andrew Young recently announced he’ll be leading an effort to improve Wal-Mart’s reputation across the country (see Maria Saporta’s “Andrew Young Goes to Bat for Wal-Mart,” in the February 27, 2006 edition of the Atlanta Journal Constitution). Young—the former mayor of Atlanta and US Ambassador to the United Nations—is the chairperson of a new steering committee called Working Families for Wal-Mart, which Wal-Mart and its suppliers are financially supporting.

It’s an interesting choice for both Wal-Mart and Young, given Young’s progressive background, which includes currently serving as the chairperson of the Drum Major Institute, a progressive public policy organization, as well as his personal activism around economic and racial justice.

Instead of trying to sugarcoat Wal-Mart’s reputation, we hope Young will use his background and experience with low-income and minority communities to show Wal-Mart how its abysmal treatment of its workers impacts people on a daily basis. We also hope that Wal-Mart’s hiring of Young’s consulting firm, GoodWorks International, doesn’t distract him from the task at hand.