Hillary Clinton was a Wal-Mart Director for 6 Years

In 1986, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was under pressure to appoint a woman to the company’s 15-member -all male- board of directors. So, Mr. Walton asked a young lawyer, Hillary Rodham Clinton, who just happened to be married to the governor of Arkansas at the time, where Wal-Mart is based, to be the sole female member of the board.

During six years (1986 -1992) as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world’s largest retailer waged a major campaign against the labor unions seeking to represent store workers.

John Tate who was one of Clinton’s fellow board members, was leading Wal-Mart’s anti-union efforts. Tate was also Wal-Mart’s executive vice president and served on the board with Clinton for four of her six years. Tate favorite phrase was, as he admitted himself,  “Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites living off the productive labor of people who work for a living.”

According to an ABC News report, published in 2008, Clinton appears in videotapes of the stockholder meetings where she never appears to defend the role of labor unions. On the contrary, the tapes show Clinton in the role of a loyal company woman. “I’m always proud of Wal-Mart and what we do and the way we do it better than anybody else,” she said at a June 1990 stockholders meeting.

Clinton also worked at the Law Firm which represented Walmart. A 1994 New York Times story identified Clinton as the Rose Law firm’s lead lawyer for the company.

Associated Press reported in 2006 that Mrs. Clinton was paid $18,000 annually plus $1,500 for each meeting she attended as a board member.  The Clintons had $100,000 in Walmart stock, which was put into a blind trust after the 1992 election. The Clintons also flew for free on Wal-Mart corporate planes 14 times in 1990 and 1991, in preparation for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential bid.

The ties between the Clintons and the Walton family continue to this day. Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart’s founder Sam Walton, is a big supporter of Hillary Clinton becoming the Democratic presidential nominee in 2016. According to filings with the FEC, Alice Walton gave $25,000, the maximum allowed under federal law, to the super PAC Ready for Hillary. According to Clinton Foundation’s disclosures, the Walmart Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation each have given between $1 million and $5 million to the Clinton Foundation.

Attached documentary: The film exposes Wal-Mart’s unscrupulous business practices through interviews with former employees, small business owners, and footage of Walmart executives.

Emine Dilek (194 Posts)

Publisher/Managing Editor: Progressive Press. Contributing Editor: WVoN-Women's Views on News. Columnist: Palm Beach Woman Magazine. Former executive producer and radio host: WVR -Women's Voice Radio, Human Rights/Peace Activist, Aspiring Author/ Journalist/ Poet/ Blogger. Emine also appears as a revolving guest on PNN radio show -international political analyst-, and had been a guest on Liberal Fix and Brian Hammer Jackson Show. Her articles have been published in various publications such as The Vibe UK, The New Agenda, W.E.A Women @ Work, Amazing Women Rock and ICAHK.