Religious Investors Press Wal-Mart to Protect the
Health and Dignity of its Workers and Communities

Employee Opportunity Programs, Executive Compensation, Sustainability Practices
Addressed Through Shareholder Resolutions This Year

NEW YORK CITY//April 6, 2006//New York, NY-Continuing their push to hold Wal-Mart more accountable for its business policies, religious investors have advanced four shareholder resolutions for consideration at Wal-Mart's next annual meeting, scheduled for June 2, 2006. Their goal: to reform Wal-Mart's business practices and improve the lives of 1.3 million workers in the United States and millions more throughout Wal-Mart's global supply chain.

Together, members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR) own over two million shares of Wal-Mart, and, through negotiations with corporate management and shareholder resolutions, push the company to be a more positive influence in the lives of its workers and the communities where it operates.

"As one of the largest companies on the Fortune 500 list Wal-Mart has tremendous potential to be influential," said Vidette Bullock Mixon, Director, Corporate Relations, General Board of Pension & Health Benefits, United Methodist Church. Wal-Mart sets standards that are emulated by large and small companies throughout the U.S. Our vision for Wal-Mart is that high standards will be established, so that the dignity of the millions of workers who depend on Wal-Mart is protected. Investors challenge Wal-Mart to set long-term socially responsible standards that will bring a sustained high-level of financial and social performance."

At the coming annual meeting, shareholders will consider resolutions filed by ICCR members that address important areas of corporate governance, including:

· Compensation Disparity Between Executives and Low-wage Workers
co-lead filers - Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, Washington Province
and the Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, Texas
· Sustainability Reporting
lead filer - United Methodist Church - General Board of Pension & Health Benefits
· Equal Employment Opportunity
lead filer - Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth, NJ
· Safety of Products - Safer Chemicals Policy
lead filer - Green Century Capital Management

"Although Wal-Mart challenged several of our resolutions in front of the Securities and Exchange Commission, management is talking with shareholders about our concerns," said Margaret Weber, Co-chair of ICCR's Access to Health Working Group and Corporate Responsibility Director for the Basilian Fathers of Toronto. "Wal-Mart respects where we come from as people of faith. We are holding our Wal-Mart shares despite pressures of divestment, choosing to remain invested in the company and the reform process. Now, Wal-Mart has to show leadership and make substantive changes in health care policy and other improvements in the lives of its workers."

ICCR has a solid track record of working with Wal-Mart to reform its business policies, making the company more responsible for how it impacts its employees and the communities it serves. Some of these accomplishments include:
· In 1996, ICCR was instrumental in getting Wal-Mart to take responsibility for labor conditions in its supplier factories, rather than placing the responsibility solely on its suppliers.
· In 2004, ICCR members convinced Wal-Mart that its Standards for Suppliers must address the right of workers to organize a union and to bargain collectively.
· In January, 2005, Wal-Mart added freedom of association and collective bargaining to its standards and now expects its suppliers to respect workers' right to form a union and to not restrict or interfere with any legitimate activities.
· Also in 2005, Wal-Mart worked with shareholders to issue a policy on the sale of violent video games to minors.

"Wal-Mart has been the target of persistent reform campaigns," said Sr. Patricia Wolf, R.S.M., Executive Director of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility. "Instead of focusing on damage-control public relations, religious shareholders are working to channel the company's energy and efforts into playing a more responsible role in the global community."

A white paper on ICCR's involvement with Wal-Mart can be found at www.iccr.org.

ABOUT ICCR

The Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility is a 35-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations and dioceses with combined portfolios worth an estimated $110 billion. ICCR seeks to build a more just and sustainable society by integrating social values into corporate and investor decisions. ICCR is one of the foremost shareholder advocacy organizations in the world. More detailed information about shareholder resolutions is available from ICCR's Ethvest (sm), the comprehensive, on-line, subscription-based, ethical investor database, www.iccr.org.

CONTACT: Dan Klotz, 917-438-4613/347-307-2866
or Toby Fallsgraff, 202-478-6184/740-707-7413

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