Bernie Sanders to attend Walmart’s annual meeting

Presidential candidate and current U.S. Senator, Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has been invited by Walmart’s employees to advocate for them at Walmart’s next shareholders meeting.

Sanders will attend the meeting, which will take place on June 5 in Bentonville, Ark., to introduce a proposal that would give hourly Walmart workers a seat on the company’s board, according to The Washington Post. The proposal would require Walmart to consider its 1.5 million hourly U.S. employees when nominating candidates to its board.

Sanders, a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, was invited to speak at the meeting by Walmart employee Cat Davis, who filed the proposal. Davis is also a leader in workers’ rights organization United for Respect.

Sanders has been outspoken in his criticism of Walmart (and Amazon). In November, he introduced a bill that would prohibit large companies from buying back stock until they pay all employees at least $15 an hour. At the same time, he fired off a series of tweets in which he railed against the federal minimum wage – $7.25 per hour – and the Walton family.

“These workers need and deserve a seat at the table,” Sanders told the Post. “If hourly workers at Walmart were well represented on its board, I doubt you would see the CEO of Walmart making over a thousand times more than its average worker.”