Attacking Wal-Mart: Malcontents Gone Wild

Big Labor wants Wal-Mart unionized. It has formed 2 attack groups to bring Wal-Mart to its knees. Labor could add $300 million in new dues each year, if its attack plan were successful. Big Labor also would not have to expend as much energy keeping Wal-Mart out of cities. Union shops in big cities have very little competition from non union shops. Big Labor intends to keep it that way.

Wal-Mart saves American households an average of $2,300 a year through lower prices. Who benefits the most from such a truly meaningful amount? Those who need to benefit the most, lower income families. In 2004, those household savings added up to a total savings of $263 billion, according to the economic consulting firm Global Insight.

Compare that to the $33 billion that families receive from the federal food stamp program, which of course has to take that $33 billion from other hard working families, to redistribute to the recipients. This entire get-Wal-Mart campaign is a political operation led and funded by organized labor.

The two attack groups the unions have funded are:

1. Wal-Mart Watch

2. Wake Up Wal-Mart

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU), created Wal-Mart Watch, but not directly. The (SEIU), one of the nation's most powerful unions, supported a 501(c)3 organization-FIVE STONES-giving FIVE STONES $ 1 million dollars in 2004 to get Wal-Mart Watch underway. In 2005, the (SEIU) forked over another $2.7 million to FIVE STONES.

You've probably heard of another famous 501(3)c-Move-On.Org, headed by George Soros. So the trail goes SEIU to Five Stones to Wal-Mart Watch.

Andy Stern who is the SEIU President is also the Wal-Mart Watch chairman.

The Second attack group is Wake Up Wal-Mart. This group is very cozy with the Democratic Party. Its union funded campaign director is Paul Blank, who was the political director of Howard Dean's failed Presidential campaign.

Wake Up Wal-Mart gets major support from the United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW). The (UFCW), was the founder of Wake Up Wal-Mart, pays campaign director Paul Blank's $135,000 annual salary, and is the headquarters of the group.

A great irony of all this is that Wal-Mart, which pays an average of $10 an hour, pays a higher wage than many of these unions with whom it competes. Typically when Wal-Mart opens a new store, thousands apply for the several hundred new jobs it creates. Why not. Entry level jobs start at $7 and go to $12 an hour, to go along with serious career potential.

For all the attacks on Wal-Mart’s health care policy, a spokesperson for the company said " that more than half its 1.3 million U.S. employees are full time, enjoying higher coverage rates, and that 75 percent of all workers have some coverage through the company, the government or spouses' plans." Washington Post columnist Robert Samuelson reminds us

"America's political culture routinely demands at least one hideous corporate villain. In recent decades that role has fallen to General Motors, IBM, Exxon Mobil and Microsoft; now Wal-Mart has assumed the mantle. " As General Motors and Ford are now discovering, companies that pay above-market labor costs ultimately shrink and destroy jobs.

For that very reason, Chicago Mayor Richard Daley, earlier this year, vetoed an attempt by the Chicago City Council to mandate higher labor costs on the large retailer. In his veto message, Mayor Daley, a pro-union Democrat, declared that the wage law would "drive jobs and businesses from our city, penalizing neighborhoods that need additional economic activity the most."

Democrats and Unions are powerful allies. Each makes constant claims to be helping "working families" and "middle class families."

What a pity that even in the Information Age, words and rhetoric, can still deceive so many.

Article Source: http://www.content.onlypunjab.com

Mick McNesby is a former tax advisor, consultant and negotiator. He was a frequent guest on political talk shows in Atlantic City, N.J., discussing the benefits of the lower cost of government. He can be visited at conservative-politics-infofind.com To Robert Samuelson

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