Unions Organize Rallies To Protest Wal-Mart Benefits
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
Unions representing six million workers planned to rally yesterday in 35 cities from New York to Los Angeles to protest what they called inadequate health-care coverage by Wal-Mart Stores, the nation’s largest employer.
The Change to Win labor federation of seven unions, which broke away from the AFL-CIO last year to form the nation’s second largest labor group, said Wal-Mart epitomizes a business model of low pay and benefits that drag down the middle class.
Wal-Mart called the rallies a political stunt that ignored the fact that it created 225,000 jobs in America last year and provides career opportunities and above-average pay and benefits for the retail sector. It also says it saves its customers, including working families, about $2,300 a year.
“We are an economic engine,” a company spokesman, Dan Fogleman, said.
