A mayoral hopeful, Rep. Anthony Weiner, rattled the sabers against Wal-Mart yesterday, bringing together a group of local politicians, union members, and community leaders to stand against the mega-store’s tentative plan to set up shop on Queens Boulevard. Mr. Weiner and the others said the first New York City outpost of the world’s largest retail chain would hobble local businesses.

The proposed store, in a heavily trafficked retail area near the Long Island Expressway, the Grand Central Parkway, and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, would join a new cluster of suburban-style stores such as Target, Marshall’s, and Best Buy. The idea is to extend the Rego Park mall for the superstore.

“We are not against Wal-Mart’s competition. We are not against Wal-Mart because it is big,” Mr. Weiner, a Democrat who represents Queens and Brooklyn, said during a press conference at the site yesterday. “We are against Wal-Mart because it is a bad neighbor on many levels.”

Among the assertions made by Mr. Weiner:

* The average Wal-Mart worker in America makes $2.12 less an hour than the average supermarket worker ($8.32 an hour versus $10.45);

* The chain has more than doubled the health-insurance premiums shouldered by its workers since 1993;

* Thirty-eight state and federal lawsuits have been filed alleging that Wal-Mart stores forced employees to work long hours without pay;

* For every Wal-Mart that opens in a community, two supermarkets close;

* No Wal-Mart store in America has workers represented by a union.

“This laundry list is dead wrong,” a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart, Mia Masten, told The New York Sun. “Among other things, if we didn’t offer competitive wages and benefits, we wouldn’t be able to hire our associates. Our average wage in metro markets is $10.30 a hour.”

Still, labor officials such as the president of the Central Labor Council, Brian McLaughlin, came out to 62nd Drive and Junction Boulevard yesterday to voice opposition to the proposed mega-store.

Yesterday’s press conference is just the beginning of a bruising New York style battle that may well lie ahead for Wal-Mart. The store has yet to make a final decision about a New York store or seek approval from municipal agencies.

“We’re very interested in that site, but we don’t have a timeline as far as permitting, etc., so it is a few years out when the store would open,” Ms. Masten said.