Letters to the Editor

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The New York Sun

‘Thanks to the Council’

It’s flattering to read that my union is responsible for the City Council’s efforts to tank Wal-Mart’s plan to expand into New York City [Editorial, “Thanks to the Council,” October 30, 2006]. But it wasn’t the RWDSU that drove the City Council: It was the facts.

Far from being the benevolent force for good the Sun describes, Wal-Mart has built its success on the backs of one of America’s most exploited workforces.

Despite Wal-Mart’s announcement that it would gouge it’s customers less for the cost of prescription drugs, the truth remains that Wal-Mart, the world’s wealthiest corporation, still refuses to provide health care to over half of its employees.

The upshot of Wal-Mart’s indifference is that, today, 46% of its workers’ children are uninsured or depend on public health care at a cost to taxpayers of more than $1.2 billion annually.

To praise Wal-Mart for easing the suffering of the poor is akin to saying that, dangerous working conditions aside, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company was actually performing a public service by creating both jobs and a decent shirt.

STUART APPELBAUM
President
Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union
New York, N.Y.


Please address letters intended for publication to the Editor of The New York Sun. Letters may be sent by e-mail to editor@nysun.com, by facsimile to 212-608-7348, or post to 105 Chambers Street, New York City 10007. Please include a return address and daytime telephone number. Letters may be edited.


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