The town square in Bentonville was filled with an estimated 2,000 people wearing yellow rain slickers that said “Wal-Mart — Not in My Neighborhood”. The anti-Wal-Mart rally was sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union. People from as far away as Hawaii, Washington State and California converged on the tiny town where the Wal-Mart myth was created. The “Walton 5 & 10” store — which is now a museum that celebrates Wal-Mart’s Deity (Mr. Sam) was closed to avoid any conflict with the event participants, who chanted: “Who’s a bad neighbor? Wal-Mart!” AFL-CIO President John Sweeney addressed the rally, and called upon all AFL-CIO credit unions to discontinue distribution of Sam’s Club discount cards, and urged all union health care plans to stop using Wal-Mart pharmacies. “Here’s our message,” Sweeney said. “Keep out of our neighborhoods. We don’t want you ruining our lives with your income-destroying stores.” Also speaking at the event were UFCW President Doug Dority, and Sprawl-Buster Al Norman. Wal-Mart officials kept a low-profile at the event, but Wal-Mart spokesman Jay Allen told the Kansas City Star the event “is part of a political campaign against Wal-Mart.” Sam Walton must have crossed the Bentonville town common thousands of times in his life, and almost every time he would have noticed that saying written on block letters on the Town Hall: “Sovereignty rests in the will of the people.” 37 years after Wal-Mart was founded, an organized group finally went into Mr. Sam’s neighborhood to make it clear that the will of the people will not rest until Wal-Mart starts respecting the wishes of hometown America. “Wal-Mart takes good jobs, and turns them into bad jobs,” Dority said. Wal-Mart workers make $3 an hour less than UFCW retail members, and 420,000 of Wal-Mart’s 720,000 workers don’t have company-provided health insurance. At Wal-Mart, there is no guaranteed pension plan with a benefit at retirement. The UFCW also said Wal-Mart’s “Buy America” program dishonors the flag, since 80% of Wal-Mart’s apparel products are imported. “It’s not Made in the USA,” said Norman. “It’s Betrayed in the USA.” Dority said that Wal-Mart sells “twins” — identical items that are made in the US and in foreign sweatshops, for the same price to consumers. A pair of Dockers pants made offshore, is sold by Wal-Mart at the same price as the same pair of pants made in Powell, TN. Wal-Mart’s higher profits on the offshore pants come at the expense of American workers. “It’s all about higher profits,” Dority said, “made by shifting employee costs to taxpayers and destroying our communities in the process.” “Wal-Mart is just a bad neighbor,” Dority told the crowd. Dority and Sweeney both signed a pledge cards not to shop at Wal-Marts.
For further information on the “Not in My Neighborhood” campaign, or for Pledge Cards, contact the UFCW International at 202-223-3111.
