| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE November 24, 1998 |
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WAL-MART FACES MASS PROTEST IN ITS OWN BACKYARD Food and Commercial Workers From Across The Country To March On Wal-Mart Headquarters In Bentonville, Arkansas At 2 P.M. On December 2, 1998 Pre-March Rallies Scheduled For December 1, 1998, In St. Louis, Little Rock and Kansas City AFL-CIO President John Sweeney Among Featured Speakers At The March And Pre-March Rallies Wal-Mart will face a new test of its recently unveiled "Neighborhood Market" format when over a thousand workers, religious leaders and community activists descend on Bentonville, Arkansas to tell the retail giant, "Not In My Neighborhood." The company recently opened four traditional supermarkets, operating in Arkansas under the name "Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market," as a test of the company's intended takeover of the supermarket business. Wal-Mart has, until now, limited its grocery sales to "Supercenters" that combine a retail food operation with a general merchandise store. Wal-Mart has announced its plan to double its retail food sales over the next five years, and already has the distribution network in place. Wal-Mart's takeover move is a direct threat to the jobs, wages and health benefits of supermarket employees, and will bring one of the largest demonstrations to Wal-Mart's headquarters in the history of the company. In contrast to Wal-Mart, most major supermaket chains provide employer-paid health benefits, pension plans and living wages for workers. At Wal-Mart, 6 out of 10 workers are not covered under the company health plan, and, for those who are, the average cost is about $1,200 a year. Wal-Mart wages are, on average, about $3 an hour less than major supermarket chains. Wal-Mart won't, as is often claimed, create any new jobs, but rather will destroy current supermarket jobs along with the decent wages and health benefits that come with those jobs. A new entry into the supermarket business does not generate any additional demand for groceries, a company can only take business and jobs from existing retail food operators. "Wal-Mart would take jobs that have health benefits and turn them into jobs that don't. The workers and their families lose their health care, the community loses as more of its limited resources go to a growing number of families that have to rely on publicly-funded health services and other companies lose as they have to pay higher costs to insure their own workers. When Wal-Mart wins, everybody else loses," said UFCW President Douglas H. Dority. The December 2, 1998 "Not In My Neighborhood" march will kick off at 2 P.M. at Wal-Mart headquarters and will be followed by a rally in the Bentonville, Arkansas town square. John Sweeney, president of the 13.5 million member AFL-CIO, and UFCW President Doug Dority will lead the demonstration of rank-and-file workers from across the country. Workers will assemble in three cities designated as staging areas for a bus caravan to Bentonville. Pre-march rallies will be held on December 1 in the designated cities. Sweeney and Dority will address each of the rallies. |
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