Wal-Mart Accentuates The Negative If Obama Wins the White House
By ARI PAUL
The retail giant labor leaders love to hate wants its workers to get political.

BARACK OBAMA: Wal-Mart saves firepower for him.

Executives at Wal-Mart, known for steadfast opposition to the company's workers joining unions, are warning store managers that a Democratic win in November's presidential and congressional elections will mean new laws that will make it easier for workers to organize, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Obama Favors 'Free Choice Act'

The Employee Free Choice Act has bipartisan support in both houses of Congress but not enough to override a presidential veto, which the Bush Administration has threatened. But presumptive Democratic presidential candidate U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, unlike Republican counterpart U.S. Sen. John McCain, supports the bill that would ease unionizing by merely requiring workers to sign union cards, rather than going through a lengthy National Labor Relations Board election.

The Aug. 1 article noted that Wal-Mart workers attended meetings where executives said that "employees at unionized stores would have to pay hefty union dues while getting nothing in return" and that higher wages would translate to fewer jobs.

"What is most terrifying to Wal-Mart is that the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will restore workers' economic security lost during the Bush years," said Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union President Stuart Appelbaum in a statement. "All voters, whether Democrat, Republican, conservative, liberal or independent, should be outraged by Wal-Mart's bullying and alarmist tactics to keep their employees from having the freedom to make a choice."

Wal-Mart is known for employing aggressive traveling union-busting teams, and has been accused of locking its workers in stores after work hours and forcing them to work off the clock.

In a phone interview, Mr. Appelbaum said that no other employer in the private sector was known for trying to pressure its workers into voting a certain way.

"You don't see retailers trying to influence how their employees vote," he said. "Tell me another instance? And this is the largest employer in the United States. That should be frightening to us. Wal-Mart is a bad citizen and is a bad member of the community. New Yorkers understand that we don't need players like this in our community. It just reinforces the wisdom of the choices many New Yorkers have made to oppose Wal-Mart entering New York."