(The Associated Press circulated the following article by Melissa Nelson on June 1.)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Protesters claimed Wednesday in a rally on the steps of the state Capitol that Arkansas-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, doesn’t provide adequate health insurance for its employees.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which has long attempted to unionize Wal-Mart workers, and the Arkansas AFL-CIO said Wal-Mart costs Arkansas taxpayers millions each year because it does not provide health insurance for all of its workers.
The protesters erected a large cardboard prop made out to look like a bill for $17.5 million. It represented the estimated cost to the state of providing health care for Wal-Mart workers in Arkansas, they said.
The protest was held in advance for Friday’s annual shareholders meeting in Fayetteville.
The group Wake-Up Wal-Mart, sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, staged similar events Wednesday in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, New Hampshire, Texas, Washington state and Wisconsin. They called for states to adopt legislation that would require Wal-Mart to provide employees affordable health care.
An attempt was made this year in Maryland, where Gov. Robert Erlich two weeks ago vetoed a bill that would have required Wal-Mart to spend at least 8 percent of its payroll on health care benefits or pay more into the state Medicaid fund.
Wal-Mart said Wednesday it was being unfairly targeted by the union.
“The health care issue is much broader than Wal-Mart. Our nation including large and small employers faces a health-care crisis. Maliciously targeting one company doesn’t address this issue. It doesn’t provide one person with insurance or take one person off the list of Americas uninsured. It doesn’t offer solutions,” said M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart’s executive vice president for benefits.
Rep. Joyce Elliott, D-Little Rock and chairman of the House Education Committee, said “this is not about Wal-Mart bashing, it is about accountability.”