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(WEST BERLIN, N.J., Nov. 21) UFCW Local 1360, along with local representatives of the People's Campaign for Justice @ Wal-Mart, today took part in a National Day of Action designed to call public attention to the need for the retail giant Wal-Mart to live up to America's values.

National Day of Action activities locally were held between 4:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. at the Wal-Mart on Route 541 in Burlington, NJ, and featured workers, shoppers and members of local community groups, as well as representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1360, taking Wal-Mart to task for engaging in business practices that speaker after speaker characterized as "predatory and un-American."

Wal-Mart, as the country's largest corporation as well as its largest retailer and employer, advertises itself as the place where America shops. As such, Wal-Mart has become the focal point for many communities around the nation, in the process driving out other small business competitors with its predatory business practices.

Clay Bowman, the President of UFCW Local 1360, one of the speakers at the National Day of Action rally at the Burlington Wal-Mart, said that one way Wal-Mart could demonstrate its commitment to fair business practices would be to stop shifting the costs of its health care benefits to other local employers and to the taxpayers of New Jersey.

"Consumers need to know that Wal-Mart, the company which says it is such a friendly place to work, subsidizes the meager health care benefits it provides to its workers by shifting the burden to other businesses employing workers who work part time for them while working for Wal-Mart," said Bowman. "That's because the health care benefits they do provide to their employees have such high co-pay costs that very few Wal-Mart employees can even afford them. Wal-Mart also makes it a point to advise new employees to apply for taxpayer- funded programs like NJ Family Care, thereby shifting the costs of providing decent health care benefits to the taxpayers of New Jersey. These are the kinds of abusive, predatory and deceptive business practices by Wal-Mart that destroy other small businesses and put an unnecessary burden on the taxpayers to subsidize Wal-Mart's expansion program. These practices must stop."

Bowman noted that the members of the People's Campaign for Justice @ Wal-Mart have been organizing the National Day of Action for months and that the purpose of the organization was to build a nation-wide coalition of workers, consumers and community groups who will join together to preserve the stability of local communities at the same time that they try to pressure Wal- Mart to become a better corporate citizen.

"The purpose of this National Day of Action is to kick off locally a nation-wide effort to transform Wal-Mart into a more responsible corporate citizen," said Bowman. "As the largest corporation in the nation, Wal-Mart can easily afford to adopt fair business and trade policies, and develop neighborhood friendly operations that will not destroy other local small businesses. Wal-Mart can also afford to provide good paying jobs, with equal opportunities for all and it needs to start respecting the rights of its workers, the communities where it does business and the consumers it serves. Until Wal-Mart makes these positive reforms they should be held in contempt by all Americans."