Urban Activists Urge Wal-Mart to Improve Pay, Benefits
Associated Press - January 9 2007
By Marcus Kabel

Community activists from Los Angeles and other big cities issued a joint call Monday on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to improve its wages and health care benefits before moving into urban areas, decrying what they called "poverty-wage jobs."

The advocacy group Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy released a statement and a letter to Wal-Mart Chief Executive Lee Scott that it said was signed by more than 100 religious, political, civil rights and business leaders from 10 urban areas across the country.

The group also urged elected officials in cities where Wal-Mart wants to expand to press the world's largest retailer for "good jobs that provide quality health insurance and living wages, and that allow employees to work free from discrimination and intimidation."

Bentonville, Ark.-based Wal-Mart, which is trying to expand into more urban areas after growing in rural and suburban markets, defended its record as an employer, as a company committed to diversity and as an economic contributor to the neighborhoods where it has stores.

"The public will see through these attacks, because they know Wal-Mart offers good jobs and opportunities, helps working families save money, and gives back more to our communities than virtually any other company in America," the company said in a statement.

Wal-Mart also rejected the charge of low pay, saying it offers good jobs with competitive pay and benefits. Its average, full-time wage is
$10.11 per hour and health plans cost as little as $11 per month in some areas, the company said.

The community groups said they were making their statement now to mark next Monday's observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

"Too often, we hear that for our communities, any job is a good job,"
said Rev. Lennox Yearwood, chief executive of the Hip Hop Caucus in Washington, D.C. "We reject the idea that minority communities should settle for low-paying jobs without a future."

California State Senator Gil Cedillo, who represents Los Angeles, said Wal-Mart's low prices come at too high a cost.

"In order for our communities to achieve the American Dream, we need more than poverty-wage jobs," Cedillo said in the statement.