Unions to Wal-Mart: The Gloves Are Off

As the debate concerning labor's future rages on, prodded by Andy Stern, international president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and answered by one union after another, Sweeney has agreed on the need for debate and the need to form committees to discuss the various proposals generated.

Workers in general and union members in specific can hardly find cause for inspiration or action in these multi-point programs. This is true, except in one very important area: the proposal for a full-scale campaign against Wal-Mart.In the case of Wal-Mart, Stern has argued that one clear "purpose" for the AFL-CIO is in leading campaigns which transcend the interests of any single union and find common cause for all unions and indeed all working people. He has publicly argued in the debates around restructuring the federation that as much as $25 million should be set aside for the Wal-Mart campaign, ....cont