NYC Unions, Community Groups, and Elected Officials Stand Together to Keep City Wal-Mart Free (6/23/10)

RWDSU President Stuart Appelbaum (at podium) tells Wal-Mart that New Yorkers don't want the retailer in their city.

A broad coalition of leading community groups, organized labor representatives, and elected officials joined together today on the steps of City Hall to once again tell Wal-Mart that its poverty wage center stores are not welcome in New York City.

Wal-Mart recently publicized plans to bypass the New York City Council by scouting a Related Companies’ Brooklyn as-of-right site in the Gateway II Center that will allow them to evade critical community and City Council approval. 

Aside from the concerns of Wal-Mart’s sneaky tactics to silence the community’s voice, the re-energized coalition, called “Keep NYC Wal-Mart Free,” voiced concerns of Wal-Mart’s recent and long-term negative labor and community practices that have earned the company the “quintessential villain of retail” moniker.  The Wal-Mart opposition group includes City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union (RWDSU), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Union Region 1, UFCW Local 1500, and New York Communities for Change.

Wal-Mart has already failed in attempts to open New York City stores in Rego Park and Staten Island. This Spring Crain’s New York Business reported that Wal-Mart is now the secretive tenant in a massive Brooklyn project known as the Gateway II. The landowner, Related Cos., says no leases have been signed---but often in such cases Wal-Mart orders the developer not to disclose the retailer’s interest.  Related has already survived the toughest part of the process: Gateway II passed through the city’s land-use process last summer. By hiding off-site, Wal-Mart can now reveal its interest, unbruised by the permitting process.

The reason for the company’s backdoor scheme:  Wal-Mart is notorious for having the largest employment discrimination lawsuit filed against an employer in U.S history, and has been found guilty of countless federal labor violations. Wal-Mart employees earn poverty level wages and are forced to rely on welfare and taxpayer subsidized healthcare.  Aside from the retailer’s despicable acts of discrimination, there are also long chapters and proven history in every community they operate in that the union-busting, neighborhood crushing Wal-Mart forces out good jobs and reliable retailers while bringing down wages and benefits.  Wal-Mart may create jobs on the front end, but they erode them later.  Just as they have fully eroded our American manufacturing base by becoming the single largest customer in China and other overseas countries.

“Wal-Mart's efforts to improve corporate practices are little more than window dressing.  We want to be supportive of businesses and help attract employers that strive to build communities not cannibalize them,” said Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn.

“Time and again, across the nation, Wal-Mart has failed to meet that standard. They lead the way in the worst worker-related litigation in the country and if they plan to do business in New York City, they better get ready for a fight,” Quinn (above) added.

Stuart Appelbaum, president of the RWDSU said, "Wal-Mart’s plans to bulldoze their way into Brooklyn in a Related Companies’ Brooklyn as-of-right site has just hit a cement wall.  Bypassing the community and its representatives in the City Council is a slap in the face to our democracy, and we will stop them dead in their tracks just as we have in Queens and Staten Island.  The public’s voice is critical to this particular debate about our city's future, and we plan to shout from the rooftops so Wal-Mart executives can hear us loud and clear.  Wal-Mart, we have one word for you:  Fuhgeddaboudit!  New Yorkers want and deserve better."

“Wal-Mart places profits before people, lowering the standard of living for those within the community. Such an establishment is unfit for our City. Working New Yorkers deserve Better.  They deserve good jobs that provide good wages, as well as healthcare and pension benefits that will allow them to raise a family and retire in New York City.  Wal-Mart must be prevented from sneaking their way into New York City.  We cannot allow our communities to fall victim to Wal-Mart's corporate greed,” added RWDSU Local 338 President John Durso.