Labor Leader: Wal-Mart contributes nothing to America but more poverty

At the founding convention of the Change to Win Coalition, UNITE HERE boss Bruce Raynor said that Wal-Mart "contributes nothing to America but more poverty, and they've got to be stopped." That shrill bit of nonsense says much more about the state of the labor movement today than it does about Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart has done more to alleviate poverty in this country than big labor ever dreamed of. I doubt that Mr. Raynor has ever even stepped foot in a Wal-Mart store. If he had, he might know that its customers are predominantly middle class and poor people who shop there because they know they can find what they need, when they need it, at prices that beat the competition. Wal-Mart's success in maintaining the low prices that are so important to the poor and middle class is at least partly due to its refusal to cave in to union pressures. The company - and most of its employees - know that a unionized work force would mean higher prices, fewer customers, and eventually, fewer jobs.

Wal-Mart's can-do attitude was vividly demonstrated in its response to Hurricane Katrina, when it proved capable of delivering needed goods to the disaster area quicker and more efficiently than government bureaucracies will ever be capable of; and it did so in spite of big-government idiocy. New York Times columnist John Tierny was so impressed with the company's performance that he echoed suggestions for Wal-Mart to take over FEMA's job.

According to big labor, though - "Wal-Mart has to be stopped." That makes you wonder. Who's side are the labor bosses really on?