Union front group talking points

A group from Wake Up Wal-Mart was working the parking lot in front of the Germantown, Maryland Wal-Mart when I emerged from shopping. One of them handed me a glossy 5 ½” by 8 ½” card that read, “Nothing’s scarier than Wal-Mart and China.” It featured a jack-o-lantern and a prominent web address for Wakeupwalmart.com. The flipside had some stale quotes and suggested “Get the facts at: www.wakeupwalmart.com/china.”

I found the brightest looking of the bunch and asked, “So, is your group trying to unionize Wal-Mart?” He shook his head. “No, no. That isn’t going to happen in my lifetime or your lifetime," he explained. "We’re just trying to get the facts out about Wal-Mart and China.” Um, okay.

Wake Up Wal-Mart is a group funded by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), a 1.3 million-member (and flling) union that has failed repeatedly to unionize Wal-Mart. The link between the groups is overt: Every page I looked at on the Wakeupwalmart.com website was copyrighted by the UFCW.