Wal-Mart and a Union
Unite, at Least
on Health Policy
By MICHAEL BARBARO
and ROBERT PEAR, NYTimes on the Web, February 7, 2007
They have established one of the
fiercest rivalries in the American economy, attacking one another’s
organizations through dueling blogs, newspaper advertisements and news
conferences.
But this morning, in an extraordinary meeting in Washington, the chiefs of
Wal-Mart Stores and the Service Employees International Union stood together and
agreed on a series of goals for achieving universal health coverage, according
to people briefed on the matter.
The meeting between H. Lee Scott Jr., the chief executive of Wal-Mart, and
Andrew L. Stern, president of the S.E.I.U., which capped months of secret
conversations, could be the beginning, however tentative, of a détente between
the nation’s largest employer and its labor critics.
At least on one issue. But the issue — providing affordable health
insurance — is arguably the biggest facing both Mr. Stern and Mr. Scott.
Wal-Mart, which insures fewer than half its workers, has identified health care
as potentially the biggest vulnerability to its image and business, and the
S.E.I.U., one of the country’s biggest unions, has called it the No. 1 priority
for its members.
So during today’s meeting, Mr. Stern and Mr. Scott announced a campaign to seek
public acceptance of several principles of health policy. One goal is
universal health coverage by a specific date, somewhere around 2012.
Another is the idea of shared responsibility, emphasizing that individuals,
businesses and government all play roles in financing health care and expanding
coverage.
Executives from AT&T, Intel and several nonprofit organizations also
participated in today’s meeting.
The agreement is unlikely to end the rancor between Wal-Mart and unions, largely
because the retailer’s fiercest critic is the United Food and Commercial
Workers, the union behind WakeUpWalMart.com.
In a statement, WakeUpWalMart.com divulged last night for the first time that it
had met with a Wal-Mart executive in December to discuss the company’s health
insurance, among other things, but decided the retailer was not serious about
significantly improving its benefits.
“No one, in good conscience or without a real commitment from Wal-Mart to make
substantive changes,” the statement said, “could look the other way and ignore
the awful fact that Wal-Mart still fails to provide company health care to over
half of its employees.”
Mr. Stern is likely to keep criticizing Wal-Mart on several fronts, according to
people who work with him who spoke on condition of anonymity because they are
not authorized to talk publicly.
But the fact that Mr. Scott and Mr. Stern are speaking, let alone agreeing on
something, is somewhat surprising.
In 2004, Mr. Stern authorized the creation of an S.E.I.U.-backed group, called
Wal-Mart Watch, that has relentlessly criticized the retailer, leaked internal
company documents to the news media and pressed it to change its labor policies.
Mr. Scott, in turn, has lashed out at union-backed critics like the S.E.I.U. and
Wal-Mart Watch, calling them special-interest groups spreading misinformation
and half-truths about the chain.
But in July, the icy relationship between the men began to thaw after Mr. Stern
wrote an op-ed article encouraging large corporations to work with unions to
create alternatives to the employer-based health coverage system, which he said
was collapsing. Mr. Stern sent the article, by certified mail, to hundreds
of chief executives seeking their help.
Mr. Scott, who has already expanded Wal-Mart’s health care benefits, responded,
beginning a confidential series of conversations that culminated in today’s news
conference.
Harley Shaiken, a professor specializing in labor issues at the University of
California, Berkeley, said the meeting represented “a combination of pragmatism,
idealism and desperation on the part of Wal-Mart and S.E.I.U; health care has
become a devastating issue for both.”
But Mr. Shaiken said that with Wal-Mart’s reputation for fighting unionization
and Mr. Stern’s advocacy for the labor movement, the pair are unlikely to become
the best of friends. Wal-Mart is not unionized in United States.
“Lee Scott is willing to sit in the same room with Andy Stern,” Mr. Shaiken
said, “he just doesn’t want to sit across a bargaining table from Andy Stern.”
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