March 3, 2011
By Linda Gomez
Describing it as a “deception wrapped in a fraud,” Jack Ahern, president of the New York City Central Labor Council, is denouncing Wal-Mart tactics that seek to destroy the unity of organized labor in New York.
Ahern says Wal-Mart is now practicing “classic divide and conquer strategies within the labor community, suggesting that jobs will be lost if union busting Wal-Mart is not allowed to break ground within the Five Boroughs.”
The CLC leader says Wal-Mart should repudiate the ad campaign and vow not to engage in similar tactics that seek to pit union against union in the fight for public opinion and regulatory approval. “They need to speak to the merits of their argument because these maneuvers just serve to remind us what the Wal-Mart corporate ethic is really all about.”
Last month, Ahern submitted testimony before the New York City Council joint hearing of the Civil Rights, Civil Service and Labor, and Women’s Issues Committees, stating, “No one is questioning the need for more jobs in a city harmed by the recession, but Wal-Mart has demonstrated time and again that they destroy the communities they purport to serve. Their corporate greed, coupled with a corrosive hostility to unions, makes them a predator that will do our city fabric serious harm.”
As the President of the New York City Central Labor Council, Ahern represents 1.3 million workers in the City of New York from across many industries and professions.
