How much is UFCW spending on its Wal-Mart worker airlift?

A few years ago, around the time Wal-Mart was made an issue by unions and the Democrats, National Review wrote that the United Food and Commercial Workers had an entire department focused on the world's largest retailer. I bet it still does.

UFCW has an anti-Wal-Mart web site, WakeUpWal-Mart.

Hot Air asks some questions about "an airlift" of Wal-Mart workers to Washington:

At 10 am ET, 100 Wal-Mart workers from around the country will demonstrate in Washington DC to demonstrate for Card Check. They will complain about working conditions and wages, which should prompt reporters covering the protest to ask a basic question:

Washington, DC – Nearly 100 Wal-Mart workers from 17 states will come to Washington, DC this week for a national organizing committee meeting, and to brief Congressional staff on working conditions at America's number one private employer and why they need a union voice in the workplace.

Workers from Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin, will be available to speak to reporters following the briefing with Congressional staff:

WHAT: Briefing for Congressional Staff and Press by Wal-Mart Workers

WHEN: Thursday, April 30 at 10 AM

WHERE: Agriculture Committee Room, #328 Russell Senate Office Building

Despite Wal-Mart's long and well-documented history of anti-worker activities, associates say they are emboldened by the election of Barack Obama and the introduction of the Employee Free Choice Act in Congress. Ten of these workers shared their stories in a new video, released last week.

Wal-Mart Workers for Change is a new campaign made up of thousands of Wal-Mart workers joining together to form a union and negotiate better benefits, higher wages, and more opportunity for a better future.

The campaign is a project of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), America’s neighborhood union. The UFCW represents 1.3 million workers nationwide, with nearly one million working in the supermarket industry. Many of UFCW members also work at national retail stores such as Bloomingdales, Macys, H&M, Modell's Sporting Goods, Saks Fifth Avenue, RiteAid, CVS, and Syms.

But not Chicago's Treasure Island. That's because workers at the European-style grocery chain decertified UFCW in 2007.

I believe that in this Barack Obama-declared era of "transparency," now is the time for unions to disclose how much they spend on these quasi-political campaigns.

As I blogged last week, the Service Employees International Union was working to remove the Bank of America CEO from his job. SEIU has not said how much it is spending on this effort.

Related posts:

The good life of working for the UFCW
SEIU wants Bank of America CEO fired
Wal-Mart: Undercover journalist likes what he sees, and fighting "food deserts"
Wal-Mart ups charity donations
Wal-Mart America's most generous company, B of A second
Wake Up Wal-Mart has two empty bunks
My book report: The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy

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