Andrew Young to head pro-Wal-Mart group

Published 10:12 am Monday, February 27, 2006

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Former United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor Andrew Young will be the public spokesman for a group organized with backing from Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that defends the world’s largest retailer against mounting attacks from organized critics.

Working Families for Wal-Mart, a group of community leaders from across the country, was set to announce Monday that Young will be the chairman of its 16 member steering committee formed in December to counter attacks from two union-backed groups that are pressuring Wal-Mart to improve wages and benefits.

Young said he will be a public face for the group, giving interviews and publishing opinion articles defending Wal-Mart for helping alleviate poverty by selling low-price goods and providing jobs.

“They are some of the best entry level jobs that are available to poor people. And they also make products available to the working poor,” Young told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Atlanta.

The ordained minister, three-term U.S. congressman and former mayor of Atlanta currently heads GoodWorks International, which pairs corporations and governments on global issues.

Young said he is not being paid but that GoodWorks has a contract from Working Families for Wal-Mart for consulting work. Wal-Mart is the largest financial backer of the group. Working Families for Wal-Mart declined to disclose how much Wal-Mart contributes or what it is paying GoodWorks.

Young, himself a former union organizer, said he decided to get involved because he believed much of the criticism levied at Wal-Mart by unions was one-sided and wrong.

“The union position is talking about the redistribution of wealth, but they’re not talking about generating new wealth. Wal-Mart is generating new wealth when it comes in,” he said.

“The pluses outweigh the minuses. They do give benefits, they do have health insurance,” Young said.

Young said he had been citing Wal-Mart in speeches for a decade as an example of how helping fight poverty can be profitable.

“By ignoring the rural South and the inner cities and Hispanic markets, most businesses are ignoring the most lucrative market available on the face of the Earth,” Young said.

In contrast, Wal-Mart goes into those communities and provides affordable goods as well as jobs that can lead to promotions.

“It provides people with a reasonable quality of life at an affordable price, so that school kids can go to school with a shirt or blouse or blue jeans from Wal-Mart that are just as fashionable as those from upper-middle class stores,” he said.

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On the Net

Working Families for Wal-Mart: http://www.forwalmart.com