New York City labor unions joined forces last month to tell Wal-Mart to stay out of the city after the giant discount store announced plans to open its first New York store in Queens. Stung by the criticism, Wal-Mart immediately launched a massive ad campaign to counter the charges.

New York City Central Labor Council President Brian McLaughlin, standing with a coalition of labor leaders, activists and politicians at City Hall on Jan. 6, declared that “Wal-Mart’s low prices come with a very high price tag” and the presence of the mega store in Queens “will prove to be an economic disaster for our entire city.”

At a City Council committee hearing the same day, McLaughlin and other anti-Wal-Mart protesters testified in support of keeping the superstore out of New York City, and blasted the company’s notorious employment record across the country. McLaughlin, testifying on behalf of Labor, asserted that “the ongoing national and international union battle against Wal-Mart is about maintaining quality community living standards. The true legacy of Wal-Mart is lower living standards for hardworking Americans and those overseas. The fact is, for every Wal-Mart store that opens, jobs are lost to the community, the tax base shrinks, the number of workers with health benefits declines, and the number of workers eligible for welfare increases.”

Wal-Mart struck back a week later with full-page ads in newspapers across the country stating: “Wal-Mart is working for everyone, some of our critics are working only for themselves.”

The AFL-CIO has an ongoing campaign against Wal-Mart’s unfair labor practices throughout the U.S., said Local 237 President Carl Haynes, who serves on the board of the Central Labor Council. “Wal-Mart has a long-standing history of undermining the quality of life for working families in America by underpaying and denying benefits for its workers. We cannot allow this company to continue doing that.” The NYC Central Labor Council is pulling together a broad coalition of groups in support of the United Food and Commercial Workers, the Retail Wholesale Department Store Workers and other affiliate unions most affected by Wal-Mart’s anti-labor practices.