A demonstration is planned for today at the new Walmart here, with some 300 to 400 members of the United Food and Commercial Workers union Local 1262 expected to hold what it calls a “consumer education rally” outside the store.
The local represents some 30,000 food service workers, mostly in supermarkets, in the northern half of New Jersey. The demonstrators gathered at a hotel in Woodbridge yesterday morning and would board seven or eight buses to come here, said Cyndi Spill, local communications director.
The rally was planned “to make the public aware of Walmart business practices, as far as not providing health care to their employees” and paying low wages. She said that in the union’s view the health insurance takes a long time to quality for and its cost puts it “out of reach for most workers” at Walmart.
Also, in the union’s opinion “they do not pay what we call a fair, living wage, something that you can raise your family on.” The rally was to “educate the public on Walmart’s impact on and cost to the local community,” she said.
While the union internationally has an initiative to try to unionize Walmart, Spill said “we’re not as a local to try to organize this location.”
Raritan Township police said they were aware of the demonstration.