About 60 union members and other activists yesterday cheered, booed and chanted their way through a lively lunchtime rally that called on Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to improve its health-care benefits.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Members of UFCW Local 23 applaud fellow union members and community activists yesterday during a rally at Mellon Square to call attention to Wal-Mart health-care policies. Click photo for larger image.

The Downtown rally, one of 40 held in cities nationwide, was the first public event for the Change to Win coalition -- a group of seven unions that split off from the AFL-CIO last year.

"Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the world," Ron Lenhart, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 23, told the small crowd gathered at Mellon Square. "There's no reason they can't make affordable health care an option for their employees."

Specifically, Mr. Lenhart said that 57 percent of Wal-Mart's employees did not receive company-provided health care.

During speeches by three union leaders, the crowd booed when Wal-Mart was mentioned and pointed fingers and chanted "Make Work Pay" at a public relations contractor who was representing the retailer.

In response to the nationwide rallies, Wal-Mart issued a statement saying: "America's workers must be mystified by any group that would rally against an $11 per month health plan, $3 prescription drug co-pays and expanded health coverage for children. Sadly, these rallies are more about politics and publicity stunts than health care."

In the past, Wal-Mart has argued that the company is in line with or better than other companies in the retail sector, claiming that 73 percent of its associates are eligible for health-care coverage. A 2002 study published in the journal Health Affairs reported that the retail industry as a whole offered health care to 62 percent of its workers.

In recent months, Wal-Mart has twice announced expansions of its health-care coverage.

To Tom Hoffman, a spokesman for the Service Employees International Union, that's a sign that union pressure is having an effect.

"What that says to me is that what we're doing is the right thing, and that we need to keep doing it," he said.

The event was part of an ongoing political and public relations campaign by the United Food and Commercial Workers called WakeUpWalMart.com. Having failed to organize Wal-Mart stores, it and other unions have turned to attacking the retailer over its workplace policies.

Yesterday's rallies also kicked off the first major initiative of the Change to Win coalition -- the Make Work Pay campaign that aims to increase wages and benefits for 50 million nonunionized service workers.

"There's a lot of workers out there who don't make a living wage," said Mr. Hoffman. "We're trying to reach the tens of millions who are not organized."

Mr. Hoffman also advocated the passage of a bill introduced in the Pennsylvania Legislature similar to one passed in Maryland that requires employers with more than 10,000 workers to dedicate 8 percent of their payroll on health-care costs.

After the speeches concluded at the rally, the crowd broke up into groups of five and donned lab coats, roaming the area around Mellon Square asking passers-by to sign petitions urging Wal-Mart to "pay its fair share for health care."