Is Wal-Mart the problem, or are unions the problem?

    Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has become the rallying point for criticism of labor practices, but even some critics acknowledge the company has been singled out for being the largest retailer, not necessarily the worst.

    Organized labor is the admitted architect of ongoing anti-Wal-Mart campaigns, which have come to encompass advertising, public canvassing, online blogs, media outreach, development battles and legislative initiatives.

    Union representatives say they have consciously focused on the Bentonville, Ark.-based company because, as the world's biggest retailer and certainly among the lower paying, it applies downward pressure on compensation throughout the industry. Thus, any success in forcing the retailer to increase its wages and benefits would ripple throughout the industry.

    Wal-Mart and business advocates, however, see a more self-serving motive for the focused offensive.

    "Union membership is declining and Wal-Mart, as the nation's largest private employer, is a natural target," spokeswoman Cynthia Lin said.

    Given the countless variables, lack of data and tangle of conflicting studies, it's impossible to say definitively whether Wal-Mart or another retailer is the "worst" employer in its treatment of workers. But it is clear that the most commonly voiced criticisms of Wal-Mart -- substandard wages and health care coverage -- could easily be directed toward other retailers as well.

    Even Minneapolis-based Target Corp., whose public image could hardly be more contrary to Wal-Mart, is comparable in terms of compensation, according to a recent survey by the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789.

    In addition, several large retailers ranked slightly below Wal-Mart in terms of how much they contribute to employees' health care, including The Home Depot, J.C. Penney Co. and Macy's, according to the premium assistance program of the state's Office of Medicaid.

    So why focus on Wal-Mart to the exclusion of other retailers?

    "Because Wal-Mart was the innovator of the race to the bottom model and they're the largest," said Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake Up Wal-Mart, a UFCW project aimed at educating the public about the effects of Wal-Mart.

    Various UFCW locals, meanwhile, are sponsoring legal challenges and backing community efforts against Wal-Mart's planned California Supercenters, the massive stores that sell groceries alongside general merchandise.

    Wal-Mart, for its part, insists the fact it employs 1.6 million people worldwide is proof that its compensation is fair.

    "It takes a lot of talent to fuel the company's growth," Lin said. "We wouldn't be able to operate our existing stores, much less grow at the rate we're growing, if we weren't an employer offering competitive wages and benefits."

    She noted that every store opening receives thousands of applications for hundreds of jobs, many from the family or friends of existing employees.

    Free market advocates insist it's union wages, not Wal-Mart's, that are out of sync with the market.

    "It's called the 'union wage premium,' which only exists because they can deny other people the right to compete for those jobs," said Gary Galles, a professor of economics at Pepperdine University in Malibu. "To the extent that Wal-Mart can take away sales from those stores, it's providing a mechanism for non-union jobs to compete with union jobs."

    More than any specific wage or benefit gap, it's this encroachment on traditional union turf, the supermarket sector, that is fueling the anti-Wal-Mart movement, he said.

    To the extent that other retailers push into or grow within this sector, they are garnering union attention -- though nothing nearing the level of Wal-Mart.

    The UFCW 798 in Minneapolis -- where Target is planning a dozen grocery-stocked stores, called SuperTargets -- is working to organize local outlets and has launched the TargetUnion.org web-site.

    "You don't think we'll discriminate against them, do you?" said Phil Tucker, a special projects director for UFCW 1179 in Martinez. "I'd love to go stand in front of Target with a sign. Once you're getting into groceries, then you're dealing with us."