Wal-Mart, long criticized by labor for its anti-union ideology, low wages, and cutthroat business practices, is now under attack for its association with goods made in Burma.

Burma, or Myanmar as it was renamed in 1988 by its military junta, the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC), has been censured by the United Nations, International Labor Organization, the United States, the European Union, and human rights groups for a brutal regime that relies on repression, forced labor, and heroin exports to stay in power. SLORC leaders ignored the Burmese citizens' vote in 1990 to oust them through a democratic election.

Labor leaders in the United States and Canada charge that Wal-Mart, despite its promise to stop, still sells goods bearing the "Made in Myanmar" label.

At a recent Washington, D.C., press conference, the United Food and Commercial Workers joined with Burmese union and rights leaders to urge consumers to protest Wal-Mart's continued sales of clothing and other goods made in Burma.

Mike Leonard, vice president of the United Food and Clothing Workers, said that Wal-Mart announced in January that it would no longer receive shipments from Burma, yet was still receiving Burmese shipments in May. In the past six months, he said, Wal-Mart Canada received more than 70 tons of garments from Burma.

"Even greed must have its limits," Leonard said. "At some point, basic human values must take precedent over profit. Apparently not at Wal-Mart headquarters."

"We are asking workers and consumers to send a message to Wal-Mart: No Burma Products. No trade with businesses that trade in Burma. All Burma products off the shelves." Leonard said. He urged union families to send e-mails and letters and make phone calls to Wal-Mart to deliver this message.

U Maung Maung, general secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions, Burma, and the president of the Burma Institute for Democracy and Development, said: "In Burma, it is a crime for a workers to attempt to address workplace issues by either joining or attempting to organize a union. Workers who have been caught engaging in union activities have been arrested and have received jail terms ranging from 17 years to life imprisonment."

Noting that the U.S. government placed sanctions on Burma to prevent new investment by U.S. companies, Maung said, "sadly the investment sanctions do not prevent American companies from buying from Burma." He said that since the AFL-CIO-supported sanctions were imposed in 1997, garment exports from Burma to the United States have increased.

"The American people need to know that the military regime and Burma's drug lords control most commercial activity in Burma and this is especially true of the garment and textile sector," Maung said. "By purchasing garments made in Burma, American companies are directly enriching and strengthening those most brutal and undemocratic elements in Burma. . . ."

U Bo Hla-Tint, minister of the National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, underscored the point. He said the profits from most textile and garment production are "used to buy weapons and ammunition for a military that relies on the force of arms to cling to power. The profits from these factories are not, as some would have you believe, used to fund education and public health programs for the people of Burma."

The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions estimated that nearly 1 million people, including children and the elderly, have been pressed into forced labor in Burma. Reports by the ILO and other human rights groups have documented widespread detention without trial, torture, rape, religious and ethic persecution, and forced relocation. More than half a million refugees have fled the regime, many of them massed along the border with Thailand.

The National Labor Committee reported that in a factory it investigated in Qin Shi that was producing handbags for the U.S. market, workers were: forced to live in company houses, charged for living expenses, averaged net pay of only three cents an hour, allowed to leave the grounds for only 1.5 hours per day, and made to work 14-hour shifts, seven days a week.

SLORC also is under attack by environmental groups that charge the regime with massive sell-offs of forests, oil, natural gas and other resources with no regard for the environment.

In a Toronto Star column, Canadian Labour Congress Pres. Ken Georgetti called on the government of Canada to impose a ban on business with Burma. He charged that the "whole country is one big sweatshop, controlled from top to bottom by the nation's military."

Noting that Wal-Mart was selling a "Made in Myanmar" shirt for $10, Georgetti said: "Only forced labor allows 'everyday low prices' like these."