Despite fourteen months of picketing at seven Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, the effort will continue "indefinitely," says Michael Gittings, 711's secretary-treasurer. The union hires temporary workers to picket the Wal-Mart markets.

On Wednesday, Local 711 planned to boost awareness by staging a large protest outside one of the grocery stores, coinciding with a national campaign in 35 cities.

"We're skeptical it's actually going to improve the percentage of health care given," Gittings said. In his mind, the announcement was merely an image builder.

Wal-Mart said April 17 it would let part-time workers qualify for health insurance after one year rather than two years.

A debate has since been waged in national press between the world's largest retailer and an activist group, WakeUpWalMart.org, which is run by the Food and Commercial Workers.

The announcement is the third time in less than a year that the chain has moved to improve health benefits. Wal-Mart said the changes are made despite paying 19 percent more annually, for the past three years, for health care.

"Keep in mind that covering part-time employees is not the norm in retail," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Susan Chambers said in Associated Press stories. "But every American deserves health care, and we want to lead by taking these steps. We hope that others in the retail community will work with us to do the same."

But Gittings suspects that the move will only lead to the hiring of more part-time workers.

"We know what they do, they control how many people are full time compared to part time, so they don't have too many people getting coverage," he said. "It's nice for them to say part-timers get it sooner than they used to. But if everybody's part time rather than full time, people wait longer."

The local picketing began when Wal-Mart introduced its Neighborhood Market grocery chain to the valley. The point is to raise awareness about wages and benefits that the union says are lower than the area's norm.

Wal-Mart sales associates and cashiers make about $8 per hour, according to WakeUpWalMart.org. By comparison, grocery workers in the union can make $16.38 per hour after working full time for four years in the Las Vegas area.

"It used to not take so long," Gittings said. "In our recent contract, companies said they needed to reduce the costs a little to compete with Wal-Mart."

While UFCW discourages any union workers from frequenting the discount stores, it also directs its message to the general public. Uninsured workers rely on taxpayer-funded Medicaid or hospitals, he said.

Gittings said the picketing and other anti-Wal-Mart efforts are working.

"Obviously they are," he said. "The whole thing — changes in the health plan — we know why they're doing it, because they've been getting a lot of criticism for not doing it. The proof will be when we see if more employees qualify for health care."