Wake-Up Wal-Mart, a group supported by the Food and Commercial Workers union, and Democracy for America, a political organization founded by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, plan more than 300 meetings with more than 10,000 supporters nationwide to campaign for health benefit mandates, they say.

Wal-Mart calls the campaign a publicity stunt. "The health care issue is much broader than Wal-Mart," says Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president of benefits administration. "Our nation - including large and small employers - faces a health care crisis. Maliciously targeting one company doesn't address this issue."

The groups want states to pass laws modeled after legislation considered in Maryland, says Paul Blank, campaign director for Wake-Up Wal-Mart. That bill would require employers with more than 10,000 workers in the state to spend at least 8% of its payroll on health benefits or pay the difference to a state fund that would expand Medicaid coverage for low-income adults. Wal-Mart is the only employer in the state that would be taxed under the proposal. The bill passed and the governor vetoed it. Supporters say they have enough votes in the legislature to override the veto next session.

More coverage of state benefit mandates can be found in the June 15 issue of Employee Benefit News.