Wal-Mart Watch: Hartford passes protections for organizing on Wal-Mart property:

For the first time in Connecticut, among the first times in the nation, a local ordinance gives union organizers - and any other groups - the right to do their thing on Wal-Mart property, peacefully and within reason, without fear of the boot or handcuffs. They can rouse rabble right up to the front door of the 155,000-square-foot store. This is a big deal at Wal-Mart, which has so far remained 100 percent non-union in its North American stores in part by keeping labor organizers as far as possible from its "associates." Worker organizers and Wal-Mart opponents say they won't wait long to exercise their new rights after the Jan. 26 opening at Charter Oak Marketplace. They are the ones, after all, who helped the city council draft the ordinance, which passed Dec. 13 in a 6-2 vote. This Wal-Mart differs from others because it sits on Hartford Housing Authority land...Among the organizers' ideas: a bake sale, right on the site, to raise money for Wal-Mart workers to buy health coverage.