Using Wal-Mart as an example of an American company paying less and providing fewer benefits to employees, the director of a local action group said it's time that issues like trade and health care move to the forefront of the political debate in the county.

While Mal-Wart is the example, they are not alone, said Nathan Sooy, Northeastern Wisconsin director for Wisconsin Citizen Action, as he addressed about 65 people Wednesday at the Brown County Central Library. The group held a town hall meeting on health care, jobs, trade and the 2006 election.

"Wal-Mart is hardly unique amongst companies, and that's the problem," he said. "Wal-Mart is encouraging … a race to the bottom in wages through competition for bad jobs" both at home and globally.

But an independent film producer, Ron Galloway of Augusta, Ga., doesn't view the so-called "Wal-Martization" of the economy as a bad thing. "There are a lot of good things associated with it. In the 1990s, Wal-Mart's efficiencies raised the productivity of the country and lowered the inflation rate," he said earlier Wednesday.

Galloway is the director of the film "Why Wal-Mart Works (and Why That Drives Some People Crazy)". It is seen as a counter to Robert Greenwald's "Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price."

Sooy said the Wal-Mart example can be used as both an educational tool on issues — like health care and trade — and an impetus for change in the way politics are handled in the state and nation.

"Wal-Mart is the best example of the problem, but not its only practitioners," he said .

Galloway, who is also a member of the steering committee of Working Families For Wal-Mart, a group partly funded by Wal-Mart, said, "My big point of view is, the people that are protesting Wal-Mart are not the ones that need to shop there. People are voting with their feet."

This isn't the first time a company like Wal-Mart has come under fire, Galloway said.

"In 1969, it was ITT. In 1936, it was A&P (grocery stores). In 1936, A&P had more stores than Wal-Mart has right now," he said. "People thought they were going to take over the world."

Part of the Wednesday's meeting in Green Bay was the kickoff of a grass-roots effort to reach out to individuals and families who may not otherwise be active in politics to "change the nature of the debate on issues in the 2006 elections."

Among the speakers was Jim Jontz, a former representative from Indiana who now heads up the Working Families Win Campaign. That campaign is a joint effort of by Wisconsin Citizen Action and Americans for Democratic Action Education Fund.

"This is about fighting back, and to fight back we've got to get involved," Jontz said.

When given the opportunity to express concerns about the economy several people spoke up, citing high health-care costs, a declining middle class and new jobs that don't pay as much as jobs that have been sent overseas.

"It seems like the average concerns of working Americans get set aside," Jontz said.

Both Dean DeBroux of De Pere and Dan Challe of Green Bay said they would like to see those concerns come back into focus for both state and national politicians.

"I think it needs to be a higher priority," DeBroux said. "What are they doing now in the state? They're passing gun laws, gay marriage laws, all of these things that really have no effect on jobs."