The retail giant Wal-Mart is among a new alliance of businesses and labor unions to call for universal healthcare. On Wednesday, Wal-Mart joined with AT&T, Intel, the Service Employees International Union and others to call for universal coverage by the year 2012. They did not give specific policy proposals. Wal-Mart says businesses are paying an unfair share of healthcare costs. Despite the alliance, the Service Employees International Union says its funding of the group Wal-Mart Watch will continue. In a statement, another watchdog group, Wake Up Wal-Mart, said: “If Wal-Mart is truly serious about universal health care, we challenge [it] to provide universal health care to all of its uninsured employees [and] make universal health care a litmus test for its political contributions. … We await their answer.”