On May 12 union leaders, academics, and community activists met to discuss a strategy to rein in Wal-Mart's growing influence on pay and benefit scales throughout the American economy. In response to news of this meeting, here's what Wal-Mart had to say:
Sarah Clark, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, said the company knew little about the meeting. "We believe that we pay good and fair wages and offer a comprehensive benefit package,'' she said. "There are numerous groups who do not want us to succeed for their own reasons."[snip]
She said that while critics say 40 percent of Wal-Mart's workers do not have company health insurance, 90 percent of its employees have health benefits through some plan - perhaps a spouse's or through state Medicaid.
So, um, Wal-Mart thinks it's just fine that its employees have health insurance as long as some other entity besides Wal-Mart has to pay for it? And that one of those prospective other payers is the federal government (i.e. you and me)?
Nice people, those billionaires. (Link found belatedly from Nathan Newman).
Posted by Linkmeister at May 21, 2004 12:01 AMIt constantly boggles my mind that *anyone* still defends this company. My head comes darn near exploding that people defend them so strenuously. If ever there was a truer example of the Evil Corporation, I don't know what it was.
Posted by: Kim at May 21, 2004 07:14 AM