Let's help Wal-Mart provide employee health insurance...

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Last year, despite obscene profits, Wal-Mart failed to provide health care for 10,431 of its Alabama workers and their dependents. Instead, these employees were forced to rely on government programs costing Alabama taxpayers over $31,240,230 and even more in other states.

It's time to stop this corporate abuse>> http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/639201526?z00m=78401&z00m=78401<l=1143602158

At the end of 2005, Wal-Mart ranked #2 on the Fortune 500 with sales of $312 billion and net profits of $11.2 billion, and was America's largest employer with 1.39 million workers. Yet Wal-Mart still failed to provide company health care to over 300,000 of its employees and their dependents. Wal-Mart's greedy ways left nearly 1 out of every 2 children of its workers either uninsured or on public assistance at a cost of $1.4 billion to taxpayers.

Wal-Mart ranks #1, among all companies in America, with the highest total number of employees without company health care insurance and is the #1 abuser of taxpayer funded public health care in 18 of the 19 states where statewide data has been reported. You have the power to hold corporations responsible for their actions and to stop this blatant corporate abuse.

[Jayhawk Lib]

1. Let's help all

retailers provide employee health insurance for their employees. Most retailers do not pay their employees as well as Walmart does, especially the smaller retailers.

Why not have all retailers provide health care for their employees? There is no reason for them not to. All they have to do to fund it is charge a little higher prices.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. or we could simply have NATIONAL HEALTHCARE

Do you think we missed the swift boat on that?

[Jayhawk Lib]

6. Keep government out of it.

Remember the medicare drug plan that was just implemented!!!! Government is not the answer....IT IS THE PROBLEM

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. We pay twice as much as the next most expensive country...

... because government is not part of it.

Nationalized health care is a success everywhere it is used.... which is everywhere. The alternative is a failure everywhere it's used, which sadly, is only here.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

9. it wouldn't have been a "problem" if KERRY had been elected

Sen. John F. Kerry charged that President Bush was ignoring soaring health care costs, back when he launched a campaign to highlight his plan to reduce insurance premiums and extend coverage to 27 million uninsured Americans.


U.S. health care spending has increased by about 10 percent a year since President Bush took office, and the number of people without health care insurance has risen to 43 million. Kerry promotes a plan designed to cut costs largely by retooling or expanding existing government programs.

Under the Kerry approach, the federal government would pay for the most expensive health expenses, known as catastrophic costs. The plan would also provide tax credits and other benefits to businesses to provide lower-cost coverage to employees and would permit the reimportation of prescription drugs from Canada, among other things. The idea is to push prices down by easing pressure in several areas, from business to bureaucracy, simultaneously.

Government involvement in health care is not the problem. The problem is an uncaring administration that set out to destroy Medicare, Social Security and the entire middle-class of America.

[Jayhawk Lib]

13. Well then

why are we singling out Walmart?

[Broadslidin]

10. The Bought Republicans Allowed The Drug Industry To Write this Law....

Is this a further definition of a fascist U.S. government?

Of course it is.

[blondeatlast]

18. Yeah, Social Security and HeadStart are such pathetic wastes of my taxes..

:sarcasm:

[Telly Savalas]

29. I'm pretty happy with the Canadian health care system.

As are most Canadians.

There's already a party for people who believe that government can do no right, and it's not the Democrats.

[lumberjack_jeff]

7. Special deal - just for WalMart...

Pass a bill forcing employers with more than X employees (where "X"=walmart's total employment minus 1) to provide medical insurance for their employees and their familes...

BUT, allow them to buy into medicaid on behalf of their employees and their families. It's bound to be cheaper for them and better insurance for the employees.

Once they see what a good deal it is, other employers will follow suit. Presto! nationalized health care within 5 years.

Bill: I'm an idea man Chuck, I get ideas, sometimes I get so many ideas that I can't even fight them off!

Hold the phone, hold the phone! Edible paper! You eat it, it's gone... you eat it, it's outta there! No more garbage!

Wait a minute! Why don't they just mix the mayonnaise with the tuna in the can... HOLD THE PHONE! Why don't they just FEED the tuna fish mayonnaise!
Call Starkist!

Michael Keaton: Night Shift (1982)

[Jayhawk Lib]

14. Why single out Walmart?

Just because they are big does not mean that they are more evil than the rest. The rest of the retail business is just as bad. As a matter of fact Walmart hires people the other retail businesses won't.

[lumberjack_jeff]

17. because...

a) they ARE more evil, and
b) they are a high profile target, and
c) because they're hiring practices place a big financial burden on state governments.
d) I'm an advocate for the developmentally disabled and Walmart has never hired anyone from the local DD community.

Consider it a chink in the armor. Walmart is the loose thread that can be pulled to get nationalized health care.

[Jayhawk Lib]

22. You have not been to Walmart.

They have far more DD people than any other retail organization. If Walmart would suddenly shut down then you would see a really BIG BURDEN on the states losing all of those workers paying state taxes and Walmart customers would do more shopping on the internet and mail order.

Nationalized health care would be a travesty. It would be as bad, if not worse, than the new medicare drug plan. Back when Bill Clinton had a majority in congress, Hillary could not get it sold. It is a dead horse.

If the stores that were in business when Walmart came on the scene were taking care of their customers and meeting their needs, Walmart would not be such a big force.

If Sam Walton were still alive today, Walmart would still be what it is now. Sam was a shrewd business man and had this coarse planned a long time before he died.

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. I can point to a half-dozen...

... retailers (the ones that survived, that is) within a 2 mile radius of Walmart that hire DD people, and to my knowledge (and yes, I have been there) not one works at the local Walmart.

If Walmart had never come to town, there would be more people working, but for a local businesses.

Universal health care is a different topic, but suffice to say, anyone who thinks our for profit system is in any way superior to the systems used in any other developed country is clueless. A good place to educate yourself is http://www.who.int/en/

[blondeatlast]

19. If Sam Walton were still running Wal-Mart, I'd believe you.

But I spent 15 years in retail and I say you are fooling yourself if you think they are all just as bad.

And yes, Wal-Mart gets singled out because it's a big target--that's the way politics works.

[OneTwentyoNine]

25. Walmart pays BETTER than other retailers? Bullshit

I've got a daughter who started at a new Target (age 17) no more than 1/2 mile from a Walmart. Her STARTING pay was nearly $2.00 PER HOUR more than the average starting pay Walmart workers made. Within a year she was most likely at $3.00 per hour more than a one year Walmart worker.

I saw an interview with a Walmart worker who was just tickled pink because she was making about $8.00 per hour at Walmart. Oh...she'd been with them about NINE YEARS.

Pays BETTER than other retailers? No fucking way,not around here.

[Booster]

3. We already help Walmart and all other corporations that don't

provide their employees with health insurance. As a matter of fact, we don't just help, we foot the entire bill.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. you read my OP not just the headline, right, spenbax?

[Booster]

5. Right.

[NativeTexan]

11. Help get Walmart employees away from having to use.....

....tax-paid government assistance in ALL states, because their employer DOESN'T cover over 70% of those who work for it!

That means that when they get sick, Walmart employees are forced to use government assisted health care, which WE pay for instead of WALMART!

That is just ONE way that we are able to buy products made by 12yr old Chinese kids at such a LOW, LOW PRICE!!!

Oh, and Ghost, I DID sign the petition!!

[Jayhawk Lib]

15. Walmart is not the only one..

All retailers do exactly the same thing. As a matter of fact Walmart treats their employees better than most retailers. Almost all retailers use part time employees and most will not hire some of the employees that Walmart does. Walmart hires handicap and elderly that other retailers would not touch.

[NativeTexan]

16. Walmart is a local small business killer; they hire.....

...whatever they can get the cheapest. When the higher paid employees in the grocery department, which pays more to men than women, are out, instead of calling in other grocery employees, they just shift over, already on the clock women from the general retail sections of the store to fill in.

They ARE worse, because they ARE the biggest, and they employee MORE than any of the others. BUT, you are correct that this kind of thing goes on everywhere, its just that Walmart has turned it into a science, kinda like Bush has turned INEPTNESS into an accepted lifestyle!!

[Jayhawk Lib]

20. Big is not bad.

Big is efficient. Walmart did not drive the small stores out of business. Their own inefficiencies did. The small store was not meeting their customer's needs. Walmart is meeting their needs.

As far as shifting employees around, what is wrong with that? They hired on to work didn't they? I do not know what Walmart employees make but it is evidently enough because they seem to have an ample amount.

I know several senior citizens that work their part time to supplement their social security and it suits them. They all like it. Some of them would probably not be hired by anybody else.

[NativeTexan]

24. Big?...Its the big picture. Walmart went into a town in West Texas....

.....and as usual, put most ma and pa's out of business. When it became clear that Walmart couldn't make it there, they closed it down...which left the town's business "community" DEAD!

Up north, I honestly forget where, they put in TWO because there were so many small retailers. When the ma and pa's were gone, they CLOSED one store, leaving dozen's of people unemployed.

Nothing is wrong with BIG if it has some honor and integrity. Walmart has neither anymore.

When Mr. Sam was alive, it was a whole different thing. But the kids and f****d it up!

[Jayhawk Lib]

28. The Walmart kids are following

the business strategy that Sam had laid out years ago. Go into the small cities and expand and then go to the larger cities. Get big enough that you can go to manufacturers and negotiate for the very bottom dollar. That my friend was Sam's strategy.

If the small ma and pa stores had been taking care of their customers, providing their needs, Walmart would not have gotten a foot hold in their area. If anything it is the customers fault that Walmart got so big. All Walmart did was provide them an alternative.

Blame the unloyal customers.

[NativeTexan]

30. Ma and pa's didnt have the buying power, but that isn't really my point.

Maybe blame the customers early on, I agree. But nowadays the problem is they can't be happy with just big profits by purchasing products produced by child labor in third-world countries. Now they pay low wages; have no healthcare for the majority of their employees, thereby putting their healthcare on the backs of taxpayers; and because of that, their own employees can't afford to shop anywhere else BUT Walmart.

Just a difference of opinion, but I am not a fan of Walmart, and for somethings, there is no where else in my town of 26,000 people to find them. Of course, the BIGGEST problem is probably the way that corporate greed has been allowed to really flurish the last few years.

And at least Mr. Sam was big into buying "American". That is for sure long gone. Hell even the Nascar novelties are made in China...LOL

[Jayhawk Lib]

31. How much does Walmart pay their employees?

How much does KMart pay their employees?
How much does Dillards pay their employees?
How much does any retailer pay their employees?

Lets face it retailers do not pay very high wages or provide health care. Most retail jobs are part time jobs and that is what a lot of their employees want.

You mentioned that the health care for their employees is on the back of the taxpayer. If we have national health care everybody's health care would be on the back of the taxpayer. The increase in taxes on the American public will be much higher than what the cost of health insurance is now.

If you make the employers pay for the health care of their employees guess who will pay the bill? We the consumer will pay it through higher prices and lower wages for the employees.

As far as manufactured goods from China, do you remember the old TG&Y stores about 30 years ago? They were selling cheap shoddy products from Japan. Japan was financing our national debt and buying prime property here in the US. So getting goods from offshore for cheap prices is nothing new. Walmart did not just start it. Walmart may go the same route as TG&Y and Japan.

Do not kid yourself about Mr. Sam. He talked about buying American while doing business off shore. His kids are following his business strategy that he had laid out before he died. The buy American was a very successful advertising scheme. It worked because it fooled most people.

[blondeatlast]

21. Pony up the facts, there, friend. Got a link? Citation?

I'm in the library biz, so I know from information.

[Jayhawk Lib]

26. We will just have to agree to disagree.

You shop where ever you want and I will go to Walmart. I am glad they are here.

[musical_soul]

12. Agreed.

Let's stop these lazy, good for nothing corporations from taking our hard earned tax money by not
fulfilling their responsiblities to their employees.

[The Flaming Red Head]

27. Look at France (that's how you get benefits, wage increases,etc)

They're not just going hand them over without a fight.