Voting With Your Feet
Reiko forwarded a link to a KOMO radio story about a locally owned grocery store chain, Brown and Cole, here in Washington State that says it is going to have to close 8 of its stores because of competition from Wal-Mart. I also heard a piece about this on KPLU radio (the local NPR station).
The local employer wants to keep providing good benefits and insurance for its employees, but says it is hard to compete with Wal-Mart when Wal-Mart provides few benefits for its help. On KPLU, the Wal-Mart spokesman demonstrated Wal-Mart follows the same PR philosophy as the Bush Administration - say something in support of your position with an ounce of truth but pounds of falsehood. The spokesman said Wal-Mart provides good wages and benefits including health insurance. The ounce is that a small number of their employees do eventually get some small amount of benefits and insurance. The pounds are that their wages are far less than union workers earn and the bulk of Wal-Mart employees do not get the benefits because of such gimmicks as requiring part timers to work two years before becoming eleigible and then laying most of them off before the two years.
The facts on Wal-Mart employees are readily available to journalists, who should familiarize themselves with the facts before interviewing a Wal-Mart spokesperson and then should challenge with the facts. For example, ask the spokesperson what percentage of Wal-Mart employees actually have health insurance coverage through Wall-Mart, and then when the response is an ounce of generic evasiveness, the journalist should provide the pound of fact, citing the source for the information, and challenge the spokesperson to provide any contradictory facts and name the source. Something I find bothersome is that Wal-Mart, obviously concerned about such journalistic challenges, is apparently trying to head them off with cash - for example, Wal-Mart now is giving money to NPR to support its programing.
One thing the Wal-Mart spokesperson said that I do agree with is that customers make the decision of which business model to support when they decide where to shop. Brown and Cole, locally owned and treating its employees fairly, deserved the support of its community when Wal-Mart, an international predatory exploiter, invaded Washington. Sufficient members of the local community defected to support the exploiter, and they should be ashamed of their defection. Remember, when you shop at Wal-Mart, you are voting with your feet.
The Democratically controlled Washington State Legislature is considering legislation requiring fees be paid to the State by large employers who do not provide health insurance for their employees, as partial reimbursement for the medicaid expenses the State incurs in providing health care to those employees. A traditional threat employers have used in the past to oppose such legislation is to say that if it passes they will leave the State. I hope it does and I hope they do. As long as Wal-Mart keeps their current business model, they should not be welcome.
The local employer wants to keep providing good benefits and insurance for its employees, but says it is hard to compete with Wal-Mart when Wal-Mart provides few benefits for its help. On KPLU, the Wal-Mart spokesman demonstrated Wal-Mart follows the same PR philosophy as the Bush Administration - say something in support of your position with an ounce of truth but pounds of falsehood. The spokesman said Wal-Mart provides good wages and benefits including health insurance. The ounce is that a small number of their employees do eventually get some small amount of benefits and insurance. The pounds are that their wages are far less than union workers earn and the bulk of Wal-Mart employees do not get the benefits because of such gimmicks as requiring part timers to work two years before becoming eleigible and then laying most of them off before the two years.
The facts on Wal-Mart employees are readily available to journalists, who should familiarize themselves with the facts before interviewing a Wal-Mart spokesperson and then should challenge with the facts. For example, ask the spokesperson what percentage of Wal-Mart employees actually have health insurance coverage through Wall-Mart, and then when the response is an ounce of generic evasiveness, the journalist should provide the pound of fact, citing the source for the information, and challenge the spokesperson to provide any contradictory facts and name the source. Something I find bothersome is that Wal-Mart, obviously concerned about such journalistic challenges, is apparently trying to head them off with cash - for example, Wal-Mart now is giving money to NPR to support its programing.
One thing the Wal-Mart spokesperson said that I do agree with is that customers make the decision of which business model to support when they decide where to shop. Brown and Cole, locally owned and treating its employees fairly, deserved the support of its community when Wal-Mart, an international predatory exploiter, invaded Washington. Sufficient members of the local community defected to support the exploiter, and they should be ashamed of their defection. Remember, when you shop at Wal-Mart, you are voting with your feet.
The Democratically controlled Washington State Legislature is considering legislation requiring fees be paid to the State by large employers who do not provide health insurance for their employees, as partial reimbursement for the medicaid expenses the State incurs in providing health care to those employees. A traditional threat employers have used in the past to oppose such legislation is to say that if it passes they will leave the State. I hope it does and I hope they do. As long as Wal-Mart keeps their current business model, they should not be welcome.
posted by Tom Blake | 9:52 AM
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