Over 3,100 Wal-Mart workers got state health aid (why to not shop there)

[uppityperson]

More proof that Walmart treats its employees poorly. WA has state subsidized health insurance, available at a sliding scale dependent upon income. Walmart doesn't pay decent and doesn't offer affordable health insurance on their own, shifting the cost to the state, and not just WA.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002758209_report24m.html

More than 3,100 Wal-Mart employees in Washington were benefiting from state-subsidized health coverage throughout 2004 — nearly double the total for any other company, according to two confidential state reports.

That total is much higher than previously thought. And it indicates that as many as 20 percent of Wal-Mart's employees were getting taxpayer-funded health care for themselves or their dependents.

The reports are sure to fuel the debate over a labor-backed push in the Legislature to require companies such as Wal-Mart to pay more for health care. Democrats in the House and Senate say the reports show that Wal-Mart and some other big companies are shifting millions of dollars in health-care costs to the state...
(Clip)

More than a dozen other states have conducted studies to identify companies with the most employees on government-subsidized health care. In nearly every case, Wal-Mart came out on top.

More at link.

[bluestateguy]

1. Pay attention you conservatives who hate welafre dependency

Cracking down on Wal Mart should be considered a form a welfare reform itself.

[SoCalDem]

3. and yet these same people blame all their troubles on "the illegals"

Walmart costs every state BIG BUCKS in 'subsidized health care'.. That SAID, I really wish our country would quit making employers provide health care. It gives bosses literal control over life and death to some employees and it ties those employees to dead end jobs they hate, because they dare not quit and go without what little insurance they may be able to purchase.

We should have ONE single insurance plan available at a low cost for everyone. the richie rich folks will still pay extra to have their chi-chi doctors treat them, but for the other 99% of us, we could have one gigantic risk-pool, tempered by people of all ages, that would benefit us all.. employers and employees..

Imagine if you could look for a job you liked that actually paid a little less, but was closer to home qwith friendlier hours. You COULD get off that hamster wheel if you had national insurance coverage.

[cyberpj]

2. Reminder to see this DVD -

"By the final credits you may want to picket Sam Walton's grave." -Boston Globe

http://www.walmartmovie.com/

[Beaverhausen]

10. I agree. This is a great documentary

By the end I wanted to hang all Sam Walton's heirs from the nearest tree!

[cyberpj]

12. It's just so upsetting because in 'the old days', 60 minutes and the other

prime time news story hours (Dateline, PrimeTime, even 48 hours)used to cover things like this and all of the other illusions being perpetrated on us. Although PBS' Frontline did do a great show on Walmart and how they manage the screwing of American jobs on the manufacturing end.

Now that CNN has also gone Foxish we're running out of outlets to help us with expose's.

Sigh.........

ps - did you see the Sundance video 'HA HA America?"
HA HA HA AMERICA 17min.
http://festival.sundance.org/2006/watch/film.aspx?which=402&category=DOC

[mitchum]

13. As long as there are also enough branches for Wal Mart executives

[Voltaire99]

4. A progressive shopping at Wal-Mart...

...is no progressive.

Theory's nice. Practice is everything.

[young_at_heart]

5. Wal-Mart and Sam's Club should be boycotted

As long as people give their money to these blood suckers they will thrive. Our taxes are subsidizing their low wages!

[HereSince1628]

6. Wisconsin is going after WalMart to get back health-care costs

paid by the state.

The hegemony of the Big Box retailer has been the ruination of the United States. Worse, Big Box retailing in the US is so powerful it is dictating pricing from Chinese producers which can only be met by those industries denying their 34 cent an hour workers of health/exercise/recreational facilities. This essentially forces workers to lives that in dormitories under conditions that are somewhere between slavery and forced labor camps.

I expect the next move forward will be to have the workers begin to "hot bunk," with 4 workers sleeping in 6 hour shifts sharing the same bed. Globalization is a con-game, and the DLC sold the Democrats soul on the idea in order to get corporate support in the erarly to mid-90's.

[car]

8. Yeah

Good for Wisconsin. All states should

[car]

7. Wal-Mart Insurance

Yeah, Wal-Mart offers health insurance to their employees... but come on now.. is it really affordable for their employees?????

[hollowdweller]

9. WV Proposes Wal Mart Tax

The proposed bill passed through a legislative interims panel Tuesday and, according to Senate Judiciary Chairman Jeffrey Kessler, D-Marshall, it faces much work in the next two months.

The bill, as it is currently written, would make any for-profit employer spending less than 8 percent of its West Virginia payroll on employee health care pay the difference into a medical services trust fund.

For nonprofit groups, the threshold would be 6 percent.

However, one component of the proposed bill stipulates the measure would apply only to employers with more than 10,000 people on the payroll. With 12,054 workers in West Virginia, Wal-Mart is the only company in the state that meets the bill’s criteria.

“That is not fair,” Masten said. “This legislation only applies to Wal-Mart.”

http://www.register-herald.com/business/local_story_012230452.html

[taught_me_patience]

11. If state laws allow it...

then don't blame Wal-Mart for exploiting it. And creating laws for only one company is bullsh*t. Its anti-capitalism and anti-american. I love Wal-Mart and will continue to shop there. Without them, I probably wouldn't have a job.


taught.

[chat_noir]

14. Whirl-Mart

http://www.theboxtank.com/walmartbox/2005/12/walmart_custome.html





http://www.thevacuumcleaner.co.uk/whirl.html