What, you say, another post today? Well, yes. I heard this story today and thought it was worth mentioning. Since you have to sign up for the Washington Post I’ll get right to the meat of the article.
Maryland lawmakers bucked the will of the state’s Republican governor and the nation’s largest retailer yesterday, voting to become the first state to effectively require that Wal-Mart spend more on employee health care.
In a veto reversal that was closely watched nationally, lawmakers in the Democrat-led General Assembly voted largely along party lines for a measure that legislatures in more than 30 states are considering replicating.
So, it seems that WallyWorld isn’t going to get away with short-changing Maryland anymore. That’s good. The problem is that now they’ll work harder to make sure this doesn’t happen in every other state. They don’t want to have to actually pay anything to their employees, that’s why they fight the unions so hard. That’s why they try to hire only uneducated people (i.e., those that are easily led to believe that Wal-Mart is actually a good place to work….blah).
I really hope, though, that WallyWorld won’t fight the system and will instead fix theirs. I would really like to know that all of their employees are at least getting decent health benefits. It’s really sad to go into one of those god-forsaken stores and see people working who have no teeth. Or who have to greet while sitting in a wheel chair because WallyWorld won’t guarantee that they’ll have a job when they come off of medical leave (I know for a fact that they don’t because I had to sign something saying I agreed to that before they would let me take maternity leave). And these people can’t afford not to work. They can’t afford to fight Wal-Mart for their little bit of money.
I doubt that WallyWorld will somehow gain some kind of collective conscience. That died with Sam Walton. I think they’ll spend the money (they should be using for medical benefits) on lots of lawyers to fight this with everything they have. I wonder how much they contributed to the governor of Maryland so that he’d veto that bill. I guess they didn’t think to pay the House and Senate also. Guess they underestimated the power of the Maryland people as a whole.
Way to go Maryland!
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