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Playing Publicity With Health Care?

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Posted on Jul 1, 2009
Wal-Mart
cnbc.com

Wal-Mart’s support for a broad health care mandate may be aimed at beating back an alternative that may be less favorable to the company.

SEIU President Andrew Stern and Wal-Mart have joined forces, breaking with most other companies to support President Obama’s plan requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers. The thing often forgotten is Wal-Mart’s horrible record on health care and its current move to make about 40 percent of its employees part-time and thus ineligible for benefits.

Read more at the Wal-Mart Watch Web site, and check out the Wal-Mart Health Care Fact Sheet.

The Wall Street Journal:

In a major break with most other large companies, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Tuesday told the White House that it supports requiring employers to provide health insurance to workers, a centerpiece of President Barack Obama’s effort to provide near-universal coverage to Americans.

The support of Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, could give momentum to one of the most-contentious aspects of legislation taking shape in Congress to fix the health system. To help pay for covering the 46 million uninsured, lawmakers have proposed mandating that all but small employers provide insurance for workers or help pay for it.

Lobbies for large corporations have opposed the idea. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has fought such a mandate, saying it would prompt companies to cut jobs, lower wages and possibly drive them out of business. Wal-Mart—which provides insurance to employees and wants to level the playing field with companies that don’t—on Tuesday delivered a letter to President Obama taking a different stance.

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By BlueEagle, July 1 at 7:41 pm #

Wal-Mart is merely working to impose higher costs on the competition. A classic business strategy to look like a do-gooder with the intent of gaining market share.

This is similar to the Dolphin Safe Tuna campaign, when the large tuna companies destoryed all the small ones by using The State to impose costs to drive the little guy out of business to gain market share.

What other examples do you know of?

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By NABNYC, July 1 at 5:23 pm #

Ask yourself this question:  why would a union, any union, work together with one of the most oppressive employers in the country?  And publish an announcement in Rupert Murdoch’s whorehouse? 

I would not trust SEIU to cut my dog’s toenails.  If I had a dog. 

SEIU worked against single-payer healthcare in California, works with big-government and big-business, against the interests of working people, and against the interests of related unions.  The insiders make a whole bunch of money, but I cannot see one thing they have ever done to help working people, or to strengthen the union movement.  In fact, they have undermined solidarity by breaking unions apart, attacking the California nurses union and trying to shut down locals that oppose Andy Stern’s dictatorial rule.  He’s making a bundle.  But which side is he really on?

I would not even shop in Wal-Mart, never mind come out publicly in some alliance with them.

And why is SEIU supporting a proposal that would require companies to buy private health insurance instead of supporting single-payer, or a comparable public option?  Is the SEIU getting contributions from the health insurance industry to buy their support for this corporate give-away?

Is Wal-mart going into the health insurance industry in addition to everything else they do? 

Proceed with caution.  Something about this evil union stinks.

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