by Jim Hightower & r & REVEALING WAL-MART & r & Poor Wal-Mart. One day it's a peacock, the next day a feather duster. On Oct. 25, the retailing behemoth was basking in media reports about its new plan to reduce energy use. This was part of an overall PR push to buff up the battered image of the heavy-handed giant, so on this day Wal-Mart's honchos were strutting with all of their corporate tail feathers fanned.
Then came Oct. 26 ... and the peacock's plumes drooped. An internal corporate memo had been leaked to the media showing a bird of a different feather. In it, an executive vice president sent a series of recommendations to the board of directors on ways to cut back on employees' benefits, thus saving the company a billion or so a year, while appearing for PR purposes to be offering more benefits.
For example, the memo called for offering some education benefits as a lure to younger workers. How nice! But the real motive here is to push out workers who've been at Wal-Mart for a while and have earned higher pay and more benefits. The memo noted that someone with a seven-year tenure costs the corporation 55 percent more than a first-year worker -- yet is no more productive. Better to ratchet up the turnover and rid the company of those more expensive veterans. Not nice.
Other not-nice recommendations were to hire more part-time workers (they don't get benefits), cut 401(K) contributions by one-fourth and slash company-paid life insurance benefits by nearly a third.
Also, the memo admits that nearly half of the children of Wal-Mart's workers either have no health insurance at all or are on Medicaid. And while the company says it will offer a new health plan, it'll require out-of-pocket expenses so high that most of the low-wage workers will be priced out of the action.
To see the memo -- and the real Wal-Mart -- go to & lt;a href="http://walmartwatch.com" & Wal-Mart Watch & lt;/a & .
& lt;i & For more nuggets of wisdom from America's No. 1 populist, check out & lt;a href="http://www.jimhightower.com" & his website & lt;/a & & lt;/i & .
Then came Oct. 26 ... and the peacock's plumes drooped. An internal corporate memo had been leaked to the media showing a bird of a different feather. In it, an executive vice president sent a series of recommendations to the board of directors on ways to cut back on employees' benefits, thus saving the company a billion or so a year, while appearing for PR purposes to be offering more benefits.
For example, the memo called for offering some education benefits as a lure to younger workers. How nice! But the real motive here is to push out workers who've been at Wal-Mart for a while and have earned higher pay and more benefits. The memo noted that someone with a seven-year tenure costs the corporation 55 percent more than a first-year worker -- yet is no more productive. Better to ratchet up the turnover and rid the company of those more expensive veterans. Not nice.
Other not-nice recommendations were to hire more part-time workers (they don't get benefits), cut 401(K) contributions by one-fourth and slash company-paid life insurance benefits by nearly a third.
Also, the memo admits that nearly half of the children of Wal-Mart's workers either have no health insurance at all or are on Medicaid. And while the company says it will offer a new health plan, it'll require out-of-pocket expenses so high that most of the low-wage workers will be priced out of the action.
To see the memo -- and the real Wal-Mart -- go to & lt;a href="http://walmartwatch.com" & Wal-Mart Watch & lt;/a & .
& lt;i & For more nuggets of wisdom from America's No. 1 populist, check out & lt;a href="http://www.jimhightower.com" & his website & lt;/a & & lt;/i & .
