On Wednesday, October 26, The New York Times revealed a top secret Wal-Mart memo exposing Wal-Mart at its absolute worst. In addition, the memo proves what a farce Wal-Mart's past two days of "vision speeches" have been. Wal-Mart's CEO had the gall to come out this week and try to paint Wal-Mart as a company making big changes. But today's memo proves Wal-Mart's announcements are nothing more than a publicity stunt by exposing the truth behind Wal-Mart's culture of greed and moral corruption.
The memo, written by Susan Chambers, Executive Vice President for Benefits, robs Wal-Mart workers of their human dignity and instead treats them like the products in their stores. It is simply appalling that Wal-Mart's senior management would actually write a memo suggesting not to hire certain workers because they may be unhealthy or obese.
Most startlingly, the memo admits, for the first time, that there is a Wal-Mart health care crisis in America. The memo specifically states: "...our critics are correct in some of their observations. Specifically, our coverage is expensive for low-income families, and Wal-Mart has a significant percentage of associates and their children on public assistance."
In fact, Wal-Mart revealed 46% of the children of Wal-Mart employees are either uninsured or on taxpayer funded public health care programs. No wonder Wal-Mart so vehemently opposes legislators’ efforts to expose the truth about the true cost of the Wal-Mart economy. It is inexcusable and unconscionable for a company, with $10 billion in profits, to know 1 out of every 2 of their employees’ children has no health care or is forced to rely on our public safety net and do nothing about it.
The key question becomes: What else does Wal-Mart know and when will they reveal it? Wal-Mart’s great American deception of the past two days will not stand and Lee Scott ought to be ashamed of himself for perpetuating such a fraudulent image to the American people.