{"id":5884,"date":"2005-11-19T09:57:08","date_gmt":"2005-11-19T14:57:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=5884"},"modified":"2005-11-19T09:57:08","modified_gmt":"2005-11-19T14:57:08","slug":"we-dont-need-wal-marts-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/we-dont-need-wal-marts-education\/","title":{"rendered":"We don’t need Wal-Mart’s ‘education’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo<\/a><\/p>\n

Wal-Mart is about to enter a huge smackdown with the legislature of the state Maryland — and for once it’s not clear that the obnoxious, union-busting retail giant will win.<\/p>\n

Both chambers of the Maryland legislature passed a bill in April that would require companies with more than 10,000 employees to spend at least 8 percent of their payrolls on health-insurance benefits or contribute an equivalent amount to a state fund that provides health insurance for the poor. Business analysts say Wal-Mart is the only company operating in Maryland that will be affected by the bill.<\/p>\n

Maryland’s Republican governor, Robert Ehrlich, vetoed the measure. But vote counters say both chambers have the numbers for an override — if they can hold off Wal-Mart’s lobbying onslaught.<\/p>\n

The pressure is expected to be intense, and since the vote is not until January, Wal-Mart will have more than two months to press its case.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post reported<\/a> that Wal-Mart has hired a team of 12 lobbyists to spearhead the effort to defeat the bill, including several of the highest-paid lobbyists in the state. The company’s strategy is multi-pronged, but a key part includes targeting the legislature’s 42-member black caucus.
\n
\nThe Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland held a meeting last month, and Wal-Mart just happened to be moved to donate $10,000 to underwrite the gathering. On Friday the caucus met again — and a Wal-Mart representative was on the agenda.<\/p>\n

Maryland lawmakers insist Wal-Mart cannot simply buy votes, but this arrangement certainly looks suspicious.<\/p>\n

“There are several legislators out there who have requested that we continue to educate them,” [Wal-Mart spokesman Nate] Hurst said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think we know what “educate” means here.<\/p>\n

Some legislators have questioned the arrangement. “I don’t think the caucus needs to create the perception that we’re patronizing any one company affected by a bill that we’ve already cast votes on,” said Obie Patterson, a member of the House of Delegates.<\/p>\n

The vote comes at a time when critics have finally found a few chinks in Wal-Mart’s armor. Recent internal memos have come to light in which company executives admit that its health-care plan is costly and that a “significant percentage” of store employees must rely on public assistance.<\/p>\n

Keep your eye on this one. If the Maryland bill passes, it’s a sure bet other states will take a good hard look at it. Wal-Mart might actually be forced to spend some of its huge profits on affordable health-care for its workers. Who knows where this trend might lead? Perhaps some day the company will even be required to stop firing anyone who even utters the word “union.”<\/p>\n

None of this will happen if the Maryland legislature doesn’t show some backbone. In the end, the lawmakers, and especially members of the black caucus, will have to decide who they wish to serve: the people who put them in office or a greedy corporation bent on dominating many of those same folks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Guest Post by Morbo Wal-Mart is about to enter a huge smackdown with the legislature of the state Maryland — and for once it’s not clear that the obnoxious, union-busting retail giant will win. Both chambers of the Maryland legislature passed a bill in April that would require companies with more than 10,000 employees to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5884"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5884\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}