In a brilliant, stunning move indicating their mastery of the PR field, America's largest retailer has just released a press release, the real meat of which is how good they are at press releases... press releases that are so transparently phony that my cat rolled his eyes at me when I read it aloud.
The thing is, they release press releases about their policies all the time-- about as often as they proclaim that they're ~rolling back prices~ or ~helping you live better~ or whatever truckload of utter crap they're using for a slogan these days.
The Wakeup Walmart blog (I'm working with them) reports:
Wal-Mart got a lot of credit last year when they announced they were overhauling their health coverage. We knew better though, and since then it has consistently been shown that Wal-Mart hasn't changed. As recently as this month, a report came out showing that Wal-Mart employees still rely heavily on state aid for health care.
Regarding that prior report:
Last year, facing tons of pressure for the public, consumers, and the media, Wal-Mart announced it was overhauling its health care plan. It was a crass PR move (followed by more PR moves) in order to silence critics, and it did little to help its employees stay healthy.
Regarding those prior PR moves:
On a day that Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott got a $4.28 million dollar bonus, Wal-Mart called a conference call to discuss a survey it conducted on its healthcare plan. On the call, it was announced that Scott has the same healthcare plan as a part-time Wal-Mart cashier.
...
"It's no surprise Lee Scott is on the Wal-Mart health care plan - it's a plan only a well-compensated CEO could love," said Meghan Scott, spokesperson for WakeUpWalMart.com. "With a new five million dollar bonus, Lee Scott doesn't have to worry about the high deductibles or premiums that come along with so many of the retail giant's healthcare plans, but average workers do. The fact is nearly twenty percent of Wal-Mart workers have no coverage at all, or rely on state funded programs for their care. That means taxpayers across the country continue to pay too high a price for Wal-Mart's refusal to put forth a plan all of its workers can afford."
Sooo... the economy is still in the crapper, Walmart execs are still rolling in newfound dough daily, Walmart employees are still quite literally forced to rely on taxpayer funded programs or go uninsured, and Walmart's releasing press releases congratulating itself for this state of affairs. Everyday, it's moreso the same than it was the day before. That's Walmart values: ~Always.~