Coinciding with a national week-long effort to draw attention to Wal-Mart's policies, state legislators unveiled a bill Wednesday aimed at cracking down on the retail giant's health care policies.
Sen. Dave Hansen, D-Green Bay and Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison introduced the bill at a town hall meeting at the capitol. It would require companies with over 10,000 employees to provide health care coverage to all employees.
Under the bill, if large corporations, such as Wal-Mart, choose not to comply, they will be required to reimburse the state for the cost of state-subsidized health care programs used by many Wal-Mart employees.
National advocacy group Wal-Mart Watch's national 'Higher Expectations' week has also included screenings of a new documentary film, 'Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price' in the Madison area. Acknowledging Wal-Mart's recent publicity campaign, Berceau said, 'Wal-Mart is asking if I'll watch their movie now.'
Hansen was blunt, saying, 'We're here because Wal-Mart can and must do better.'
He said Wal-Mart is costing Wisconsin taxpayers millions of dollars a year by leaving health care coverage to the state, and that 'as a citizen and taxpayer, that makes me angry.'
David West, from the Center for a Changing Workforce in Seattle, said his group's study found Wal-Mart has an abysmal health care record, covering less than 40 percent of employees against the national large retailer average of 66 percent. He added even those who are covered are still underinsured, noting that Wal-Mart employees paid 41 percent of health care premiums in 2003.
Some of the strongest testimony came from former Jefferson Ald. Dave Olsen, who said Wal-Mart led a campaign to remove him from office after he refused to support the building of a Wal-Mart in Jefferson.
He said Wal-Mart representatives told him 'people who don't support Wal-Mart don't get our money, and people who don't support Wal-Mart get recalled.'
Some in the audience expressed opposition to the bill. The most vehement statements came from Fred Schultz, a 71-year-old Sun Prairie Wal-Mart employee who stated the company 'saved his life' by paying for his surgery after he was badly burned in an accident. He also addressed Wal-Mart's reputation for discouraging unionization, saying he feels Wal-Mart is protecting him by keeping unions out.
Nate Hurst, a spokesperson for Wal-Mart, said the proposed bill 'would certainly negatively impact working families around the state by reducing competition and driving up prices.'
He declined to address Olsen's claim of sabotaging anti-Wal-Mart politicians, saying the allegations are 'nothing more than critics offering no solution. ?? On the other hand, what you're hearing from Wal-Mart are solutions to the challenges facing working families.'
