Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care Demonstrationby Caroline Vernon
Earlier today, many local organizations in unison with UFCW’s Wake Up Wal-Mart Campaign and Democracy For America, organized and demonstrated against the Davenport Wal-Mart on Elmore St, in an effort to raise public awareness about the fact that large corporations like Wal-Mart are contributing to America’s health care crisis. We are calling on all citizens to join our campaign to Make Wal-Mart Care About Health Care.
At last count, 51 people joined together to protest this unfair treatment by the world’s largest corporation. United, with one voice, we said Wal-Mart should pay it’s fair share of health care instead of shifting the burden to the American taxpayer. Supporters of this effort will also be writing and lobbying our Iowa/Illinois Governors and other statewide political leaders to adopt the Fair Share For Health Care Bill, a proposed legislation designed to address the problem of large employers failing to provide affordable healthcare options, and to ensure that state taxpayers do not help subsidize the health care of large and profitable corporations. In Iowa, Senator Joe Bolkom has proposed a similar bill that would require the state to annually report on which companies’ employees seek public assistance, so the state could pressure the companies to increase health benefits.
Wal-Mart has failed to provide healthcare for more that 52% of its 1.3 million workers. In at least 12 states Wal-Mart has more workers who rely on public health care than any other employer. According to a survey by the Iowa Department of Human Services, Wal-Mart tops the list of employers who pay their staff so little that they can’t afford to pay for health insurance, but also qualify for Medicaid (to be eligible, a family of four must have an annual income of under $22,000). As of October 2004, as the second largest employer in Iowa, Wal-Mart has 845 employees in Iowa receiving Medicaid. By contrast, the largest employer, Hy-Vee, has 361 employees on Medicaid. I find it to be completely disingenuous that a corporation that earned $10 billion dollars in profits last year, is unable to provide affordable healthcare benefits to its workers, most of whom earn so little that they qualify for the State Medicaid program.
Prior to our demonstration I issued a full media advisory about the upcoming event, yet only KWQC Channel 6 showed up to cover it. I’m left to wonder if our local media even believes that this is a newsworthy issue. Fortunately, Bayside Multimedia International, Inc., a brand new local production company was there to film the event. The policy of Bayside Multimedia is to promote and defend the widest possible ambiance of “free speech” expression, consistent with US Constitutional principles developed under the first amendment. Thank you Bayside Multimedia for your contribution to this cause!
I would also like to thank Cathy Bolkom and Karl Rhomberg for advertising our event on AM 1270 - Progressive Radio’s new Saturday morning show from 9 to 9:30, “Conversations with Cathy & Karl”. Thanks a lot and congratulations on the debut of your new show. Great job!
Local groups involved in the campaign and demonstration include Democracy for the Quad Cities, QC Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO, QC National Organization of Woman, and Progressive Action for the Common Good - Corporate Reform, Health Care, and Media forums. I would like to send out a special thank you to Dick Fallow with QC Federation of Labor for all of his creative contributions to this campaign. It was Dick’s idea to create a gimmick in order to attract attention as well as stay uniform in our effort to speak with one voice on this issue. Every participant was given a yellow frowny-face with a thermometer sticking out of its mouth, meant to reflect that grassroots pressure will continue to rise on Wal-Mart, until they choose to be socially responsible to the citizens and the communities in which they operate.
Other signs read, “Honk if you are for Healthcare” and “Rolling back the Benefits” as well as our campaign slogan, “Wake-Up Wal-Mart - Make Wal-Mart Care About Healthcare”. The entire event lasted about 2 hours - we received a lot of positive feedback from the many passers-by.
If health care is an issue that you are passionate about, and if you would like to join us in our effort to hold Wal-Mart accountable, please go to:
wakeupwalmart.com - Sign up to become a citizen sponsor.
Local groups involved in this effort as well as other important issue forums can be contacted through:
qcprogressiveaction.org
Iowa's Hidden Progressive Treasure: Rapid Response – Iowa
