Wal-Mart PR offensive takes a hit
No sooner did I hit "publish" on the previous post about Wal-Mart's highly-publicized list of proposed good deeds -- a new low-cost health plan, a zero-waste environmental policy, supporting a minimum-wage hike -- than I find this story, due to appear in Wednesday's New York Times:
Read the memo here (pdf). This is going to set the PR campaign back a bit.
An internal memo sent to Wal-Mart's board of directors proposes numerous ways to hold down spending on health care and other benefits while seeking to minimize damage to the retailer's reputation. Among the recommendations are hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from working at Wal-Mart.Whether the billionaire heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune will be encouraged to pitch in with cart-gathering to stay limber and otherwise avoid becoming a drain on the company's bottom line was not disclosed.
In the memorandum, M. Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits. The memo voices concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive.
To discourage unhealthy job applicants, Ms. Chambers suggests that Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering)."
Read the memo here (pdf). This is going to set the PR campaign back a bit.
1 Comments:
Chris -- i love Facing South. the pdf come across as gobbledy gook. i imagine that's a NYT problem, but if not i'd love to pass it around.
mark
gainesville, fl
(ps. i did student organziing with E. Odell (NYC) and J. Pramas (BOS) and both spoke highly of your work.)
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