I've long detested Wal-Mart. More than any other institution, they've led this country into a dependency on cheap Chinese-made goods that has killed much of what was left of the American manufacturing sector in the wake of NAFTA, and yet the corporation wraps itself in the flag at every opportunity.
Records and books critical of George W. Bush or the war in Iraq have routinely been banned from Wal-Mart shelves. Meanwhile, the company has employed hordes of illegal immigrants who will work for wages even lower than those paid to the displaced American workers that man its stores.
When a Wal-Mart store opens, it sucks the life out of the nearby commercial districts, and what were once hardware stores, ladies' dress shops, bookstores and pharmacies become instead vacant buildings, driving down property values and placing a burden on the taxpayers.
The stores are further subsidized by the government through food stamps and other assistance its employees often receive because they don't earn enough working 40 hours a week to support themselves and their families. Attempts by workers to unionize have been put down in barbaric fashion.
Still, if you're an American living in the first decade of the 21st century, you've found it almost impossible to stay away from Wal-Mart completely. I've been in two of their stores myself, one in rural Tennessee and one in rural Pennsylvania. In both cases I suddenly found myself without something I needed, and going anywhere else would have involved considerable time and trouble.
No more. I will never again set foot in one of their miserable establishments, and God strike me dead if I do.
Deborah Shank is a 52-year old mother of three and a former Wal-Mart employee. Eight years ago, she was involved in a car accident that has left her permanently brain damaged, confined to a wheelchair and living in a nursing home.
She had signed up for the Wal-Mart health care plan, which is slightly better than having no health insurance at all and which the company was dragged kicking and screaming into providing many years after the retail giant became this country's largest employer. The workers themselves pay by far the largest share of the money that goes into the plan, and their choices of doctors, hospitals and prescription medications are severely limited.
Still, the $470,000 in medical bills Shank incurred were covered under the plan. Later, since she wasn't at fault in the accident, there was a lawsuit, and she was awarded $417,000 that her family used to set up a trust fund to provide for her care in the nursing home.
Neither Shank nor her family nor her attorney was aware of the fine print contained in the vaunted Wal-Mart health care plan that said that any court award granted to the victims of catastrophic accidents had to be turned over to the company, which is worth $200 BILLION, so it could cover the expenses it incurred in paying the hospital bills.
Like so many other things Wal-Mart does, the "health insurance" offered to its employees is basically a scam. It's only good if you don't have occasion to need it. Do you think that, if an employee never has cause to use it, they give them their money back?
So Wal-Mart sent an army of lawyers down to Jackson, Mo., to take Shank's money away from her. The award had not been for the cost of her medical expenses, which of course everyone thought had been covered by the Wal-Mart insurance program. It was for pain and suffering and to partially make up for what she might have earned as a Wal-Mart employee had she not been destroyed in an accident.
But the vultures at Wal-Mart didn't care. They wanted their money, and if it meant throwing their former employee out onto the street, well, that was too bad for her. They won their suit, and Shank's lawyer appealed. Last summer, Wal-Mart won again.
Surprise surprise.
Shank of course didn't know what was going on. One of the peculiarities of her injuries was that she was left with no short-term memory whatsoever. Under the circumstances, this could be viewed as a blessing. A week went by and she had no recollection of how the greedy bastards she'd once worked hard for had screwed her over.
That's when they told her that her 18-year-old son Jeremy had been killed fighting in Iraq. She cried and cried. But then she forgot. The next time her husband came, she asked him where Jeremy was and he had to tell her all over again, and it was like she was hearing it for the first time. Her blessing had turned into a curse.
It's been like that for eight months now. She's lost her son a dozen times.
A Wal-Mart spokesman, John Simley, issued a statement defending the company's treatment of the bereaved Gold Star Mother.
"Wal-Mart's plan is bound by very specific rules," he said. "We wish it could be more flexible in Mrs. Shank's case since her circumstances are clearly extraordinary, but this is done out of fairness to all associates who contribute to, and benefit from, the plan."
His own mother must be very proud.
Anyway, I'll never set foot in a Wal-Mart again. And God strike me dead if I do.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | April 1 2008 |