Wal-Mart Starting Multimillion Dollar Propaganda Ads Today Instead Of Raising Worker Wages Or Providing Better Health Care Benefits

Wal-Mart Corporation is starting a multimillion dollar propaganda advertising campaign today to claim how much "good" they do for working people or American society. Yet this whitewash campaign does little to change the fact that Wal-Mart is little more than a mega-vender for the labor cheap manufactured goods from China and other low wage places that wash away more and more higher paying American manufacturing jobs each year while Wal-Mart and other low wage mega-retailers provide low wage jobs to Americans selling these cheap import goods.

Wal-Mart could do well by it's workers by moving more of them above the federal poverty line by increasing wages or unioning like the Kroger owned Fred Meyer Stores. In Oregon, for example, Fred Meyer is now the only store that sells department store type goods that is unionized.

Wal-Mart could also provide better for the health care of it's workers insteadof so many having to seek public health care programs because of the low wages at Wal-Mart keeping many families in poverty. Many Wal-Mart workers also seek Food Stamps or other public asistance programs to make up for the low wages they receive at Wal-Mart.

In Maryland, Republican Governor Robert Ehrlich became the only incumbent governor to lose re-election after he vetoed a bill mandating that a mere 8% of company payrolls of large employers go towards paying for a health care program for their workers. Wal-Mart was the business most impacted by this bill known as the "Wal-Mart" health care bill. Most other businesses in maryland provide about 15% of their salary budget towards worker health care. When the Maryland legislature was able to override the veto of Gov. Ehrlich, then Wal-Mart was able to appeal the law to a conservative Federal judge.

After an appeal by conservative Republican Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi for Wal-Mart to start a huge lobby organization to further their greedy corporate interests, Wal-Mart now runs the largest single business lobby organization in the U.S. Alice Walton, the daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, has already given about $5 million in political donations to candidates or political organizations that support keeping wages low in the U.S. Many topWal-Mart executives draw salaries in the high six fugures compared to their largely minimum wage workforce.

Wal-Mart needs much more than some proganda campaign of ads to rehabilitate their business image. There needs to some deeds to match their hollow words.