Wal-Mart’s Unethical Actions A P.R. “Nightmare”

Notice that the real effect of Walmart’s actions is to throw Ms. Shank onto the public dole. She now has her care paid by Medicaid since she is indigent and unmarried.

So, it’s not a case of her not getting care, it’s a case of Walmart shifting the cost from private business to the public. This is the same thing that they do when their policies force employees to apply for Schip for their kids or food stamps.

It is the same thing that they do when they force localities to spend tax payer’s money for highway improvements to service a new store. It turns out that Walmart actually believes in socialism. Who knew?

...the cost to the company’s image may outweigh the $470,000 it received...

I’d enjoy hearing some pro Wal-Marters defend this on strickly business grounds. Pay $10+ million to a clown like Edelman then blow your PR foot off with something like this.

We have a saying in Texas: That fella’ would spend a dollar to save a dime.

Who knew?

More and more people everyday, robert.

Let the Shanks keep the money.... now take your argument to every other person affected by this industry standard policy and tell them… “ok you can keep your money as well”.  The next thing you know, it just adds that many more dollars to everyones insurance premiums as only people subject to subrogation get paid twice for services rendered.

I can see it now… “attention all employees who have health insurance, due to our good nature and because it’s the “right thing to do”, each one of you will have to pony up an extra $10 each month for your health insurance.  But doesn’t it feel good!”

I’ve already donated my $100.

Thus far, only $5,000 has been donated.

If this case is, in actuality, of such public concern,
then a lot more people should be getting their own
“back fields in motion,” and start donating a lot
more money to this woman.

By way of grass roots donations, maybe those
people in Bentonville will get a sense of right
morality.

You’re a little fuzzy there, Mary.

Do you think Wal-Mart suing Debbie Shank was a smart business decision? Will it improve the bottom line?

“I can see it now… “attention all employees who have health insurance, due to our good nature and because it’s the “right thing to do”, each one of you will have to pony up an extra $10 each month for your health insurance.  But doesn’t it feel good!”

mary in
Monday, December 03 at 04:36 PM

In addition to your inadvertently admitting that many WalMart employees don’t even have health insurance (“attention all employees who have health insurance,) is your misleading claim that subrogation exclusion in a health insurance policy will add
“...an extra $10 each month for your health insurance.”

“In the past, employers used to think of this as an afterthought,” says Tom Lawrence, chief executive of Memphis-based Benefit Recovery Inc., whose clients include Southwest Airlines Co. and hospital chain HCA Inc. HCA says it saw annual savings from recouped claims rise to $1.8 million in 2006 from just under $800,000 in 2000 after hiring the firm.”

“Benefit Recovery contracts directly with employers. It says it’s able to recover between $12 and $15 per health-plan member a year—up to $1.5 million for a big plan with 100,000 members—by recovering medical expenses from injury-suit settlements.”
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB119551952474798582.html

According to the professionals in this business of subrogation recovery it comes out to between $1 and $1.25 per month per policy. I am sure that WalMart however would want to extort their ‘associates’ with excessively high and exaggerated premiums if not for profit then for the embarrassment of having to withdraw a vicious element of WalMart’s business philosophy.

WalMart/Edelman- We hire internet frauds like ‘mary’ to lie (exaggerate) to America and attempt to recover our reputation from the national toilet.

“The propagandist’s purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.” Aldous Huxley, The Olive Tree (1937)

knock off the edelman bs sdv edelmann is a bald face liar and so are you.other companies have much higher premiums than walmart sdv.funny you are as quiet as can be on that.you are very fuzzy ken.big deal ken who cares if your favorite store did thisto someone we would not hear any bitching at all from you.you are a typical hypocrit buddy ok for my favorites to treat workers one way but walmart does the same you bitch.explain that.

Here is some Edelman material for you vantress. When you’re done catching up on reality get back with us-

EDELMAN REVEALS TWO MORE ‘FLOGS’

• Edelman Reveals Two More Wal-Mart ‘Flogs.’ “Public relations firm Edelman, which last week pledged to be more transparent in its involvement with client-related blogs, Thursday revealed it is behind two more ‘flogs,’ or fake blogs, created on behalf of Wal-Mart. Until the new disclosures, both blogs appeared to have been created and contributed to by independent supporters of the big box retailer, an Edelman client…One blog appears on the home page of Working Families for Wal-Mart, the allegedly grassroots advocacy group formed by Edelman last December, which is “committed to fostering open and honest dialogue...that conveys the positive contributions of Wal-Mart to working families.” The second blog is on WFWM’s subsidiary site Paid Critics.” [Media Daily, 10/20/06]

Wal-Mart Recruits Bloggers for PR Battle

“Under fire for its less-than-employee-friendly policies, among other reasons, Wal-Mart has apparently been rallying a force of blogger loyalists and mercenaries, supplying them with PR ammunition in hopes of beating back the assault, writes the New York Times. Pro-Wal-Mart propaganda produced by public relations firm Edelman has appeared in blogs, often verbatim and without attribution...”

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/03/07/walmart_recruits_bloggers_for_pr_battle/

Online Offensive

“In March 2006 news reports first appearing on blog sites and then in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal revealed that via the Edelman PR firm Wal-Mart was using bloggers to promote their company.”

“With the online “blogosphere” producing criticism from labor unions and portions of the general public, particularly in the wake of films like ‘Wal-Mart: The High cost of Low Price’ and web sites like Wal-Mart Watch, Wal-Mart has engaged in an effort to retaliate.”

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wal-Mart

“The war room staff arrives at Wal-Mart’s headquarters, a short drive from a nearby corporate apartment where they live, by 7 every morning. The group works out of an old conference room on the second floor, christened Action Alley, the same name Wal-Mart gives to the wide, circular aisle that runs around its stores.”

http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/2039/9/

When engaging the audience in dialogue, credibility and transparency is key, as Rubel noted with his own case study from Edleman PR’s blogging campaign for Wal-Mart.
Rubel told the audience that Edelman ran a blogging war-room for Wal-Mart where they identified the most pro- and anti-Wal-Mart bloggers and engaged them on a daily basis with information.

http://www.internetnews.com/xSP/article.php/3606591

“The contract went to Edelman, which assigned its top two Washington operatives to the account. Wal-Mart would not say what it is paying Edelman, nor would it allow interviews with the war room staff.”
Michael Barbaro, The New York Times

WalMart- We pay Edelman to run our ‘war room’ with trolls, shills, fakes and the other blogger frauds that write WalMart worship hymns here and elsewhere on the internet. Propaganda frauds brought to you by WalMart and further polluting the U.S. culture with more lies, distortions and evasions.

In the meantime vantress you have earned for yourself this quote-

“People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.”
Helen Keller

And stop smoking that crack!

What’s THIS matthew?

Did I read that correctly?  Did you lose the few remaining marbles you had in your head?

“edelmann is a bald face liar” ~matthew vantress

Would you remind all the readers on this blog what company hired Edelman to do its heavy lifting in PR?  It would sound so much sweeter coming from you!  Seriously matthew, what kind of company would hire a “bald faced liar” to do its PR work?

i’ll get this one matt.edelmann is a bald face liar cus he got to lie about walmart and that he probably got to lie way more about your other expensive union places and targets more so that makes him a kinda liar at walmart.but a bigger liar so stop your bitchen and enjoy the lies cause they all buy the sh#t from china crap.

You’re getting very good at that, friend.

I don’t know if you saw this link the last time I posted it so I’ll do it again. What you and matthew are doing has a long and rich tradition going all the way back to the queen; Manda!

(I’m juzt grateful you’re not one of thoze ‘uze a z instead of an s’ guys.:o)

Hmmmm...I just noticed, Manda claimed to be from Oregon as well! Big sister, perhaps?

SDV : Are you familiar with some of Carl Jung’s ideas? Iwas fascinated by his thoughts on synchronicity. As such, it dawned on me that when the word propaganda is hyphenated, it says PRO-PAGAN-da.....(or,duh!).Interesting,no?

kenv thanks.i have to ask my bro matt if that was mum cause she shops at walmart and those expensive ufcw stores and f she smeams to be everywhere just like when matt and i go out to do our price checkin.kenv’s a nice guy matt i wonder if we judged too hard cus we can be real pricks at times cause we got problems and not just typin.

Matthew and Friend of Matthew who in all reality are the same person. You are a complete and total moron. WM has wasted their time and money hiring an idiot such as yourself to defend them. Hell I appreciate your idiocy because I think you probably turn more people against WM than most anti WM people. I know if I wasn’t anti WM already, I would be after conversing with you. You never have answered my question Matthew.....HAVE YOU EVER WORKED FOR WM?????? If not, how can you compare the way they treat their employees with the way other retailers treat their employees? If you have never worked there but you are making these comparisons then you are the liar and the hypocrite. Oh and what exactly is a BALD FACED LIAR, a liar with no hair on their face? Are you by any chance a product of inbreeding? Its BOLD FACED LIAR you moron.

Sick ofWM: You’ve got me laughing so hard, I cant’ even think of a response!!!!

ddrb - Thats good, I like to make people laugh and its even better when I’m stating the facts. I tell you what, if I was even half as stupid as Matthew, I would never post on any blog. I guarantee that idiot needs an instruction book to make ice cubes. I think when God was passing out brains, Matthew thought God said trains and he said I’ll take the next one to Stupidville. Anyways, keep on laughing my friend.

Do You Expect matthew to Comprehend That, Sick of Wal-Mart?

You’re asking a lot Sick of Wal-Mart.  How could matthew differentiate between “Bald Faced Liar” and “Bold Faced Liar?

He’s still struggling with “picking at straws” versus “grasping at straws,” even though Ken V tried to point him in the right direction.

Actually I doubt if Matthew can differentiate between male and female but I have to keep burning him, its too funny. Hell I can’t even comprehend someone being that stupid and still posting on this or any other blog. He needs to be protesting his brain instead of us anti WM people because his brain is letting him down big time.

sick of i know the difference between a man and a woman sir.im not stupid unlike you.sick of in case you have not been listening i have worked at k-mart and know many others who have worked for other retailers and walmart treats them far better and pays better.k-mart sucks and pays worse and treats worse than wm bud.unlike you morons on here i dont buy propaganda machines like edelman,pr firms,the govt and labor unions anything they say on wm.because these agencys lie regularly on blogs and their stuff is rarely ever accurate.

Matthew - Yes I know you work or worked at K-Mart and thats not what I asked you. HAVE YOU EVER WORKED AT WM? Simple question for a simple mind Matthew. You can’t make an HONEST comparison unless you have worked there. Do you still work for K-Mart? If not, where do you work? If so, why not quit K-Mart and go work for WM? You make absolutely no sense Matthew. If WM is so great, why don’t you work for them? Matthew you really have no business calling anyone stupid because you are by far the most stupid person on this forum. You always say if Target, Costco, Dollar Tree, etc, etc, done something bad would I or anyone else protest them, well I have a good question for you Matthew. If Debbie Shank was your mother, sister, grandma, aunt, cousin, or close friend, would you then have the sense to hate WM? I bet you would still defend them because you have no morals or family values. Yes Matthew I’m so sure that Edelman, pr firms, the govt., labor unions, and all the anti WM people are liars and rarely ever accurate, YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING. Are you really so stuck on yourself and WM that you think you and WM are the only ones that ever tell the truth and are always right? Your ignorance is endless Matthew. You are just another WM groupie thats blind to the truth and for some reason you only believe what WM tells you to believe. You think their lower prices makes up for all the bad they do because thats all you are about, lower prices. You probably think that when people die they go to HEAVEN, HELL, or WM and you would choose WM, thats how stupid you are. Get a life loser.

ddrb-

How’s this for synchronicity?

Chuck Norris, Mike ( Huckster ) Huckabee and WalMart.

Why does Chuck Norris continue to beat the drums for Huckabee?

“Upon a bit of investigation, Norris had or has an extremely lucrative, EXCLUSIVE deal with Wal-Mart for the sales of his exercise machine and other items.  Huckabee was governor of Arkansas for 10 years , home office of Wal-Mart.  While Huckabee was governor, this corporation, along with Tyson’s and many others went virtually untouched concerning their use, exploitation, and employment of illegal aliens, and their profits grew (but the prices didn’t go down).”

http://arkansasfreedom.com/2007/11/15/why-does-chuck-norris-continue-to-beat-the-drums-for-huckabee.aspx

“These capitalists generally act harmoniously and in concert, to fleece the people.”
Abraham Lincoln

SDV in:  Maybe something like-Chuck and Huck??

uknow there is alot of crap out there about wm,and me and matt know it is kinda true,but a lot of stuff at them targets macys and other places got some stuff to answere for.your favorite bitchen place wm got your undies ina knot so f take your pills and stop your bitchen.me an matt is one with drum.one beat matt,you an me.

If you know its KINDA true, then shut the hell up and listen for once in your life. Once again you idiot, WHY WOULD WE BITCH ABOUT THE OTHER RETAILERS ON A WM SITE????? We are waiting on you Matthew to start up TARGET WATCH and K-MART WATCH, now go get busy.

SDV: I saw (briefly,very briefly) the other evening ,Chuck Norris and his wife being interviewed on Larry King. They were talking about a new line of fitness clothing that will have the Chucksters name on it-if I remember correctly, it will include women’s and children’s wear, also. Wonder if there will be any exclusive arrangements wilth any retailer in particular??

i could care less about shank.if another comapny was accused of what wm was sick of we would not hear you on here putting them down and you urging everyone to boycott them.no i dont work at wm and never have.

Sick of, Matt has stated a few times on this blog that he works for a UNION Grocery Warehouse.  He has even admits he makes better money than he would for WM, but yet he loves to blast Unions because they support those “damn liberal causes”.  You know like fair labor practices, etc.

Doesn’t he realize what unions have done for this country.  Without them there would be no child labor laws or 40 hr work weeks, OT and vacation pay, etc.  Whether you work a union job or not we have all benefited from the Union movement in this country.

the unions dont do a hell of a lot bud.i am a member of a teamster union and yes in a couple of years i will earn around 21 dollars an hr.that dont mean i support all their policies and decisions.i dont support any of the liberal policies of higher taxes,or the democrat politicians they support.i disagree with you on the union bunk you claim.many non union companies already have ot,vacation pay and decent benefits.and a lot of these union leaders dont look out for the best interests of their members.they have big egos and brag a lot about how great unions are and how the private sector sucks.they think their you know what dont stink.the only ones who really benefit from the union movement is the govt union or public employee unions and the govt class.most private sector unionsdont do enough or fight hard enough for their members to get really good quality wages and benefits.i once wasa member of glass workers 740 in portland or that union never stood up for us.when i started at the glass place in july 91 i made 5.00 an hr when i left 9 yrslater in nov 2000 i was only making 10.76 an hr.so dont tell me how great all these unions are and the great things they have done for america.if you notice union membership across america is down significantly.unions just want more cash to throw in hillary clintons election campaign/ever wonder why they want to get their handson walmart so badly?it obvious they dont care about bettering anyone they just want more dough to throw in hiollarys campaign.simple as that.

Walmart SUCKS,

“Doesn’t he realize what unions have done for this country.”

But, what have the done for us lately?  The things you mentioned happened over 40 years ago, what have they done since then? 
Besides lose membership that is!

Tommy in : I saw online last night, a current Newsweek article saying that casino workers on one of the Indian reservation casinos had just voted in a union. I know that casino workers,and the hotel sector have a big union base in Las Vegas,but that’s not considered a sovereign nation, like the tribal casinos are.

WalMart Sucks in : Would you happen to know if there are union membership rules regarding codes of conduct?

Did I read Matthew’s comment wrong? Did he say he is a member of a UNION?????? He puts down unions but he is a member!!!!!!!!!!! Ok Matthew I have 2 words for you need to learn and understand:

1. con·tra·dic·tion (kntr-dkshn)
a. The act of contradicting.
b. The state of being contradicted.
c. A denial.
d. Inconsistency; discrepancy.
e. Something that contains contradictory elem

2. hy·poc·ri·sy (h-pkr-s)
a.  The practice of professing beliefs, feelings, or virtues that one does not hold or possess; falseness.
b. An act or instance of such falseness.

These words describe you perfectly Matthew and don’t even bother saying they don’t because everyone can see it.

Here is another word you need to know Matthew:

re·pro·duce (rpr-ds, -dys)
a. To produce a counterpart, image, or copy of.
b. Biology To generate (offspring) by sexual or asexual means.
c. To produce again or anew; re-create.
d. To generate offspring.

Please for the love of God, if you haven’t already........NEVER REPRODUCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The things you mentioned happened over 40 years ago...

If you’re looking for a watershed moment, the unions have yet to recover from being crushed by Reagan (Patco). That happened in 1981, however, only 26 years ago.

Thank you Ken!  My dad is a Teamster and he is always talks of how Reagan was the one who f’ed over Unions.  Doesn’t anyone remember how the air-traffic controllers got screwed in the 80’s?  We were just talking about this today while watching the news as they are trying to fight for a new contract now.

And to Matthew, use your brain, it’s that lump 3 ft above your ass!  What Suck meant is that the reasons we have things like labor laws and vacation pay today is because of what unions have fought for in the past for everyone regardless of whether or not they belong to one.  DUH!

Remember a Union is only as strong as it’s members.  If most of the members of your union are like you then I’m afraid you are up shit creek!

Ok I call for all anti WM posters on WMW to boycott Matthew. I say we also boycott WMW unless they boot Matthew from the site. Strength in numbers, lets get this done. Nobody acknowledge the existence of Matthew Vantress and everyone refuse to post unless Matthew is banned from WMW. We can do this people.

Corgishepmom in : Since you have a personal background in union acivity,would you or your dad know if there are rules of conduct ,as a dues paying memeber, that restrict publicly defaming or slandering one’s own union??

That’s a good question ddrb and I don’t know the answer.  I wouldn’t think it would be encouraged to slander one’s own union.  I guess it would depend on which union and their particular bi-laws.  I guess you could say it’s an unwritten rule of the brother/sisterhood not to bite the hand that feeds and protects you.  Although both my dad and husband have worked with types that are very negative towards the union.

Corgishepmom in : Thanks for your reply. Maybe we could ask Jerry(a.k.a.Donald,RDS,Bob, etc.) ,he seems to be familiar with unions .I forgot about that! BTW, I have enjoyed your comments, and, welcome aboard!!