In the past communities set standards of conduct for businesses, it was just less formal...
Ever heard the expression, "run out of town on a rail"?
Trailing in "race" with Wal-Mart
By Danny Westneat - Seattle Times staff columnistThe pernicious thing about Wal-Mart, says Craig Cole, is if we don't change it, it'll change us.
He should know. Cole runs Brown & Cole, a business founded by his grandfather in Lynden 97 years ago that consists of 29 groceries in this state. Cole, 55, can feel this family legacy slipping away. Last year he closed seven stores. The reason, he insists, is simple: He buys health insurance for his workers, and Wal-Mart largely does not.
"I was raised with American values, that good companies take care of workers," Cole says. "Wal-Mart is changing the rules. We're at a crucial point where society needs to decide whether we're going to follow them on this race to the bottom, or not." ...
... Cole buys health insurance for 95 percent of his 1,500 workers, including any who work 20 hours per week. He also insures their families.
Wal-Mart, Cole's direct competitor, insures 45 percent of its workers. A Wal-Mart memo leaked in October revealed that half of the children of its employees are either uninsured or on the government's Medicaid program for the poor.
Who pays when these children go to the doctor? We do, says Cole.
"That's the real problem here -— the public is picking up the tab for what should be Wal-Mart's responsibility," he says. ...
... His company does right by its workers. The way he can see to compete now with Wal-Mart is to do wrong by his employees. To mimic Wal-Mart.
In the end, won't that cost us more?
"Wal-Mart is like a form of social pollution," Cole says. "If we let an oil company dump waste into Puget Sound, it could make cheaper gas. But we don't let them, because it degrades the environment.
"Well, what Wal-Mart is doing degrades American workers. And not just their own."
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