Walmart Health Care Roll Back Bad for Workers

Last week, Walmart announced a plan to roll back health care coverage for part-time workers and raise premiums for full-time employees.  As the world’s largest retail employer, this plan will lower standards for all American workers and have repercussions throughout the retail industry, particularly for part-time workers. Listed below are talking points that UFCW Locals can use to address this latest development: 

 

● Retail jobs are the jobs of the future. In fact, retail is one of the only sectors of our economy that’s growing. Much like manufacturing once did, retail jobs will define how it is to live and work in America in the 21st century. 

 

● It’s critically important that retail employers compensate their workers with pay and benefits that allow them to live in the middle class.  

 

● That’s why retail workers have been sticking together in their union for decades. Together in the UFCW, they’ve bargained good health care coverage for more part-timers than any other union. In doing so, they’ve brought up the economic standards for hundreds of thousands of workers, their families and communities. 

 

● Walmart could - and should - lead the way in making sure that retail jobs are good jobs-the kind that come with good benefits and wages for all workers. 

 

● The Waltons are one of the wealthiest families in the country, and that means they have a responsibility to provide good jobs and help shore up our middle class - not take advantage of the economic crisis. 

 

● Walmart Associates are coming together to speak out against these changes through the Organization United for Respect at Walmart (OUR Walmart). Associates should join online at www.forrespect.org.