Wal-Mart to pay a special health tax in Maryland as a price for its social dumping

Wal-Mart to pay a special health tax in Maryland as a price for its social dumping?

Wal-Mart could be forced to pay a special health tax in the U.S. State of Maryland. The State Senate arranged a hearing in Annapolis yesterday, where the planned tax was commented on. The intention is to force all employers with more than 10,000 workers in Maryland, who spend less than 8 per cent of their payroll on health insurance, to contribute to Medicaid support for low-income adults. It was confirmed that in reality, this tax would only affect Wal-Mart.

Today's Baltimore Sun quotes Barry F. Scher, vice president of Ahold-owned supermarket chain Giant, who supported the new tax: "We're very proud of our level of benefits, and 8 per cent is a good threshold" he told the newspaper. He said that Giant spends about 23 per cent of its payroll on health insurance.

Giant is engaged in a social dialogue with UNI Commerce affiliate UFCW and is part to 47 collective agreements. On the European and global level, there is a positive social dialogue between UNI Commerce and Ahold, and in the Netherlands, Ahold has a social dialogue with Dutch UNI Commerce affiliate FNV Bondgenoten.

Senator Gloria G. Lawlah told the Maryland newspaper that there are about 47,000 uninsured in Maryland and 45 million in the entire United States, and called this shameful. She also said that the cost of treating the uninsured will "get shifted to employers who provide health care".

Rising health care costs are a problem in the United States, as well as in other countries. UFCW has cooperated with unionised employers in making sure that the health insurance of working families is preserved while keeping the development of health care costs under control.

The long and difficult labour conflict in Southern California a year ago, when 70,000 retail workers were on strike or locked out for four months, illustrates the destructive influence of Wal-Mart on American living conditions.

Three leading supermarket retailers tried to emulate Wal-Mart's social dumping approach by denying their workers affordable health care while at the same time lowering their wages. After a bitter struggle, the striking workers and their trade union UFCW were successful in defending the employer-financed health insurance, which was also included in subsequent collective agreements in other regions.

Social dumping through low wages and the denial of affordable health insurance for most of its workers is the operating concept of Wal-Mart, world's largest retailer. This gives it an unfair competition advantage towards socially responsible competitors, both large and small. It also forces many workers to rely on social security, such as Medicaid, to make ends meet and to get medical care for their children. Like Maryland, many U.S. States have already protested against the indirect subvention to Wal-Mart, from public funds, which this entails.

And no, it is not a question of lower prices. Wal-Mart's owners, the Walton family, are the wealthiest Americans. That is where the money goes.