I caught a bit of CNN’s American Morning today while getting ready for work. During the "Minding Your Business" segment with CNN brain-trust Miles O’ Brien and Andy Serwer, there was a brief discussion regarding the release of an internal memo by Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits. The memo explores strategies on how Wal-Mart can cut the costs of healthcare benefits for its burgeoning work force. While discussing the controversy, Serwer described the controversy over the memo as "a tempest in a teapot," and O’Brien described the practices in the memo as "perfectly legal" (or words to that effect). To put their comments in the proper context, it’s necessary to bone up on the controversy a bit further:

From CNNMoney:

Wal-Mart memo: Unhealthy need not apply

Report: Document sent to retailer's board by VP seeks ways to cut health care, benefit costs.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An internal memo sent to the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. board proposes numerous ways to hold down health care and benefits costs with less harm to the retailer's reputation, including hiring more part-time workers and discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs, the New York Times said Wednesday.

The paper said the draft memo to Wal-Mart's board was obtained from Wal-Mart Watch, a pressure group allied with labor unions that says Wal-Mart's pay and benefits are too low.

The paper said in the memorandum Susan Chambers, Wal-Mart's executive vice president for benefits, also recommends reducing 401(k) pension contributions and wooing younger, and presumably healthier, workers by offering education benefits.

The memo is quoted as expressing concern that workers with seven years' seniority earn more than workers with one year's seniority, but are no more productive, said the paper, which posted the memo on its Web site

To discourage unhealthy job applicants, the paper said, Chambers suggests Wal-Mart arrange for "all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart-gathering),"

[...]

The memo acknowledged that Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, had to walk a fine line in restraining benefits because critics attacked it for being stingy on wages and health coverage. Chambers in the memo acknowledged 46 percent of the children of Wal-Mart's 1.33 million United States employees were uninsured or on Medicaid.

Wal-Mart executives said the memo was part of an effort to rein in benefit costs, which have soared by 15 percent a year on average since 2002. Like much of corporate America, Wal-Mart has been squeezed by soaring health costs, the paper said. (full article)

Wal-MartWatch has archived the memo on their web site. The specific language regarding " discouraging unhealthy people from seeking jobs" includes the following passages:

(page 3)

Our workers are getting sicker than the national population, particularly in obesity-related diseases. For example, the prevalence of coronary artery disease in Wal-Mart's population grew
by 6 percent compared to a national average of 1 percent, and the prevalence of diabetes in our population grew by 10 percent compared to a national average of 3 percent. (That said, our workforce is no sicker at present in absolute terms than the national. population.)

A segment of our workforce consumes healthcare inefficiently, in a pattern similar to a Medicaid population. Our population tends to over-utilize emergency room and hospital services and under-utilize prescriptions and doctor visits. This pattern is most evident among our low-income Associates, and the team hypothesizes that this behavior results from prior experience with Medicaid programs.

(page 10)

Given the significant savings from even a small improvement in the health of our Associate base, Wal-Mart should seek to attract a healthier workforce. The first recommendation in this section,
moving all Associates to consumer-driven health plans, will help achieve this goal because these plans are more attractive to healthier Associates. The team is also considering additional initiatives to support this objective, including:

Design all jobs to include some physical activity (e.g., all cashiers do some cart gathering)

[...]

A healthier workforce will lead to lower health insurance costs, lower absenteeism through fewer sick days, and higher productivity. It will be far easier to attract and retain a healthier workforce than it will be to change behavior in an existing one. These moves would also dissuade unhealthy people from coming to work at Wal-Mart. Even a modest shift in Wal-Mart's ability to attract and retain a healthier workforce could result in significant savings: $220 million to $670 million in FY2011. The key tasks in implementing this fourth bold step, once the team has developed a more complete list of actions, are to create a clear set of metrics to measure success, to run pilots in several stores to understand each idea's effectiveness, and then roll-out the most successful ones.

(download full memo as PDF)

I am still struggling with CNN’s rationalization of the Wal-Mart’s strategies. The fact that the nation’s largest employer — and the world’s biggest retailer — are conspiring to implement a strategy which is implicitly discriminatory and sexist is hardly a "tempest in a teapot."

The strategy is implicitly discriminatory because it provides management with approval to reject applicants based on their physical health, including individuals with preexisting medical conditions, pregnancy and disabilities. The mere notion of this as an accepted practice turns the Americans with Disabilities Act on its head. Consider the following excerpts from the ADA:

SEC. 102. DISCRIMINATION.

(a) General Rule.--No covered entity shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring, advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment.

(b) Construction.--As used in subsection (a), the term "discriminate" includes--

(1) limiting, segregating, or classifying a job applicant or employee in a way that adversely affects the opportunities or status of such applicant or employee because of the disability of such applicant or employee;

(2) participating in a contractual or other arrangement or relationship that has the effect of subjecting a covered entity's qualified applicant or employee with a disability to the discrimination prohibited by this title (such relationship includes a relationship with an employment or referral agency, labor union, an organization providing fringe benefits to an employee of the covered entity, or an organization providing training and apprenticeship programs);

(3) utilizing standards, criteria, or methods of administration--

(A) that have the effect of discrimination on the basis of disability; or

(B) that perpetuate the discrimination of others who are subject to common administrative control;

(4) excluding or otherwise denying equal jobs or benefits to a qualified individual because of the known disability of an individual with whom the qualified individual is known to have a relationship or association;

(5)

(A) not making reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability who is an applicant or employee, unless such covered entity can demonstrate that the accommodation would impose an undue hardship on the operation of the business of such covered entity; or

(B) denying employment opportunities to a job applicant or employee who is an otherwise qualified individual with a disability, if such denial is based on the need of such covered entity to make reasonable accommodation to the physical or mental impairments of the employee or applicant;

(6) using qualification standards, employment tests or other selection criteria that screen out or tend to screen out an individual with a disability or a class of individuals with disabilities unless the standard, test or other selection criteria, as used by the covered entity, is shown to be job-related for the position in question and is consistent with business necessity;

(Full text of the ADA)

I read a post on another site earlier today that described the Wal-mart strategy as "corporate eugenics." We’re getting pretty close to this, it seems. The next step would be for employers to require detailed data from applicants (and their spouses) regarding diets, hobbies and sexual activities. And who is to stop them if they decide to require applicants to disclose family medical histories in efforts of ascertaining whether or not an employee is at risk for inherited medical conditions?

CNN and Wal-Mart want us to believe that this is simply a small matter and that everything is above board and in the best interests of the working class and consumers alike.

Who is kidding whom here?

On Sunday, I happened to stop by the local Half Price Books store for a look around.  After a short time browsing around, I made my way to the checkout with a copy of “Why People Believe Weird Things” by Michael Shermer, editor of Skeptic magazine.  As I was getting out my wallet to pay for the book, my eye caught a rather surprising sight behind the counter.  Leaning against the inside counter of the checkout counter was a massive 2006 calendar featuring the works of Frida Kahlo.  Frida is one of my — and if I may be so bold to speak on behalf of the rest of the family, I will say “our” — favorite artists.  In the recent past, I have looked around the ‘net for affordable prints of Kahlo’s work, but they are typically more than I am able or willing to pay.  So this calendar, which is around 20” x 27” was a great find because it features prints of 12 of her best paintings — for only $15 total. Now much to my chagrin, there was a tag on that particular calendar marking it as reserved for another customer.  I asked the cashier if they had any more in stock and she pointed me towards another area to check for myself.  I was happy to find they had a few left, all of which were in cardboard packaging which was by itself a good quality reproduction of a Kahlo painting.  Fifteen dollars later, I was on my way out to the car with my good fortune in hand.  I can say with all honesty that the three ladies who were waiting for me in the car were also delighted with my find.


The calendar features some of Frida’s most famous paintings, including “Self Portrait dedicated to Leon Trotsky,”  “My Grandparents, My Parents and I,” and “The Suicide of Dorothy Hale.”  Unfortunately, the collection doesn’t include my favorite Kahlo work, “Moses (Nucleus of Creation).”  I’m still working on finding an affordable copy of that one.

I would guess that Half Price Books came upon these Taschen calendars as some kind of closeout deal, so it’s possible that you might find one of these calendars at your local HPB if you’re interested.  Better act fast, though, because I would imagine these are going to get snapped up rather quickly.

Now I just have to figure out where to hang ours...

Further Reading:  Frida Kahlo (Wikipedia article)

Below is some correspondence from a "virtual friend" who is writing from within Pakistan.  His words provide a perspective and level of detail that cannot be found in corporate and mainstream media accounts. I have reproduced this message in its entirety with his kind permission:

I went to ‘Baagh’, a city 60 miles from Muzaffar Abad to visit a colleague who lost 130 members of his family. The city is reduced to rubble. A pungent smell of human corpses is felt all around. The people say that at least 50 thousand people have died in one city alone. The total number must be well above 200, 000. Thousands of trucks with relief goods are arriving here from all over Pakistan. In fact in every street and on every road common people are collecting these items and then bringing them to the quake hit areas by themselves. No one believes the government. No common man is contributing to the “President’s Relief Fund”. In spite of this huge effort on the part of the public, relief has not reached far-flung areas. Everywhere there are looters who stop the trucks and take away everything. I observed that all those who have survived are haunted by death; many have died; many are dying every moment. They cannot weep at any death that occurs for tears have dried in their eyes. Many have lost their senses. I met an educated man who has lost many relatives. He would go to the place where dead bodies are kept and lie down among decaying corpses. His friends had to drag him back every time. He recites this poem again and again:

Let me move to a place where I have no friend, no, nor any companion
No one who is kind; no one who says sympatric words to me.
Let me make a house which has no walls,
No neighbour, no one who speaks my language.
And if I fall ill, there is no one to comfort me in distress,
And if I die, there is no one to shed tears over my dead body!

At first I could not understand this cynical attitude and extreme depression. Soon I realised that all feel humiliated. A bureaucratic system of distributing relief goods has been evolved to reduce the people to a kind of beggary. One has to be either a looter or a beggar in order to get food or clothing. Nobody from the government or army reached them on the first two days. They were busy in “Margala Towers”, one of the most expensive residential areas in the capital. It is the only building that collapsed in Islamabad because substandard material had been used in the construction of it. Thanks to common people who are trying to reach everyone.

Many will squeeze money and prosperity out of it. The bus owners charge as much fares as they will. The truck fares have risen many times. When shopkeepers observe that you are purchasing clothes or blankets for the quake victims, they rob you. And our generals and bureaucrats and ministers etc, they will be earning millions. Only a tiny part of the aid that is being received from the international community will go to the people. Our Lions will receive the Lion’s share. Only yesterday a brigadier was caught red-handed selling 4 relief trucks. The government is quick to deny it. What a pity! What shame! These traders of religion; the sellers of human shrouds! Deaths of thousands of human beings will bring them billions of money.

This is the tragedy of Pakistan, or perhaps of all under-developed countries. This is, as Marx has commented somewhere, like France of Balzac’s novels, or perhaps worse than that. We are carrying the stinking carcass of feudal ages with all its decadence, moral decay, self-indulgence, corruption, depravity on our shoulders; added to it is all the greed, an intense, inordinate longing for wealth; a covetous desire for money that always comes with the bourgeois society.

This is Pakistan with its culture and civilization which is the fittest place for dictators to rule.

And in Turkey, there has been confirmation that the H5N1 strain is now a very real threat to animals and people alike:

The next several months will surely tell the tale, but the WHO isn't pulling any punches: