President Obama says “shame on [Staples CEO]”

 

“I haven’t looked at Staples (SPLS) stock lately or what the compensation of the CEO is, but I suspect that they could well afford to treat their workers favorably and give them some basic financial security…It’s one thing when you’ve got a mom-and-pop store who can’t afford to provide paid sick leave or health insurance or minimum wage to workers — even though a large percentage of those small businesses do it because they know it’s the right thing to do. But when I hear large corporations that make billions of dollars in profits trying to blame our interest in providing health insurance as an excuse for cutting back workers’ wages, shame on them.”

I wonder if Barack Obama has equal scorn for all of the colleges that have rolled back hours for faculty and employees because of Obamacare? More than 200 colleges have slashed hours.

Kirk Saville from Staples responded:

It’s unfortunate that the president is attacking a company that provides more than 85,000 jobs and is a major tax payer…