WASHINGTON, Feb 11 (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama singled out office supply giant Staples Inc as undercutting his healthcare reform law and said large corporations should not use the health insurance issue as an excuse for cutting wages, the news website BuzzFeed reported.
“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 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,” Obama said in an interview with BuzzFeed.
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Staples and No. 2 office retailer Office Depot Inc announced last week a $6.3 billion plan to join forces to compete against big box stores and online rivals. (Reporting by Doina Chiacu, Sruthi Ramakrishnan, Martin Howell; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by W Simon)
