New low for Walmart
1 August 2008 by Stardust
I heard about this in the news, but was surprised when this message popped up in my email today warning me of Walmart’s latest bullcrap, No matter what candidate they are endorsing, this coercing employees to vote against Obama using scare tactics is just plain wrong.
Dear [Stardust],
Today marks a new low for Wal-Mart. No, not low prices; low and dirty anti-worker tactics. We’ve known for years that Wal-Mart has violated labor and anti-discrimination laws and ruthlessly fought efforts by its workers to form unions.
And now, according to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart is so intimidated by the very possibility of a unionized workforce that its supervisors have been holding mandatory meetings essentially telling employees to vote against Democrats and Sen. Barack Obama this November.
Wal-Mart is taking this outrageous step because the Democrats and Barack Obama have committed to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for fair wages, health care, decent working conditions and a real voice on the job. All of America’s workers have the right to freely decide whom to vote for independent of employer pressure and intimidation.
Wal-Mart’s reported actions are just one piece of a large and well-organized effort by corporate America to continue exploiting America’s workers by preventing them from forming unions. With our economy struggling and workers’ wages stagnant, it is critical that we fight workplace intimidation and other heavy-handed corporate tactics. CEOs and Big Business already have too much influence in our political system and telling their employees whom to vote for is simply unacceptable.
Corporate giants like Wal-Mart have been suppressing workers’ wages and passing along health care costs to hardworking taxpayers like you for years. Wal-Mart executives are getting rich, while we’re being left behind. They understand what is at stake in this election, and so do we—a real voice at work for:
* Fair pay;
* Health care for all;
* Equal treatment;
* Safe workplaces; and
* A secure retirement.
And Wal-Mart is ready to use its incredible corporate power as America’s largest private employer to corrupt the political system to safeguard its profits.
Tell Wal-Mart you reject its unfair and immoral workplace intimidation.
Thanks for your support.
In solidarity,
Working Families e-Activist Network, AFL-CIO
Tell Wal-Mart executives to stop abusing their power and intimidating their employees.
Sign the PETITION here.
1 August 2008, on 5:21 pm
I haven’t shopped at Walmart in years. I would not shop there if they were the only store in a one-hundred mile radius.
1 August 2008, on 5:51 pm
In Springfield, there are about five Wal-marts within a few miles of each other, as well as a new Sam’s Club going in about a mile from a Supercenter. This is done to keep the profit sharing for employees DOWN.
I worked at a Wal-mart for about three months and I was told that even TALKING about forming a union was grounds for termination. I, of course, talked about the wrestling stable called The Union every chance I got.
1 August 2008, on 6:04 pm
Star, there’s a name and address on the petition I get taken to when I click on your “Sign the petition” link; it’s not a real person and address, is it? ‘coz if it is, it’s out here in the blogosphere for all to see…
1 August 2008, on 6:25 pm
This doesn’t surprise me. I worked for Wal-Mart for 9 months about two years ago. They are rabidly anti-union. We had these computer slideshows that all employees were required to look at that were anti-union. You could also get fired for joining a union. They handed out pamphlets to employees about the dangers of unions, too. It was INSANE.
And guess who hates unions? John McCain. Thus, he and Wal-Mart are now lovers. Yuck.
1 August 2008, on 7:33 pm
Thanks for pointing that out, Eve. I took it off and am going to link to the blank one.
1 August 2008, on 7:44 pm
I can honestly say that I have never shopped at a Walmart and I never will!!! A few years ago Walmart tried to put up one of their new superstores in our area. We all got together and fought it and guess what, we won. Everyone was against it. You couldn’t drive around here without seeing hundreds of “Keep Walmart Out” signs. I’ve never been so proud of my community.
1 August 2008, on 7:52 pm
I love Walmart’s low prices!
If you guys believe there is something heroic about monopsony, you’re smoking crack. Walmart is in the right to warn their employees about union thugs.
The entire purpose of a labor union is to **create unemployment**. Again, creating barriers to entry in a labor market is their raison d’etre. They don’t care if they screw over consumers with higher prices either. If the cost of Walmart’s goods rise because of higher labor costs, it hurts both Walmart and those who get laid off because of it alike.
The teachers’ unions are a paradigm case of union thuggery– any moron can teach as long as they go through an expensive and time-consuming certification process. Nobel Prize winners without the certs cannot teach. Lower teacher quality does not help the students, and higher costs do not help the taxpayer. The unions are all about protecting their turf, using the machinery of the State.
I was thinking about sitting this election out. Now though, I’m probably going to vote for Comrade McCain in the fall, just because Comrade Obama’s smug personality annoys me, and Obama’s fainting supporters are so stupid and ignorant.
1 August 2008, on 7:58 pm
JH Bowden. Walmart employers are the “thugs”. They make their workers work for below poverty wages, have taken away health care benefits, make it so employees can only work part-time. They work like slaves and have no benefits, no raises and they have no voice in protesting these things.
Unions have become big business in themselves, but in the past unions actually gave the workers a voice and someone to defend them when employers like Walmart were guilty of unfair and unethical business practices.
As for Walmart’s low prices, you can find low prices on sale at other places without having to go into their crappy stores. Most of the Walmarts around here are dirty, disorganized, and not very well-kept. You would think with all that money they are saving importing crap from China and not paying their workers anything that they could at least pay to keep the place clean and well-maintained.
1 August 2008, on 8:04 pm
Stardust–
Walmart doesn’t force anyone to do anything.
A corporation can buy and sell things. That’s it. Only the government can force individuals to do things.
If someone wants to sell their labor at $8.50hr, who am I to tell them no? The person may be a student, a wife who wants to work part-time, an immigrant who uses the money for greater purchasing power abroad, or a semi-retired person who doesn’t mind the extra cash.
1 August 2008, on 8:07 pm
The irony is that unions confiscate people’s wages by compulsion, and then spend the funds to elect Democrats. Whether the union member is a Republican or not doesn’t matter.
Walmart, in contrast, is warning their employees that some of them will not have jobs if they have to pay them all healthcare, higher wages, and so forth. Look at how unions are killing the American auto industry today if you don’t believe the damage union thugs can do.
1 August 2008, on 8:09 pm
The point of the post is that they SHOULD NOT BE TELLING EMPLOYEES WHO TO VOTE FOR no matter which party they are for. I would feel the same way if they were telling them TO vote for Obama or anyone else. (As most here know, I am not crazy about Obama, but Walmart’s actions are totally unethical.)
So, JHB as we all know you are against national health care. So how are these workers supposed to get health care if their employer won’t offer it and they don’t make enough money to pay for even a basic policy?
1 August 2008, on 8:16 pm
“The point of the post is that they SHOULD NOT BE TELLING EMPLOYEES WHO TO VOTE FOR no matter which party they are for.”
Is this according to law? Or liberal emotionalism?
Walmart denies telling their employees how to vote, but I’m going to assume the report is true, because it is the principle here that counts. Progressives don’t have a principle here at all, which is why they have one standard for unions, and doublethink another one for corporations.
1 August 2008, on 8:18 pm
Is this according to law? Or liberal emotionalism?
It’s an unethical business practice. Many employees resent being threatened and coerced into who to vote for. This is nothing but Republican fearmongering.
1 August 2008, on 8:20 pm
“So how are these workers supposed to get health care”
The same way everyone else does. At $8.50, to take an example, a single individual will make $1360 before taxes every month. Note that burying families with *regressive* payroll taxes to fund Democrat entitlement programs is the opposite of helpful.
1 August 2008, on 8:21 pm
But Walmart employees and most other department stores now are purposely keeping their employees as PART TIME. No one can afford health insurance on part time wages.
The issue here is telling employees who to vote for. Many Walmart employees resent it. It is unethical business practices to threaten employees and telling them how to vote directly or indirectly.
1 August 2008, on 8:24 pm
“This is nothing but Republican fearmongering.”
I agree completely. People *should* be afraid of losing their jobs because of Stalinist union practices.
“It’s an unethical business practice.”
According to what standard? Most progressives will balk at calling unions unethical for taking their wages and spending them on Democrat political activities. That’s far worse than having a company like Walmart stress the downside of unionization, which is what Barack Hussein Obama advocates. Walmart reportedly didn’t directly tell people not to vote for our holy Messiah– they reportedly just pointed out the consequences of unionization, and who supports them.
1 August 2008, on 8:29 pm
Walmart reportedly didn’t directly tell people not to vote for our holy Messiah– they reportedly just pointed out the consequences of unionization, and who supports them.
And who is to hold Walmart accountable for it’s unethical business practices? Indirectly, Walmart DID tell the people not to vote for Obama. If the tables were turned and they had told them not to vote for McCain you would have been quite upset about it.
Walmart sucks. It always has. People should stop shopping there, stop working there and let them go under.
1 August 2008, on 8:32 pm
“Many Walmart employees resent it. ”
I’m an openminded person. However, if you’re going to convince me to adopt a pro-union position, I need a standard beyond liberal feelings. Progressives have different feelings for unions and businesses, and are holding them to *different* *standards*. That’s not logical.
Again, if we’re going to talk about ethics, then we’re talking about standards and principles. We cannot apply different standards to different organizations. A person cannot say that unions taking money and spending it on the Democrats is good, but Walmart merely warning people about the relationship between employment and labor costs is bad. If Walmart discussing unionization is unethical, then the unions are even more unethical by taking wages and spending them on the Democrats.
I’d rather have struggling people make ends meet with two part time jobs than not have people not work at all.
1 August 2008, on 8:36 pm
From Uncyclopedia
Wal-Mart was the fifth of the Seven Plagues of Egypt. It began in 1312 BC when Moses said to Pharaoh, “Let my People Shop,” and Pharaoh said “No,” so God created a plague Wal-Marts in five and a half days as a curse to punish the ancient Egyptians for their great wickedness.
Unfortunately, in modern times, the curse, after laying dormant for many centuries, has been re-awakened in the United States by the first Antichrist of Arkansas, Sam Walton. [1] Responses from God have not been forthcoming, since he has been on an intergalactic cruise since the afternoon of the sixth day and cannot be reached for comment. Wal-Mart has continued to spread its contagion well into present times where its kudzu-like habits have been known to smother entire voting districts.
The world population will be doomed to slavery as long as irresistible $5 DVDs are sold at Wal-Mart.
Recently Wal-Mart has become venereal in the form of Wal-Mart Monster. Be careful! He takes what he wants and sells it for less!
1 August 2008, on 8:37 pm
“People should stop shopping there, stop working there and let them go under.”
That’s your feeling.
“If the tables were turned and they had told them not to vote for McCain you would have been quite upset about it.”
I would. But my feelings do not dictate what a corporation can and cannot do. Nor do my feelings dictate what the law ought to be. For example — I have complete contempt for smoking and smokers. I had the way they flick cigarette butts all over the place. However, I oppose Comrade Daley telling private businesses that they cannot allow smoking indoors– ideally, he really doesn’t have the moral right to do that, even though he legally does.
1 August 2008, on 8:38 pm
However, if you’re going to convince me to adopt a pro-union position, I need a standard beyond liberal feelings.
I am not trying to convince you of anything. The post is about a company coercing its employees who to vote for with fear and threat tactics. It’s despicable.
1 August 2008, on 8:38 pm
“I *hate* the way they flick cigarette butts,” ahem
1 August 2008, on 8:39 pm
“The post is about a company coercing its employees who to vote for with fear and threat tactics.”
Even if the report is true, no one was coerced.
1 August 2008, on 8:40 pm
But my feelings do not dictate what a corporation can and cannot do.
They can do whatever they want within legal limits, but people don’t have to keep supporting them. And I don’t and it has nothing to do with politics. It’s just a terrible corporation, one of the worst if not THE worst.
1 August 2008, on 8:42 pm
no one was coerced
That is not what the managers and employees have stated. That’s why many of them are pissed. They were TOLD what to do “for their own good” which is what you accuse liberals of doing. Telling you what to do and how to live for your own good.
1 August 2008, on 8:44 pm
Walmart:
1 August 2008, on 8:55 pm
I admit to accusing the progressives of forcing people to do things for the common good. (If I could get the progressives to talk about *our* own good here on planet Earth instead of the mystical “common good,” that would be major intellectual progress. ) Saying something is for the “common good” is like saying something is “God’s will.” It means little in the abstract, and nothing in the concrete except to defer to those who aspire to be authorities.
Unions don’t give people a choice whether they can join or not — everyone is forced to do so. The behavior is not voluntary, but involuntary compulsion. I’m not an anarchist; I acknowledge any society will employ coercion. But coercion should be kept to a minimum.
Expressing an opinion is *not* coercion. I support the right of progressives 100% to tell others anything they want. If progressives want to tell me to support ethanol subsidies for Monsanto, they have the right to preach it. If the progressives want to tell me waiting in a government queue is “access to healthcare,” go for it. It is my hope progressives will become be more *liberal* in the original sense about openmindedness and tolerating other viewpoints, even when they come from Walmart.
1 August 2008, on 9:04 pm
Expressing an opinion is *not* coercion.
I have worked for these type of companies like Walmart in my younger days and there are not merely “expressing an opinion.” It’s much bigger than that. They take great advantage of their employees and they do use coercion with threats and scare tactics such as Walmart uses. Walmart was holding special meetings of managers which dealt with the fine art of coercing underlings to be very afraid of their jobs if they don’t vote a certain way. They make their employees afraid to question their pay, their benefits, etc and there are “penalties” for questioning or complaining. They are basically slave-owners and own the people who do not know how or where to get out of where they are at.
1 August 2008, on 9:20 pm
I remeber being in a big, bad union. United food and Grocery Workers Local #1036. I received reasonable(but not great) wages for hard work, I had good health insurance for the first and only time in my life, and our local union was, contrary to the blatant lies and fearmongering that Bowden likes to spout, not too heavily involved in politics. They were too busy helping their members.
That horrible, evil union wanted a $200 initiation fee, and stole a whopping $45 per month from my paycheck. For that $45, I received 100% health, dental and vision insurance from day one until 6 months after I quit, a cost of living raise structure(not counting merit raises) job arbitration if a manager fired an employee without following the company procedure, oh the fucking horrors!
This was at a Food 4 Less, a discount grocery store with the lowest prices in town. Poor Grandma Jones could still afford to buy groceries, and the store was so unprofitable that the owner only opened 15 other locations over ten years, and made a paltry $20-25 million per year from his chain of stores. Oh, the fucking horrors!
It got so bad that other non-union stores actually started giving better benefits to their employees, until eventually there was almost no difference! Employees pooled their individual power(much like corporations do!) and got themselves a seat at the bargaining table! Yes, that’s right! By using their rights to free speech and assembly, they got employers to at least pretend to treat them like human beings! And since there was this new pressure on other employers to offer competitive wages, employees all over the area benefitted. Those who didn’t want to be in a union could still exercise their choice by walking across the street to a non-union store and get most of the same benefits because of the pressure put on employers by the very existence of a union in the industry. Wow, people using their rights and energies to bargain with businesses-it’s so… capitalist!
But you go ahead and keep spouting your hateful lies and ignorant bullshit, Bowden. It’s what you’re good at.
1 August 2008, on 9:45 pm
For that $45, I received 100% health, dental and vision insurance from day one until 6 months after I quit, a cost of living raise structure(not counting merit raises) job arbitration if a manager fired an employee without following the company procedure
My husband had that for years also, and when our kids were born and growing up and visited the doctor on a regular basis and many hospital visits we received not one piece of paper about bills or insurance. It was all 100% taken care of. Since he hasn’t been in a union for the past couple of decades, we have had to deal with crappy insurance plans that seem to keep getting worse. higher co-pay and we need a whole filing cabinet just to store the paperwork. For this he has to pay more and more out of pocket expenses and co pays and deductibles. He hasn’t had a cost of living increase ever…just a raise now and then that he has to beg for. And Illinois now has a law that employers can fire you and don’t have to give a reason.
1 August 2008, on 11:14 pm
Neil, holy shit - I would kill for that insurance right about now.
I stopped shopping at Walmart several months ago and it’s become a complete non-issue. I do not miss it. In fact, I can tell who’s headed to W by the way they drive on the short stretch of highway on the way there. Not to generalize, of course - there are assholes aplenty here. But when I see drivers who are exceptionally discourteous and/or just can’t drive at all, I know where they’re headed. The company is no better.
1 August 2008, on 11:46 pm
My reasons for not shopping at Walmart initially and continue for the reasons being that it’s just not a nice atmosphere to shop in. It’s messy and dirty, other than getting deals on shampoo and drug store items, everything else sucks in quality. The lines are extremely long and takes forever to get checked out. I know the stores are still like this from what my friend say who shop there occasionally when something they want is on sale. They bitch and complain about it and how filthy, messy and unfriendly it is and I simply ask them why they keep going there when Target is just a couple blocks away. Makes no sense to me. Walmart doesn’t have the monopoly on low prices. Other stores offer great deals and can also afford to pay their employees better and provide benefits (and are non-union). My prediction is Walmart is going to go the way of Zayres and Ventures (anyone remember those stores?) They were crappy too.
2 August 2008, on 12:00 am
I found this article . . .
Many shoppers complain about dirty stores, poor service, long waits
2 August 2008, on 12:21 am
I’ve never heard of those other stores…but another issue for me is that Walmart’s produce is pretty damn sucky. The handful of pennies’ savings is not worth it…I don’t even bother with it anymore. There’s a *much* better store down the road - there’s your fucking capitalism - and the produce and bakery and seafood is way better. And there are actually people working the registers there.
2 August 2008, on 2:00 am
As far as Wal-Mart being clean goes, I worked as an overnight janitor at a Wal-mart. I could tell you horror stories about those bathrooms and how the day janitors were completely useless.
I ended up getting fired right before I would be the last person to get the 90 day raise.
The best part was I could finally sleep at night and my insomnia went away. The bad part was this happened five days after my wife asked for a divorce (and started having an affair). But that’s a different story for another time.
2 August 2008, on 2:47 am
Bowden:
More & more, your commentary spirals into foolishness.
Of course sometimes people have to be forced to do things for the common good. Because people don’t invest in the long-term ripple effects of action. Human beings tend to be terribly self-involved. Slavery’s a common example. Most folks were against it: the abolishing of it fairly crippled the Southern States’ economy. Segregation, women’s rights. These all went against the common opinion, but prevailed for the common good.
Might help if you defined your term, *our* own good.
A word on unions:
I live in California. It’s an at-will state. Which means, your boss takes a dislike to you, out you go. I used to be anti-union, but a few bad experiences made me pro-union. No union? You’re on your own. No arbitration. No one to counter the ‘he said/she said’ bullshit of politics. I was fired from a 4 year job @ a liberal arts college. The HR dept. wouldn’t lift a finger to help me @ all. 1 bad week, & my career in IT was kaput. I had no rights @ all.
The axe descends, your livelihood ends.
As to this post, I don’t think it constitutes xtian terrorism, since Obama’s an xtian as well as McCain.
2 August 2008, on 10:07 am
O/T I didn’t even notice that the xianterrorism category link was on there. I was having problems with categories (this new WordPress seems to have its own minor quirks)…the first ones I selected all disappeared, then the second time I had to uncheck categories and guess I didn’t go down far enough to de-select the bottom one. So therefore I will remove it now. Thanks for pointing that out.
2 August 2008, on 10:09 am
I guess Bowden is in favor of Upton Sinclair-style workplaces and making children work for their pudding. Then again, I suppose any aspiring robber baron- or, worse, their monocle bunnies- has wet dreams of slave labor. Labor unions were- and are still- necessary in today’s society. As is the case with most social reforms, however, they do go too far in the other direction at times. After all, the labor unions share at least equal blame with management for the demise of the American automobile industry and the teacher’s union has made itself an obstacle to fixing our public schools by protecting the poorest performers in a field that needs most to be rid of them.
Much as I hate Wal-mart for willfully putting American manufacturers out of business with impossible price and time demands, for decimating the downtown areas of countless small cities across the U.S., for stocking their shelves with the products of essentially unregulated Chinese manufacturing, for contributing greatly to depressing rural economies and making their cheap merchandise the only consumer option for those limited of budget, and for their stance against unions….let’s just leave it at “I loathe, detest, and abhor Wal-mart.”
Still, so long as unions in this country can make monolithic political contributions without rank and file approval, I don’t see why Wal-mart can’t have their own political agenda. It’s not as if they can demand their employees vote a certain way or actually join them in the booths. It’s not- according to the information given, as if they’re threatening dismissal to anyone who fails to vote their way. Think of Wal-mart as the anti-union union.
The furor is appropriate over Wal-mart’s thuggish union-busting practices but the pro-McCain stance is a case of turnabout being fair play. Sorry.
2 August 2008, on 10:35 am
Uhhh, I’m still waiting for the secret way to access happy healthcare land on $8.50 an hour. Give it up will you Ms./Mr. Bowden!
2 August 2008, on 10:55 am
I’m still waiting for the secret way to access happy healthcare land on $8.50 an hour
Well, you could always just take your chances and go without, then if you have a medical emergency just go to go the hospital (where they can’t turn you away) then simply tell them you can’t afford the bill and let the hospital eat the cost and then they must raise everyone else’s cost to cover the losses of those who cannot pay. (That sort of handout is okay with those who are opposed to an organized national health care plan and those who don’t think that companies need to offer health care plans to their employees.)
However, people without insurance cannot afford to go to the doctor while illnesses are easily treatable and so their illnesses develop into more serious conditions and they end up in the ER costing the hospital thousands of dollars in losses that the uninsured person cannot pay.
2 August 2008, on 3:14 pm
Much has changed since the company isn’t run by the Waltons anymore. Here is from Sam’s bio:
Sam Walton’s ten commandments of good business were:
Now it seems they don’t give a shit about “happy employees” or being fair or delivering more than you promise. They do not value their associates and treat them as slaves.
2 August 2008, on 5:34 pm
The last time I went to Wal-Mart in my hometown while visiting my parents, in a 25 minute visit I saw:
- A woman walking around in a bikini and flipflops.
- A man walking around in pajamas and fluffy bear slippers.
- A homeless made sitting in one of the isles, muttering to himself and gradually filling in a sheet of paper with a blank pen
- A senile woman in the (awful-smelling) bathroom, who refused to leave a stall, and her young granddaughter sitting outside trying to bribe her out with money.
There was a list of disgusting, dirty, godawful things and people seen at Wal-Mart somewhere on a humor site awhile back, but I can’t remember which one. I’ll have to find it. I remember one being a man who vomited into his beard and kept shopping.
Me and my roommates shop at Meijer. The quality of the food, the service, the atmosphere, everything about it is so much better than Wal-Mart. And for feeding three grown people at least 4 good, homecooked meals a week, we only pay about $50 per person every two weeks. We’re weird college students. We don’t live on Easy Mac, ramen and pizza rolls. We eat things like pork loin, ribeyes, okra, feta cheese… I love living with fellow foodies.
2 August 2008, on 6:03 pm
Raindogzilla:
I was in a the IBEW for almost 8 years and, while the union would spend a portion of our dues (which we could refuse to pay, legally) for election politics, and would furnish a suggested slate of candidates, there was never any coercion or mandatory meetings of any kind. Wal-Mart is apparently doing whatever they’re doing while the employees are on the clock (although knowing those scumbags they’re doing it while the employees are on their breaks); I think that is very different than what the unions typically do.
J.H. Bowden is a concern troll.
2 August 2008, on 6:20 pm
A senile woman in the (awful-smelling) bathroom, who refused to leave a stall, and her young granddaughter sitting outside trying to bribe her out with money.
That’s the sort of creepy stuff we see at the Wal-marts here and these are in middle to upper middle class neighborhoods. Last time I was in a Wal-mart was on one of our vacations and just to run in and use the restroom (one of those urgent things), it was so disgusting and smelled so foul. This was in Ohio somewhere.
2 August 2008, on 6:42 pm
Demo, at Wal-mart, you take a break and remain on the clock. The only time you ever clock off is when you’re on lunch break or going home. I guess this is so they can make you work through your break and still say you took it.
2 August 2008, on 8:25 pm
I still have this vivid memory by proxy of an old bandmate who got a job at a new Wal-mart in KY(briefly). He told me that before they opened every morning, they had what amounted to pep rallies where they would do the old standby; “Give me a W!, Give me an A!” etc. They called the hyphen a “squiggly” That was like hell to me. I mean, I got fired as a waiter for refusing to participate in their idiotic birthday singing- I told the manager I got paid for singing and wasn’t about to offer it up for free to every toothless dumbass who’d scraped up their recycling money for a bowl of overblown mac and cheese.
My dirty little secret is that I do take advantage of my parents’ Sam’s Club membership every now and again. I’m a slave to Frappucino.
2 August 2008, on 9:20 pm
RDZ, they did that at mine too, but it wasn’t mandatory to participate in it.
2 August 2008, on 10:38 pm
Atheist under the mask:
I never clocked out for a break except when I was a busboy back in the mid-sixties. Wal-Mart is an egregious violator of everything that is a part of the Fair Wage and Labor statutes. It would be nice to pick a day, say September 1, when everybody would go to a Wal-Mart and stand at the registers at 10:00 AM (or some other set time ) and tell the cashiers and anyone else in earshot that they should organize, unless of course they really like being boned by Wal-Mart. Yeah, they can throw you out of the store, but if it happened in every store, it would be a public relations disaster.
2 August 2008, on 10:42 pm
Too true, demo.
3 August 2008, on 1:47 pm
Found it!
http://www.somethingawful.com/d/comedy-goldmine/disgusting-sights-walmart.php
3 August 2008, on 7:08 pm
Julie
Gack! I read all 8 pages! It all sounded like it could have happened right here at our Wal-Mart. Right now, ours is organized and clean, cos they just opened a new supercenter-we used to have a smaller one. I still like to get my groceries at Food Lion. The prices are lower, and now, the lines are empty, cos everyone else is at Wally-World.
10 September 2008, on 11:41 am
I WORKED FOR WAL-MART FOR 27 YEARS. I JUST RECENTLY RETIRED. I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT WAL-MART OFFERS HEALTH INSURANCE TO PT AFTER ONE YEAR. THEY HAVE A LOT OF CHOICES , SOME OF THEM ARE VERY AFFORDABLE.
NEVER HAVE I EVER BEEN TOLD HOW TO VOTE. NEVER HAVE I BEEN TOLD I COULD NOT JOIN A UNION. I WAS INFORMED ABOUT THE HEALTH INSURANCE AND CHOICES AND INFORMED ABOUT WAL-MART’S STAND ON THE UNION. WAS NEVER TOLD I WOULD BE FIRED FOR TALKING UNION
I WILL HAVE TO SAY I KNOW FOR A FACT IF AN ASSOCIATE ISN’T GIVEN AN EVALUATION EVERY YEAR
THE MANGERS WILL GET IN BIG TROUBLE. I ALWAYS GOT A RAISE AND QUITE A FEW MERIT RAISES. I BOUGHT WAL-MART STOCK AND WAL-MART PUT A % WITH THAT.I HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO INVEST IN 401k AND THE COMPANY GAVE US PROFIT SHARING WHICH I DID NOT PUT A PENNY INTO.
BECAUSE OF ALL OF THIS , I HAVE A 2100 SQUARE FOOT HOUSE WHICH I PAID FOR FROM MY STOCK THAT I INVESTED WITH AND I STILL HAVE STOCK.
I ALSO AM GETTING A CHECK EVERY MONTH FROM THE INVESTMENT I MADE WITH MY 401K AND PROFIT SHARING. WITH MY SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK AND MY INVESTMENT CHECK I AM MAKING AS MUCH AS I DID WHEN I WAS WORKING. AND BY THE WAY I WAS MAKING A GREAT SALARY WHEN I LEFT.
I AM JUST A HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATE BUT I ALWAYS DID MY JOB , DID NOT MISS WORK UNLESS I WAS VERY SICK (NOT A HEADACHE OR JUST DIDN’T FEEL GOOD).
I WAS NEVER TREATED WITH ANYTHING EXCEPT RESPECT.
SO IF YOU HAVEN’T WORKED THERE FOR SEVERAL YEARS YOU REALLY DON’T KNOW WHAT WAL-MART IS ALL ABOUT.
OH AND YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE RETIREMENT PARTY THAT WAS GIVEN FOR ME ON MY LAST DAY OF WORK,
10 September 2008, on 10:55 pm
ANNIE YOU DON’T HAVE TO SHOUT AND ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE IMPRESSED BY YOUR BLIND LOYALTY TO A COMPANY WHO SCREWS PEOPLE?
Most people who get screwed over by these people don’t even realize it. My mother works for Target by her own choice but she is intelligent enough to know they do not treat their workers fairly and are exploiting the ignorance of people who believe they are being treated well.
If it works for you annie, great. But most people don’t like being treated like slaves and recognize when they are undervalued. Walmart loves people like you.