Arik

Walmart

What's funny is I hadn't heard some of these criticisms. I just don't go to Walmart because, locally, the parking sucks, the clerks are apathetic, the store is poorly designed, and the prices, despite the advertisements, are higher than other stores.

Well, yeah, and shopping there would be supporting evil.

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The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

Daxie

Dear Walmart;

Just say NO to unions!

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>Hagar: "Before we go into battle today let me remind you what we're fighting for! We're fighting for justice! We're fighting for equality! What could be more important than that?"

>>Eddie: "How about a steady paycheck, health insurance and a good retirement plan?"

Brikar

I hate the Wal-Mart near my school because none of the people that work there speak any language I speak, so if there's a problem at the register or something, it's INCREDIBLY hard to fix. And, they're very slow. I sometimes go there with my girlfriend because she's exempt from paying taxes on what she buys and she needs to get stuff cheap for her classes and whatnot.

The prices are OK, I especially like the 5 dollar DVD bins... but the service sucks.

The Wal-Mart near my home is much, much better.

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Daxie

I agree as well that the service is a bit slow, I won't argue that.

I do however take issue with that article... it is nothing but union propaganda.

Wal-mart has always been dead set against the unions, they try every so often to rally up the employees to get unionized and fail everytime.

Some years ago a union (I don't recall which one at the moment) began to say that Wal-mart was buying clothes from sweat shops, violating minor (under age 18) employee labor laws, low wages, poor benefits, and so on.

Each complaint was investigated by local, state and federal law enforcement and was found that Wal-mart has not violated any laws. Moreover, the "sweat shop" this union accused Wal-mart of running was found to have never exsisted. That union tucked it's tail between their legs and went home... so-to-speak.

In mid 2002, United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union decided to take their shot at getting Wal-mart into the union.

ALL of what you see in that article; sexual harrassment, sweat shops, management abuse towards employees, employees needing to go on welfare, etc., it is ALL fiction!

How do I know this? Because I used to work for UFCW and have seen their campange plans on what sort of things to say at a Wal-mart rally to get the employees to think they "need" a union.

What the union says: "you're not making enough money, we can force the company to give you more"

What the union does: sure, you get more money... 50 cents if your lucky.

What the union says: "we will fight for you so you can have better working conditions"

What the union does: get a new soda machine for your breakroom, and maybe an extra smoke break durring the day.

What the union says: "we can get you better insurance benefits"

What the union does; gets the "better" insurance, usually the highest priced company, it costs so much you can't afford them and elect not to sign up for them.

All in all, what does a union do for the employees? Take their monthy dues and tell them to go fuck off!

__________________
>Hagar: "Before we go into battle today let me remind you what we're fighting for! We're fighting for justice! We're fighting for equality! What could be more important than that?"

>>Eddie: "How about a steady paycheck, health insurance and a good retirement plan?"

Arik

EDIT: Oops, a little more personal than I wanted to get.

Daxie, there is harassment at Wal-Mart. I've seen its effects. I've also seen what they do to punish the people being harassed, instead of the people doing the harassing, which makes the company just as guilty as the harassers.

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The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

Daxie

All companies have their problems with harassmt, but if you ever hear one of these union rallies, they would have you believe that all the managers at every Wal-mart store is harassing the employees.

I really don't know what exactly you mean there (I can only assume) but all employees have legal rights and can use them.... unless there were other circumsatnces involed for the employee being punished (i.e. lied about the harassent).

__________________
>Hagar: "Before we go into battle today let me remind you what we're fighting for! We're fighting for justice! We're fighting for equality! What could be more important than that?"

>>Eddie: "How about a steady paycheck, health insurance and a good retirement plan?"

Arik

I don't want to go into great detail here(as it's easy to figure out who I am, and then make the jump to who those people are), but I am aware of at least five cases all within 6 months of each other.

The first one was already quitting(I knew her, and found the other stories through her). This manager threatened and physically assaulted her, and made her fear for her life. I know, I have the shoulder she cried on. When she brought it to the store's GM, the GM rolled his eyes and said something like 'we've had a problem with him'.

The next three were all assaulted, verbally and physically, when he felt they weren't moving fast enough, or doing their job to his satisfaction. The store turned a deaf ear to their plight, even after he started throwing things at them. They were forced to quit.

The fifth had her marriage broken up because of him. Before this, her cries for help to Wal-Mart were heard--she was transfered. They took her from being next in line for a promotion to down to the bottom. They punished her for complaining, despite the fact that by this time they had several complaints against this man.

That didn't stop them and, after her husband left her because of this manager (and the fact that he was basically stalking her), she managed to get a restraining order placed on him. But she was also demoted because of the fact that she spoke up.

Yeah, but most of these people were High School kids. For at least one or two of 'em, this was their first job. They didn't realize the vast array of options open to them. Even if they had, in civil cases, the burden of proof is on the plantif, and they really didn't have any (they didn't know about each other).

Of course, Wally World knew. The problem was they refused to act.

Two GMs, and both of them refused to act.

__________________
The writers of this post apologize for you being too stupid to understand it.

Daxie

I'm really sorry to hear about what happened with your friends, but this seems to be isolated to one purticlar store, not company wide as that news article and the union would have you believe.

Yes, I understand that it's easy to intimidate younger people (that's why these managers got away with it) but if these people can get together and tell their stories to a lawyer, and hopefully some of them have some sort of documentation (i.e. copies of complaints filed with GM's and/or district managers) or even lucky enough to have had the physcial abuse caught on the security cameras, then there will be a strong case.

The GM's statement of "we've had problems with him before" is also a good piece of evidence, as it shows 1- there has been a consistant problem with this manager mistreating staff 2- there is most likely some sort of record of this manager's behavior 3- if all else fails, the GM can be used as a hostile witness in a court case and be made to testify as to the nature of "previous problems" with this manager.

I really do hope your friends will be ale to get the justice they deserve.

On a more personal note, I'm really not shocked by your story. I have a few of my own from personal life:

When I was younger, I worked part-time after school in a fast food place, the register kept screwing up (the drawer wouldn't open) I told the manager this and he yelled at me and told me "it's not the machine, it's the operator, are you too stupid to know how to work a cash register?" in front of the rest of the crew and customers. Needless to say I walked out. As I was leaving, the manager took over the register, and I heard him saying "What the hell is wrong with this fucking thing?" One if the customers looked at him and said "maybe the operator is too stupid to know how to use it". Several customers stopped me before I got to the door and said they didn't blame me for walking out, and one guy said "geez, your boss is a real asshole".

Another place I worked at, my manager made me apoligize to a customer because her and her kids were at the other end of the counter playing with something on the counter, while they were doing that, a couple walked in, came directly to the register and placed their order. The lady with the kids got pissed because I took the couples order frist when she was there before them, even though she was at the other end of the counter with her kids playing around.

Last year, I was working in a factory, I was having a problem with one of the other workers being verbably absive to me, I went to the supervisor to complain and he started screamming at me and threated to fire me. He screammed at me until I was to the point that I was crying.... BTW.... that factory was union, you know what the union said? sorry about your luck, we can't do anything about the harassment or the supervisor screamming at you... but HEY! thanks for your union dues!

A friend of mine worked in a job for 6 years, that place suddenly started cutting his hours back. Just before Christmas they cut him back to 20/week. He quit and got another job. Why did they cut his hours? He made too much money and they were trying to make him quit so they could hire someone else at half of what he made.

My point to all these stories? It happens everywhere, not just Wal-mart.

__________________
>Hagar: "Before we go into battle today let me remind you what we're fighting for! We're fighting for justice! We're fighting for equality! What could be more important than that?"

>>Eddie: "How about a steady paycheck, health insurance and a good retirement plan?"