# Wal-Mart Exploits Employees -- Big-Time!



## Meg Murry. (Sep 3, 2006)

I realize some people have little choice where they can shop, but if you _do_ have a choice to shop there or at Sam's Club, its affiliate, I hope folks on this board reconsider the decision and take your dollars elsewhere. *Your money goes to subsidize management*. See the full text of the article here.

If you've EVER worked part-time, if you've ever had to work for minimum wage, if you're working for minimum wage right now, this should completely p**s you off.

Get a load of Wal-Mart's new employee policies:

Quote:

Among them were moves to cut the hours of full-time employees from 40 hours a week to 32 hours, along with a corresponding cut in wages, and *to compel workers to be available for shifts around the clock*.

Quote:

In addition, the shifts would be decided not by managers, but by a computer at company headquarters. Employees could find themselves working 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. one week and noon to 9 p.m. the next.

Quote:

"If we are at an emergency room and spend the night in a hospital and cannot call the number, they won't respect that...It will be *counted as an unexcused absence*."
Speaking for myself, I'm not going to shop there or at Sam's Club ever again. This is outrageous. There are women who work there, working moms who work there, people who can't get jobs who are trying to make ends meet -- like a lot of us on this board. This is how they treat people who are old and sick, for example:

Quote:

...the retailer is acting on ideas outlined in an internal document that was leaked last year. In the memo, a Wal-Mart executive said it would find ways to *rid its payroll of full-time and unhealthy employees* who are more expensive for the company to retain.

...Recently, it was also reported that *older employees in some stores who had back and leg problems were barred from using stools on which they had sat for years*.

Shame on them.


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## swimswamswum (Oct 26, 2005)

Thanks for the post. I am really disappointed at the number of people who shop at Walmart when they do indeed have choices. I know that there are some people who would have to drive for miles to find another store, but most of us can do without or go somewhere else instead of Walmart/ Sams. My dad lives in South Texas and some people say there are no other choices, somehow he still manages to boycott Walmart (he lives a simple life and just goes to the grocery store or uses the internet).

The company is terrible and it is nice to see another MDC mama pointing that out.


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## Nikki98 (Sep 9, 2006)

What really makes me concerned is that Walmart is such a huge cooperation, making boo-koo dollars, so why can't they pass some of their earnings down the chain (to the employees). This type of cooperate greed is totally ridiculous and sadly most of all isn't just unique to Walmart (Enron, Worldcom).


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## sparklefairy (May 21, 2005)

http://www.walmartassistantspeaks.com/


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## Jazzmin (Jun 29, 2006)

Yep, Walmart is the epitome of corporate greed. Proud to say that I have not shopped there in over 2 years. However, I am lucky to have other choices. I just don't understand how people can shop there when they can go elsewhere. I would rather spend an extra $5 or $10 and keep a local business going, than pad the pockets of greedy corporate wh*res.


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## muttix2 (Apr 24, 2005)

The company I work for is just as bad. All of those things that you have quoted, our company has in effect right now. Added on top of that is a lot more, not the least of which is that 15 minute breaks (the on the clock breaks) are not required by ____ rules. They just ignore the fact that it is a law (or at least it was last time I checked), they believe that corporate rules overrule state/federal laws. The only requirements are that a 30 minute unpaid break be given for over 6 hours and 1 hour unpaid for over 8. So, scheduling someone for 5 1/2 hours, on their feet and doing physical work the entire time and giving them no break is just fine with this company, it is in fact encouraged. I still give my employees breaks but I know a LOT of managers who don't and I get looked down on as not being "manager material" (I'm an assistant manager right now) because I do this and other things to make the job easier on the HUMANS who work it. The thing that is sad, is the company I work for looks up to Walmart, they see them as their "core competition". And because it is a job that most people only take if they really, really need work (definitely not something you go to school for), no one says anything. They're afraid of being fired or worse, phased out (hours cut down so low that it forces the person to quit). So, I feel for the Walmart employees, I know exactly what kind of noose they're dealing with.


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## SleeplessMommy (Jul 16, 2005)

Quote:

Among them were moves to cut the hours of full-time employees from 40 hours a week to 32 hours, along with a corresponding cut in wages, and to compel workers to be available for shifts around the clock.
The hours cut is probably part of a plan to cut health insurance costs. If you can get rid of older employees, or make them reduce hours, you save $$$.

When W'mart workers are un-insured, YOU pay for their health care, via state taxes and increased health care costs. Even if you do not shop at W'mart.







:


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## Sharlla (Jul 14, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *SleeplessMommy* 
When W'mart workers are un-insured, YOU pay for their health care, via state taxes and increased health care costs. Even if you do not shop at W'mart.







:

Not really, some states have ridiculously high standards as to who can get medicaid. Now its been changed here to you are only allowed to make $400 a month after you deduct childcare expenses for adults in a family of 4 to qualify. Children still qualify though even if the family makes a lot more than that ($29,000 a year I think) So really someone getting minimum wage could in theory make too much.


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## Jazzmin (Jun 29, 2006)

In IN there is a really low cut off for adult medicaid. I don't make that much, DH is a student(=no income), we have 2 kids, and we don't qualify. So, I can imagine that many Walmart employees in IN do not qualify for Medicaid, though their children would.

In TN they have even stricter rules and limits for medicaid.


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## lovebug (Nov 2, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Meg Murry.* 

Shame on them.

shame on them is right!!!!!

OH WOW!!!!! that makes me more then MAD







:


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## naturallia (May 26, 2005)

Hmmm, is there anything bad about Target or K-Mart that I should know?

Those are my other two options in my area.


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## swimswamswum (Oct 26, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Sharlla* 
Not really, some states have ridiculously high standards as to who can get medicaid. Now its been changed here to you are only allowed to make $400 a month after you deduct childcare expenses for adults in a family of 4 to qualify. Children still qualify though even if the family makes a lot more than that ($29,000 a year I think) So really someone getting minimum wage could in theory make too much.


This is very true. In Michigan you can only newly enroll for Medicaid if you are a kid, pregnant or a new refugee (and they only get it for 6 months that can be renewed). The thing is, Walmart is still costing tax payers a lot of money because of those kids on Medicaid use tax money and because uninsured people often use Medicaid funded clinics/ funds at hospitals/ etc. I think everyone should have access to health care, but it really, really bothers me that Walmart takes advantage of tax money (when they already do so much harm to the economy, health and the environment) when it could easily pay to insure all of its employees and their families.


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## Zach'smom (Nov 5, 2004)

They did take the stools away from the old people!!!!!









I infrequently shop at Wal-Mart. There was always a stool with a high table next to it for the "greeter" to sit on. When I went in today the stool was gone and the older lady was standing on a mat. (the same kind the cashiers stand on) How mean!!!

I am never going back there. For so many reasons.


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## Kleine Hexe (Dec 2, 2001)

I just wanted to say that I finally got my head in the right place and I have not shopped at Walmart since this past July.









Please please please let it be that Walmart stays far far away from the organic market. I know they are getting organic products and I so hope they find that it does not bring in much revenue.


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## DougLong (Dec 29, 2004)

I think it is a statment as to the mentality of a culture that we, as a society, cannot see the inherrant truth. Wal-Mart is providing a service for your "D" average children. The school systems have been degraded by people with "hurt feelings" for so long the best your children can expect is a job flipping burgers, if they qualify to work the grill. The fact that Wal-Mart is willing to hire your children and those of the fantasy disorders should make you proud capitalism is working. You have received your wish... your children are barely passing a school system substandard to those countries you send money to to feed starving children... and your tax dollars are paying for them, thanks to our government grants. Now you have to live with the fact that the rest of the world is advancing because they have a WORK ETHIC, something removed from this country long before we were born.

I strongly suggest you read a book by Alexis Detocqueville called "Democracy In America". In it Alexis, a true sociologist, describes the onset of decline of this great country.


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## Mearaina (May 3, 2005)

Okay, no flames please, but Wal-mart offers many health insurance plans. Quite affordable, too. At least around here. Dh works there and we had to pick between 7 plans for the start of the year







: . He was eligible for these after being with the company 90 days as an unloader, and that was years ago. Where are the Walmarts that don't offer insurance? I know that it varies a little based on location but some plans, I thought, are all through the USA.

And how can I be here at MDC and dh works at Wal-mart?

First of all, Walmart isn't as bad as the media would like us to believe. At least not in this region. I know many associates by name who sit at work, many elderly, etc. Maybe I am clueless, but dh worked there long before I found MDC and I just can't figure it out. Dh loves it there and they have been great to us. Maybe his other jobs were so horrible we have a skewed perspective, I don't know......


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## josybear (Jul 24, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *DougLong* 
I think it is a statment as to the mentality of a culture that we, as a society, cannot see the inherrant truth. Wal-Mart is providing a service for your "D" average children. The school systems have been degraded by people with "hurt feelings" for so long the best your children can expect is a job flipping burgers, if they qualify to work the grill. The fact that Wal-Mart is willing to hire your children and those of the fantasy disorders should make you proud capitalism is working. You have received your wish... your children are barely passing a school system substandard to those countries you send money to to feed starving children... and your tax dollars are paying for them, thanks to our government grants. Now you have to live with the fact that the rest of the world is advancing because they have a WORK ETHIC, something removed from this country long before we were born.

I strongly suggest you read a book by Alexis Detocqueville called "Democracy In America". In it Alexis, a true sociologist, describes the onset of decline of this great country.

wow, i can't find anything in your post that i agree with.
in theory it's true that jobs at walmart and your local mcdonalds or gas station are great for underacheivers and teenagers. but that theory doesn't pan out. not when intelligent, hardworking adults are trying to raise families on minimum wage jobs. not when single moms need night jobs so they can be with their babies during the day so they look for shift work. not when knowing the right people is more likely to get you a job than a university degree.
so in an ideal world you might be partly right, but things just aren't that simple.


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## talk de jour (Apr 21, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *DougLong* 
I strongly suggest you read a book by Alexis Detocqueville called "Democracy In America". In it Alexis, a true sociologist, describes the onset of decline of this great country.

What are you talking about? That's not what the book is about at all.


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## Meg Murry. (Sep 3, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *DougLong* 
I think it is a statment as to the mentality of a culture that we, as a society, cannot see the inherrant truth. Wal-Mart is providing a service for your "D" average children.

Doug, the fact of the matter is that many people essentially in poverty, specifically (for the purposes of this discussion, Wal-Mart employees) are not in poverty exclusively (or even mostly) because of low or failing grades in the school system. To call this an oversimplification would be flattery.


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## A&A (Apr 5, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Sharlla* 
Not really, some states have ridiculously high standards as to who can get medicaid.


You still pay for it. Those people will wait until they have a life and death situation, then they'll go to the emergency room, and not be able to pay for it, and health care costs will go up for all of us.

* We haven't shopped at Walmart or Sam's Club in 4 years*


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## A&A (Apr 5, 2004)

Here's a good editorial called "A Living Wage for Wal-Mart Workers"

http://www.sltrib.com/search/ci_4501413


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## jaxinsmom (Jul 24, 2006)

Haven't shopped at Walmart in years for a few reasons:

-cheaply made items in 3rd world countries

-tooooooooo much stuff, just toooooo much

-they closed a Quebec branch after a union organized there. they closed the store and fired all the employees. because they wanted a fair wage. a living wage.

-Starbucks mantality of business (the sum is greater than its parts)-- they will open a store even though it will NOT make $$ simply to drive out the local business, and earn the whole company money. ruthless. wrong.

-i try to buy used when ever i can, and when I can't I try to buy locally.

-1 in 6 purchaces in the the US goes through a WalMart cash register. ONE in SIX. With that kind of power, walmart is able to control more than just the price of products they sell. For example, last year when Coke introduced a new 'diet' soda, Walmart did not agree with one of the new ingredients and refused to sell the product unless it was changed; so rather than losing walmart as a client Coke altered their product. that's too much power for one store to have.

(all this information was in the April 2006 edition of Harpers, in an article titled "the Anti-trust law and WalMart, but I couldn't find a URL for it)

They may be cheap now, but when they're the only game in town we're all screwed.


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## swimswamswum (Oct 26, 2005)

That Harper's article was fantastic!

Thanks for the re-cap Jaxinsmom.


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## Siana (Jun 21, 2004)

Here's the closest I could get to what seems like the same article you refered to, jaxinsmom, but with a different title:

http://groups.google.ca/group/talk.p...d573e8d9796b95


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## Sharlla (Jul 14, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *A&A* 
You still pay for it. Those people will wait until they have a life and death situation, then they'll go to the emergency room, and not be able to pay for it, and health care costs will go up for all of us.

I think most people that don't make a ton of money are uninsured regardless of where they are working. We, for instance can't afford medical insurance and my DH makes twice as much as the minimum wage.

Either way it's pretty crappy of WM to do that to their employees. even though the insurance that they do offer sucks anyway and I doubt most of their employees could even pay for it. I know when my old job was offering it, it would cost about 1/3 my take home pay, there was no way I cold afford that, esp when we were barely making ends meet.


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## jaxinsmom (Jul 24, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Siana* 
Here's the closest I could get to what seems like the same article you refered to, jaxinsmom, but with a different title:

http://groups.google.ca/group/talk.p...d573e8d9796b95

yup, that's it. I inecouage everyone to give it a read!!!!!! Very informative


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## swimswamswum (Oct 26, 2005)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Sharlla* 
I think most people that don't make a ton of money are uninsured regardless of where they are working. We, for instance can't afford medical insurance and my DH makes twice as much as the minimum wage.

Either way it's pretty crappy of WM to do that to their employees. even though the insurance that they do offer sucks anyway and I doubt most of their employees could even pay for it. I know when my old job was offering it, it would cost about 1/3 my take home pay, there was no way I cold afford that, esp when we were barely making ends meet.

The things that gets me is that Walmart could easily pay for its employees health care. Also, if they allowed unions, they would have to pay for healthcare.

I work part time for a university and I get insurance (health and dental) b/c I belong to a union. It's possible and it really is about corporate greed.

My FIL owns a small business and doesn't provide insurance (he had to buy his own). This is different b/c he really can't- a company like Walmart could and all it would mean is slightly less profit.


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