<\/p>\n
This is from a few months ago and the 10 reasons are fairly well known, \u00a0but to me the interesting part is the training video which it says are shown to new hires as part of onboarding. \u00a0At the company where I\u00a0work, we were told last year that there will be union elections in every store over the next few years (and they have been losing most of them, to no one’s surprise) but as managers we were no longer allowed to express our opinions regarding unions. \u00a0 In the past you were allowed to share \u00a0your experiences, opinions and facts regarding unions if asked, in fact we had training that taught you what you could say and not say and the intent was to help the company keep unions out.<\/p>\n
Something has now changed and we are no longer allowed to do so. \u00a0Not sure if it’s just our company or what, but it doesn’t appear that Walmart has any such qualms about letting their employees know how they feel about the unions.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Walmart<\/a> and unions<\/a> go together like oil and water.<\/em><\/p>\n The retail giant\u2019s famous<\/a> anti-union<\/a> policies<\/a> are nothing new and appear to be getting worse all the<\/a> time<\/a>. As further proof of this, a new Walmart training video<\/a>\u00a0leaked online has illustrated the specific propaganda the company feeds their employees to prevent them from organizing.<\/em><\/p>\n https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=z_VL4gqrCHc<\/p>\n \u00a0In a particularly revealing sound bite from the video, the company explains, \u201cOur company prefers to have open and direct communication with our associates\u2014we don\u2019t think a labor union is necessary here. And because our associates have said time after time that they don\u2019t want a union, we usually don\u2019t spend a lot of time talking about them.\u201d All of this comes on the heels of Walmart shutting down five stores in four states for \u201cplumbing problems,\u201d an excuse many are interpreting as \u201cunion problems.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In terms of labor regulations, Walmart is basically the Michael Jordan<\/a> of retail chains. At one point, it was estimated<\/a> that they were receiving around 5,000 lawsuits a year from workers at Walmart and Sam\u2019s Club stores alike. This is why criticism of Walmart has become about as common the store itself; the Wikipedia<\/a>page on this very subject is not what you would call light reading.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s important that people remember just how toxic Walmart\u2019s views on unions are, but it\u2019s also important not to forget all of their other equally problematic corporate policies. For Walmart, unions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to atrocities.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n To that end, here\u2019s a quick rundown of all the other reasons the company is so awful.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Of all of Walmart\u2019s egregious practices overtime, this is the one that\u2019s probably the most well-known. For additional evidence, check out the 2005 documentary, Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price<\/a>. Many people are aware that when Walmart comes to town, the company drives out smaller mom-and-pop businesses, but what not everybody realizes is that the presence of Walmart actually does little to bolster the economy of local communities in the long run either.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n As Jared Cram at Generation Progress<\/a> points out:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A study commissioned by the\u00a0Los Angeles City Council<\/a> in 2003 found that Walmart is a net loss for the communities it moves into. An influx of \u201cbig box retailers\u201d such as Walmart was estimated to cost an additional $9 million in state health care costs and a loss in pensions and retirement benefits so large that the increase in public assistance necessary to make up the shortfall could not even be covered by increased sales and property taxes.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n The truth is that when Walmart moves in, they don\u2019t make things better. Instead, they make things much worse, and create unsustainable economic models in surrounding communities for years to come.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s been estimated that over 50 percent of Walmart goods come from overseas suppliers. This doesn\u2019t just take away American jobs in favor of cutting costs; it also creates a living hell for those forced to meet Walmart\u2019s hefty supply needs. The corporation has been accused<\/a> of paying off officials in foreign companies in order to keep many of the details silent, but various stories paint a gruesome picture.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n A great example of this is Bangladesh, where the minimum wage for garment industry workers is just $37 a month. The conditions in the facilities where these products are made are incredibly unsafe. A 2012 fire in one factory which made garments for Walmart killed 111 people, while another in 1990 killed 32. And aclass-action lawsuit from 2010<\/a> alleged that one woman worked seven days a week, from 7:45am to 10pm, putting chalk marks on pants, without a day off for six months.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The corruption doesn\u2019t stop at Bangladesh, though. Global supply chains which aid companies like Walmart have\u00a0even been linked to the slave trade<\/a>\u00a0in Thailand.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n To top it all off, it\u2019s been noted in the past that most<\/a> of the employees at Walmart\u2019s overseas factories may be underage. Harvard Law<\/a> cites a human rights study from 2006 which found that describes the conditions at one factory in Bangladesh:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The children report being routinely slapped and beaten, sometimes falling down from exhaustion, forced to work 12 to 14 hours a day, even some all-night, 19-to-20-hour shifts, often seven days a week, for wages as low as 6 \u00bd cents an hour. The wages are so wretchedly low that many of the child workers get up at 5:00 a.m. each morning to brush their teeth using just their finger and ashes from the fire, since they cannot afford a toothbrush or toothpaste.<\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Of course, Walmart isn\u2019t the only<\/a> company who has employed child labor, but as the United States\u2019 top retailer<\/a>, its continued use of the practice is even worse. While the company claims to be changing many of these policies, there is ample<\/a>documentation <\/a>which suggests otherwise. By now, child and foreign labor<\/a> has become such a key part of the fabric of Walmart, and of the product they sell, it\u2019s hard to imagine anything less than a complete overhaul of Walmart’s business methods will change that.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Although working at Walmart may not necessarily be great for anybody, it may also be additionally tough for women. Beginning in 2001, the case of Wal-Mart vs. Dukes<\/a> sought to change that, but unfortunately, the Supreme Court shot it down in 2011<\/a>, making it harder for female employees at Walmart and everywhere else to break free from being underrepresented and underpaid.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n As recently as 2013, despite<\/a> the fact that women account for as much as 57 percent of Walmart\u2019s U.S. workforce (and that they employ more women than any other U.S. company), women were paid $1.16 less per hour. That adds up to $1,100 less per year than men doing the exact same jobs, and female employees in salaried positions of $50,000 or over earned $14,500 less than their male counterparts.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n And if you think working at Walmart as a woman is hard already, forget about working there when you\u2019re pregnant<\/a>. Multiple<\/a> lawsuits<\/a> against the company are currently fighting for women who\u2019ve been overworked, put in dangerous situations, and fired by Walmart while pregnant. (Fortunately, these cases are coming on the heels of the Supreme Court<\/a> ruling in favor of pregnant women inYoung vs. United Parcel Service<\/a>.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n For now, we can only hope that this time around, the courts rules in favor of justice, and against Walmart.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Besides women, the other marginalized groups Walmart goes after are the disabled and the elderly. In 2001 alone, the company paid $6 million to settle 13 lawsuits filed by various disabled workers. And in 2014, Walmart was forced to shell out $363,419 to settle a suit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission<\/a> on behalf of an employee with an intellectual disability who had been sexually harassed.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This year, the company coughed up $150,000 to settle a suit filed by the EEOC<\/a> for age and disability discrimination. However, the Supreme Court recently ruled against Julie Heimeshoff in Heimeshoff v. Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. and Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.<\/a>, with Heimeshoff denied disability benefits by the company.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Again, the Supreme Court has proven itself unhelpful when it comes to combatting the evils of Walmart. Some people are getting settlements in court, but the real problem is that Walmart is allowed to keep paying these people off without changing the way they do business.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In 2013, Walmart finally\u00a0agreed<\/a> to update its safety policies at 2,900 stores after the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited violations at a store in New York State. The measure covered a multitude of Walmart and Sam\u2019s Club locations, but unfortunately for some, it was too little too late.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In addition to unsafe conditions in factories overseas<\/a>, Walmart has been notorious for endangering their workers at home, too. The most publicized instances of this have been the company\u2019s practice of night \u201clock-ins,\u201d which literally locked in overnight employees at several Walmart outlets, in order to make sure they stayed at their jobs.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In 2004, the\u00a0New York Times<\/a>\u2019 Steven Greenhouse noted that this policy \u201chas created disconcerting situations, such as when a worker in Indiana suffered a heart attack, when hurricanes hit in Florida and when workers’ wives have gone into labor.\u201d These lock-ins were especially hard on undocumented workers who were employed as janitors, some of whom filed a class action suit<\/a> against the company claiming that they were forced to work seven-day, 70-hour weeks for $1,500 a month, oftentimes while kept at the store overnight.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n They lost the case<\/a>, and Walmart hasn\u2019t made the news for lock-ins since.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n However, just because Walmart has reversed this abhorrent policy doesn\u2019t mean we should forget and forgive. And just because they have updated stores with better safety measures doesn\u2019t meant we should let them off the hook for lacking in safety to begin with.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Besides mistreating their employees, Walmart has, in some ways, literally stole money from them over the years. In one instance, the company forced employees<\/a>to buy new uniforms\u2014when they could have just bought them new uniforms themselves.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In another case, workers in Pennsylvania<\/a> sued Walmart for forcing them to<\/a> work through unpaid breaks, meal times, and other instances when they were supposed to be off the clock. At least this time around, workers found justice. Mic.com<\/a>\u2019s Matt Connolly writes, \u201cStarted in 2002 when a worker sued for unpaid wages, the case became a class action suit as other Walmart workers with similar stories joined in, culminating with a court decision ordering Walmart to pay $151 million to workers,<\/a> plus $33.8 million in attorney’s fees.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The icing on the cake? The payout had major financial repercussions for Walmart,with their stock dropping six cents a share<\/a> after the decision came down. Walmart also went through similar litigation in 2011, when they agreed to pay $21 million<\/a>to workers in Riverside County, Calif., for making them work overtime, sans breaks, for minimum wage\u2014and for no extra compensation.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n The good part about these cases is that the workers who were wronged saw some of the money they were owed returned to them. The bad part is that unless Walmart shares drop more than six cents, the cycle is likely to continue.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Walmart employees have been found to be sicker on average<\/a> than most American workers, and it\u2019s no wonder why. Though the company has taken various steps to provide cheaper insurance<\/a>, the result has simply been to give their workers plans that include less care. Walmart has also used taxpayer subsidies to provide these benefits, without ever addressing the most important question, which is whether or not the company even pays its employees enough for them to afford health care at all. (Spoiler: Walmart doesn’t.)<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In 2014, the company cut insurance benefits<\/a> to its part-time employees. While\u00a0Obamacare may provide coverage for some of the 26,000 workers who lost health care benefits,\u00a0employees who work in conservative states reticent to accept government plans may be left out in the cold.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n To make matters worse, these employees were given no choice or warning in the outcome of their healthcare, and as per usual, those that stay on Walmart\u2019s plans will be left with less than adequate coverage. As it stands, employees will have to deal with 20 percent co-pays, as well as a $5,000 out-of-pocket maximum. Thus, in a worst-case scenario, a severely sick employee could end up with a $7,500 medical bill.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n If the way Walmart treats people wasn\u2019t enough to turn you against them, then perhaps the way the company treats animals is. Reports<\/a> show that Walmart is among the worst companies when it comes to ensuring that the animal products its stores sell came from livestock that was well-treated.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n And to add insult to injury, a Walmart store in Mexico has been investigated forhosting<\/a> cock-fighting<\/a> matches to entice customers to shop there.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Bottom line: If you care about animals, don\u2019t shop at Walmart.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n In 2013<\/a>, the Walton family received $8 billion in tax breaks, $6.2 billion of which came from federal taxpayer subsidies handed to them because employee wages are so low. Currently, the company is also hosting $21.4 billion<\/a> in offshore accounts, which remain untaxed by the U.S. government. And in 2014, as Walmart failed to meet shareholder expectations, the company somehow managed to dig up enough money to give its CEO<\/a> a $1.5 million bonus for performing poorly at his job.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Walmart isn\u2019t just greedy. The company is the epitome of greed. As its overworked and underpaid employees struggle to make ends meet, Walmart’s top brass make billions, even as stock is dropping. Everything about the company is capitalism at its worst.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Walmart\u2019s universal reputation as the “bad guys” stings that much more as the company keeps trying to remind us how good it is.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n Take their OUR Walmart<\/a> initiative, which attempts to silence dissenters with positive representations of the company, even as workers flood the Internet<\/a>\u00a0with their personal horror stories. Or the Walmart Foundation\u2019s initiative to “fight hunger,”<\/a> while their own employees go hungry,\u00a0spending $300 million in taxpayer money on food stamps<\/a>. Or how about its campaign telling you to “buy American,”<\/a>\u00a0 even while the company’s new uniforms were made in Jordan.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n This is just a friendly reminder that Walmart is terrible. Call it a public service announcement: Don\u2019t shop there. Don\u2019t work there if you can help it. And if you do have to work there, don\u2019t expect to be treated well. Get out while you can, before Walmart takes your spirit, your health, and your dignity.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n If Walmart’s ugly practices are a cycle of power and abuse, there’s only one way to break it. And that starts with you.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is from a few months ago and the 10 reasons are fairly well known, \u00a0but to me the interesting part is the training video which it says are shown to new hires as part of onboarding. \u00a0At the company where I\u00a0work, we were told last year that there will be union elections in every Read More…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-retail-companies"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=852"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1186,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852\/revisions\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/re-tales.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}1) Walmart hurts local communities<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n2) The company uses foreign labor, including child workers<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
3) Walmart underpays women and neglects pregnant workers<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n4) The company also discriminates against workers with a disability and elderly employees<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
5) It isn’t a safe environment for employees<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n6) The company is notorious for wage theft<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
7) Walmart provides poor healthcare for workers<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\u00a0<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n8) Walmart has a bad track record on animal welfare<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
9) However, Walmart does care about rich people<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
10) The chain has a deceptive public image<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n