Have you seen the latest ads? WalMart committed to higher salaries and training? Really? for every employee? or only the portion who are full time and may already be in management?
The labor record for Walmart is not exactly stellar. Locking employees in the stores overnight, cutting health care benefits, cutting hours, making sure any raises are minimal. 70% of new employees do not last a year.And half of full timers do not earn $25,000 a year.They do not include or reveal part time or temporary workers in their statistics. To be clear, an entry level job means just that. It is not meant to be permanent lifetime work, or even to cover the costs of an entire family.But WalMart can afford to keep turning employees over and not pay benefits or raises. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/23/walmart-salary_n_4151131.html Looking deeper into the corporate mindset, you have disturbing stories such as the one out of Oklahoma last fall. It seems there was a donation box..for food.. for Walmart employees. the manager claimed it was for two workers out for medical reasons. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2014/11/20/3595067/walmart-food-drive-oklahoma/ That's right, WalMart does not pay sick leave.Store employees, including the one that took the photos, are afraid of reprisal if they bring any of these food drives to public attention. WalMart is one of the biggest beneficiaries of food stamps. The worse the economy gets, the more people turn to WalMart trying to stretch those dollars.Including their own employees. http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/04/walmart_employees_on_food_stamps_their_wages_aren_t_enough_to_get_by.html 14,500 WalMart employees were on foodstamps last year ( I have to assume that means 2013 as the article was written in 2014). the company insists it just reflects the national trend.I would suggest that our largest retailer is allowing the government to pick up part of the tab for their employees. It also puts paid the "average of $25,000 per year" as food stamps for individuals extend to about $15,000 per year. the family poverty line is $22,000 a year. WalMart does hire workers at poverty level wages to keep their profits high, which allows htem to employ people, to be sure. But at what cost to our fellow Americans do we get our cheap goods from WalMart? One estimate that included raising the wages at WalMart to $12/hr states it would cost each of us, when shopping, an average of 46 cents added to our cost. http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/walmart-and-workers/ Add to all of this dysfunction the political interests of WalMart. http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/files/2013/06/Political-Giving-Analysis-Jun-2013.pdf They have the right to support business friendly candidates and attempt to influence Congress to make wage and tax bills for example, work to their benefit.Those of us without the deep pockets need not apply. But when they take a left turn and swerve into state legislation, morality, and and bully a governor, I think they have gone way too far. http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2015/04/01/govt-and-business-leaders-object-to-ark-religion-bill/70757942/ I fail to see how a state backing up an already in place Federal law, is in any way discriminatory. I fail to see why WalMart can set social policy or religious policy in any state. Whatever their purpose in doing these things, I have personally had enough. I've been on a WalMart boycott for weeks. I changed where I get my prescriptions... a rare occasional need....I will forgo the premium hamburger and steak I can buy there, the cheap kids clothes, the larger puchases I have made over the years. While my tiny personal boycott will never affect the sales numbers of WalMart, perhaps if enough of us, for political or social reasons, make it known to them that their policies won;t fly..that they shortchange their employees, attempt to get laws written in their favor, and let the US government pick up the balance of paychecks through food stamps....perhaps they will see that heir policies are simply too out of balance to continue. So by all means, WalMart, raise pay. But don;t cut hours. Promote from within by training. And prove to us you have done so. Otherwise, I will continue to see in you the worst of modern capitalism. Predatory, resistant to change, and dominated by ever increaasing profit shares. Kind of like con men. |
Faith and ReasonA grandma's perspective on a few things.. Archives
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