Walmart strike. Do you support them or not?

[Fugus]

Been reading up on the Walmart strike for a while now and noticed there is no mention of it here. So figured I would ask you guys what you thought of the strike?

I personally support the strikers. I am a Walmart employee as well. The building we work at over 60% of the employees are part time and the ones who are full time are the ones who have been there for over 6 years except for retired military who are put on as management at a salaried paycheck for 48 hours a week and no benefits as tricare already covers them. Our store manager made it there within 3 years after retiring the military and our assistant manager got hired on directly as an assistant manager after leaving the military.The ones who are full time have to be very careful as they can be disciplined and fired for overtime (even as little as 5 minutes). And the non military will have upwards of a 7 year wait before they make even entry level management (But still hourly). At least at our store.

To the ones who tell us to just find work elsewhere, most of us are but no options are really open here for most of us, one of my managers are even waiting for a chance to jump ship. He is one of the lower ranked ones and are still hourly. Actually watched one night as they forced him to take a 3 hour lunch break so he didn't get overtime and would still be there for the start and end of his shift.

Edit: Would have made a post but I do not know how to on here.

Edit again: Also, kinda sad when you think about it that if you pay taxes, you are subsidizing walmart as the majority of their employees have Food Stamps and many have low income housing and medicare just to survive and the ones who don't are covered by military retirement for any employee that started within the last few years.

[semaphore]

Forgive my ignorance, what are they striking for? It sounds like you more full time positions but I'm not sure how they'll make Walmart cave to that.

[Fugus]

Forgive my ignorance, what are they striking for? It sounds like you more full time positions but I'm not sure how they'll make Walmart cave to that.

They are striking for better pay and more benefits for the part timers since that is all they wish to hire and the distribution centers are striking for the same and safer work conditions.

They refuse to hire full timers so they do not have to pay benefits. Actually ask my manager how I could support myself working for them. He said "Food Stamp, Medicare, Low Income Housing the only way you can do it" . And since most of them are making less than $1000 a month before taxes, I believe it. My average take home is about $190-210 a week.

Edit: Also they have a policy where they reserve the right to fire you for talking about them in a negative light. Was told when I started working there, they could even fire you for talking badly about them on your facebook or other sources if they catch wind of it and can track it down to you as posting it.

[Gande]

As my store is fairly new people are moving up the rankings rather quickly. The things such as overtime are rather strict but thats how a company like this has to do it.

All the new hires are warned about the strike and whatnot but i'm really not sure which side is being righteous. From what i'm aware the company hasn't been the same since Sam Walton disappeared, and while I agree with some of the things the company has had to do to keep its place, I often wonder how far the changes will go. Theres a lot of stupid things that have been going on, but a lot of what I find stupid is the feeling of complacency a lot of Walmart workers feel. Some postal workers do more work than a seeming majority of Walmart employees (excluding stockers and truck workers). I know personally at the time it wasn't legal for me to be hired, even though they 'went through all the trouble of all these background checks', and our store is 'under stress' as its a new testing store.

[Pendulous]

Wal-Mart has a bad habit of being the worst company on the planet in terms of not making their employees want to kill themselves. I support any strike against the company 1000%. I got yelled at on a daily basis because they never hired enough people. They SHOWED us how many people we were SUPPOSED to have, which was twice the amount we did, and still thought it proper to get pissed when we didn't finish our work.

I will say, though, that back then (well, 2008), we all got full time, That was the only good thing about it.

[semaphore]

They are striking for better pay and more benefits for the part timers since that is all they wish to hire and the distribution centers are striking for the same and safer work conditions.

They refuse to hire full timers so they do not have to pay benefits. Actually ask my manager how I could support myself working for them. He said "Food Stamp, Medicare, Low Income Housing the only way you can do it" . And since most of them are making less than $1000 a month before taxes, I believe it. My average take home is about $190-210 a week.

Edit: Also they have a policy where they reserve the right to fire you for talking about them in a negative light. Was told when I started working there, they could even fire you for talking badly about them on your facebook or other sources if they catch wind of it and can track it down to you as posting it.

Well this confirms my original inclination - fuck Walmart.

[obdigore]

Well this confirms my original inclination - fuck Walmart.

Remember that you are getting the story only from one side.

But yes, generally 'fuck walmart' is appropriate.

[Jaxsz]

They are striking for better pay and more benefits for the part timers since that is all they wish to hire and the distribution centers are striking for the same and safer work conditions.

They refuse to hire full timers so they do not have to pay benefits. Actually ask my manager how I could support myself working for them. He said "Food Stamp, Medicare, Low Income Housing the only way you can do it" . And since most of them are making less than $1000 a month before taxes, I believe it. My average take home is about $190-210 a week.

Edit: Also they have a policy where they reserve the right to fire you for talking about them in a negative light. Was told when I started working there, they could even fire you for talking badly about them on your facebook or other sources if they catch wind of it and can track it down to you as posting it.

I absolutely support them as anyone can decide for themselves whether they'd like to work for a company or not. These employees have decided to ask for higher pay and better compensation because they believe they are worth it. I am also in full support of Wal-Mart deciding they aren't worth it and instead firing all of them and hiring new employees.

Plenty of retail outlets offer great benefits to part time employees. If you're so unskilled that you can't find a better job than being a part time employee at Wal-Mart, maybe try Starbucks or Home Depot or something else that will probably treat you better? And if you can't manage that, you probably shouldn't be complaining about your pay, benefits, or your general status in life.

[Fugus]

As my store is fairly new people are moving up the rankings rather quickly. The things such as overtime are rather strict but thats how a company like this has to do it.

All the new hires are warned about the strike and whatnot but i'm really not sure which side is being righteous. From what i'm aware the company hasn't been the same since Sam Walton disappeared, and while I agree with some of the things the company has had to do to keep its place, I often wonder how far the changes will go. Theres a lot of stupid things that have been going on, but a lot of what I find stupid is the feeling of complacency a lot of Walmart workers feel. Some postal workers do more work than a seeming majority of Walmart employees (excluding stockers and truck workers). I know personally at the time it wasn't legal for me to be hired, even though they 'went through all the trouble of all these background checks', and our store is 'under stress' as its a new testing store.

I remember when they first came here. They offered better pay than most of the other places around. Then as the other places lost their best employees at the lure of more money and the other places lost footing to them. Once they got their foothold firmly in place, they wages went down overall along with everyone else. All the previous guys who started when they first got there got to keep what they had, but the newer guys were never given the chance to match it.

I worked at a Jiffy Lube at the time, we were losing our managers to entry level positions for their Tire and Lube center, now, you would have to work there for about 6 years to match what they made then (about 8 years ago).

[Kivimetsan]

They could just fire them, theres at least 40 million other people to choose from.
I support them, fight the power. But times are tough, suck it up and don't be weak.

[obdigore]

I remember when they first came here. They offered better pay than most of the other places around. Then as the other places lost their best employees at the lure of more money and the other places lost footing to them. Once they got their foothold firmly in place, they wages went down overall along with everyone else. All the previous guys who started when they first got there got to keep what they had, but the newer guys were never given the chance to match it.

I worked at a Jiffy Lube at the time, we were losing our managers to entry level positions for their Tire and Lube center, now, you would have to work there for about 6 years to match what they made then (about 8 years ago).

Welcome to unregulated capitalism.

[Itisamuh]

I used to work there, and I've done a little research on this as well. I don't believe Walmart for a minute when they say employee satisfaction is increasing over the last few years. Starting around four years ago, it started to get absolutely atrocious. I know the crappy new task management system isn't the direct reason for the strike, but I'm willing to bet it's adding to the stress of workers and making many look for other jobs, and in this economy, there often isn't another option. And I can verify, Walmart does indeed intimidate employees from trying to stand up for their problems in any kind of organized way. At my store, only the overnight shift had full time employees, because so few people were willing to work those hours, it was the hardest work of any shift, and it got hit the hardest by the new system. All day shift workers, besides managers, were part time, to avoid benefits. Starting pay was slightly over minimum wage with a forty cent raise per year for most of the time I was there, but toward the end a lot of people seemed to be getting knocked down to twenty cents per year. It's not nearly enough to live on. I don't fully understand what they expect to get out of a strike, but I certainly understand why employees aren't too happy with it.

[Skizo]

So, they're paying employees at base level positions more than minimum wage?
I don't see what the problem is.
Even if they are paying minimum wage, work to get a job somewhere else that you get paid more, or at a place where you can man up and talk to your boss one on one.

[Pendulous]

So, they're paying employees at base level positions more than minimum wage?
I don't see what the problem is.

40 hours a week at minimum wage pays much better than 20 hours a week with another dollar an hour.

Even if they are paying minimum wage, work to get a job somewhere else that you get paid more, or at a place where you can man up and talk to your boss one on one.

This isn't about a few straggling cases of people not asking for more hours. This is a company-wide issue that causes these things to happen. They ARE manning up, by striking.

[Fugus]

I used to work there, and I've done a little research on this as well. I don't believe Walmart for a minute when they say employee satisfaction is increasing over the last few years. Starting around four years ago, it started to get absolutely atrocious. I know the crappy new task management system isn't the direct reason for the strike, but I'm willing to bet it's adding to the stress of workers and making many look for other jobs, and in this economy, there often isn't another option. And I can verify, Walmart does indeed intimidate employees from trying to stand up for their problems in any kind of organized way. At my store, only the overnight shift had full time employees, because so few people were willing to work those hours, it was the hardest work of any shift, and it got hit the hardest by the new system. All day shift workers, besides managers, were part time, to avoid benefits. Starting pay was slightly over minimum wage with a forty cent raise per year for most of the time I was there, but toward the end a lot of people seemed to be getting knocked down to twenty cents per year. It's not nearly enough to live on. I don't fully understand what they expect to get out of a strike, but I certainly understand why employees aren't too happy with it.

At the store I work at, I work 3rd shift as a stocker (well actually in electronics but they labeled me as a stocker so they didn't have to pay me the electronics associate pay along with the other guy who does it 3rd shift). And now, at the store I work at, you will not find more than maybe 3 full time people working 3rd shift except managers. From what I heard, the only real benefit we get for 3rd shift is we get an extra 50 cents on hour and our hours isn't cut as much as first and second shift is.

I have been reading up on it some, it has been snowballing some, I wish them well, but overall, Walmart has a history of doing whatever it takes to keep organized labor out, they have even gone as far as firing a whole store and closing it down before they allowed it to unionize or have any say so. Only thing that has them this time was one of the distribution centers that went on strike was a MAJOR one in their supply chain.

---------- Post added 2012-10-31 at 03:22 AM ----------

So, they're paying employees at base level positions more than minimum wage?
I don't see what the problem is.
Even if they are paying minimum wage, work to get a job somewhere else that you get paid more, or at a place where you can man up and talk to your boss one on one.

They are paying people higher up on the totem pole only slightly more than minimum wage till they get to the upper management positions and eve then, they don't get paid enough till you hit store manager at which point the pay explodes.

And how do you expect them to get a better job elsewhere when most of the jobs aren't hiring or followed walmarts example to compete.

Striking IS manning up. Unless you liked what it was before organized labor back during the west coast shipping ports where they had people lining up for a chance to work for little pay and no guarantee of working the next day. First shift is already close to that as they have some who's hours have been cut down to as low at 12 hours a week.

[Skizo]

40 hours a week at minimum wage pays much better than 20 hours a week with another dollar an hour.

1. Don't sign up for a part time job if you're interested in working a full time job.
2. Having your hours cut is a perfectly legitimate reason to quit, and managers will understand. Quit the Walmart and get a recommendation from your manager and use your job experience to find another job.

Also, any manager of entry level employee's job is to get a store in a position where they don't have to give any overtime. If they give overtime, they scheduled poorly, and will get reprimanded.

[Paranoid Android]

I remember watching I think Sam Walton biography on of course the Biography channel and when Wal-Mart was getting big I think his wife/family wanted to give employees benefits such as 401K, shares and others and Sam Walton was opposed to giving this to the "average" employee. Executive's and upper management sure but not the everyday employee. Again this shows Wal-Mart stills has that mentality and of course that is one of the reasons they keep costs down is basically making the majority of their labor force part-time not to give benefits.

I of course have no understanding of the workings of Wal-Mart's hiring practices but from what I know it does seem to work with their business practices. Its the the trade of people wanting cheap goods. Most products minus food is made cheaply in China and other countries, which of course they employ cheaper labor and sometimes their goods are not up to our standards. So for me it is kinda you make a deal with the devil when you shop at Wal-Mart.

[medievalman1]

The only thing mentioned that I would really get behind the strikers is for safer working conditions.

Are they doing anything illegal otherwise?

After re-reading many of the comments, I see a similar theme. If Walmart is the "only" option for employment, this in no way mandates that they provide a way-of-life sustaining wage or benefit package.

[Fugus]

1. Don't sign up for a part time job if you're interested in working a full time job.
2. Having your hours cut is a perfectly legitimate reason to quit, and managers will understand. Quit the Walmart and get a recommendation from your manager and use your job experience to find another job.

Also, any manager of entry level employee's job is to get a store in a position where they don't have to give any overtime. If they give overtime, they scheduled poorly, and will get reprimanded.

1) Did sign up for a full time job, I didn't find it out was part time till I was in orientation and have been looking for work elsewhere ever since but since this is the only job that I have open at the time, I am kinda forced to take it.

2) Many have quit, without even having another job to go to just so they didn't have to put up with that BS. We lost 14 overnight members in the past 3 months alone but enough people are jobless that they just don't care. Heck, we are short staffed as is and the overnight management is asking for more workers and instead of been forced to try and stretch us even thinner and then get in trouble when things don't get done.

I personally am job hunting but many places out here have gotten to the point where they only apply online and had a few where when you went to apply they had a notice saying they were not taking any more applications due to the overwhelming number they have already received.

[Powerogue]

Would me forming an opinion on the matter make any effect on Wal Mart treating their workers better?

I sincerely doubt it.

I'll try anyway. They're trying to keep the most cost efficient workers, and treat their more costly workers like dirt in order to do so. (Is it even legal to force someone to have a 3 hour lunch break? That seems just blatantly cheating.) This is obviously immoral of them, but it's cost-effective too, so I doubt a resolution will happen.