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Just Not That Kind of Place: Walmart Uses Entire Training Video To Bad-Mouth Unions

#1

Just Not That Kind of Place: Walmart Uses Entire Training Video To Bad-Mouth Unions

L.A. moves into the future with a living wage, Walmart hunkers in the shady past. In what one worker calls "a new low, even for Walmart," the company has closed five stores and laid off thousands for ostensible nationwide "plumbing issues"; given one store was key to sparking strikes and organizing efforts, activists have charged "plumbing" is Walmart-speak for "silencing workers" and filed a labor complaint. A newly leaked training video confirms the company is obsessed with union-busting. Er, plumbing.

#2

Worked for a civil engineering company that developed plans for retail centers and I can tell you that if there are “plumbing” problems in their stores the blame falls squarely on Walmart’s shoulders. Of all the major clients our firm dealt with Walmart was the most arrogant, demanding, and abusive client I have ever encountered. They treated us just like they treat everyone. One of their favorite tricks was to call our engineering team leader at 4:00pm on Friday afternoon and demand major changes to plans that had to be completed “immediately.” After several of these episodes our design leader began ending his work week at 3:45pm.

I have been inside a Walmart exactly once, and I did not buy anything there.

#3

This is boiler-plate standard Fortune-500 script. The same labor-busting law firms fly their private jets to any location where labor is about to insist on being treated fairly and advise management how to bust the Union that is forming due to Management’s cruel and unusual abuse of workers.

And if you resolve to vote in an NMB election for union representation, they will close the doors in retribution, or outsource your job even if it costs the shareholders more than just the cost of the raise.

Look,

Our society can’t afford greedy robber barons like the Walton Family. Let’s outlaw all millionaires and billionaires and just start over before we have no place to stand.

#4

The video is gone – did the walfart heirs demand it be removed???

It’s been years since I spent my money at a walfart simply b/c of the way they abuse their employees, and b/c we taxpaying peons are the ones who are paying for their food stamps while the walfart heirs continue their narcissistic hoarding ways. I seriously want ALL their stores to go out of business so they know what it’s like to have nightmares about losing EVERYTHING! So mote it be!

#6

When many years ago I worked at the “World Headquarters” of one of those large banking corporations, we had to sign a “conditions of employment” piece of paper affirming that we understood that if we overheard anyone talking about unionization – even in casual conversation – and did not report this to our supervisor immediately, we would be subject to disciplinary action “up to and including termination.”

This I took as a clear demonstration of why the one group of workers whose unionization – if the union was effective, determined, and organized, could have sufficient clout to bring the system to a halt until demands were met: the clerical workers – the secretaries, word processors, data entry clerks. They are who keep the system running, and the line supervisors don’t know how to do the work well enough to actually keep the machinery of bureaucracy running.

Clerks of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your unreasonable deadlines.

#7

I shop at walmart only for stuff I cannot find elsewhere, thus: rarely. What I’ve noticed is that the employees seem genuinely okay with their pay and conditions. It boggles my mind.