Friday Speak Out Round Up

It’s Friday again, and its time to hear what Wal-Mart workers have been writing to us.

This past week we saw Ben Stiller joke it up with the Waltons about how great it is to work it Wal-Mart, but as usual - that’s not what we’re hearing. This week we heard stories about outraged employees who have noticed that their work hours are being cut, managers unfairly targeting inventory staff members with impossible tasks, and associates being threatened about working overtime. Meanwhile, the same Wal-Mart employees who are being over worked and underpaid, silently struggle to make ends meet.

For one worn out employee, the inconsistent part-time hours combined with the economic impossibilities of trying to survive on minimum wage has forced them to apply for food stamps…

I was hired as a part-time cashier for $7.80 an hour. On our work schedule it shows what time breaks are supposed to be taken and I have worked past the time of my scheduled breaks and even worked through a couple. My last check, received 6-11-09, was for $286.75, and that is for 2 weeks! I keep begging for more hours and they keep telling me they are working on that issue. If your shift is about to stop and you eave your register early, they complain about that, and we have to walk to the rear of the store to clock out, which takes a while to reach. The other night was very busy I turned my light off in my lane about 10 minutes prior to my time to leave and customers kept coming, I finally checked-out the last customer, walked to the rear of the store to punch out and it was 2 minutes past the end of my shift, I swiped my badge to log off at 11:02 and a sign on the time clock popped-up saying “NO OVERTIME”. I am constantly asking for more hours and I just did my evaluation, which I did good on, on the evaluation sheet I asked to be given more hours or become a full-time associate and they said they would see what they could do. I am waiting to hear about that but I don’t expect anything to come out of it for me. I am 58 years old, worked 23 years for a company that paid me well and I retired from that company when they were sold to someone else. Now, the way the economy is, the only work i can find is with Wal-Mart and I can’t make my monthly budget with these sporadic wages I am paid and am going to apply for food stamps. Isn’t it a shame?

-Anonymous

Our next story is from an employee who has worked for Wal-Mart for two years and has noticed that managers continually push the envelope with employees in order to keep them working long shifts, and to keep them scared…

In my two years at walmart i have seen employees being treated worse and worse everyday. In our overnights meeting I have heard a assistant manager tell everyone to only use the bathroom on their breaks and not company time. I’ve personally been threatened with being fired if i didn’t get the job done, or coyly told that i could be replaced if i cant do it! And now not only are we expected to get our freight put up in an allotted time but if we don’t we can be fired for low productivity. also no matter how many call ins or people they have fired, we still have to get the freight put up by 7am or they will make us stay over to get it done! I know, I know you say that’s illegal they cant make you stay at work they got sued for that, well they told us “legally we cant make you stay but if you leave without our okay we will coach you” as far as i know three coachings and your fired. When I first started there I thought everyone was exaggerating the truth of how bad it is at walmart but now I wish I would not have taken that interview.

-W.S.

This next employee is sick of having their cut hours, tired of unreasonable tasks, and is fed up with low wages…

I have been reading some of the stories posted here today and it seems like the same things are happening at most all of the stores. At the store I work at well over half of the overnight associates were called one friday night and was told not to come in until midnight because of us having overtime and then was told to take a 30 minute lunch because of the amount of work that had to be done that night. We all had overtime because we were told that we could not leave until all of the freight was ran and the store was 100% zoned. Our store is way understaffed and they are telling us that we should be able to run 60 cases an hour but the management has yet to take our challenge to show us that it can be done. Now they tell us that the reviews are changing from a 3 step to a five step review, my guess is so they can screw us yet again out of getting our tiny pay increase on our anniversary. We all need to pick a day to call out and let the managers do everything for once.

-Anonymous

Another employee notices that Wal-Mart is cutting associates hours in order to save a buck....

Just in the past week, all of us who work at a store in Mississippi were told that as of now, only day and peak time shifts were going to be cutting hours.  That was no surprise they have been doing that for a couple of years now.  The we were told that if the over night shift keeps getting over time...even 1 minute, they are going to cut ours.  I am sure they had planned to do that any way, but here is my question...we are heading into the heaviest time of year for Wal-Mart, example, back to school just a few weeks away, then inventory right after that and then it is Christmas.  The managers want all this work done with less people and less time....i don’t see that happening.  If we are not there to stock the shelves then there will be nothing for the customers to buy and then sales will really fall more than they have been.  I am very thankful that i do have a job, but what they are doing is not right for any of us.

-P.C.

Posted by Research Team on Friday, June 12, 2009

Click Here for a Printer-Friendly Version