National Media Continues Focusing On Wal-Mart Memo

A different media that we have here.  There was a brief bit on CNN yesterday.  Nothing today.

There was an article in the Arkansas Gazette yesterday.  Nothing today.

More walmart watch misleading statements based on two liberal rags.

I’m a 15 year employee of wal-mart and not only are they scaming there employee and the pubic on health care they are also changing job codes and pay scales mostly on long t erm employee, they make more money. recently me and the whole department had a dollar an hour taken away and was told we had three options"and I quote” we could go to work at a dollar an hour less or we could transfer to a different department or we could get mad and quit.This is just one of many tactics wal-mart uses on a daily bases p.s. has any one out there heard about the long term employee hit list,they have one.

Mike--I tend to believe you. On the other hand we have other posters coming on here who are or claim to be WM employees telling us what a wonderful world they’re living in.
Great pay--a week or so ago there was one making 16--17 dollars an hour. Great health care benefits--very accessible. Able to buy homes, cars, vacation packages--making more than all their friends and family--more or less the envy of all the neighborhood. And I can tell you it just doesn’t square with my perception of what the reality is. Are they lying? Would someone (or sometwo or somethree) come on here and tell (a) big fat lie(s)? I suspect that they are but who am I to say---really. It’s a dilemna. But it’s best to persist anyway. To read carefully and try not to judge too harshly.
Even so it makes me wonder.

Larry,
no, these people aren’t lying. They are just the hard working associates that have worked their way up the ladder at Wal-mart. I make over 15/hour not including my quarterly bonuses and night time differential and am quite happy at what I do. I work at one of the distribution centers and am probably at the average pay, or just under the average since the people that are doing the orderfilling makes bigger weekly bonuses that I do working in the offices. Yea,if you don’t want to push yourself and try to do better, your going to remain at a lower paying job. But with the amount of new stores opening each year,(this year over 250), there is plenty of opportunity to get promoted and improve your life. The only problem is wal-mart is just going to give it to you, you have to work towards it.

P.S. on my last note,

I’m sorry if this does jive with what the unions want you to believe, but its the truth. By the way, its looks like more of wal-marts competition is struggling.(i.e. Albertsons). Wonder if that could be due to all of the outrageous demands of the unions....

Larry, Larry, Larry and all the other Larry’s of the world-wake up-get a clue.  You are being exploited for your loyalty to a company that is equivalent to the post guilded age GM and US Steel.  They had the government on their side too as they reaped massive profits and refused to be good corporate citizens.  Instead of sharing the wealth they took advantage of the weakness of a workforce and the cooperative coruption within the government to make their massive profits.  It is astounding to me that the people who could benefit most from corporations who by their own choice or by public pressure are the very ones who perpetuate their own pitiful demise.  Please, stop ignoring the largest and one of the most profitable companies on the planet who behave as parasites, sucking money from the taxpayers coffers, institute insulting policies of removing senior employees because they aren’t as productive as younger, lower paid associates.  If you don’t care about changing Wal Mart’s attitudes, at least consider the millions of other US citizens whose lives have been sadly changed by Wal Mart’s race the bottom of payscales.  As they monopolize markets and impose their bullying influence within manufacuring sectors, grocery stores, etc. they force employers who formerly paid a family supporting, living wage into driving down their employees living standards simply because Wal Mart has a griphold on a large part of our economy.  Tax revenues are reduced and the middle class continues to lose buying power.

Hey All, I have worked at Walmart for over 10 years.  A hit list?  If you walk out a door at a Distribution Center(DC) the management staff would tell you goodnite by name.  They should know how long you have worked there and they wouldn’t need a list.  Tactics are to reduce the people who have been working for Walmart the longest.  Doing this by any means is Walmarts way of saying anybody who works for Walmart can be replaced with a person off the street.  If you know that a factory or business in your town are closing, watch Walmart put ads in the paper for hiring.  It does take advantage of those communities because, what choice does someone have if it is the only company hiring? Walmart will go through 200 employes or more a year hiring, quiting and firing.  Walmart competes with any other business with a pay scale matching or coming close to other retailers but not factories.  Also stores pay a lot less than the Distribution Centers(DC) A starting wage in a Iowa DC is less or more than one in Kansas, or One in Texas is less or more than one in Utah.  The starting wages all depend on where in the state and what other Factory or business is paying its newly hired people.  So pay no attention to the wage but the state that that Walmart person is working.  $10 - $15 dollars is what a Distribution Center(DC) would pay for Second or third shift.  First shift is normally 30 cents to a dollar less per hour.  Walmart stores nearly all start at minimum wage or close to it.  Pay is poor at the Walmart stores is really what people are complaining about.  I personally know that there are no starting cashiers or stockpersons making over $7 a hour any where near me.  Hope my info helps?  -Tim-

Tim,
yea, you may be right about STARTING WAGE being $7.00, but if you want more, you try to get promoted. We have people working in the store transfer out to the distribution center and make a substantial amount more, they just have to be willing to work. Why should someone with no skills or experience be expected to make 10+ dollars right off the bat. If they are making 7$ to begin with, that is still above the minimum wage anyway so what are you complaining about....

Doug doug doug,,,
once again someone mistates the facts. Walmart may be one of the biggest companies in the world, but they are down the list when it comes to the most profitable. If they wanted to be the most profitable, all they would have to do is raise their prices up to what the union stores charge for goods and then they might me close to the top. And by the way, if you think wal-mart is big now, come back in 10 years and the numbers will hopefully be double what they are today. Heres looking to a outstanding future.......

Doug Barrel, several points:

1. Nobody is forcing anybody to shop at Walmart. If people don’t like their policies, they can vote with their feet.

2. Nobody is forcing anyone to work at Walmart for $6 an hour or whatever they make.

3. What successful business wouldn’t remove less productive employees in favor of more productive employees? Duh!

Um, Doug… I admit my post might seem a little ambiguous in parts but I really think you need to reread it. I’ve been here pretty much since the site came up along with Nick (pro WM) and Dave from Trulock (anti WM). FYI I fall into the anti WM camp. Now I might not agree with everything that some of the anti’s are for--for instance making it into a republican--democrat thing. Now and again though a poster will come on to say all the kinds of things I related above. That they’re making tons of money and getting heaps of benefits. Do I believe it? It’s possible in individual cases that it might be true. But not in the vast majority. So please reread. Apart from that your post is fine.

Did you know that cashiers are in a higher pay grade than unloaders at wal mart. Unloading box trucks is real physical.

The cashier job requires a lot more skill. Good, trustyworthy cashiers are harder to find than some lumphead who can lug a box. If chimpanzees were not a rare endangered species (and hard to come by), they could be trained to work on the loading dock very easily.

Higher pay for a higher-level job? Makes sense to me.

Larry,
just because you get a couple of associates that have been working supposedly at walmart for 15 years and still making 9/hour doesn’t mean anything. That’s the beauty of a nonunion job. If you don’t work hard and try to improve your self you don’t go anywhere. I’m sure if Mike would excert himself and try to better his job, he could be making alot more and enjoying life alot better. Mike, if your so unhappy quit and find a union job that will pay you do nothing. By the sounds of it, you should be happy wal-mart took a chance and hired you in the first place.

Also larry, just because you hear stuff that goes against your assumptions( associates actually making good money with good benefits), it doesn’t mean its not true. Till you actually work for the company, all you get is the unions take on the issues, and no matter what they say, there is a agenda between what they say and the actual truth. Before I went and worked for them, all I heard was how bad they were and how I wouldn’t have any benefits. I went and interviewed with them and found out the socalled union talking points were mostly blown out of proportion or down right false.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying working at walmart is like heaven on earth or anything, but I go to work each and every day and enjoy seeing and talking to the other associates daily. I don’t always agree with management, but you tell me one job where 100% of the people are happy 100% of the time. I notice that there has been some socalled walmart associates out there badmouthing wal-mart quite a bit lately, but what do you expect. Even if walmart had 90% of the employees happy all the time, that would mean 10%(160,000) was unhappy. There is not one other company where you can expect to have more then maybe 70-75% of the people happy, so, if there is a few complainers, no big deal.  As long as the majority of the people are happy, everything will work out find. And as long as the majority of the customers continue to not believe the unions, they will continue to shop at the stores, and they will continue to expand like wildfire. If walmart watch thought they were actually doing any good, why is walmart adding 250-300 stores this year with plans to add just as many each of the next 5-6 years. Wow, another 1800+ stores in the next 6 years mean job security for the for as far as I can see. To bad the unions can’t say the same thing…

Tim. You said “Walmart stores nearly all start at minimum wage or close to it. ....I personally know that there are no starting cashiers or stockpersons making over $7 a hour any where near me.”

Are you aware of what the minimum wage is? Or are you aware that you are contradicting yourself? The minimum wage is $5.15 an hour.  $7 an hour is a 35% increase above the level of the minimum wage. That is certainly not even close to the minimum wage level.

Walmart raised the pay at DC’s to compete with union wages.  Period.  No other reason.  Transferring from the store to the DC is not a promotion, it is a transfer to a harder job with a higher wage.  Promotion is to a higher grade, or to management.  DC’s and stores and Home Office are all under different pay scales divisions and different pay scales.  Why are so many people on this website against walmart’s practices than there are contented employees posting here?  There probably wouldn’t be a website if walmart treated their employees like human beings instead of robots.  Isn’t years of knowledge and experience worth anything anymore?  Working for walmart home office is not filing or other no-brainer jobs.  It requires knowledge and experience to do the job productively.  Firing a long term employee to hire a ‘’younger, healthier’’ person, to me, is not cost efficient due to the intense training necessary to be a productive employee.  No one off the street is going to be more productive that an experienced employee.  And to fire them because of health reasons?  Whoa, where is the phone number of the local discrimination attorney!!!!  Wal-Mart doesn’t give a DAMN about their hourly employees, period.  I worked there many years and observed all the abuses of other employees during that time.  Walmart will never get the concept that happy employees are more productive and will increase company profits and mangement’s pocketbooks(which is what this is all about anyway) than unhappy, demoralized employees.  Doesn’t take long working for walmart to become demoralized, with the descrimination and sexism that aready exists at the HO and surrounding offices.

ive seen the ‘trimming’ of the ‘unhealthy’ associates...first hand

im a 20 year associate...and i am company loyal....at least i am loyal to the company i started with.

ive met sam, and was willing to give all that i could, to promote the growth of this new, and exciting company!

that included staying until 2am on christmas eve...wrapping presents until 4 am...and then being awoken by my children at 6am to open them!

now, i see management trashing the old-timers...there is a bounty on our heads. i am so dissappointed, that now they choose to cut expenses...by cutting us!

cutting our hours...changing our shifts, the awful way we are spoken to......and about

the dept jobs are given to new hires, and honest to goodness, the last one here, went to a female assoc. that had slept with a member of management, and been fired for it!

we had a dept manger have what appeared to be a mild heart attack....management refused to let them claim sick time. for having to leave and see a cardiologist...yes, that dept manager was a 25 plus one

dept manager quit...still being loyal to the company

walmart...PLEASE...i have given you half my life, i still don’t call in sick, never have had an accident, still willing to do whatever is asked of me...sales sales sales...and now you want to CUT ME??? make me work till midnight one night, and in at 7am the next day?? while the new kids are off every saturday??? cmon!

please...we built this company, with our backs, and our sweat....please do not cut us now. do not ridicule us publicly and in lounges...do not look at us as a ‘aged health expense’

im still pullin my weight...not hosing around, not stealing time, working every second im punched in, guiding the new asscociates, everything i agreed to do

i have no retirement

my profit sharing decreases by a few grand every year

please,

im just asking for a little respect, for myself, and all the other long-termers

please don’t do this to us

Wal-Mart is Crap...The current poverty line for a family of four in the United States is an income of $19,350 a year; for an individual is an income of $9,570 a year.  With a Wal-Mart wage of $8/hr, this person will make $16,000/yr. Then if he/she would want to start a family they would still be below the poverty line. WORK at COSTCO and make $10/hr regardless of your skill.  STAN you are crazy a cashier does not take brains i know numerous amount of college students who know way more than these cashiers who never even went to school and they are getting payed more than what they do.  Physical labor is tough pushing buttons and reading the total amount on the screen is Not...Get it together Wal-Mart is a bad job.

My first month at walmart as a unloader we had 6 people unloading trucks. my second month we were lucky to have 4 unloaders,on top of that we only had one bay door light"for 3 months” and had to unload grocery trucks in the dark, all of the pallet jacks are falling a part ,the line for the gm trucks has broken legs and is dangerous to use,and they want a 1800p truck done with 4 people in 2 hrs. it only took me a d-day to get the light fixed. but hey if it take my raise for us to unload a truck with a light safely then so be it!!!!!!