Wal-Mart Won’t Stop Unions In Chinese Stores

Walmart CEO’s make so much in profit and they scam the workers.  Trust me, being a guidance counselor with high school students the kids would tell me stories about how they were made to clock out and then do some additional work off the clock plus they were reprimanded and watched closely if they came close to overtime.  I have not shopped at a Walmart in over 2 yrs and they have lost a lot of business to me.

The double standard is amazing however it must be kept in mind that the Chinese govt. will control unions it allows in much the same way it controls religions that it allows. They will be regulated by a communist bureaucracy in a way that that bureaucracy sees fit. I’m sure that WM is well aware of this and has reached some kind of agreement with that bureaucracy.

larry-

You are correct. The ACFTU, China’s only legal trade union, is notorious for its pro-employer stance. Wal-Mart has nothing to fear from this union. If anything comes of it, Wal-Mart will probably be better off for cooperating with the governments wishes to see them unionized.

On the other hand Someone these people will do what is best for them and as long as that coincides with WM’s plan that is fine for WM--but as much as WM has swallowed up so many smaller competitors WM should be careful that they too don’t eventually become somebody else’s lunch in China. Keep in mind that China currently is pretty much bankrolling the United States through billions of dollars in treasury notes. This might seem to some to be a really nice thing for them to do for us but believe me they’re not interested in us so much as themselves--rightfully. They have become the manufacturing base through which WM and its heirs and shareholders have come to depend in order to make their piles of money and if things continue the way they are (and I have seen no reason to believe they won’t) they are going to pass us by sooner or later (and I’ll emphasize the sooner) as the World’s economic and then military power. These things go hand in hand historically with an industrial and a manufacturing base. They are getting their ducks all in a row. Our past several administrations but in particular this present one have been spending the assets of this country like drunken sailors. We’re just about ready to pass out and as you should know afterwards comes the hangover.

I dare Slavemart to go against anything that the communist govt want to do.  Please go up against the great communist country. 
I am just wondering if Slavemart has a sweet deal with the government to control the Unions and kill or fire anyone who does anything against the chinese gov’t /Union.
I need people to go undercover and really see if their conditions get any better.

I dare Slavemart to go against anything that the communist govt want to do.  Please go up against the great communist country. 
I am just wondering if Slavemart has a sweet deal with the government to control the Unions and kill or fire anyone who does anything against the chinese gov’t /Union.
I need people to go undercover and really see if their conditions get any better.

I dare Slavemart to go against anything that the communist govt want to do.  Please go up against the great communist country. 
I am just wondering if Slavemart has a sweet deal with the government to control the Unions and kill or fire anyone who does anything against the chinese gov’t /Union.
I need people to go undercover and really see if their conditions get any better.

I really don’t think that Walmart wants to have the word union tied in with its workforce.  Even if this union is 90% controled by the government, the term unionized Walmart workers becomes less and less strange. 
I welcome that change.  Lets say hi to all the unionized Walmart workers in China.

Alex, Again I agree whole heartedly. The more the sheepish Greed Inc. employees(not to say that all WM employees are sheepish) hear UNION tied with WM the more likly they are to vote yes when the time comes.

Hey do a little research and you find that WM has unions and Collective agreements in several International markets. The difference is that in those countries the unions work with business for the benefit of the employee and the company. Not that approach that is taken in the US, where labor pushes unrealistic wage and benefit cost. Living Wage… what a load of bull. Entry positions in retail and food service never have and never will provide enough income for a family of 4. They provide entry jobs for low skilled, second income, jobs for teenagers and individuals in retirement. Interesting that there must be enough people interested in WM Jobs when you hear 25.000 apply for 400 positions at some stores. I can’t remember the last time I saw that many union labors applying for a closed shop retail store.

I don’t entirely agree with that Mr. Bull. In most of Europe unions are strong and are not the bete noire of every televangelist and 2 cent politician with no ideas and with nothing better to talk about. One big difference in the United States is that we’ve decided that we don’t need to produce goods anymore==with the exception of agriculture. Whether you know it or not you should at least suspect it that we think that we are going to be the world’s banker/currency manager. We borrow, borrow. borrow and run up debts. Industry is only good for selling off to pay off the interest of those debts. We are in a war we can in no way afford==so we are borrowing the money for it from the next administration and maybe even beyond that. At this point it’s more important to save face than to admit you made a mistake. Anyway despite our differences in opinion I hope that when the blowback finally one day comes it doesn’t cross over the border and burn you too.

Mr. Lottabull.....if the Wal-Mart jobs are only appropriate for students and retired people, why doesn’t the company limit itself to hiring from those groups? Instead of offering health insurance maybe give a prizes for scholarships, or for the other group offer reduced lawn bowling memberships?
The truth is that they just want to escape being a responsible employer.

Who’s a lotta bull?
I think Wal-Mart is.

JM--A lot of it has to do with finding a convenient logic to justify things as you want them to be. Whether or not these things conform to actual reality or not is almost beside the point which is just to have a justification of some kind. In any case those people in the work force between studenthood and retirement age apparently need not apply. Maybe if that is true then WM should make an official statement and make it clear to everybody.

Exactly, the theories of how things work or what they’re supposed to be like don’t match the actual reality of how things are, but that’s inconvenient, so, it’s better to just keep making arguments based on theory and the “official version” of things.

could you please mail me back with anything you have on the cap clause that I pasted in this message. I’d not heard of that part, and it could be useful to some battles we’re having here.

This week Wal-Mart said it would raise starting wages at almost one-third of its U.S. stores by 6 percent and place a cap on the maximum hourly employees could earn in each job category.

You guys dont seem to understand and it is so simple.  These jobs are entry level positions.  If High School children can do them then they are entry level jobs.  If you dont like they pay, work towards a promotion.  Increase your value.  If you can be replaced with high school kid then you are not very valuable. 

that last line is going to piss some people off.

So Big T, what % of the jobs at Walmart are entry level jobs?
What is the average number of employee’s in a Walmart store in your area?  Out of this number how many of the jobs are skilled jobs?
Just interested in finding out what your number may be.

I have not done a head-count but the cashier, stocker, janitor, door greeter and cart pusher (which make up the majority of employees) are all entry level and require absolutly no skill.
When you reach dept manager level you are now starting to aquire some skill. 
I have worked with loss prevention before and I believe these guys have a skill.  Well, some do and some dont.
You realy dont start becoming skilled till you reach assistant manager level and when you become Co-Manager you have now aquired a usefull skill.
Obviously store managers are skilled.

Big T what a bunch of crap that you write at times.  Get angry I don’t care, I know by far more about WM than you do.  I just can’t say it all on here for many reasons.  I am neither for or against WM.  I am neither for or against unions.
Let’s have that clear.

Most and I mean most managers and co-managers in a store could not make it in a business other than WM.  Most lack communication skills, lack people skills (how to get along with customers and employees—not giving in all the time to customers (especially those who steal and get paid for it), they don’t go to bat for an employee if it interfers
with the people at the top. 

Where does loss prevention have a skill, they are “sheeple” and follow the leader.  I will tell you how to stop shrinkage
in all stores, (up to 60% or more) When the thief has been adjudicated guilty then his/her photo goes up on the bulletin board in every WM within 50 miles.  (Of course some stores now no longer have bulletin boards)

The reason most employees at WM have “no” skills is because WM doesn’t let the employee develop skills.  Sam
wanted them to develop, but today it is a no, no, for it would infringe upon some company (stupid) policy.

Big T I have read your posts for some time and yes, once in a while there is merit but not usually, you are too influenced by WM and regardless of what you write, I believe you have a greater tie in with WM than what you allude to on here.
Everybody have a great and blessed day.

What good is Walmart when it only offers entry level positions good only for retirees and highschool students?  Walmart ‘s PR does not come off this way.  They give the impression that wm is a great place to work with diversity, ability for growth, health benefits and decent pay.  We of course are finding that this for the most part is a lie.  WM takes in huge profits and should support their workers.  We are not talking about making cashiers the highest paid in the nation but rather pay them at least prevailing or a livable wage. Wm has been known to treat employees badly.  Seems that there has been age discrimination as older workers who are paid more than average salaries are finding increased pressure to quit or worse get fired for silly things.  It is time to stand together and prevent this treatment.  Anyone for wm’s labor policies is not a moral person.

The wal-mart pay scale is a joke!!  There are 7 different pay levels,
1 cartpusher (in the heat, rain, snow) people greeter
2 stocker, janitor (anything eles they want to use you for)
3 not really sure
4 cashier (only)
5 any over night (except cashier)
6 most dept. managers
7 dept. manager (with a register in the department)
Now, my complant is that they never have enough cashiers so they pull all of the stockers (pay level 2) off the floor to cashier (pay level 4) and they stay up there all day and do not get the pay the cashiers do.  Then when they go back to finish the stock (ending up with over time) they make them take it off at the end of the week.  And yes they did put a cap on the raises this way it forces you to want to become a Salary member of management so the company can move you to where they want you.

Back to the genesis of this post.  WM is somewhat fighting the unionisation of all of its stores in China.  Only about
two have been completely unionized out of 60 some stores.
Guo Wencai of the All Chinese Federation of Trade Unions
(ACFTU) said recently.
Li Chengjie a deputy officer of WM said they will have talks.
Time will tell.
Strange how the posts never stay on the subject.

Big T, you are full of it, you don’t work there or a similar job and you have no idea of how things actually work there.  Wal-Mart and similar jobs are NOT just kids buying french fries and bored senior citizens.  This is NOT reality.  Can everyone in there be a CSM, salaried manager slave, or store manager?  Why is Loss Prevention more of a skill than working in the electronics department?  You’re just an overpaid salesman kissing Wal-Mart’s butt.  I bet that your job doesn’t require much skill, either.  What requires so much skill at your job, Big T?  Seriously, answer that.  What are you doing that the average Wal-Mart associate couldn’t do?  Why is being a paper pusher any harder than being a cart pusher?  One is mind work and the other is physical work (I’ve done both).  I bet that most of your “skills” could be learned in a relatively short amount of time, in fact, I bet being a cashier is about on the same level as your job.

Anyway, I could share a personal experience about some of what goes on at Wal-Mart that’s happening to me right now, but I can’t for obvious reasons.  It concerns payscales.

Fair enough Big T.  Now just for clarification, what is the specific skill or skills that the Store Manager would have, the Assistant Manager would partially have, the Department Managers may be beginning to have, Loss Prevention may or may not have, and these skills would not be present with cashiers, stockers, cart pushers, greeters, or janitors?
Thanks in advance.

Generic, I have a pretty good idea, I was a retail manager for 3 years.  That means I spent most of my time in various stores working with dept managers and store managers.  To even get an interview for my job you would need roughly 10 years experience including analytics, retail, category analytics and sales.

Alex, If High School kids can do the job then there is no skill associated with that position.  How man stores have High School kids as store managers?  Loss prevention impressed me (and I am only talking about 1 guy, I cant speak for all) because of his ability to catch thieves.  Sounds easy but when you consider all the rules LP has to follow its tough.

knowledgeable, speaking on store managers you sound as though you are referring to one specific instance. 

“The reason most employees at WM have “no” skills is because WM doesn’t let the employee develop skills.” The real reason most employees at WM have “no” skills is because their positions dont require them.  You were correct is stating that Sam encourage his employees to develope skills and advance but the problem has become that people want to stay in their easy position and keep getting raises with out caps.  In many cases it is the employee not wanting to advance.  Thats what I got from all the disgruntled employees posting on the thread about the cap.  Many of them were saying they want more money with out promoting.

If your job can be filled by High School kids then you job requires no skills.

JM in USA,

“if the Wal-Mart jobs are only appropriate for students and retired people, why doesn’t the company limit itself to hiring from those groups?”

The reason they don’t just hire High School students and retired people, is because there are other reasons people apply for jobs there.  Some people apply for a second income, some, because they are low skilled and have a problem finding a job elsewhere and then there is the fact that there are laws against descriminating against people.

Like Big T said, if you can bring in a High School student who can do a job without much training, then it can’t be very skilled.  How many people do you know, who would brag to their friends, that they have a son/daughter, who has a career as a stocker at Wal-Mart?

Let me add this.  Even though I have many valuable skills, if I were to go to work for Wal-Mart as a cashier I would only expect to be paid the starting wage.  It would be insane for Wal-Mart to pay me even half of what I am making to be a cashier or dept manager.

My point is that there may be some people in these positions that are very skilled in some way but they are still working in a position that requires absolutly no skill.  This is not Wal-Marts fault or problem.

Big T—you “brag” so much as to your skills.  I wouldmatch mine to yours any day.  No I was not refering to any one manager, but to several managers.  They become clones for top management.

You love to put people down as to skills.  I assure you I could do you job as well, if not better in six months.  You don’t have near the skills that I have developed.  I will list some of them and see what you have in comparison.

In the service I went from an enlisted man to a commissoned officer. I graduated at the “top” of the class.
As a youth I received the boy scouts high achievement award.  The highest they had at that time.

Iwent into the paint contracting business (a union co.) and studied coatings.  Customers told me I had more knowledge at 25 than people who had been in businees for years.

Without any education, I studied some structural engineering and ttripled sales for an industry that only had graduate engineers on the payroll.  This was and is what you see as the ceiling in most WalMarts and Sam’s Cllub (plus hundreds of other buildings) I started at $400 /month and left as the highest paid salesman in the companies history. I traveled parts of 5 states for them.

Started a manufacturers rep company (I had associates that I paid well) Represented the most notable companies in the country.  Aarchitects and Engineers respected my complete honest and integrity when they asked questions.  I owned a large warehouse in which I stored materials, had my own l8” van truck to haul in the materials from the factory.  (Like Sam I controlled my freight and saved money)

Also had an small installation company (both union and non-union) that installed some products we sold.  We were the largest in our market area.  That is why I am knowledgable as to the good and bad of unions.

In my warehouse I had 5 other tenants that helped pay the mortgage for me.

Also bought a small bar (with limited food) and it was quite successful.  My help always made good wages (this was some union and some not union).

Decided to study law for various reasons, mostly to defend myself against the system.  I was congratulated for my knowledge of law.  I still help people for free.  Out of some
35 to 40 cases, I lost only 2 or 3.  I have filed all the necessary legal briefs in the appeals court (have you even the least knowledge of this)

I was president of the PTA where my children went to school, I was president of a local Toastmasters Group.  I was president of a sub-contractors group in the construction industry.  Received awards for writing for the construction industry. 

Don’t mean to brag for I know there are others who have done more.  This is merely for yoo, Big T, Someone in USA.
Bob and others who always come to the defense of WM, right or wrong.  Now Big T, tell me (us) why you skills are so much more than others.  I have learned from many people who would say had “ no skills”.  I am not refering to people who stay on welfare and want the gov’t to take care of them.

I do thank the Lord everyday for my life, wish I could do more to help my fellow man.  Thus I write as I do on here.

I

The problem with this whole wage cap is the fact that Greed Inc. forces people out that are making to much(and what is to much?) Most of the people thet are forced into quitting are now to old to go out and start new careers, who wants to hire a 50 year old man or woman that has worked the last 17 yrs. for Worm-Mart? But the reason that they have been with the Co. so long is because WM promised them security. They said you come to work here and you can make a living for your familys IF YOU PUT IN ENOUGH TIME. So they put in thier time and now when the promise begins to materialize WM says, Oh we’re sory, but we’ve changed our minds, And by the way we have caused all the competition to fold, so fuck you very much and don’t let the door hit you in the ass on your way out. And you should know (before security throws you to the curb) we are going to deny you any unemployment benefits, so don’t even bother.

I don’t think that Sam had this in mind for his “WAL-MART FAMILY” that he spoke so proudly of. Do you?

The only way for the slaves at WM to break there chains is to have some muscle that has your back. The only muscle that will ever work is collective bargaining!!! You have to UNIONIZE, and you must do it soon.

DAVE SMITH
UNION IRON WORKER
LOCAL 710 MONROE LA.

Congratulations knowledgeable, You seem to have spent your life well aquiring a wide variety of skills.  I think there are many jobs (particular legal) that you would run circles around me but I dont see in your entire work history where you aquired all of my skills. 

You have a lot of skills.  I still feel good about where I am in my life vs most.  I know there are still many who have more skill sets than I and they make more money than I do. 

Now compare your skills and my skills to Wal-Mart store level employees.

Big T.  Your answer failed the grade. You and others use the term skill every few sentences yet you are never able to give specific examples of what you mean in respect to Walmart. 
I had a girlfriend once who worked for a chiropractic.  Her title was a ‘ca’ or chiropractic assistant.  I noticed in the office the term ‘maintain health’ used in different places. You know, on placards on the wall, on boucers etc.  The basic idea being presented was that you need chiropractic adjustments to maintain health. Maintain health? What does that mean? Never did get a straight answer. Something like yours.
Anyway I will ask you one more time. Now take a close look at the question before answering.  Please remember that you are the one who presented us with these observations.
“What is the specific skill or skills that the store Manager would have, the Assistant Manager would partially have, the Department Managers may be beginning to have, Loss Prevention may or may not have, and these skills would not be present with cashiers, stockers, cart pushers, greeters, or janitors?

Key words: specific skills