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Last week we told you about Walmart firing 300 workers from its headquarters staff as the company goes through a major restructuring. The 300 jobs were just the tip of the iceberg, with 10 Sam’s Club stores closing, a major layoff of 11,000 workers at Sam’s Club stores, and a new decentralized set up for the company that will shift many jobs away from the main office in Bentonville to regional offices.

When we told you about those 300 layoffs, we wondered if there might by more job losses on the way. As it turns out, there may be. The Northwest Arkansas Times reports that as the company starts creating regional offices and moving positions there, jobs in Bentonville will be eliminated. According to the article,

“some headquarters staff members will face a choice of relocating, looking for other jobs or retirement, according to several people familiar with the situation.

Wal-Mart declined to put a number on positions that could be moved out of Bentonville. Those decisions will be made case by case and it will take time to figure out what works for each area”

We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on this transition to see how it affects the company. We can only hope that Walmart does all it can to ensure that jobs aren’t eliminated unnecessarily, or workers aren’t pushed out of their jobs. Walmart has a reputation, after all, for pushing workers with seniority out to reduce the cost of salary and benefits overall. It’s one of the reasons Walmart has such a high turnover rate. 

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Walmart is certainly shaking things up recently. A week ago, Walmart laid off more than 11,000 of its Sam’s Club workers. Two weeks before that, Walmart closed down 10 Sam’s Club stores putting 1,500 jobs at risk. Since the Sam’s Club layoffs, Walmart has announced other substantial institutional changes like splitting its US operations in to regions and establishing a global online organization.

Then today, Walmart announced it would laying off another 300 employees from its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. Just about a year ago, Walmart laid off between 700 and 800 workers from headquarters.

Between the two layoffs, Walmart has let go around 9% of the 12,000 headquarters staff.

The positions being eliminated this time around were in the corporate affairs, finance, human resources, information systems and legal departments.

We’re always concerned to hear about layoffs, especially from a company that is doing so well right now, racking up billions of dollars in sales.

With a 10% cut in Sam’s club staff, and a nearly 10% cut in headquarter staff, are there more layoffs on the way?

You can read more about the layoffs, and the memo from Mike Duke from the Associated Press here.

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It’s been a rough few weeks for Sam’s Club employees. First came the announcement that ten Sam’s Club stores would close and the 1,500 employees who worked there could lose their jobs. Then, yesterday, Walmart announced they would be laying off 11,200 workers. Most of those being laid off demonstrate products in the stores. Walmart’s spokesperson made it clear that this wasn’t about the economy, or the employees performance, rather, they were outsourcing the jobs to Shopper Events a company who’s only purpose is to demonstrate products in Walmart stores.

Walmart has suggested that the 10,000 employees they are firing can apply for a job with Shopper Events, who will be hiring roughly 10,000 employees to fill the gap left by the lay off. It sure sounds a lot like Walmart is asking 10,000 of their employees to reapply for their own jobs.

Here’s our official statement:

For Immediate Release: January 25, 2010

Walmart Sam’s Club Lowering Worker and Community Standards

Layoffs Raise Important Questions About Commitment to its Workforce

(Washington, DC) – The following is a statement from Wake Up Walmart: 

Walmart launched another assault on living and working standards in communities across the country yesterday, by laying off more than ten thousand Sam’s Club employees.  The company is outsourcing jobs, many of them part-time, to a company based in Arkansas.

Workers report that Walmart called them into mass meetings where they were offered boxes of tissues and told they were no longer needed by the nation’s largest private employer.

The mass layoffs raise serious questions such as whether or not older and more senior workers were targeted for lay off.  Why hasn’t Walmart made a clearer path to employment with Shopper Events for these 11,000 associates – which they clearly have the power to do?  And for workers hired by the outsourced company, what kind of jobs will Shoppers Events provide to the new applicants?  Why is Walmart telling workers they must agree not to pursue age discrimination claims in order to qualify for severance pay?

Walmart and Sams Club workers seeking additional assistance and answers are encouraged to contact Walmart Workers for Change at 866-587-2299 or log on to http://www.walmartworkersforchange.org/.

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Amid one of the worst economies we have seen in years, Walmart has faired exceedingly well. They’ve made record profits, continue to grow at a steady pace, and broken in to new international markets. The Motley Fool, suggests that the recession finally caught up with Walmart as they announced the closing of 10 Sam’s Club stores.

The clubs will close and it is the employees and communities who will pay the price. The closing will mean 1,500 employees will be out of a job, though Walmart said they would try to find jobs for the employees. The closing will also mean big, empty warehouse style buildings in communities. The kind of big, empty buildings that often go unoccupied for years (especially in this economy), attract crime, and drain local resources.

Read the full article from the Motley Fool here.

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We reported earlier this week on Chinese workers protesting a Wal-Mart “job optimization” program that would have led to layoffs for many mid-level executive positions. In fact, managers included in the optimization program were actually to be given three options: demotion with reduced salary, relocation, or leaving the company with compensation.

Today, however, the China Daily is reporting that Wal-Mart has decided to backtrack on its optimization plan.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to adjust its plan to streamline staffing in China, and will keep positions and salaries unchanged for employees who don’t want to be reassigned to other locations, the China Daily reported Wednesday. The report, citing Chen Lu, a Wal-mart public relations official in China, said the adjustment to the plan came after a breakthrough in talks between the U.S. retailer and its Chinese union.

So THIS is why unions can be a beneficial tool for workers, eh??

The report did, however, go on to say that Wal-Mart will keep pushing forward its program to redeploy workers.

Wal-Mart reportedly to ease up on China staff streamlining plan [MarketWatch]

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The Columbus Dispatch is reporting that Walmart’s decision to close its South Side optical lab - laying off 650 workers in the process - has state officials considering ways to recoup a $1.8 million job-creation tax credit the company received back in 2002.

The 650 worker layoff is apparently the largest mass layoff in the region since the economy began to flounder in mid-2008.

The Ohio Department of Development awarded Walmart the tax credit when it opened the lab in 2002, on the condition that the company create and maintain jobs there for a certain number of years, department spokeswoman Kelly Schlissberg said. State officials are reviewing the agreement to determine whether Walmart held up its end of the bargain, she said. If Walmart is found to have broken its agreement, Schlissberg said, the state could go after the company to recoup its money.

Needless to say, the State of Ohio isn’t pleased with the layoffs, especially when just a couple months ago workers were told “the facility wasn’t going to close and jobs weren’t going to be cut.” Now, it’s to the unemployment line for 650 new jobless Walmart employees.

The company has said that laid off employees will be eligible for positions at nearby Walmart and Sam’s Club stores - little consolation for the optical lab employees who would face pay cuts and part-time status as regular Walmart associates.

Walmart shuts 650-job lab: State to check if company reneged on 2002 tax-credit deal [Columbus Dispatch]

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Al Norman looks at Wal-Mart’s decision to lay off 650 workers in Columbus, Ohio, despite receiving $1.8 million “job creation” handout from from the city several years ago. The following article appeared originally on the Huffington Post.

“They shut us down with no warning,” says Wal-Mart worker

Ohio development officials were blind-sided this week when a job subsidy deal involving a Wal-Mart-owned optical lab went dark.

Regulators in the Buckeye state revealed that they had their eye on one of Wal-Mart’s 4 optical labs in the country, and were looking to see if the retailer had violated the terms of its subsidy agreement with the state.

Wal-Mart has a high visibility optical empire, which includes not just 2,500 Vision Centers inside its stores, but a myriad of lens and eyewear products---even a network of its own house optometrists, which it calls “doctor partners.”

Wal-Mart lures new eye doctors into a partnership deal in which the retailer covers a large part of a fledgling optometrist’s business expenses. “When you partner with us,” the retailer explains, “we cover a large part of your start-up costs. That means upon opening, the space, instrumentation, support and staffing resources are all in place at no cost to you. In fact, your overhead might be as minor as prescription pads and office pharmaceuticals.” The “doctor partner” either leases or co-leases their office space from Wal-Mart. The company promises new doctors, “we will never pressure you to sell frames. You’ll operate your practice on your terms and be able give your patients the care they deserve.”

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Arkansas Watch echoes a rumor that we’ve heard as well: more cutbacks might be on the way in Bentonville. Possibly in the form of actual layoffs, but more likely in the form of hourly cutbacks.

When the layoffs were announced several weeks back, we asked if anyone had heard whether the layoffs were coming to full-time or part-time employees. It’s looking more and more like Wal-Mart is enacting the same policy at home office as it does its stores: force out older employees, and move as many workers to part-time as possible, to cut down on benefits costs and yearly raises.

More Reductions At Wal-Mart? [Arkansas Watch]:

The Watch has heard well-sourced rumors that Wal-Mart is reducing the hours of some of its headquarters staff. Specifically formerly full-time employees were told they could not work more than 30 hrs a week, or they would be fired. This of course reduces their hrs so that no health benefits need be provided.

We all knew about the job cuts at Wal-Mart headquarters, but the reduction in work hrs of the staff they’ve retained has gone under the radar.

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Today Wal-Mart announced that it would be laying off 400 more workers as it closes a return center in Macon, Georgia. The following post by Al Norman originally appeared on the Battlemart Blog.

The battleship grey warehouse building in Macon, Georgia has a huge yellow Mr. Smiley face on it, and the words: “Wal-Mart Return Center #9194. Our People Make the Difference.” But the Wal-Mart Return Center in Macon is shutting down, and taking with it about 400 jobs that will not return. The people there didn’t seem to make a difference to Wal-Mart. The Macon plant has operated for 14 years—but will soon be history. Wal-Mart has six return centers in the country. The Macon facility processes products from around the Southeast that may be defective, or recalled, or overstocked.

Some of this merchandise is returned to the supplier, while others are donated to charity. Macon’s loss will be a gain for Spartanburg, South Carolina. According to the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, the new Wal-Mart Return Center is expected to bring up to 500 jobs to Spartanburg County. The new Return Center will be located at North Blackstock Road. A Wal-Mart Return Center is a facility that processes returned items that customers did not want. Workers in Macon apparently only found out about the closing on February 12th. The media reports say the Macon plant will shut down in September. Workers will have nine months to find new jobs. These workers have been let go in the middle of a deepening recession, and they join the 800 Wal-Mart workers who were laid off this week at the retailer’s
headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas.

“The building there [in Macon] isn’t able to operate at the level of capacity that we need,” a Wal-Mart spokesman explained. He said Wal-Mart returns are just too much for the Macon building, so the company felt its best option was to leave its 400 employees behind, and vacate Bibb County, Georgia. “That, combined with the fact that our lease expires in October… We decided that this is the business decision that makes the most sense.” The Spartanburg return center will not be run by Wal-Mart, but by a contractor. The building in Spartanburg that will house the relocated facility is owned by the Johnson Development Corporation, so its only a matter of time before Wal-Mart dumps the Spartanburg site too, when that lease runs out. The displaced Macon workers will be given a chance to apply for jobs at Wal-Mart of Sam’s Club—but they will have to apply for a job like anyone else. The company has suggested that it might set up a “career fair” for the workers losing their jobs. Wal-Mart said the Macon closure had nothing to do with the state of the economy, and all other options were considered before the decision to close the center was made. It was just a business decision based on a lease.

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Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar on the company’s rationale for the home office layoffs yesterday:

“The changes are designed to align our staffing and organizational structure, to increase operational efficiencies, support our strategic growth plans and help reduce our overall costs.”

Apparently.

On the same day that Wal-Mart gutted its Bentonville workforce, the company announced it will seek to outsource up to $500 million of IT functions to India. How many more layoffs might that mean? While Wal-Mart might not be the only one sending U.S. jobs overseas, the timing of the move is pretty crass, even for Wal-Mart. Even decades-long salaried employees in Bentonville belonging to “core” business functions are no longer safe from the retailer’s cost-cutting ruthlessness.

As we said yesterday, we would have hoped that during these tough times, some of the obscene wealth amassed by Wal-Mart Executives and the Walton family could have been invested in the company’s workforce. Unfortunately, they decided to go another direction.

We’re curious, though, about something else that didn’t show up in any of the stories we read. Has anyone heard anything about which employees were laid off yesterday? Possibly more full-time workers to make way for part-time? We’ve long heard rumors that home office has been “reclassifying” workers and moving to more part-time employees. Cost-cutting, for sure - but possibly bracing themselves for a union drive if EFCA passes?

Wal-Mart mulls IT outsourcing [Economic Times (India)]:

WAL-Mart, the world’s biggest retailer, which until now has been dependent on its inhouse information technology division, is
evaluating a business process outsourcing (BPO) contract worth around $300- $500 million, as it seeks to outsource non-core processes of procurement, merchandising , finance, accounting and payroll.

Read the rest of this story ...

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“If there is one constant in our organization, it is change.”

Perhaps also the extravagant wealth of the Walton Family, and consistently low wages of its workers.

Text Of Wal-Mart Press Release [4029-TV (Ark.)]:

To: All Home Office associates

From: Mike Duke, president and CEO, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Date: February 10, 2009

RE: Organizational Changes

Dear Home Office associates:

As the new fiscal year begins, we find ourselves living in unprecedented times, and I am reminded every day of how our company is uniquely positioned to help Americans weather the economic storm. We know that millions of working men and women are relying on our low prices more than ever before, and we must continue to be an advocate for them.

Starting today, and over the next few weeks, you will be hearing from your leaders about some important changes designed to align our staffing and organizational structure to increase operational efficiencies, support our strategic growth plans and help reduce our overall costs. Some of these changes will involve reductions in Home Office positions while others will create additional management jobs elsewhere. And, as part of our overall store growth plan, we will continue to add thousands of jobs in our stores and clubs this year.

We expect the changes to impact approximately 700-800 Home Office positions including merchandising, real estate, marketing and support divisions in Walmart U.S., Sam’s Club merchandising and some corporate functions. The restructuring will not impact store and club operations.

We do not make these decisions lightly, and every individual decision was carefully considered. We recognize this is a difficult development for the members of our Wal-Mart family who will be leaving the company. While the number of associates that will be impacted by the restructuring is very small compared to the 2.2 million associates we have worldwide, I can assure you that we will treat them with care and dignity and help support them during their transition, consistent with our basic beliefs and respect for the individual.

If there is one constant in our organization, it is change. We are committed to our purpose of helping people save money so they can live better and we will continue to take appropriate steps to further align our support structure with our business plans. We must also challenge costs in every corner of the company in order to keep our business strong today and well into the future.

We care about our associates, especially during times like these. Thank you for everything you have done and will do to serve our customers and help make our company better.

Mike

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Our sources on the ground tell us Wal-Mart called an 8:00 AM meeting and broke the bad news to its home office employees. No statement yet from Wal-Mart, but we’ll keep you updated.

Reports of Layoffs at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club Home Office [KFSM-TV (Ark)]:

Multiple sources, including current employees, are telling 5NEWS Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. began laying off employees at Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club home offices this morning.

5NEWS spoke with Ed Clifford, president of the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce. He says he has heard about the layoffs, but cannot confirm any details. Clifford says the affects of any Wal-Mart layoffs will be widespread across Northwest Arkansas, not just Bentonville.

Wal-Mart has not released a statement about the layoffs.

We will pass along more information as it becomes available