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Check out Wake Up Walmart’s latest piece over on Huffington Post. It highlights the story of Patricia from Ohio, a Walmart worker who was faced with the choice of going to work sick or losing her job because of Walmart’s irresponsible and harmful sick day policy. 

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The week has come and gone, and as always, we have collected the best stories sent to us from employees all over the country about their experiences at Wal-Mart.

The following stories are full of raw and honest commentary from past and current employees regarding everything from cut hours to poor work environments.

This week, we heard from employees about the daily struggles associated with a low wage position, how managers are manipulating hours, and how a lack of air conditioning can lead to unbearable working conditions.

Our first story comes from an anonymous employee in Iowa:

This is an interesting web site. I visit daily and read the associate letters. One reason I do is so I can find out if the rules/hours/pay… whatever...changes are really coming from home office or they are just our management making changes. I am a LONG term assoc. and have had this game played on me a lot in the last 20+ years. The new one now is the total overhaul of our scheduling. People being slotted to work where they have no training. For example, IMS slotted to CSM...and being made to do so with no idea how to do the job. Floor assoc. put up on the registers who don’t even have sign on numbers and have never run a register. Seems like they are setting people up to fail. We are told home office is making the schedule and management has no control. Hours are being slashed. I have seen sales slump for a while before and they cut us all back for a while but I’ve never seen a response like this. The management team we have in our store is so under trained.

Our store manager has to be the worst I’ve seen. The store has turned into a mess. We used to have an outlet to voice concern but with the new “Market Management “ team approach the open door policy has gone out the window.They come into the store and don’t talk to anybody but managment then walk out leaving us with pages and pages of notes. Is this going on everywhere? All I know for sure is Sam is rolling over in his grave. Walmart is not the same as it was when he was in charge. Sure retail will change with the times but the culture of Sam has died. This company is no longer family oriented. Seems all they are worried about is money.

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The U.S. International Trade Commission has made an announcement, and that announcement is one we shouldn’t be surprised by at this point. The ITC has ruled that U.S. tire companies are being harmed by cheap products from China, and as a result President Obama will have to decide whether to impose tariffs or quotas on the country that, thanks to Wal-Mart, is now America’s largest source of imports.

Of course, Wal-Mart’s tire business isn’t the only factor behind the ruling, but it certainly is one of the biggest. China sent 21 million tires to the U.S. in 2005, and that more than doubled to 46 million by last year. For its part, Modern Tire Dealer reports that Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has close to 3,200 outlets selling tires, although most of those sales are concentrated in its approximately 2,435-store Tire & Lube Service Centers nationwide.

The (United Steelworkers) union said China has more than tripled its tire exports to the U.S. between 2004 and 2008, ending jobs for 5,100 American workers. The union said another 3,000 workers would lose their jobs by the end of the year.

The next move for the ITC will be to come up with come up with recommendations on what the President should do to help U.S. companies, including a couple familiar names based in Ohio - Akron-based Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and Findlay-based Cooper Tire.

The case is the first test for Obama on trade with China, after he vowed during his presidential campaign last year to help unions or domestic industries seeking relief from foreign competition. Since the election, he also has pledged to avoid protectionism so as not to exacerbate the global recession.

U.S. agency rules for tire producers in China case [Bloomberg News]

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Back in March, Wal-Mart decided to close its South Columbus optical lab - laying off 650 workers in the process - a move that had state officials considering ways to recoup a $1.8 million job-creation tax credit the company received back in 2002. Well, Wal-Mart has decided that Ohio can just have its money back, if the state is going to put up such a fuss.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has given Ohio $1.7 million as repayment for a tax credit on an optical lab that the company closed in March. Ohio had provided the world’s largest retailer with a $1.8 million job-creation tax credit in 2001 on the condition that the company create and maintain jobs at the facility.

Wal-Mart’s initial move to close the lab caused controversy because the closing came just months after workers were told “the facility wasn’t going to close and jobs weren’t going to be cut.” Instead, it was straight to the unemployment line for 650 newly jobless Wal-Mart employees.

“Without it, I don’t know what we’re going to do,” Emily Hale said, a West Side resident who had worked at the plant since it opened seven years ago, as she stood outside the plant’s door, holding her layoff papers as tears rolled down her face. “There are no jobs out there. I’m afraid of what’s going to happen next.”

According to the Columbus Dispatch:

The company said the closing will allow it to expand its optical operations in Indiana and Arkansas and add a combined 100 jobs. Wal-Mart said it will continue to operate an optical-accessories distribution center locally, with about 70 workers. Calls to Wal-Mart were not returned.

Wal-Mart repays state $1.7 million [The Columbus Dispatch]

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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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In August 2006, everything was good at the City View Mall in Garfield Heights, Ohio. Wal-Mart built a supposedly first-of-its-kind store on top of a landfill. It made headlines for supposedly attracting 6,000 applicants for just 200 positions.

Two years later, things are a little different. It turns out that building on giant pile of garbage might not have been a good idea after all. The Ohio EPA has long been investigating the site, and has found significant soil erosion, polluted water seeping into storm sewers, and - most notably - combustible methane gas seeping into the store. The independent investigation by Wal-Mart indicated raw sewage backwash present in the store, a dangerous shift in the foundation of the store and confirmed the methane problems.

And just for a little more scandal (we know you wanted it): Mayor Thomas Longo, one of the chief architects of the landfill project, is saying publicly that he thinks methane is not the reason Wal-Mart is pulling out: “It’s a business decision...It’s a dollars-and-cents issue with these people.”

His claim sounds a little dubious, but for now - Wal-Mart is the only store to pull out of the complex.

Wal-Mart closes at City View on methane fears [Cleveland Plain-Dealer (Ohio)]:

Wal-Mart closed its store at City View Center on Monday, saying explosive gas at the site, built atop two toxic dumps, poses a danger to customers and employees.

The announcement comes less than two weeks after the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency threatened to shut down the big-box plaza off Interstate 480 if the owners did not step up efforts to monitor and vent the methane from underground sewer lines.

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In the most recent report from Policy Matters Ohio, Wal-Mart tops the list of Ohio employers with the most employees receiving government health care assistance. According to Wal-Mart, these rankings are “notoriously unreliable” and hard to verify. However, when you consider that Wal-Mart tops the list in every state where the information is available, they start to look reliable. Why do taxpayers have to pick up Wal-Mart’s health care tab?

With high deductibles and coverage limitations, Wal-Mart’s health care is inadequate.
The Wal-Mart average for full-time workers to qualify for benefits is six months, compared to the retail average of three months. Part time employees must wait a full year before receiving benefits. Since the majority of workers do not stay a year, the majority never get health care.

Wal-Mart workers often earn too little to afford health care.
To get a plan with a $700 deductible and $4000 out-of-pocket medical expenses still costs $7000 a year and the average Wal-Mart employee makes approximately 20,000 a year.

Ohio is not unique; Wal-Mart workers in other states must use public assistance programs to meet their health care needs.
In states that have released data on companies with employees receiving state-funded health care, Wal-Mart tops the list. Twenty-four states have tracked and reported the number of employees and dependants that the largest employers within their borders have enrolled in state-funded health care programs, and in those states, Wal-Mart is at the head of the line for public assistance. In all states that have released such data - Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin - Wal-Mart tops the list.

Click here to download “Wal-Mart’s New Health Plan: Medicaid”

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As the weakening economy takes its toll on state budgets across the country, a new study from Policy Matters Ohio shows that Wal-Mart employees top the state’s list of Medicaid recipients.

Researchers found that an average of 13,141 Wal-Mart employees and their children were on the state-sponsored medical plan, more than any other private employer in Ohio.

Wal-Mart’s company health plan remains out of reach for many of its employees, and Medicaid is often the only affordable option for low-earning workers. The company’s failure to provide adequate health insurance for its 1.4 million U.S. employees isn’t just an unfortunate company policy - it’s something that affects taxpayers across the country.

Public pays health care for private workers [Beacon Journal (Ohio)]

Thousands of workers across Ohio labor for a paycheck, but still lack health benefits from their employer for themselves or their children.

Instead, they rely on Medicaid — a program funded with state and federal tax dollars — to pay for their medical care.

Researchers with the nonpartisan think tank Policy Matters Ohio estimate in a new report that the state spent $111.5 million last year to cover Medicaid costs for more than 111,000 workers and their dependents from the 50 companies with the highest Medicaid enrollment.

The federal government’s estimated share of the cost totaled $182 million.

‘’Right now, we’re in a very tight budget,’’ said Piet van Lier, the study’s author and a senior researcher at Policy Matters Ohio. ‘’Medicaid is a very big expense — not only for Ohio, but for other states — and here’s a substantial benefit going to employers.’’

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In addition to an interactive map detailing Wal-Mart’s land use across the United States, researchers will be interested to note the map’s companion report: “Perpetuating Sprawl: Understanding Wal-Mart’s Development in Pennsylvania, New York, California, and Ohio”. From the introduction:

By utilizing the “hub and spoke” distribution strategy to maximize effectiveness, Wal-Mart was and still is able to outpace its competitors and build more stores. With a network of distribution centers around the country, Wal-Mart supplies its stores with ease. In fact, “while Wal-Mart needs only 10% of its stores’ square footage for inventory, competitors need 25%. That’s because each store is within a day’s drive of a distribution center.”

Now, after conquering most of the United States, Wal-Mart is at a crossroads. Currently, Wal-Mart is trying to adapt to local and regional preferences while scaling back overall domestic development. It is
within this context that we examine Wal-Mart strategies in California, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York as a microcosm of America.

The goal of this paper is to provide insights into Wal-Mart’s growth patterns in four states outside of its original sphere of influence, and to help local and regional planners understand where Wal-Mart might
build its next facility.

Click here to download “Perpetuating Sprawl” (PDF)

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Wal-Mart rumors intensify [Morning Journal (Ohio)]

Lorain’s rumor mill is swirling with talk that a Wal-Mart is coming to the city, but city officials say they don’t know anything about it.

Several city officials said yesterday they have only heard the rumors that the Bentonville, Ark.-based company is coming to Lighthouse Village. A portion of land next to the Kohl’s department store is being cleared at the site. A Home Depot store and Applebee’s restaurant is also at Lighthouse Village.

‘’To the best of my knowledge, they don’t have anybody under contract to begin any building,’’ Mayor Anthony Krasienko said.

Officials in several city departments also said they didn’t know about any building going up at the site.

Richard Klinar, the city’s acting chief building official, said there haven’t been any permits pulled for Lighthouse Village. Nothing has been submitted to the building department, he added.

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Williams: No JEDD at Liberty Wal-Mart [The Vindicator (Ohio)]

While Youngstown Mayor Jay Williams wants a joint economic development district with Liberty at the site of a Wal-Mart Supercenter, the city will do absolutely nothing to impede the project.

Liberty trustees made it clear at a Tuesday meeting with Youngstown that they had no interest in a JEDD, which would include an income tax on employees, at the Wal-Mart location at the former Liberty Plaza on Belmont Avenue.

“Our questions were answered, and our issues were resolved,” Williams said Thursday. “...There will not be a JEDD at Wal-Mart. We want to move the project forward. We could have chosen to make an issue of the Wal-Mart JEDD. We did not. It was always our goal for the project to succeed.”

The city approved a water site plan Wednesday for the Liberty Wal-Mart project that is needed for the project to proceed, said John Casciano, Youngstown’s water commissioner. The city also has to approve a water tap application for Wal-Mart once the company submits one, but giving the go-ahead to that application is merely a formality, Casciano said.

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Your Tax Dollars at Work (or How Wal-Mart Costs You Money) [No Mount Orab Wal-Mart! Blog]

Money, money, money...Last week, the local newspaper reported that two police officers were added to the Mt. Orab police force. As I noted in an earlier post, most estimates place the yearly total cost of those officers (with salaries, training, and equipment) at about $75,000 per. The article also notes that the officers were added in expectation of the new shopping center anchored by Wal-Mart.

So the Wal-Mart’s not supposed to open until 2011, from what many have said, yet we’re already looking at an expenditure through that time totaling nearly half a million dollars of taxpayer money to pay for the officers. In a town of just 3000 people.

Tell us again how Wal-Mart saves us money?

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Wal-Mart size reduction may bring new site plan [Cincinnati Enquirer (Ohio)]

The Red Bank Village commercial development on the former Ford transmission plant site might wind up with one more office building than originally planned.

After Wal-Mart officials announced that their store at Red Bank Village would be 140,000 square feet instead of 203,000 square feet, Fairfax officials asked the site developer, Regency Centers, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based developer, to consider using the extra space for a third office building.

Adding an office building the same size as the other two - 35,200 square feet - could yield an estimated $132,000 more in earnings tax revenue a year, Village Administrator Jennifer Kaminer said. Fairfax has an annual budget of about $2 million.

“It would work out great for the village,” Mayor Ted Shannon said.

To allow for the possibility of a third office building, Regency Centers must submit a new site concept plan to Fairfax. It must be approved by the village planning commission and Village Council.

Although village officials are expected to approve the plan, the process will push back the start of construction of the Wal-Mart store from early summer to late summer, said Tony Haslinger, the Regency Centers’ senior project manager.

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Residents discuss possible Wal-Mart [Akron Beacon Journal (Ohio)]

There wasn’t much new information offered to Montrose-area residents gathered at a meeting Thursday night to discuss a possible Wal-Mart superstore on vacant land on Rothrock Road.

Fairlawn Mayor Bill Roth listened to about 80 residents gathered at the Rosemont Country Club concerned about the possible development of the property and the additional traffic it might attract.

Roth did say the residents in Rosemont Ridge, Enclave, Rothrock Place and Copley Place developments might want to consider converting some of their streets into cul-de-sacs.

‘’The real issue is, do you really want it that way,’’ he said. ‘’There are advantages and disadvantages. It will be your call.’’

The mayor said he spoke Thursday afternoon with developer Larry Levy, who is interested in building on about 60 acres on Rothrock Road.

The residents are concerned that the commercial land, which is located in Copley Township, could become home to a new Wal-Mart supercenter to replace a smaller Wal-Mart near the intersection of Cleveland-Massillon Road and West Market Street.

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Wal-Mart Going Up Despite Concerns [RedOrbit]

Heavy equipment is rolling for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter near the Dayton Mall and Interstate 675, a project delayed for a year by a residents’ challenge to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency that was under review by a state environmental board.

The residents, who hired a Cincinnati attorney to fight the project before the state’s Environmental Review Appeals Commission, simply ran out of money, said the attorney, Tim Mara.

The residents argued that because of flooding concerns, the Ohio EPA should not have awarded the retail giant a special permit to fill in .9 acres of wetlands and impact three unnamed tributaries to Holes Creek. The company also was awarded approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The $8 million Supercenter on Kingsridge Drive has been scaled down a bit, with the dropping of a tire and lube center, according to plans filed with Miami Twp.

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Wal-Mart won’t build ‘supercenter’ [ThisWeek (Ohio)]

Wal-Mart has scrapped plans to build a “supercenter” on Delaware’s southeast side.

For more than two years, Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, had sought to construct a more than 175,000-square-foot store near Cheshire Road and U.S. Route 23.

Delaware County real estate records indicate the company last June spent $5.7-million to buy 22.12 acres on which the store would be built. Delaware city officials have been anticipating the submission of final development plans for the project since preliminary plans were approved by Delaware City Council that same month.

Last Tuesday, however, city officials were told they won’t receive final plans for the store because it won’t be built.

“Wal-Mart has informed the city that they are no longer pursuing the Cheshire Road site,” said Lee Yoakum, Delaware’s community-affairs coordinator. “We are confident there will be renewed interest in the property and look forward to working with whoever is at the table.”

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Rumors of Wal-Mart move has Montrose area abuzz [Beacon Journal (Ohio)]

Russ Sharnsky wears a lot of hats.

And he gets a different perspective peering out from under each one.

That’s why the rumored proposal for Wal-Mart to vacate its present location on West Market Street in the Montrose area of Fairlawn and relocate as a Wal-Mart Supercenter less than a mile away on the west side of Rothrock Road has Sharnsky’s head spinning.

Russ Sharnsky, a Fairlawn councilman, sees a large store leaving Fairlawn for Copley Township.

Russ Sharnsky, the president of Rosemont Ridge Homeowners Association, sees a large traffic flow problem in his immediate area escalating to a near-impossible situation.

And Russ Sharnsky, a local businessman, sees other area businessmen buying up prime real estate on the west side of Rothrock Road zoned by Copley Township for commercial development as — well, businessmen in business to make money.

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Trustees ask Wal-Mart to chip in for waterlines [News-Herald (Calif.)]

Madison Township trustees want Wal-Mart to help pay for a waterline project that would cost affected Meadow Wood Drive residents about $15,000 each.

Trustees Jeff Quirk, Pete Wayman and Bill Brotzman agreed unanimously to ask the retail chain to help the Meadow Wood Homeowners Association.

The association said Wal-Mart started a sewer line that wound up with homeowners switching from well water to county water.

“This change, we believe, led to one of the wells on Meadow Wood Drive testing positive for E. coli,” association President Doug Stauffer said in a written statement to trustees.

“It was after the well tested positive for E. coli that we felt forced to seek a way to protect the health of our families, as well as the value of our homes. We believe that Wal-Mart didn’t really recognize the impact to watershed that development of the Madison site caused and hasn’t adequately protected its neighbors.”

The association said it would like to see trustees “requiring Wal-Mart to in some way offset the damages.”

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State lawmaker says Wal-Mart should not come to Canfield [Youngstown Vindicator (Ohio)]

Wal-Mart should respect the wishes of the community and not try to build a new supercenter here, a state senator says.

State Sen. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-33rd, said Wal-Mart should respect the pending vote of Canfield Township trustees and follow the will of the people who do not want the company to move its 187,000-square-foot supercenter in the area.

“Township and city residents have made clear their opposition to Wal-Mart moving its supercenter into the community, and Wal-Mart should respect that,” Boccieri said today.

“If the township trustees vote to deny the zoning change, then Wal-Mart should respect the decision of the community and not throw its weight around,” he added.

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