Does the shoddy treatment Wal Mart employees have consistently received over the years from...

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

...the corporate stuff-shirts in Bentonville, AR piss you off?

And secondly, do you sometimes shop at Wal Mart?

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---snip---

NEW YORK - Wal-Mart Stores Inc said on Friday it has held meetings with U.S. store managers warning them of issues that could arise if Democrats win power and pass a law that would make it easier for workers to unionize, but stressed it was not telling workers how to vote.

Wal-Mart opposes proposed legislation called the Employee Free Choice Act, which would make it easier for workers to unionize by signing a card rather than holding a vote.

“We believe EFCA is a bad bill and we have been on record as opposing it for some time,” Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar said. “We feel educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do.”

The Wall Street Journal reported that about a dozen employees who attended meetings in seven states said executives told them employees would be required to pay hefty union dues and get nothing in return, and warned that unionization could force Wal-Mart to cut jobs as labor costs rise. . . .

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/01/10744/

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[PDJane]

1. I don't shop there,

and won't shop there.

Call me picky, but I don't like the environment, no matter how cheap the stuff is. The first and only time I landed in a wal-mart store, I was horrified.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

2. I wouldn't call you picky -- good for you, Jane.

[frogcycle]

3. my own little boycott

doesn't faze them, of course, but I will drive past a Wal-Mart to find a Target, or K-Mart, or whatever, if that is the sort of shopping I am doing.

[Tindalos]

4. Yes and no

1. Yes. They actively work against workers, not just their own employees but workers in general. That kind of thing pisses me off a lot.

2. No. There isn't one nearby and I don't have a car, so it's not an option for me. I don't really like the big-box experience anyway. I prefer small boutiques and finding unique stuff that's different from what everyone else has.

[TreasonousBastard]

5. Are other stores any better? Does the local...

boutique, hardware store, deli, or pharmacy treat its people any better? Does the kid handing you a slice of pizza have paid vacations, a retirement plan, or healthcare?

Why the huge turnover in Target? And why does the age of Target workers seem so much lower than the others? Why the seeming exasperation, and general dinginess, throughout K-Mart stores?

I was in a Big Lots a while ago and heard the cashier say she was getting a better job at Wal-Mart. So what does that say about Big Lots?

We pick on Wal-Mart not so much because they suck, which they do, but because they're the biggest and most obvious. But while picking on them we shouldn't forget that labor laws have been gutted over the years and retail, all retail, is just one of many places where the worker is screwn.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

6. You make a valid and important point. This is much more about U.S. labor laws...

...than it is about Wal Mart. Wal Mart is merely the oft chosen illustrative poster child for big corporations treating their employees poorly -- it is certainly not unique to them.

[Danmel]

7. I do not shop at Wal-Mart

They built one two years ago just a mile from my home- clear cut 43 wooded acres for a Wal mart Home Depot and Kohl's.
It was heart breaking. I got involved in a community effort to stop the stores but because of the bizarre zoning rules in these parts, we could do nothing- the stores were in an adjoining town and we received no notice until after they were approved.

In any event, at one of the protests a man came over to us and told us that his wife worked at a Wal Mart nearby. She was full time until he had a heart attack. They then cut her to part time so she was not eligible for health insurance and they had to use Medicaid. So our tax dollars paid for his care, not Wal Mart.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

9. That's absolutely horrible cutting that woman's hours...

...to prevent her eligibility for the health care plan. She should've sued as well as served them up a big PR black eye. Media has been willing to expose at least some of Wal Mart's transgressions in the past -- she might have been able to get some exposure and/or have her full time status restored.

[aikoaiko]

8. Yes, most of the shoddy treatment bothers me but its not the worst working conditions in the US

and yes I shop there.

[mitchum]

10. Wal Mart offends me politically and aesthetically

Sorry, but the place just encapsulates everything greedy, tasteless, shoddy, and willfully ignorant about contemporary America. A temple of Yahooism.

[LostinVA]

11. I haven't stepped in a Wal-Mart for over a decade, even when I've been quite poor

I refuse to. They treat their workers like slaves, have destroyed the US textile industry, and they treat their vendors like shit.Oh, and they are union busters, sexist, and donate 100% to red candidates.

I just had to buy a new car battery, and could have saved a bundle at WM. We're buying a new house and every penny saved is important. I went to Strauss instead of WM.

I don't fault people for buying their scripts there, but anything else?

:sigh:

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

12. Kick for larger sample.

[Cleita]

13. I avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible but sometimes it's

the only place to get certain things. Although I sometimes would drive into the next town to not go to a Wal-Mart, now with the price of gas averaging $4.50 a gallon in my area, I can't afford that luxury anymore. Wal-Mart is closer to go pick up those items.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

14. Kick for a larger sample.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

15. Kick for a larger sample.

[yellowdogintexas]

16. unfortunately every once in a great while I end up shopping at a WalMart ...

sometimes I find myself where there really isn't anyplace else. Not often thankfully.

Don't go there unless I absolutely have to.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

17. Kick for a larger sample.

[fla nocount]

18. Dec. 20th, 2002.

They were in sole possession of a little photo-optic xmas tree that I just had to have. I sent someone else after and then paid them back. I've done no business with them since. The tree was from China.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

19. From China you say?.

I never would've guessed.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

20. Kick for a larger sample.

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

21. Kick for a larger sample.