Since when do the employees run Wal-Mart?

All these anti- union and anti-workers do not suprise me. It's much eaiser to blame workers and unions than to admite mis-mangement has cause most of these companies poor performances.If it wasn't for unions in this country the working man/women would still be slaves to the companies. Working 70-80 hours a week,(probally making hmmm say maybe up to 15 cents an hour...inflation ya know. lol) a week with no overtime, no breaks,vacations,and No saftey regulations,on and on.It's amazing how these anti-union people bitch, but they sure do like to reap the rewards that the unions have gotten for the working people of this country!!!! One other thing the rich employer like to remind us is ' a poor man never offered us a job" .. My reply to them is, "well a rich man never got rich, WITHOUT the working people of this country either"!!!

Yes every single employee of every employer, (regardless of who, where, how big or small) should be grateful to their employer for the oppportunity to work for them. Who created the business and job oppotunities, the employee or the employer? Yes the employee should be expected to be at work when scheduled and on time. Do businesses hire employees to fill a need or to work at their convience? Yes employees should be expected to be productive and held accountable if they are not. Their job responsibilities are explained in the interview and they should not except the job if they cannot fulfill the responsibilities. Yes every job classification should have a pay cap. Every job is worth a certian pay scale and if you want to earn more then you should through what ever means acquire the education and/or skills to earn more money.
If you are not happy with your present employment then find another job and move on. In the meantime do your job as if it is the best job in the world, you are still being paid.
This is by no means in defense of Wal-Mart but in defense of all businesses anywhere and in defense of America. Everyone better wake up and take a hard look at what is happening to the American work force and what it is doing to our country.
Work force policies cannot be made to accommodate the employee. If an employee cannot follow a companies policies they need to find a company that has policies that fit their personal needs.
I am as of lately, a self-employed small business person with 12 employees. Attendance only scratches the surface of the universal problem of lack of work ethics.
Now - Lets shut up and go to work. And lets get there on time, when scheduled and do our job like we love it.
Ken
P.S. Don't forget to thank your employeer!

I used to work for Wally-World. I was a dept mgr. I came to work on those days that no-one else wanted to get out of their warm enviroment. I was called in on my days off because people who were scheduled did not want to venture the snow. The key word...want.
Didn't matter though, there was no appreciation for a job well done when no-one else would do it.
There was no appreciation unless you had some brown stuff on your nose, that is.
When you get in an eight foot range of an employee, you are supposed to be greeted, no matter what, with a smile. How many have seen that smile that was truly one of happiness in having the job they had?
NOT !!!! Unions, if you even thought about a union enviroment you got fired for some petty principle or reason. You work for Wally-World, you shop at Wally-World you are promoting Gay Marriages. Can't do that.
When I left the store I worked at, I had to learn how to rid myself of the slave mentality I had acquired working for that company.

The problem with the new WalMart policy is simple - you have to call in an hour before you are supposed to show up for work. That would be fine for emergencies that are already happening. For instance, you have been up all night with a sick child who needs to go to the doctor. But what if your car breaks down during that sixty minute window? What about any of the things that can go wrong? It's an unrealistic policy made by coccooned upper class morons who have no idea what life is like for those of us who, for one reason or another, are working minimum wage jobs. The arrogance of these policy makers is the last straw. I like WalMart's prices but as soon as I find another place to shop with my meager income, I will. And I will send WalMart customer service a letter telling them why they have lost my business.

our problem is congress is cow-tied to the lobbists--what we need is to tax the revenue of corporations out-souced jobs as well as thir profits== and we puppets should boycott every corp. that does outsourcing = we need a means of identifing all corporations that are outsourcing== we have become puppets just as the germans under hitler == not only speak up but also act ==

The people saying bad things about Wal-Mart forget one thing :

The jobs that Wal-Mart provides allow people that are otherwise unemployable to be economically productive. Wal-Mart also gives them the opportunity to have a career, climb up the corporate ladder. 75% of Wal-Mart store managers started at the very bottom.

It is a fact that new Wal-Mart stores are always inundated with job applications. I've seen news where for each job openings, Wal-Mart receives more than 10 applications. This is even more amazing after all the news you see about how bad Wal-Mart treats their employees. Why would these people want such a bad job if it's not an improvement to their current situation?

I worked at a unionized company for eleven years but threatened to quit when the job that I had was going to be unioinized. By my own bootstraps and 7½ years of night school, I rose from a 'lowly' technician to Principal Engineer at another company.

I was rarely late and always worked many hours more that forty hours a week for my salaried position. I didn't object to calling in when I couldn't make it to work. I felt that was being part of being a professional for the company that paid my wages.

I get sick and tired of hearing that WalMart is so terrible to work for. If it was so bad, why do so many people go to work for them. Of course, going to 'work' is not what many people do. They go to socialize and let other people do their jobs.

Grow up and be responsible for your actions.

Those workers have to understand that you have to be at work on time and actually work if they rather not than Congress is the way to go.

Problem is congress has no openings and you cant blame the kings/Queens for not wanting to leave a 'job" that you work an average of 2 days a week and make $1,600 average the days they do "work".

Doug,

Brilliant piece. Right on the money.

You forgot, however, to mention the railraod union rules requiring "firemen" until the 1970s, at least 25 years after diesel engines made the position obsolete and unnecessary.

And Doug - you'll have to admit that the outrage to your story is nothing less than preposterous. No one could seriously deny an employer the right to expect employees to arrive for work on time.

Let's see how many jobs are being provided by your detractors - I'll take the highest-paying one, but I may be late.

For the majority of Wal-Mart associates, showing up for work on time has never been a problem. Calling in when we actually ARE sick, has never been a problem. That's what makes the new policy so offensive. It's as if Corporate Headquarters has adopted a policy with an attitude of "Oh, yeah? Well PROVE IT!" towards employee sickness. And comment #5 was dead-on. It's so frustrating...the home office puts policies in effect that have run off the long time associates, makes the new associates feel like parts in a machine, and TA-DAH! sales are flat! Who'da thunk it?
I always thought the people that ran Wal-Mart made decisions based on what was best for the company, not what would please some investment bank in New York. This seems to be the problem...people have begun seeing Wal-Mart as a logo, as a big building filled with "stuff", as something other than the people who work there. There's no more pride in being a Wal-Mart associate. It's just another job. I've always felt that this was the "intangible" that set us apart from the rest of retail. In the past, I would visit another national retailer (starts with the letter "K") and the place just seemed glum. The people were just sort of moping around, yeah...doing their jobs but there seemed to be an overall lack of energy. A lot of the complaints about Wal-Mart I've seen posted here, applied to them (still do). But now, we've joined them. The attitude permeating our stores is the same...we just show up to do our job, nothing more, nothing less. That's all they (Bentonville) want. As long as we meet the numbers on the spreadsheet...that's the most important thing. They don't CARE that you had to miss your son's Beta Club induction ceremony. Being gone half a day for some meaningless little school function...that doesn't help US! That only means something to YOU! And who are YOU? Nothing. You're an interchangeable part. Missing a day because you have a head cold? How INCONSIDERATE! You should have come to work and shared your virus with a dozen other associates plus a hundred or so customers...just think of the lost sales in cold remedies you've caused! Change is good..for Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan & Co., Merril Lynch, etc.

It is not the fact that if you have three unexcused absents that you get fired, but the fact that Walmart wants you there 24-7. If the roads are closed because of excess snowfall and you call in you are considered unexcused absent. Or if your house is on fire and you can't come to work because your clothes and keys are in the house, it is considered an unexcused absent. That is what employees are upset about. If you work for Walmart, you belong to them, and god help you if you get sick, because they will not accept a doctors excuse.

I am in perfect agreement with Douglas McIntyre. Any business that provides the consumer with more goods and services for less money is providing society with a net social benefit. That's just simple economics. No one forces anyone to work for Wal-Mart. Those who want better jobs should do what others do to get a better job, that is, make a personal sacrifice and get more education.

The anti-Wal-Mart organizations have their own agendas. Those agendas do not involve bettering our society. They involve improving the lot of their members at the expense of society as a whole.

Leave Wal-Mart alone. Let the free market system do what it does best--efficient allocation of goods and services. If you don't like Wal-Mart, simply vote with your pocketbook. Don't interfere with a good thing appreciated and enjoyed by the vast majority of Americans.

What about the ones of us who work for Wal*Mart and actually like it. Wal*Mart pays my rent and keeps food on my table. I am surmising that the unions will not be happy until we are all out of work....

demand that all workers come to work in snow storms - sounds reasonable until you read the proverbial fine print-even if the buses are not running. my question-how do employees who depend on that bus system for transportation get to work? do they trudge through the snow drifts in walmart special boots? or will walmart management come and pick them up? somehow i doubt they will. most store managers come directly from arkansas and therefor have no experience in winter driving and will themselves stay home or can afford to call a cab.

some of these brain dead ideas come from an area of the country that has a school system that when compared to the rest of the country ranks at the lower 10% range. it is scary to think that this is the future of walmart...when sam walton was alive he demanded and got a family friendly store without the pencil pushers eye on the bottom line mentality. yes, there was the need to make a profit but it was done with family in mind and with the worker as a partner in the store's future. no more-its every corporate exec for himself, for the perks and for the bonuses. if the workers want to get some of the wealth they stand a very strong chance of getting fired.

working for walmart was an eye opening experience and i will never willing step foot into the place again. with all their determination to undercut the competitors, to close them down it is not surprising that they will try to do the same thing to the workers. for all the talk of how little the family insurance costs the workers one can forget that very few of the workers in the store actually work enough hours to qualify for the benefits. it seems walmart likes to keep the workers at hours that are just short of 38 hours. if they do work more than 38 hours they find that it is only for a short period of time...not enough to get that insurance.

i am tired of all the know it alls harping about the workers demand for better conditions...have you worked at walmart? if you have say so and then talk about your positive experience...for those of us who have worked there more times than not we have negative stories to tell.

I agree. Unions can be terrible to any industry, specifically because of their inflexibility. No one is forced to work for Wal-Mart. No one. This is a free country. My husband was part of a union once and I was appalled at how they acted. Or should I say reacted. Someone could be fired for legitimate reasons (not showing up for work, not doing the work, etc) and the union would get their job back. And they were ridiculous about health care and salaries. I told my husband most of them needed to go out and get a real job and then they would know how good they had it. Finally the business shut down. It scares me at what this country is becoming. This is a traditional capitalist society, not socialist. Wal-mart gives lowest Rx, low prices on groceries, low prices on gas, etc. and yet people want to bitch. I haven't shopped there in a while due to convenience of where I live but because of this backlash against them, I intend to do the rest of my shopping with Wal-Mart! I hope other people who can think on their own 2 feet will not fall to "democratic crap" and realize what a blessing WalMart has been to so many families. I don't know what we would have done without them, having 1 salary and 4 children to raise. Thank you Wal-Mart!

My HRO "manager" asked me once, "Why is every one so against WM?" Well, for me, I think that any company who ranks in the top 10 COUNTRIES of the world, should:
1. PROVIDE AFFORDABLE HEALTHCARE (no, the local county residents, state, and federal government will pick up the tab) I do give props for coming up with the $4 generic drugs although I wonder if any doctor this day and time is going to perscribe generics, that's another gripe for another day.
2. ACTUAL RETIREMENT BENIFITS(how are the future elderly going to live?) oh yeah on welfare.
3. THE ABILITY TO ALLOW AN EMPLOYEE TO COME TO WORK AND FEEL THAT THEY HAVE THEIR HUMAN DIGNITY INTACT (no, no, no, work through your breaks, get over worked if you are an adolescent, and if your a woman make considerably less than your male counterpart)
4. THE ABILITY TO PAY FOR THEIR SITES TO BE BUILT WITH OUT RECEIVING LOCAL AND STATE TAX INSCENTIVES (known by Floridians as Brownfield Assistance)(again let their customers pick up that tab)
5. THE ABILITY TO PAY FOR THE ROAD WORK AND ENTRY WAYS BUILT TO LEAD INTO THEIR STORES (again let the customers get the benefit of paying for that, and hey why not even make the ones who do not patron WM pay by causing road blocks and detours to come into their path along their way to work)
6. THE ABILITY TO BUY AND BUILD QUICKLY (WM is known for tearing down local mom and pop's and grocery stores in the local communities by sitting on properties for years before they build. BTW another scheme for them to get tax incentives.
7. QUALITY PRODUCTS (Wm's clothes are so cheaply made litterly (check out Frontline's show on WM)you have to frequent WM twice as much to replace your crappy clothes) Don't get me started on their "Best Value" or whatever they want to call it. It's all an illusion.
8. PARKING (you already feel like you are a salmon in spawning season before you even enter the store)
9. CLEANLYNESS (every thing looks so grimy and dirty)
10. SAFETY (one of our local WMs (out of 6) is always on the news yearly for parking lot rapes, thefts, assaults, and even murder.

Just a few of the reasons why I don't shop at WM the land of "rolled back prices" RIGHT!

You know Walmart isn't that bad! When I applied there a yr ago, I went in with a bad attitude with all these horrible visions of what it was gonna be like. It was NOTHING like I had pictured! Yeah the rules are changing and some of them not so favorable. But when I had a crisis in my family who stepped up to the plate?? Were my friends or family there to help? No, but Walmart was !!!! They stood by me then and are standing by me now! Do I like everyone I work with?? Not at all! But over all? I work for the best company around! They are my family! They have taken care of me in good and bad times. So I am sticking with them!!!

There is a large concentration of Wal-Mart infrastructure as well as a super market here. I have lived here for 52 years and know many of the associates personally. It has been my observation that the associates of Wal-Mart have moved up in their living standards considerably since being on Wal-Mart payroll. This can only mean one thing - that it is much better than they were able to do before Wal-Mart came into their lives.