Arkansas Blog

The blame is on Wal~mart employees themselves.

Unions have tried repeatedly to organize and has been twarted by the employees themselves. (Obviously due to Walmart anti-union propaganda and pressure).

How Wal~mart is able to hire only employees that are gullible and unable to determine their own best interests when it comes to Wal~mart propaganda?

BEFORE I GET RESPONSES BY PEOPLE TYPING WITH THEIR FISTS consider what I am basing my oppinion on.

Unions have fought very hard and gotten secret ballot union elections at Walmart and the employees have voted them down.

What can you or I do if the employees refuse to accept the help?

We can no more force worker rights in Walmart without worker help any more than we can force democracy on Iraq.

Now dogpile on me for stating the FACT that Walmart employees must stand up for their own rights and others can aid them but others can't do it without the workers standing up.

The people that make the laws are put in a hard place when it comes to giving rights to full time employees. I think it is great that if you work 40 hours a week you should get some benefits. The problem is Wal-Mart is asked to give full benefits to someone that says HI as people come in or that scan items. People do work at Wal-Mart for a long time and their pay goes up. I have seen the same guy up front for years. I don't think that they gain any new skills, they just cost the company more. I hate it when people work for 10 years at Wal-Mart and wonder why the raises are not happening. If you are not twice as productive why should they pay twice as much? When law makers say that anyone that goes 40 hours a week should get benefits and any less then that they get none, the business is not going to give 40. I think it should be on a line. Like, if you work two twenty hour jobs you get the same benefits as someone who works one 40 hour job. That way it's beneficial to Wal-Mart to let someone work 40 hours, that way they have less employees but those employees can take care of their family. As far as wages going up and up I don't think that should be so. If you don't like the way things are going you can always leave. If people did not stay at Wal-Mart for a long time Wal-Mart would change, but saying bad things about a company that is on a regular basis for a long time giving you a check is silly, if you hate it please leave, there are people that would happily take your job. There are other employers to go too and Wal-Mart will not change until workers leave and that's the only way to get Wal-Mart to do anything, because if people are willing to work why should Wal-Mart change?

The people that make the laws are put in a hard place when it comes to giving rights to full time employees. I think it is great that if you work 40 hours a week you should get some benefits. The problem is Wal-Mart is asked to give full benefits to someone that says HI as people come in or that scan items. People do work at Wal-Mart for a long time and their pay goes up. I have seen the same guy up front for years. I don't think that they gain any new skills, they just cost the company more. I hate it when people work for 10 years at Wal-Mart and wonder why the raises are not happening. If you are not twice as productive why should they pay twice as much? When law makers say that anyone that goes 40 hours a week should get benefits and any less then that they get none, the business is not going to give 40. I think it should be on a line. Like, if you work two twenty hour jobs you get the same benefits as someone who works one 40 hour job. That way it's beneficial to Wal-Mart to let someone work 40 hours, that way they have less employees but those employees can take care of their family. As far as wages going up and up I don't think that should be so. If you don't like the way things are going you can always leave. If people did not stay at Wal-Mart for a long time Wal-Mart would change, but saying bad things about a company that is on a regular basis for a long time giving you a check is silly, if you hate it please leave, there are people that would happily take your job. There are other employers to go too and Wal-Mart will not change until workers leave and that's the only way to get Wal-Mart to do anything, because if people are willing to work why should Wal-Mart change?

As Charles Fishman has pointed out in his book THE WAL-MART EFFECT, the porblem with Wal-Mart is not monopoly, but "monopsony." Wal-Mart is not a SUPPLIER that is big enough to control prices. The company doesn't supply; it's business is only distribution of goods supplied by others. But it is a BUYER big enough to control prices. Wal-mart sets the price of lawn mowers, pork chops, chicken breasts, laundry detergent, etc., throughout much of America. That is called monopsony.

Siminlarly, in many communities Wal-Mart sets the price of labor in retail services, because there are no alternative empoyers there. Just as many suppliers of goods now have to sell at whatever price Wal-Mart sets or go out of business, so, in many locations, retail clerks, stockers, maintenance workers, etc., have to work at Wal-Mart wages or not at all. If they vote to unionize, Wal-Mart will simply close that store. They may be left with no job at all, because Wal-Mart, when it came to town, drove other retailers out of business.

In many cases, Wal-Mart has a monopsony that allows labor no alternative to Wal-mart's price, just as for many manufacturers of goods there is no real alternative to the price Wal-Mart will pay.

OMEGAS, let's unpack these crates of shit you unloaded:

"problem is Wal-Mart is asked to give full benefits to someone that says HI as people come in or that scan items"

The door-greeters that say HI are there for loss prevention. Sam himself said people entering the doors are supposed to know that someone will be watching them. They also keep shopping baskets in order, catch shoplifters who exit with unchecked items & set off alarms.

"I don't think that they gain any new skills, they just cost the company more."

Your obvious ignorance of business practice is glaring. If they are not getting better at their jobs, more productive you can bet your last sheet of toliet paper their manager will be canned. Walmart offers mini-training every day to every employeee. If the employees cannot learn from these sessions then they do not last long.
It's SOP at Walmart. If there is a pattern of employees' performance stagnating then the manager
is out. As an associates improve and retain their improvement they should be rewarded. It's not county road crews running WalMart.

"That way it's beneficial to Wal-Mart to let someone work 40 hours, that way they have less employees but those employees can take care of their family."

When did you fall off the turnip truck? In addition to normal atrittion taking an abnormal toll on the strategy you suggest, there is also less diversity. Yes moron, diversity has value to large employers. People with multiple skills. With you at the helm calling shots a flu epidemic could close down stores.

"if you hate it please leave, there are people that would happily take your job. There are other employers to go too and Wal-Mart will not change until workers leave and that's the only way to get Wal-Mart to do anything, because if people are willing to work why should Wal-Mart change?"

Oh my, some of the best thinking of the 18th Century. Old Adam Smith would be proud. If you're new here- this is a reality based blog. Take your fantasy assumptions to the Republican sites. Your assumption of more than "full employment" economy are amusing.
In few places do workers have full mobility. In the event you have been out of touch with reality-over 250,000 manufactoring jobs have left Arkansas in the past 7 years. Likely I'm wrong and the number is higher. Why do you think Walmart has such an agressive policy about hiring handicapped people? Not because Walmart is compassionate but because the handicapped have few options for employment and will work for low wages.
People are "willing to work" because people do not wish to starve. Walmart has lowered the threshold and intends to keep it as low as possible. It keeps numerous jobs as simple as possible, and eliminates as many jobs as possible
via automation. Don't go assuming our economy is a workers paradise with perfect mobility for all workers.
Walmart has been a leader in decreasing employment possibilities. Mr Sam him self lead groups of Am businessmen on foriegn junkets showing them how to outsource their manufactoring and assembly operations. He did this while hanging numerous banners around his stores saying BUY AMERICAN while one in his secretarial pool was typing up reports on his outsourcing junkets. I knew all about the reports from my friend who typed them.

By they way, how is life out on the county road crew?
_

Omegas, my husband worked at the same job for more that forty years. During that time he got regular raises, with the exception of a couple of years when the company was having a hard time making payroll. Same job, same job description. But he could tell you where every piece of material the company owned was and who had maintained it, used it or borrowed it, what it was used for, what shape it was in, if it needed to be replaced soon or could be used for a few more seasons.
He trained a half-dozen young men to replace him, only to have them quit after a month or two, or in one case, a year. When he finally retired, his job was divided between two people.
I suspect that if Wal-Mart had managers who stayed in one place for more than a year or so, they would recognize and maybe even reward those exceptional employees who, while remaining near the bottom rungs of the ladder, perhaps because they have no desire to supervise, know the company's business inside out.
I have seen long time, but low level Wal-Mart employees who could almost unerringly tell you when a new product came into the store whether or not it would sell well.
But a behemoth like Wal-Mart is in no position to even be aware of, much less take advantage of that capability. So they have a personnel expert, fool that she is, at Bentonville who says that loyal, knowledgeable, experienced employees are no better than those who walked in off the street last year.
I keep looking around for that company that will bump them from their perch. Maybe it will be one of the little dollar stores that are cropping up in the suburbs. But they don't seem to be able to take advantage of varying needs and tastes in often vastly different locales. Rather than ordering according to customer preferences, they must try to sell what has been shipped to them, just like Wal-Mart.
Sooner or later Wal-mart will be bumped. I just hope I'm around to see it -- and benefit from it financially.

Doigotta,
Thank you for your post. I have a hundred reasons why I don't shop at WalMart. WalMart scares me almost as much as the current White House.
Remember a long time ago when their motto was "Buy American?"
I remember it well, and I was a proud shopper, believing all the ads I saw on TV.
But something evil happened to WalMart when I wasn't paying attention.
Old Sam died (and he was not what he portrayed himself, and I am sure he is dancing with Satan right now).
But even evil old Sam could not have imagined what his greedy heirs are up to.
They are into the bank business, the credit card business.. factories in China,
cheap, slave-labor, junk sold to the masses here in the USA.
I am so sad every time I pass the local store and see all those cars on the parking lot.