Documentary on Wal-Mart

[TCoppock]

I just caught the tail end of the documentary this morning and was shocked. Just the part I caught showed the poor treatment of employees and the high crime rate in Wal-mart parking lots. It basically was showing how Wal-mart was blatantly hiding or distorting facts to make the company look good. For instance, although Walmart knew that 80% of the crime happened in their parking lots and that putting 1 security in would drop the crime rate to almost zero they did nothing. This was taken from the companies own research data. Another thing that it showed was the contributions that Wal-mart makes to charity vs. Bill Gates. It showed Bill Gates donates around 52% and Walmart only 3.2%. It also showed it only donated $6,000 to its employee relief fund. Although I only caught the end or the show it definitely didn't look good. I was wondering if anyone else has seen this and if so what they had thought.

[MomofSeven]

That's what I thought.

 

Comparing Walmart donations to Bill Gates is ridiculous. Bill Gates is a private citizen and Walmart is a company. I'd be more interested in knowing how much Microsoft donates, that would be a more fair comparison.

 

Besides, I don't judge a company based on their charitable donations. They're in the business of making money not giving it away. (however, if they do give it away, it's usually for PR purposes or tax write-offs, not just for the sake of being altruistic).

 

As for the treatment of employees, I've seen debates that go round and round about this. Walmart isn't unionized and therefore has been deemed "evil" by AFL-CIO. This doesn't necessarily mean that employees are exploited. My stepmom happily worked at Walmart for years and was never treated unfairly.

 

JMHO :)

[Snickerdoodle]

that they are now realizing they can still make kajillions and "go greener" at the same time. I think that's a great start.

 

I wonder if they are trying to change the definition of what constitutes "greener" and organic?

[dragons in the flower bed]

Walmart isn't unionized and therefore has been deemed "evil" by AFL-CIO.

 

They're very aggressive, and illegally so, about not allowing unionization. They use security cameras to track potential union organizing and then force those individuals to quit. When they wanted to fire my brother, they switched him to a store that was an hours drive away so that he would have to quit. While he was working there, he became an anti-Walmart activist of sorts, trying to let everyone know of the illegal and unethical activities he was told were company policy. I wish I could recall what he said, now, but we saw the movie shortly after they forced him to quit, and Nick said it summed it all up nicely.

 

Personally, I feel that unions and charitable donations sometimes function as markers that indicate whether a company is ethical and fair in their dealings. That's not always the case, though, so it's important to look at the company's general pattern of decision making. Wal-Mart clearly looks bad when that test is applied.

[CookieMonster]

But, in rural Missouri Wal-Mart employees are happy ducks.

 

The stores are great. The employees love their work. They're happy, friendly, and helpful. There ain't one little bit of this nonsense I keep hearing about Wal-Mart.

 

Now, in the Chicagoland area, not so much. But, personally, I think it has a bit to do with the pool of available workers (both the grunts and managers). As an employer, my husband cringes at the thought of hiring new people. The work ethic of the work force around here is ... um ... undesireable. While 15,000 people applied for the 300 available jobs at a local Wal-Mart, I'm sure they would be less likely to say that they love their job or the workplace. The general feeling up here seems to be one of discontent about everything.

 

Sure in a large chain like this you will get some bad apples who do unethical things and make headlines. But, I haven't seen it.

[CookieMonster]

They're very aggressive, and illegally so, about not allowing unionization.

 

Any business that wishes to be union-free must be aggressive about being so. Unions are very aggressive about putting themselves in every possible venue. And they are just as grevious with their illegal activity.

 

I do not condone the use of illegal activity in order to keep a union from setting up station. Not at all. But I thought this comment deserved a view from the other side. And I do condone the use of aggressive legal activity to keep a union out, if a business desires to opperate union-free.

[Quiver0f10]

I just caught the tail end of the documentary this morning and was shocked. Just the part I caught showed the poor treatment of employees and the high crime rate in Wal-mart parking lots.

 

I wonder if other retailers such as K-mart, Target etc have parking lots where crime happens? Or is iit just at Wal-Mart? I wonder if they bothered to research one retailer verses the others to see which has the highest?

 

As far as I know all WM's have security cameras in the parking lots. I know the ones I have been in in MA, NH, ME, AR and MO do.

 

I will say it again, that I have worked at WM in Maine and my son works for WM here in Arkansas and the employees are treated well and fair, more than fair.

[Jean too]

My local W-M has had many of the same employees and the same manager for several years. The employees seem cheerful and helpful to me. If they weren't being treated well they would have moved on by now.

[OnTheBrink]

I've been in WM's in CA, MO (rural and in a city), and IL and frankly, they've all been the same, which is mediocre. I've seen employees with foul mouths in all of them, and I've seen a few employees who were friendly and helpful. I hate shopping there, but my choices are few right now.

[Colleen]

...Stacy Mitchell's excellent book, Big Box Swindle.

[Margaret in GA]

I worked at a Walmart in high school- during Sam Walton's days. It was considered by many in the town a "good job". However, they were very sneaky about hours and would consisitently give me more hours than our agreement when I was hired; meanwhile, folks who really needed those hours to be considered "full time" and therefore recieve benefits did not get them. Did those people quit? No, it was considered a "good job" because this was a town really hurting when several factories closed down in the late 80's.

 

All this to say, just because you've seen people working at Walmart who seem "happy" does not mean they couldn't be "happier" with little things like health insurance and 401Ks-- things they may be denied because they work 39 hours per week, not 40. As for anti-union status. My husband and I own a business. I would have no problem if our workers wanted to unionize. I can't imagine having a "Anti Union" policy.

 

And one more thing to ad. Our local grocery store has an off duty police officer working the night shift- with car out front, they stand just inside the door and sometimes in the parking lot making sure everyone is safe. This is a "big box" store in a really good part of town. I'll just bet this grocery nets about 1/2 what Walmart does.

 

my 2 cents!

Margaret

[Reya]

They're very aggressive, and illegally so, about not allowing unionization.

 

As opposed to union toughs? Right. Tell that to my friend whose new car was destroyed because he wouldn't vote to go union. Oh, yeah, and why not HIS friend who was blinded in one eye by a group of union bullies sent down from AFL-CIO?

 

I have dealt with unions myself in a professional capacity (working as a buyer for GE Medical Systems and earlier in a paper mill with Kimberly-Clark). I've also also had run-ins, through my mother, with the NEA. My DH was forced to contribute to a union when he worked in a low-skilled job in high school. From those experiences, my opinion of modern American unions starts at "extortionist" and goes down from there.

 

I refuse to shop in unionized grocery stores on principle. From DH's experiences, he strongly agrees.

[Scarlett]

That's what I thought.

 

Comparing Walmart donations to Bill Gates is ridiculous. Bill Gates is a private citizen and Walmart is a company. I'd be more interested in knowing how much Microsoft donates, that would be a more fair comparison.

 

Besides, I don't judge a company based on their charitable donations. They're in the business of making money not giving it away. (however, if they do give it away, it's usually for PR purposes or tax write-offs, not just for the sake of being altruistic).

 

As for the treatment of employees, I've seen debates that go round and round about this. Walmart isn't unionized and therefore has been deemed "evil" by AFL-CIO. This doesn't necessarily mean that employees are exploited. My stepmom happily worked at Walmart for years and was never treated unfairly.

 

JMHO :)

 

:iagree: I've never understood the way people complain about how bad a company is to work for and yet keep working there.