> Workplace safety? At Walmart? Really? From what? A paper cut? An > out of control cash drawer? Maybe I don't have a complete picture of > what dangers await the daily lives of a Walmart worker.
Have you seen the back rooms at some of their stores? I used to work in one when I was in high school. Many accidents waiting to happen. They have policies to manage those areas, but from my experience the stores were generally under-staffed and everyone was too busy to do things the "right" way and just needed to do the minimum to get by so they could help the next customer. > The only thing I've seen unions do is ask for more money. I don't have any direct experience with them, but my understanding is that the Teamsters have (or used to have) some of the best medical coverage available. And really, that's what everyone is generally talking about when it comes to Wal-Mart and unions: the benefits their employees get (or don't get in many cases). Their "always low prices" come at the expense of their benefits. Their managers do pretty well, and benefits for full-time "associates" have improved over the years, but from what I've heard they still nickel and dime the employees for everything and in some cases will cut hours and hire more people so that fewer employees are classified as full-time. In those cases not only do the employees have to take up second (or third) jobs to cover their bills, they lose their benefits as well. Instead of working one job for 40 hours, they end up working two jobs at 20-25 hours each with little or no benefits and less free time due to juggling of the schedules. Frankly, that lifestyle sucks. Personally, I don't have a strong opinion on unions one way or another, I'm sure some are good and others are rotten just like everything else. The fact is though that Wal-Mart does NOT want unions in its workforce. As they put it, "We're not anti-union, we're pro-associate." When I started there they had the new people watch videos on why they should avoid and report any attempts or questions people ask about joining unions, etc. (don't know if they still do that or not). Whatever their reasons are, that is something they really don't want. I even heard stories about a store that did unionize, and Bentonville just up and closed the whole store shortly after to prevent it from spreading (unable to verify that at the moment). -Justin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;203748912;27390454;j Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:265101 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
