NEWS: Is There Anyone Wal-Mart Won't Exploit?

CULTURE: Is There Anyone Wal-Mart Won't Exploit?

Wal-Mart, America's biggest employer and Galactic Empire of realtors, has been ordered to pay $135,540 to settle charges that it violated child labor laws. The company stopped kicking a puppy long enough to deny the charges, but agreed to pay the penalty.

At least one U.S. Congressman has publicly voiced whether the Labor Department handles Wal-Mart with kid gloves. Rep. George Miller (D-CA) made special note of a Labor Dept. policy that notifies Wal-Mart 15 days in advance before investigating potential wage and hour infractions, theoretically allowing the company to cover up potential abuses.

Taking into account allegations of unfair treatment of female employees, taking advantage of undocumented workers, questionable anti-union policies, and forcing unpaid overtime on workers, and these child labor charges, Wal-Mart may have just hit for the evil cycle.

I think the most surprising thing in the is article is the 'chain saw'. At a retail store, what is a chain saw needed for?

Obviously there wasnt enough cash involved for them to even give a damn...

Wal-Mart will not cease until it has us all "saving" 24 hours a day.

Can you not see it as the beast that it truly is?

Coming soon: Wal-Mart housing for employees and gated communities (Megacity 1, here we come).

Only some of that was a joke.

for slashing prices in half!!

Oh no! I should of thought of that. Nice one.

Most likely in a tree lot during holidays. I don't know about Wal-Mart, but when I worked at a Home Depot we used electric chainsaws to trim/even the bottoms of trees.

Come on, quite a few employers do this. I operated power tools, propane torches, chainsaws, forklifts, etc before I was 18. You're just feigning outrage because it was China Mart that did it.

i am the only person left in america who loves wal-mart. cheap stuff available 24 hours a day. and there is one near you. so far as the laundry list of allegations against them, oh well. it's the 21st century. everybody is an asshole.

I prefer Targe't...

Not every employer scoffs at the law. If a small, privately owned deli can afford to tell me not to use the slicer until I was 18...a huge retailer can fine someone else in a blue smock who's 18 or over to operate the chainsaw.

Theres probably a lot of child hours laws they violated too.
But Thats a victimless crime, right?

Best...statement...ever

Zing!

It is so Karmic that days after I shop at Wal-Mart for the first time in years, a thread is posted to smack me up side the head for my transgression. LOL Well, thar ya go...

I don't want to derail this thread, but what about all those 17 year olds that join the US army?

Just so long as they don't try to kill Iraqis with forklifts or chainsaws, what's the problem?

To cut the kid out of the paper balers after he crashed the fork lift into it of course. Damn kids!

I'm surprised that's all the infractions they could find. I worked there from 16 to 19 and broke so many of those child laws myself the whole store should have been shut down. Going to school full time and working 50 hours a week, I knew how to operate all the heavy equiptment, I would work way past 11 on school nights, and a multitude of other infractions. When it comes down to brass tax, nobody cares that they allow that to happen because they throw enough money around to get people to look the other way. Good, they had to pay 135,000 in fines. They only make billions a year, so that should really piss them off. Sam Walton wiped his ass with 135,000, and now the CEO and board members are all laughing at the government and us. Especially us.

I didn't want to come out and say it, but I was kind of proud of that. Glad you noticed.

meh, i was operating chain saws at age 11 with my stepdad. unpaid, i might add.

Walmart made a place for me in their workforce after I became Dissabled. I had worked for Fred Meyers for nine years and was the top salesman in my department. Not only do they "allow" me to work, they provide medical and prescriptions. I have worked there for six years now, and have set such a good example that my store hired three more people in wheelchairs. One of these people no longer uses a wheelchair because of a knee replacement surgery wal-mart paid for.

in america i dont think guns or tanks are hazardous equipment...theyre a way of life, and a right!


[Edited on Feb 14, 2005 7:02PM]