What do you think about Wal-Mart....

Elijah said:
walmart sucks.

props to target.

The United States recognizes workers’ right to organize unions. Government employers generally may not interfere with public sector employees’ freedom of association. In the private sector, workers’ right to organize is protected by the National Labor Relations Act. Internationally, this right is recognized as a core labor standard and a basic human right.

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Wal-Mart’s rampant violations of workers’ rights figured prominently. In the last few years, well over 100 unfair labor practice charges have been lodged against Wal-Mart throughout the country, with 43 charges filed in 2002 alone. Since 1995, the U.S. government has been forced to issue at least 60 complaints against Wal-Mart at the National Labor Relations Board. Wal-Mart’s labor law violations range from illegally firing workers who attempt to organize a union to unlawful surveillance, threats, and intimidation of employees who dare to speak out.

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By keeping unions at bay, Wal-Mart keeps its wages low – even by general industry standards. The average supermarket employee makes $10.35 per hour. Sales clerks at Wal-Mart, on the other hand, made only $8.23 per hour on average, or $13,861 per year, in 2001. Some estimate that average “associate” salaries range from $7.50 to $8.50 per hour.16 With an average on-the-clock workweek of 32 hours, many workers take home less than $1,000 per month.

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In 2001, six women sued Wal-Mart in California claiming the company discriminated against women by systematically denying them promotions and paying them less than men. The lawsuit has expanded to potentially the largest class action in U.S. history – on behalf of more than 1 million current and former female employees. While two-thirds of the company’s hourly workers are female, women hold only one-third of managerial positions and constitute less than 15 percent of store managers.

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Because Wal-Mart wages are generally not living wages, the company uses taxpayers to subsidize its labor costs. While the California study showed how much taxpayers were subsidizing Wal-Mart on health care alone, the total costs to taxpayers for Wal-Mart’s labor policies are much greater. The Democratic Staff of the Committee on Education and the Workforce estimates that one 200-person Wal-Mart store may result in a cost to federal taxpayers of $420,750 per year – about $2,103 per employee. Specifically, the low wages result in the following additional public costs being passed along to taxpayers:

• $36,000 a year for free and reduced lunches for just 50 qualifying Wal-Mart families.
• $42,000 a year for Section 8 housing assistance, assuming 3 percent of the store employees qualify for such assistance, at $6,700 per family.
• $125,000 a year for federal tax credits and deductions for low-income families, assuming 50 employees are heads of household with a child and 50 are married with two children.
• $100,000 a year for the additional Title I expenses, assuming 50 Wal-Mart families qualify with an average of 2 children.
• $108,000 a year for the additional federal health care costs of moving into state children’s health insurance programs (S-CHIP), assuming 30 employees with an average of two children qualify.
• $9,750 a year for the additional costs for low income energy assistance.

Among Wal-Mart employees, some single workers may be able to make ends meet. Others may be forced to take on two or three jobs. Others may have a spouse with a better job. And others simply cannot make ends meet. Because Wal-Mart fails to pay sufficient wages, U.S. taxpayers are forced to pick up the tab. In this sense, Wal-Mart’s profits are not made only on the backs of its employees – but on the backs of every U.S. taxpayer.

Elijah said:
its funny how everyone bitches about walmart, yet they wouldnt exist if people werent shopping there.
i dont shop there, but i guess if you are low income its good. i just hate cheap shit.
i dont feel bad for the way they treat their employees, because they choose to work there. its not like it would be hard to get another job. its not a skilled occupation.

sometimes said:

i fucking concur honey.