Interesting new Wal Mart propaganda

[Atman]

Notice the new ads running on teevee...no bouncing smiley face. Instead we're treated to heartwarming profiles of heroic Wal Mart conscripts who do good things for people.

I guess the message is, "Sure, we fuck 'em over big time...but they're really nice people, and if you stop shopping here, it will be you ultimately responsible for throwing these wonderful, caring minimum-wage earners out into the cold uncaring world."

So come buy some Chinese crap that your heroic neighbor used to make in the factory down the road, and share the love!

[Florida_Geek]

1. the one that pissed me off the most

Was the one telling how GREAT their health benefits were.. :puke:

[LizW]

2. And the one

where the woman tells how she started in the card department 18 years ago and moved up and up and now she's a manager.

That one started airing, coincidentally, about the time the news broke about the huge class action discrimination lawsuit against WalMart.

They're shameless.

[SharonAnn]

3. It's standard PR. When you see "image" ads like these being run,

you can bet that the company is either being charged with something related or is under investigation for related offenses.

You know, "clean environment" ads, "community support" ads, "caring employees" ad, etc. These mean that they're under attack for being polluters, sending all their money back to HQ (often in another country), or ruthless corporate practices.

So, anytime you see ADM's ads about how they "feed the world", know that they've been convicted of price-fixing, buying legislators, and conniving tomake all sorts of illegal operationslegal. Oh, and they're horrible polluters, union-busters, and unsafe workplaces.

[XanaDUer]

15. I *hate* that one especially...

:puke:

[BlueJazz]

4. One of my neighbors daughters works at Wally world and.....

....she tells me the Health benefits ARE great if, (get this) the
average worker were to spend 40 to 50 percent of their salary.
She also said the ONLY people who take advantage of the Wal-Mart
so called "Health-Plan" are the employees that have spouses that work another job but just happen to not have a decent health plan where they (the spouses) work.

She knows of not ONE employee who is single and participates in the Wal-Mart plans.

Disgusting!...

[jeff30997]

5. Walt Mart employees now unionized up here in Canada.

In a decision dated Aug. 2, the Quebec Labor Relations Board said it accredited Local 503 of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to represent roughly 170 workers at the Wal-Mart store in Jonquiere, Quebec, 137 miles north of Quebec City.

Full story:http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2004-08-03-walmart-union_x.htm


I bet they will close the place down in a couple of months for "economic" reasons.

[Bozita]

10. Yep, that store is doomed. Remember the meatcutters who organized in TX ..

... a couple of years ago? Walmart started selling only pre-cut/packaged meat and closed its meatcutting operation.

No more meatcutters, no more union.

The Walmart way.

[MichiganVote]

6. No Walmart, they stink

[Ernesto]

7. Tavis Smiley's PBS show is underwritten by walmart?

I think Karl Rove must be moon lighting for them in their new diss-information campaign. Clear evidence that public pressure is getting to the walmart management .

[skygazer]

8. I live in California

There was recently an article (wish I still had it) in which a study found that the state of California spends $89 million (I believe) a year in welfare and health benefits for Wal-Mart workers because they cannot afford to live on their paychecks alone. Wal-Mart is anti-union and anti-women and anti-minority, despite their cutesy commercials and their little old greeters at the door. I will never set foot into one.

[realFedUp]

9. State supported company

Good post skygazer...and many towns and cities
grease the wheels to have these big boxes build
in their towns. Controller Steve Westly recently
had a press conference about your post.

[prolesunited]

12. Here's a link

Main Findings:
• Reliance by Wal-Mart workers on public assistance programs in California comes at a cost to the taxpayers of an estimated $86 million annually; this is comprised of $32 million in health related expenses and $54 million in other assistance.

• The families of Wal-Mart employees in California utilize an estimated 40 percent more in taxpayer-funded health care than the average for families of all
large retail employees.

• The families of Wal-Mart employees use an estimated 38 percent more in other (non-health care) public assistance programs (such as food stamps, Earned Income Tax Credit, subsidized school lunches, and subsidized housing) than the average for families of all large retail employees.

• If other large California retailers adopted Wal-Mart’s wage and benefits standards, it would cost taxpayers an additional $410 million a year in public assistance
to employees.
http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2004/08/155220.php

[Tsiyu]

14. But Support those Big Corporations

with tax incentives and environmental laziness because they are GOOD for Amerka!

Don't you just love trickle down economics? Really works well in California. Thanks WalMart!!!!

(Sarcasm off)

[ScreamingMeemie]

11. ...And KMart just let go of another 200 employees here at headquarters

this week. :(

[Mandate My Ass]

13. My friend refused a manger position at WalMart

He is a very talented retail manager and he interviewed there and they made him a great offer but he turned it down because his management style was to reward empoyees for good behavior and improve overall morale. He had turned some crappy low-yield discount stores into nice gleaming moneymaking ones in a matter of months using positive reinforcement. WalMart wanted him to use their dirty tricks and make people work off-the-clock etc. and he said "no thank you."

[WLKjr]

16. Well, I have to play devils advocate here sorry

But the store I work at has NEVER MADE ANYONE WORK OFF THE CLOCK. I know this for a fact. I also used to be a community involvement director in which we helped community organizations with fundraisers and LARGE $$$ grant donations for various community projects. Recently our store donated a large sum of money to a family a few towns away that were struck with some massive medical bills with a mother who was a teacher/school nurse, who found out she had a brain tumor and had to have surgery to have it removed, and then her husband is laid off indefinitely and then her daughter dies. I know it might not sound like much but they received a grant from our store of around 2000 dollars. Very Many other stores in our area also chipped in to raise money for this family.

Management at my store (and I say my because I was there when it first opened and pretty much built almost every shelf in the store) are pretty honest and caring, with exception of about 2 who are kind of shaky but I don't look forward to being there much longer....but anyways most of those stories that get circulated are comming from stores out west and down south. And from the questions I have asked and have been told those who do ask associates to work off the clock and are caught are fired, or at least supposed to be and if they aren't at the store level then it goes up the ladder in failure after that management wise of people failing to do their job. And the thing that they talk about women being denied opportunities in management, not many but a few women at my store have ever applied for it in the 2 years of that stores existence. A girl I worked with applied and got an interview with some others, and no one from that group got an offer. Sorry if this sounds like me shilling for Wal-Mart, but it's just a job for me. And I have yet to witness some of these things. Yes, the pay is low and sucks, but its more than the other retailers in my area. Yes, OT is denied often, but if you look at the season in which it occurs, your store might not be making enough for payroll(payrolls are done by individual store sales, not company wide) so if sales are down, they say NO OT because the store as a whole can't afford it and if they did allow OT they would have to get rid of some people. It's hard to explain to someone that never has worked retail before, this is my 2nd time and the last place was WORSE THAN WAL-MART, a local chain that would violate labor laws and sanitary standards, trust me on that one.

okay I am done with my rant and playing devils advocate, like I said I am speaking from my OWN experience with them.