Wal-Mart to Employees: Donate Food to Coworkers w/o Enough to Eat

reply to post by pavil


Supply and Demand?

I would rather say taking advantage of desperate people... If you have a choice of either working there or letting your family stave or lose home, I doubt you would choose the latter...

In the current economy, where there are not enough jobs, even for such places there are hundreds of applicant, who simply have no other choice. There are many companies who are taking advantage of the situation in order to pay evenn less as there will always be some desperate person who is in serious need of a job.

Cabin

In the current economy, where there are not enough jobs, even for such places there are hundreds of applicant, who simply have no other choice. There are many companies who are taking advantage of the situation in order to pay even less as there will always be some desperate person who is in serious need of a job.

Only for those jobs that aren't worth enough..... There is a shortage of skilled people at some positions nationwide which is why tech firms in particular want to loosen up visa requirements. It's a skill level, not a lack of jobs that are holding people down.

reply to post by pavil

There is a shortage of skilled people at some positions nationwide which is why tech firms in particular want to loosen up visa requirements. It's a skill level, not a lack of jobs that are holding people down.

So what you're really saying is that American higher education sucks and we need to import our skilled workers from overseas. Somehow I don't think that's the problem.

New research released Monday says nearly half of the nation’s recent college graduates work jobs that don’t require a degree.

College Graduates Unemployment

Bassago
So what you're really saying is that American higher education sucks and we need to import our skilled workers from overseas. Somehow I don't think that's the problem.

No I am saying that MANY American College students choose unwisely in their education. They can get a great education, just not in a field that will pay them well for a lot of graduates. Also Colleges and Universities crank out more Degrees in fields than there are jobs and not enough in other fields. There is going to be a shortage of Doctors in the U.S. soon, there just aren't enough people going through Medical school to cover the gap. That gap will have to be made up somehow. There is soon to be a shortage of Insurance professionals as well as the Baby Boomer generation retires, there aren't enough projected people entering that field either.

It all comes down to choosing your career path wisely. Pick a major in a currently saturated field, you are screwing yourself. Pick a major in a field with great demand, you can basically write your own ticket. That being said, a lot of college kids choose very badly when it comes to majors.

From your own article in your last post:

"Maybe we should incentivize colleges to more accurately counsel students," Vedder told the Chronicle of Higher Education. "If you get a degree in business administration, you may not necessarily walk into a middle-class life. There's a good chance you may end up being a bartender."

Mike Rowe has it right: Link

You may not like H-1B Visas but Tech companies swear by them, stating they don't have enough qualified applicants. Others contend that H-1B Visas just lower overall wages and job opportunities for Americans.

Either way is disturbing. Either we don't have enough American Citizens that qualify for those jobs or The Apples and Intels and Facebooks of Silicon valley are just as bad as the Walmarts of the world when it comes to wages.

Take your pick.

Wal-Mart known as ASDA in the UK don’t like paying wages they just use the unemployed as forced labour!.

If the unemployed don’t do their 30hr week at Wal-Mart they get their 1/3 of the minimum wage pittance taken away

Merry Christmas stack our shelves for free or starve to death in the freezing cold love Wal-Mart!

That sounds like something Walmart would do. I know a lady who works at Walmart, who barely makes ends meet each week. She calls Walmart, "Satan's Workshop"! Walmart is just another greedy corporation who only cares about lining their own pockets with money, while their employee's are starving and scraping to get by. Maybe we just need to stop shopping at Walmart. Walmart would be forced to close it's doors and their employee's could find better jobs somewhere else.

reply to post by pavil


You make a good point about correctly choosing a career path, no argument there. Any help in that department would help.

You may not like H-1B Visas but Tech companies swear by them, stating they don't have enough qualified applicants. Others contend that H-1B Visas just lower overall wages and job opportunities for Americans.

This one impacted me directly as I worked many years for just such a company. They brought in folks from all over the world and paid them substantially lower wages and benefits. Then when the couldn't get enough of them the company pretty much bagged for the idea for our division and shipped the work to China. When that cost too much it went to India.

I suppose if they would have gotten more visa's then they could have just in-souced their foreign requirements at our expense and fired everyone immediately. As it was it took them about seven years to get rid of all of us.

In many ways Wal-Mart lives off the back of this reality. It's not just the tech workers issue, since manufacturing has been off shored to a great extent they leverage cheap goods and exploit cheap labor of the folks that got left behind. That's globalization for you IMO.

The only people to blame are us, the citizens and consumers. We have all the power, but we're too dumb or too lazy to use it. If you don't like the way these mega corporations do business, there's an easy answer - boycott! Mad that Nike uses child labor? Why do you keep buying their shoes? Angry that Wal-Mart doesn't pay it's employees enough? Why do you keep shopping there? Just like with government, citizens get the corporations they deserve.

Bassago
That's globalization for you IMO.

Truer words have never been spoken. Everyone on both sides of the aisle though NAFTA was going to be so good.... H. Ross Perot had it pegged from the very start. I wonder how things would be now if he had won that election?

The only way for America to thrive is to keep innovating and keep intellectual property under tight wraps. That's half the problem. Even when we innovate, it's either copied or made overseas now.

You make a good point about correctly choosing a career path, no argument there. Any help in that department would help

Work for yourself, that's been the ticket for me. Find or create that niche that no one is serving or not willing to. Of course you have to be one of those mean people who expect people to work hard for good pay.

So a store that sells food (among other items) is soliciting its workforce to provide food for the workers of said store who can't afford to buy enough food.

I was going to type a follow-up to that statement, but my mind is blank. It just can't process any rationale beyond that.

UndercoverJoe
Maybe we just need to stop shopping at Walmart. Walmart would be forced to close it's doors and their employee's could find better jobs somewhere else.

Great.... then where are those 2.2 Million people going to find those "better paying" jobs?

Walmart is the largest employer after the US Government. That's not even counting any secondary related businesses to Walmart. Almost another 1 Million work at numbers 2 and 3, Taco Bell's Parent Company and McDonalds. Trying to raise the economy from the bottom rung of the pay scale isn't going to be feasible.

Please tell me how that will work?

pavil

Cabin

In the current economy, where there are not enough jobs, even for such places there are hundreds of applicant, who simply have no other choice. There are many companies who are taking advantage of the situation in order to pay even less as there will always be some desperate person who is in serious need of a job.

Only for those jobs that aren't worth enough..... There is a shortage of skilled people at some positions nationwide which is why tech firms in particular want to loosen up visa requirements. It's a skill level, not a lack of jobs that are holding people down.

BS.

there are plenty of people that can do the job, it's just that these people know what they are worth and wont work for someone offering pennies.

its well known that corps will ask for the moon to disqualify american workers, then go crying to the labor dept that they cant find workers so that they can get imports that work for half the wage.

very common in the computer/i.t. industry.

Hey look it's another attack on Walmart! Good grief, they do exactly what target and kmart do, But nobody slams on those guys. The biggest is always the one picked on.
I know when I go to walmart that a bunch of the employees are morons, and they can't get a job anywhere else. If Walmart would fire them and hire better employees (and pay them better) walmart most likely would get more and better work from these employees.

OK...I happened to read Walmarts numbers but don't have them in front of me...but these will be close. Walmart made 400 billion last year gross. They made 14 billion in profit. That comes to 3% profit. If Walmart gave every one of their millions of employees a $7000 annual raise...they wouldn't have made a cent. $7000 divided by 52 weeks then divided by 40 hours (full time employee) comes to a raise of $3.37 per hour. On top of a minimum wage of $7.25, that would raise all employees to $10.61 per hour.

So...if you raise each employee to $10.61 per hour, Walmart goes out of business. A business can't make nothing and stay in business. So it is your choice...keep employee pay at the current rate for millions and millions of employees...or...put them all out on the street with no job at all.

Which is your choice???

WeAreAWAKE
OK...I happened to read Walmarts numbers but don't have them in front of me...but these will be close. Walmart made 400 billion last year gross. The made 14 billion in profit. That comes to 3% profit. I Walmart gave every one of their millions of employees a $7000 annual raise...they wouldn't have made a cent. $7000 divided by 52 weeks then divided by 40 hours (full time employee) comes to a raise of $3.37 per hour. On top of a minimum wage of $7.25, that would raise all employees to $10.61 per hour.

So...if you raise each employee to $10.61 per hour, Walmart goes out of business. A business can't make nothing and stay in business. So it is your choice...keep employee pay at the current rate for millions and millions of employees...or...put them all out on the street with no job at all.

Which is your choice???

They don't go out of business. They raise prices to cover the loss. Then the people that got raises dont gain anything.
And 3% profit is terrible, check out apple computers profit..

roughycannon
Do they not have an employee discount like most workplaces?

They do have an employee discount, but it's only 10% and only on taxable items (ie. not food).

WeAreAWAKE
Walmart made 400 billion last year gross. They made 14 billion in profit. That comes to 3% profit. If Walmart gave every one of their millions of employees a $7000 annual raise...they wouldn't have made a cent. $7000 divided by 52 weeks then divided by 40 hours (full time employee) comes to a raise of $3.37 per hour. On top of a minimum wage of $7.25, that would raise all employees to $10.61 per hour.

So it is your choice...keep employee pay at the current rate for millions and millions of employees...or...put them all out on the street with no job at all.

Which is your choice???

How about raise their wages $1.50 per hour and only make $9 billion in profit? They'd still make a ton and help their slaves, er, employees.

Haha!!!....OFF TOPIC, but related news...

Walmart’s 1.3 million workers won a big victory Monday when the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the retail giant had broken the law by firing and harassing employees who spoke out—and in some cases went on strike—to protest the company’s poverty pay and abusive labor practices.

The federal agency will prosecute Walmart’s illegal firings and disciplinary actions involving more than 117 workers, including those who went on strike last June as part of a growing movement of company employees. The ruling is likely to accelerate the burgeoning protest movement among Walmart employees, upset with low pay, stingy benefits, arbitrary work schedules and part-time jobs.

www.thenation.com...

Then I guess going forward, if they can grow at all...open new stores, employ more people, etc. it will be at 2/3 the rate of today. Is that OK too? The fact is, people point fingers without details. $7.25 may suck, but it is a hell of a lot more than nothing.

The real problem is the economy, and we know who was charged with the task of fixing it...and accepted it. And failed. Maybe if we as a country stop spending money and money we don't have, we can fix all this. But not and never with this group of losers in charge.

reply to post by Bassago

The last time I've been in a walmart was about 2 years ago. The last time I bought something from walmart was more then 6 years ago. If people want real change stop supporting the things both people and corporations which they constantly whine and know are going to # them over in the end, I mean duh.

I am quite sure the walmart execs or owners dont actually listen or ever read anything about what there employees are doing or saying, in fact I am quite sure they are not aware they exist other then some numbers they get faxed or texted once in a while when its time to increase profits, all while there on there yachts somewhere in the Mediterranean.