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No Exit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 02:07 AM
Original message
Those who still shop at Wal-mart
I admit it. I shop at Wal-mart sometimes. Many of you have already read about Wal-mart's new scheduling software. See article below. This software scheduling would end up forcing the employees into some sort of split-shifts from hell which would be virtually unpredictable for them--IOW, it appears it would make Wal-mart employees be on call like doctors or something, and so they wouldn't be able to reliably schedule anything (like little leisure-time activities such as raising their families, etc.) in their off-hours. (And yes, I know doctors are only on-call when they agree to be, and it is done so THEY can plan for it.)

"Flexitime?

Remember the idea of giving workers flexitime? Making it easier to cope with family obligations without necessarily reducing productivity at all?

Well, now flexitime has quite a new definition; one which turns it upside down and makes family obligations harder to combine with work:


'Wal-Mart is moving towards widespread implementation of new employee scheduling software. Sounds innocent enough -- the software tracks customer habits over seven week periods, and reschedules workers for each one. Moreover, it also creates a range of daily possibilities, allowing Wal-Mart to schedule workers to be on-call during surges, or send them home during lulls, or implement a variety of other strategies to create a more flexible, adaptive, workforce. All sounds routine enough, right?

But pity the workforce. The new software will make advance scheduling and reliable paychecks a thing of the past. According to The Journal, "experts say can saddle workers with unpredictable schedules. In some cases, they may be asked to be "on call" to meet customer surges, or sent home because of a lull, resulting in less pay. The new systems also alert managers when a worker is approaching full-time status or overtime, which would require higher wages and benefits, so they can scale back that person's schedule...That means workers may not know when or if they will need a babysitter or whether they will work enough hours to pay that month's bills. Rather than work three eight-hour days, someone might now be plugged into six four-hour days, mornings one week and evenings the next.'


Neat. Unpredictable work schedules are exactly what Wal-Mart workers need."

http://atrios.blogspot.com/

If they start doing this, couldn't we somehow organize groups of people to descend on Wal-mart to flood them during regular 9-5 hours, and try to find some way to discourage people from shopping there after 5 p.m.? I mean, wouldn't it be great if WE could somehow set it up so the Wal-mart "scheduling software" would reliably set the same hours for the "surges" and the "lulls"? And if this could force the software to call in the employees at more or less the same time periods every week?

I admit it. I've shopped at Wal-mart in spite of reading more and more unsavory things about it. But with this article I have finally reached my limit. I am ready to never shop there again. I want to know if they really implement the crap that is described in the above article; if they do, I am finally ready to never set foot in a Wal-mart or Sam's again.

Furthermore, if they implement anything like what is described in this article, PEOPLE LOOKING FOR JOBS NEED TO JUST SAY NO TO WAL-MART. Yes, I KNOW people need jobs. But there's GOT to be another way!
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EC Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 02:15 AM
Response to Original message
1. This also keeps the employees in servitude
because they won't be able to add another job if they need the money...they'll have to be available only to Wal-Mart...this tells me that the jobless market is so large they can demand almost anything and people will accept it just for a job...
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illinoisprogressive Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 02:19 AM
Response to Original message
2. I never go to Walmart. I find things better and cheaper elsewhere
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Union Thug Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 02:42 AM
Response to Original message
3. WalMart workers of the world - UNITE! And then strike! n/t
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TreasonousBastard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 03:26 AM
Response to Original message
4. This is not Wal-Mart invention...
and has been used for years by the much heralded small, local businesses to keep their costs in line.

About 15 years ago I was writing payroll software and one of our "features" was to automatically deduct daily break and lunch times even when the employee didn't clock out. Automatically clocked them out after 8 hours, too. Some of our clients thought this was too chickenshit to do to their minimum wage people who were hard enough to keep anyway, but most jumped on it.

In some businesses, like limo driving and couriers, you're considered on call 24 hours a day and the office has no qualms about calling you in to do one or two runs and then sending you home-- with two or three hours between runs that you don't get paid for. And you'll get paid as little as 12-15 bucks a run. Paid hourly for down time? Don't make me laugh.

Try waiting tables on a slow day when the boss says everyone has to come in because they "might" get busy. Or being called in on a day off because no one showed up and you live close enough to get there to cover the dinner rush, do three tables and then it dies.

Or work a meatpacking plant or garment shop-- might as well not have any labor laws at all as far as they're concerned.

Large retail stores around here set sucky schedules, but the small retailers usually pay even less, with absolutely no benefits at all, and have no problem telling you to go home if it's slow. Some pay off the books so you don't even get unemployment when you're axed.

Oh, and one day I was in Big Lots, and I don't know what the deal is there, but I overheard a cashier say she was quitting to take a better job at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart may be the biggest of the bad, but they're not the worst.





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No Exit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 08:16 AM
Response to Reply #4
6. Thanks for the perspective.
Okay, I think all of us have had employers like those you describe. Anyone who's ever waited tables knows, first and foremost, that waiters don't get minimum wage "because they get tips". And I well remember when they decided to add a "tip tax" category to those W-2's. (There was a new little box on the W-2 which said "tip tax" and it showed zero tax taken out. My employer at the time certainly did not attempt to tax my tips, but it seemed to me that this little notation was like a red flag to the tax people to show that I'd better report those tips as income. Cheesy.)

I distinctly remember that there used to be stories of Wal-mart ex-employees who "got rich" because, as part of their pay, they had been given shares in Wal-mart, and they were around when the value of the stock soared.

I think the answer to all this lies in the post directly below yours: "Aren't there any labor laws any more?" It echoes MY own frequent question, which is, "Aren't there any regulations on banks any more?"

Have you noticed that laws to protect banking consumers are pretty much gone? I don't recall it's being this bad/dangerous for banking consumers. Nor for employees. It seems that in 12 short years a repukelican congress has returned us back to some of the hideous labor and moneylending conditions which inspired some of the labor and consumer-protection laws which have been celebrated by liberals for decades.

So now we begin to see what it was like to live/work/bank in "the good old days"--perhaps, before FDR and before the days of that reviled "Warren Court".

Welcome to Pottersville.
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On the Road Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 04:10 AM
Response to Original message
5. God, Aren't There Any Labor Laws Any More?
I've worked lunch/dinner splits in restaurants, which I think makes sense. At least they're predictable. But this kind of thing is just totally disruptive, and hits the people who can least afford to find a better job.

But, according to George Will, labor is a commodity. It's a free market.
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No Exit Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Jan-05-07 08:22 AM
Response to Reply #5
7. Labor--commodity. George Will--commode.
I'm sick of that asshole and his phony-baloney elitism!

I think it's true that the repukes set out to undo much of the New Deal and subsequent programs. (But alas, they only got 12 years in which to do it... "The Twelve-Year Reich"... name of a book I used to have... lol.) I think another problem is that none of us could possibly be old enough to watch this cycle play itself out. I mean, I believe that at the turn of the century labor was probably treated like this, and now repukes, with the help of some on-the-take democrats, have tried to return us to this. How long before we need no longer look to Abramoff's Marianas Islands to see horrific working conditions, including virtual slavery and child labor?

Okay, well, it's time for the backlash. The cycle needs to go back in the direction of helping the workers. Looks like John Edwards and Jim Webb (to name just two) are ahead of the curve on this!
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