Wal-Mart commits murder.

[tzikeh]

Story here. You know, I thought locking the employees in at night was bad. That's like a fucking birthday party compared to this.

boniblithe suggests printing this out, copying it, and leaving it on car windshields at your local Wal-Mart. I heartily agree.

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Eek, that sounds harrowing. Seems to me we could make a murder mystery from this - ! Terrible though it is. Maybe a horror story.

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

Christ. Everything Lord Waldemart touches turns to poison.

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

Er. I hate to sound as though I'm defending teh ev0l ones in any way shape or form, but... when I worked third shift at Office Max, they locked us in, too. We could get out, but it set off the alarms and a manager would have to wake up and come to the store to shut it off, and they tended to be Not Happy about it. Or did WalMart manage to make the locking-in more alarming than that?

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

Yes - they lock them in with no manager with a key to let them out - only the emergency fire exit is available to them and they have been warned repeatedly by management that if they ever use the fire exit for anything other than a fire, they will be axed. Employees have suffered heart attacks, one man had his ankle crushed by heavy machinery, and they have had to call for someone with a key to come to the store.

"Wal-Mart has also chosen to flout federal worker safety regulations on a regular basis. This is most apparent in its policy to “lock-in” employees overnight. Wal-Mart claims this is to prevent employee theft and unauthorized breaks. In order to enforce these rules, Wal-Mart threatens to fire any workers who use the fire exits and only provides a key to unlock the doors to a manager. On many occasions, workers have been locked in overnight without a manager, forcing employees to wait until morning to receive treatment for injuries such as broken bones and lacerations."

“For more than 15 years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. … has locked in overnight employees at some of its Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club stores.  It is a policy that many employees say has created disconcerting situations, such as when a worker in Indiana suffered a heart attack, when a hurricane hit in Florida and when workers’ wives have gone into labor.” While management claims the lock-ins are mandated by a concern for employee safety, the article speculates that the policy is meant to avoid shrinkage (theft) and employee downtime (smoke breaks, etc).  See The New York Times, January 18, 2004, pp. Al and A23.

More here, here, and here.

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

Right. Why on earth would I think that the situation would be less than maximally horrifying when Waldemart is involved? Good God.

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

Wal-Mart: in the tradition of the Triangle Waist Company.

[boniblithe.livejournal.com]

I don't know if you have iTunes music store and can get to the podcast section, but if you search for WNYC's Leonard Lopate show, there was just a guy on not long ago who talked about conditions at Walmart factories in Bangladesh and other countries as well as conditions in the US and how Walmart is leading an economic downturn not only here but across the globe. It was a scary podcast but great to listen to for getting a handle on just what these people are really like.

Why?

[merricatk.livejournal.com]

I mean, yes, it's appalling, but evil though Wal-Mart may be, I don't think killing customers is policy.

Am I missing something?