Walmart's union paranoia

[addy]

I heard about Walmart being a pretty bad employer, but I didn't know to what extent they clamped down on unions (while denying anything of the sort):

How Walmart Trains Managers
"We had an entire day devoted to word phrasing, looking at how employees use words and what key words to look for. A computer test consisted of a “what’s wrong with this picture?” game. You were shown the area near a time clock, and different handmade and computer-made signs. One sign said “Baby shower committee meeting Jan. 26, 8 pm.” Another said “Potluck Wednesday all day in break room.” Which one of those signs should raise alarms with management?

“Baby shower committee.” Because of the word “committee,” a manager would have to find the person who made the sign, find out why they used that word, then determine if the action got a warning or a write-up. If it was the store manager who found the sign, a write-up was almost guaranteed. They called it unlawful Walmart language, unbecoming a Walmart employee—words like “committee,” “organize,” “meeting.” Even “volunteer” was an iffy word, and they would raise an eyebrow at “group.” "


Holy hell. Is that even legal for a company?

[Leanne]

Not a chance in hell that would be allowed to happen in Australia. Employee rights are very strongly protected, regardless of which party is in government -- the Labor Party protects workers because they are egalitarian leaning towards socialist, and the Liberal Party because they understand that very self-evident truth that a well-trained and happy worker is more productive and represents a greater asset to the company than a disgruntled, frightened or disenfranchised worker.

But hey, the US is the corporation nation, I'm sure their way is the best...

[billy]

it used to be like that in the uk before thatcher, that said, management still couldn't pull such stunts, they'd get taken to an industrial tribunal hehe, walmart does seem to be a nasty company to work for. unlawful walmart language. since when did walmart make the law for anything. doesn't it boarder of an infringement of human rights?

[addy]

Yeah, it seems so weird that the US government doesn't have anything to say about it...really? Nothing?

There's a section on anti-unionism in the Walmart wiki article as well. Awful stuff. Walmart immediately closes down branches where the employees vote to unionize, coming up with some bogus reason for the decision ("it's a money pit", "we don't like the business plan", etc etc).

It appears they just want their workers to be fake-happy (smiling at customers, memorizing slogans) rather than actually happy.