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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (854142)	5/4/2015 10:43:37 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Respond to of 1578864

Some think it is to punish striking workers. Wal-Mart workers: Store closings due to plumbing are 'retaliatory' by Claire Zillman April 20, 2015, 11:58 AM EDT Wal-Mart workers are fighting back against the retailer’s decision last week to close five stores in four states for what the company says are plumbing repairs. Workers at the company’s Pico Rivera, Calif. store who are associated with OUR Walmart, a group that advocates for better pay, say the closings are “retaliatory” in nature. They filed a charge with the National Labor Relations Board on Monday, claiming that the termination of more than 500 employees at the Pico Rivera Walmart constituted an unfair labor practice. Last week, the retail giant, which employs 1.3 million workers in the United States, temporarily closed five stores—two in Texas and one each in California, Florida, and Oklahoma—for six months of plumbing repairs. The stores closed at 7 p.m. on April 13, which gave workers just a few hours notice that they were losing their jobs. The company provided two months of paid leave for both full-time and part-time workers. Employees could try to transfer to a different Walmart location during that time. Full-time workers who fail to find another Walmart job are eligible for severance starting June 19, but part-time workers aren’t entitled to that benefit. A Wal-Mart spokesman told Fortune on Friday that “deciding to close a store is not a decision we make lightly, but after careful consideration, we felt it was necessary to make these repairs so we can better serve our customers and the community in the long run.” He said Wal-Mart regularly assesses the condition of its stores and that, due to ongoing plumbing issues that will require “extensive repairs,” the company would need to temporarily close the five stores. Wal-Mart says it intends to reopen them when the plumbing issues are resolved. The United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, which backs OUR Walmart, is listed as the filing party on the NLRB complaint, which claims that Wal-Mart targeted the Pico Rivera store because it has been “the center of concerted action by [workers] to improve wages and working conditions for all Walmart [workers] around the country.” The Pico Rivera store was the site of OUR Walmart’s first strike in 2012; workers at that location have participated in strikes and civil disobedience ever since. Wal-Mart’s rationale for closing the Pico Rivera store—that it must undergo extensive plumbing repairs—is a farce, the complaint says. “City officials in Pico Rivera say that nothing has been brought to their attention and no permits at all have been sought for any work,” according to the complaint. Wal-Mart temporarily shuttered the other four stores due to plumbing as a way to “mask” the retaliatory nature of the Pico Rivera closing, the complaint says. The filing asks the NLRB for injunctive relief and to compel Wal-Mart to rehire the 2,200 workers who have been terminated at all five stores. Wal-Mart contends that there is no basis for an injunction. “Each of these five locations had more than 100 plumbing problems reported over the last two years, the most out of our more than 5,000 stores in the U.S.,” the company said in a statement.... fortune.com

To: Alighieri who wrote (854142)	5/4/2015 12:41:31 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1578864

“As part of an effort to ensure all of our stores are fully serving the needs of our customers, we regularly assess the conditions of our stores. Due to ongoing plumbing issues that will require extensive repairs, we are temporarily closing the Midland store at 4517 N. Midland Dr. We will immediately begin the process to address these issues and intend to reopen the store as soon as all of the plumbing issues are resolved. Deciding to close a store is not a decision we make lightly, but after careful consideration, we felt it was necessary to make these repairs so we can better serve our customers and the community in the long run.” Any perceived connection with the impending transition to fascist dictatorship run by Obama is coincidental. However, it is a very odd event. It is very difficult to imagine the "plumbing problem" that would lead Walmart to close these stores for six months. Walmart doesn't just take off and close stores because there is some kind of problem. They fix the problem. And they don't take six months to do it. After all, which seems more likely: a) Walmart closes stores for six months to fix a plumbing problem; b) Walmart closes stores for use as relocation facilities during the Obama fascist takeover; or c) Walmart closes stores because employees are being a PITA demanding $15/hour? I think (c) is the most likely of the three, but would take it one step beyond. Walmart has closed those stores so they can be retooled as employee free on a trial basis. Automatic restocking, elimination of cashiers, trim the head count from the current few hundred to maybe 30 or 40, freeing the company of the hassle of dealing with millions of employees and reducing it to mere 100s of thousands. Oh, god. You people will croak. You'll be demanding Walmart hire unneeded employees "or else."