Detroit schools offer class in how to work at Walmart

[katty]

more: http://rawstory.com/2010/02/detroit-schools-offer-class-work-walmart/

By Muriel Kane
Friday, February 12th, 2010 -- 12:40 pm


Walmart has been widely condemned for offering its employees only low-paying, dead end jobs. Even President Obama criticized Hillary Clinton during the 2008 presidential campaign for having served on Walmart's board and stated that the firm ought to pay "a living wage."

In inner-city Detroit, however, where the unemployment rate is estimated at an astonishing 50%, the prospect of a Walmart job may appear far more attractive.

Four inner-city Detroit high schools have decided that employment with Walmart is an opportunity worth training their students to pursue. The schools have teamed up with the giant merchandiser to offer a for-credit class in job-readiness training that also includes entry-level after-school jobs.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. What's the difference between passing and failing?

[TwilightGardener]

2. I know that since it's WalMart, it's going to be stomped to death here.

But there IS some merit to preparing teens for the world of work, no matter how lowly the job--things like, wear nice clothes to the interview, fill out the application legibly and fully, the customer is always right, maintain good hygiene, show good manners. Some kids really need this.

[salguine]

19. Your surname isn't "Walton", is it?

[TwilightGardener]

21. Ha! Srsly, I neither love nor hate WalMart. I shop there sometimes, and

it's pretty much the same as all the other big discount chains, IMO. I've worked in one that was similar, my husband actually worked at WalMart for a (thankfully brief) time, they're all kinda sucky in their own way. I don't see it as the devil incarnate, just a more successful version of the usual bad practices.

[WestSeattle2]

34. Exactly. Target and other similar retailers don't treat their

employees any better than Wal-Mart does theirs; Wally-World just receives all the bad press while the others skate.

[wolfgangmo]

25. And they could still teach those skills

And not have public education classes become part of the Walton's HR department.

[KittyWampus]

29. No kidding. And the DU'ers who don't grasp that have no experience working with disadvantaged

youth or they'd know that to be the case.

[endless october]

3. they need to have a class on how to unionize a walmart.

[salguine]

20. .

[Little Star]

23. +1

[wolfgangmo]

24. Bam - we have a winner.

Yes.

Walmart closed the last Walmart that unionized, which is what they always do. Frankly I will never step into one of their stores. They are pure evil and have done more to offshore jobs in the US than any other single factor.

For that reason alone they will never see any money from me.

[LongTomH]

27. I'll second that!!!!!!!

Walmart closed the last Walmart that unionized, which is what they always do. Frankly I will never step into one of their stores. They are pure evil and have done more to offshore jobs in the US than any other single factor.

For that reason alone they will never see any money from me.

Right on!!!! Right F***king on!!!!!! Walmart is the Evil Empire!:patriot:

[bluestateguy]

4. I remember reading once that Detroit did not have a single full scale supermarket

Is this true? You would think Meijer or Kroger or Wal-Mart Supercenter would try to take advantage of that.

[izquierdista]

8. There's a reason for that

Supermarkets chase money too. They want to locate in upscale neighborhoods where people can spend their disposable income on high mark-up items. They can't make much money selling potatoes, pasta, and bags of rice to those with low incomes.

[proudohioan]

18. What a wonderful opportunity for Wal-mart

to participate in Michelle Obama's Obesity Campaign by being the first supermarket to open up in the "food desert" of inner-city Detroit.

There are tax and other government incentives that were intended for this very purpose.

IMO, that would be more beneficial to the community than training inner-city kids at one of their suburban stores. Kids would be closer to work, community would have access to low cost, nutritious groceries. Sounds like a win-win situation to me.

[Cleita]

5. Oh man, we as a nation are truly fracked if Wal-Mart is the good job.

When I was a young woman, jobs at Sears, Monky Wards and Penneys were always considered fall back jobs in case you were out of work. Today Wal-Mart and K-Mart would have been the fall back jobs. They always needed help because they were so low paying. You only worked at them to pay the rent and survive and when you found a better job in your field, you moved on.

[KittyWampus]

7. It's an entry level job. My first job outside my family business was cashier at Gristedes.

And that is probably the case with a lot of Americans.

Who said Walmart was considered the "good job"?

It's -A- job. Entry level.

And it's especially an entry level job for students and people who have no working experience and come from backgrounds where they not might have been exposed to functionally working (for whatever reason) adults.

Hence the need to take and give "Job Readiness" lessons.

[Cleita]

9. Back in my day, when I was in school during the Eisenhower administration,

there was no problem getting after school part time jobs at the stores I mentioned with on the job "paid" training. It sure shows how the times have changed.

[KittyWampus]

12. My job as cashier in the late 70's was unionized and I made double time on Sudays!

[Cleita]

16. My telephone company job was unionized. I made double on Sundays too,

time and a half for overtime and I got paid for training the first three weeks as well. The money was nice back in those days.

[Tansy_Gold]

30. My union cashier job in 2005 paid $7/hour, no overtime, no double time

But I had to listen while the "grandfathered" cashiers who voted for that contract blamed me and my "new-hire" comrades for keeping them from getting their $34/hour Sunday pay.

See, in order to keep their "living wage" rates, they agreed to a contract that would allow new hires to come in at considerably less. When the store scheduled us "peons" for Sunday, the "old timers" bitched that they were being cheated by us newbies. So guess what happened? The store HAD to let the old-timers work Sundays, and they bid for the slow times, so they got to work for $34/hour (and some made even more than that) from 5:00 A.M. to 12:00 noon. Then WE came on when church was letting out, but since the wage budget had been eaten up by the $34/hour folks, fewer of us were put on the schedule. That meant we had to work harder, for a fucking hell of a lot less pay.

I support unions and I support collective bargaining, but when the rank and file union members themselves vote for a two-tier contract, then they do not get my support.


Tansy Gold, who believes solidarity is solidarity, not "I've got mine now you go scratch"

[Cleita]

31. The Taft Hartley Act was the beginning of the watering down of the unions.

We were backed by the Teamsters. You didn't say who your union was. Get the Taft Hartley Act repealed and you will see the rise of unions as a real force for labor. Back in my day a two tier contract wouldn't have even made it on paper.

[Tansy_Gold]

35. UFCW in Southern California and Arizona

in the Kroger grocery chain, the contract negotiated as a result of the strike in 2002, 2003, something like that.

The companies negotiated from the standpoint of "needing" to keep wages down because of competition from, you guessed it, Walmart.




Tansy Gold, who also spent 13 months as a Walmart cashier. . . . .

[Cleita]

36. I talk to the grocery checkers in my area and they have been screwed by

the companies in such bad ways. I don't blame the unions so much as much as they can't do much without laws that back them. I watched Albertson's quit my local store and it was sold to Ralph's. The Albertson's employees were told they had to go with Ralph's to keep their seniority and pensions. Then in a couple of years Albertson's opened a new store, with new employees a mile up the road. It's still there. Ralph's closed and it's now a Ross's. No food. None of the old employees are working there. They have to travel fifteen or more miles to Ralph's that are still open. The new Albertson's employees, although union don't have the benefits that the first one's did. Talk about a perfect union bust. I'm telling you. You guys really have to gang up.

[wolfgangmo]

26. look for more of this around the country

As Walmart has figured yet another way to socialize their costs at the publics expense.

And there are those who will see this news and respond with a deafening yawn.

[burning rain]

22. Walmart is America's largest employer & the service industry is a huge part of the economy.

If you accept people who work in that sector being paid crap wages and offered negligible benefits, you are accepting mass poverty. The line that service industry jobs are just entry level positions for students and people new to the work force, and that therefore it's OK to pay these folks poverty wages, is a conservative talking point, and largely untrue. Many people try to make a life and raise a family on a service industry job. And that's leaving aside the nasty assumption that's fine to exploit students and new workers...

[KittyWampus]

28. my comments stand and your point about wages is irrelevant to the need for job readiness training.

Whether it's an entry level position for minimum wage or an entry position for a living wage, some people didn't grown up with the advantage of having someone teach them how to get and hold a job.

[burning rain]

32. See, that's the problem.

The "entry level" talking point covers the fact Walmart pays all its employees non-living wages, however experienced they are, however long they've worked there. They pay the 17-year old working for the first time a non-living wage, and they pay the 50-year old employee who's been working for Walmart 20 years a non-living wage. Same throughout most of the service industry, even people cooking or baking at family restaurants for 10 years.

[KittyWampus]

6. Job Readiness is a necessary course for many young people and citizens in rehabilitation

or getting help from the state or coming from a disadvantaged background.

It's not like babies come out of the womb knowing how to get a job, function at that job and keep that job. Even a basic entry level job at Walmart. And if you come from a family or circumstances where your parent/guardian doesn't have these skills, where are kids to get them?

Here is one abstract I just found googling "Job Readiness Skills":

Designed for professionals in rehabilitation settings, this curriculum guide presents fifteen lessons that focus on preparing to seek a job, job seeking, and job maintenance.

Among the lesson titles included in the guide are

(1) How to Find the Right Job and Categories of Jobs
(2) Self-Expressed Interests and Attitudes for Specific Jobs
(3) Completing an Application for Employment
(4) Using the Telephone to Contact an Employer and Self-Evaluating Your Grooming for a Job Interview
(5) Behaviors That Are Acceptable or Unacceptable for an Individual During a Job Interview and Special Concerns for the Disabled,
(6) Acceptable Behaviors Which You Should Exhibit on the Job and Good Work Habits
(7) Getting the Most out of Life through Advancement on the Job and a Question and Answer Conclusion on Job Readiness Training.

Each lesson follows a typical format that includes the following parts: lesson title, objectives, outline, reference materials, information sheets, and worksheets. Transparency masters, audiovisual references, and assessment instruments are appended.

[madmom]

10. I don't think it's a bad idea at all, not just Walmart but any retail job. When I

worked in the walmart deli I had younger workers always asking me what is 1/3 pound on a digital scale, stuff like that. If the registers didn't tell them how much change to give they wouldn't know. Not to mention you don't show up at interviews in torn jeans or with your friends and or kids. I think this is smart.

[proudohioan]

11. One question.....

The article states that the students live in inner-city Detroit, yet the location of the Wal-mart is in the "suburbs".

How are those kids going to get to and from work? How far away is the Wal-mart from their homes?

I know here in Cleveland, a lot of RTA routes have been changed or discontinued; I am imagining that the Detroit bus system is probably in the same boat.

I have certain skeptical misgivings about this "opportunity" coming from Wal-mart, and I'm not sure that the motives are purely selfless. But that could also be my own personal bias stemming from years of bad Wal-mart publicity.......

t.

[KittyWampus]

13. I could easily imagine learning how to read bus schedules & allotting enough time

to get to work when you are supposed to.

Even where I live they are cutting back on mass transit. And it sucked to start with.

Long Island Railroad is talking about cutting ALL service out to/from the North Fork except for Summer.

[proudohioan]

14. Yeah, I could too; it doesn't take a rocket scientist...

in fact, at 13 yrs old, my daughter was taking public transportation to and from her charter school.

However, when services and routes are cut back, that normally 20 minute bus ride could easily turn into a 2 hour, 2 transfer headache, which, while not impossible, would not seem terribly practical, especially if the kids were working until closing. Why not a store closer to the neighborhoods?

Just a thought.

[liberal N proud]

15. We have dumbed down this far

A sign that the school system in Detroit is giving up on having it's student achieve anything more than Wal-Mart.

[depakid]

33. It really is impressive that this passes for vocational training anywhere

[Mopar151]

17. I 've worked with a bunch of student interns over the years

I can think of several BS canidates who could have used this training. One of the best ever was a slumlord's kid - he knew how to organize himself, he was thorough, and he stuck with the job and got it done! And you did'nt have to kick his ass every 15 minutes to get him to clean up, or sweep the floor.
When I did hiring for entry-level jobs, I had a rule of thumb - I can teach people skills, I don't have time to teach them how to work.

[mbperrin]

37. We used to teach micro-entrepreneurial skills at our high school.

But the English department complained that it was undignified to have any sort of commercial enterprise in the school. They won.

After all, as one of the teachers pointed out to me, "We just need to teach them to count change. It's not like these kids will ever amount to anything."

So I still teach a unit (quietly) on how to start a really tiny business, using a maximum of $20 in cash and skills and assets already owned or known. Goal: 200% of minimum wage as a return, starting in 5 days from the founding. Results? 70% of our kids have done just that in the last ten years.

Well, we have to do something with the time we have. But if minimum wage employers want training for their hires, they need to pay them and do it on the job. Yet another expense socialized and profits privatized.