Retail SLAVE LABOR and the So-Called "Robust Economy:" How Companies are Screwing Retail Employees!

[The Cleaner]

I heard this today from a friend of mine who works in retail for a home and garden company called Garden Ridge in Dallas, Texas.

Retail is tough. I mean real tough. Many (if not most) retail outlets are so strict on getting to work on time you literally feel like you'll lose your job if just ONE thing happens to make you late for work. And once you get there, the company forces you to wait around off the clock until the exact time you're scheduled. Taking any kind of leave time is looked down upon these days. I've worked retail - it's like a jail sentence. Low pay, hard work, dealing with customers, getting harassed by rotten bosses, always on edge that one mistake - just one tiny mistake - can cost you your job.

Now here's what I heard today. My friend told me that basically everybody underneath management level has had their hours seriously cut. Full-time status has been taken away from those who have shown loyalty and have been at the company long-term. Because nobody (who was previously at "full time" status) can meet the hourly requirements for health insurance anymore, they've lost their coverage.

One lady who worked at the store was counting on her coverage. But just as she was about to have her baby, which of course is costly these days, the company pulled the rug out from under her, reduced her working hours, thus kicking her off her health insurance.

Here's the story. In the wealthiest country in the world, our service workers are now essentially slaves. The new landowners, American corporations, can run roughshod all over them because they know the workers are expendible. Treat them poorly to keep the bottom line going; we can always hire more, they say.

"Well it's their fault," some people say, "they should get an education, then get a better job." Oh yeah? How's a single mother of three whose husband ran out on her supposed to come up with the money (or time) for that? How's any company going to hire a Pizza Hut waitress as their new Manager of Public Relations?

I think of the "robust economy" and then I think of all those who are truly hurting out there. It's sad. What's the good of a robust economy if large segments of the American population cannot benefit from it.

[patrice]

1. So Sad.

We're supposed to buy into this system with no questions asked whether it serves our interests or not. Just shut-up and work harder and you too can be Sam Walton.

[The Cleaner]

3. Sad thing is, it's rare to break into management level anymore.

There's a glass ceiling at the management level nowadays. Very few retail workers make it to management level. They're lucky if they do. It mirrors the working world in general these days - working your way up the ladder is almost non-existent. The managers are hired amongst themselves, and the lower-paid workers are kept in a sort of permanent underclass.

[patrice]

12. Yep, that's called career networking, "Me and my friends take care

of one another. Other people's skill sets and apptitudes for the work don't matter."

Watch it get worse as the military bribes foreigners with U.S. citizenship to fight our Wars of Choice for us. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/The_United_States/American_military_mulls_recruiting_non-citizens/articleshow/954481.cms

Military colleagues will take care of one another when they becomes citizens in need of employment. We'll never be able to prevent Corporations from starting whatever wars they want if they've got an endless supply of immigrants to do the fighting. Then those immigrant soldiers turned citizens will work in our economy until its time to go home (to some country that has not been as polluted by unbridled commercialism) and pass their jobs on to their children who can then do the same thing.

[raccoon]

45. Thanks for the link. I figured this was coming, it just makes me sick. nt

[Morgana LaFey]

36. Right, and ya know what? Ya know what really frosts me?

I go into fabric stores -- and let's be clear about that: 99% of all customers of fabric stores are WOMEN -- and the managers are overwhelmingly male.

Frosts me big time. In fact, I think I'm going to start complaining about it.

[NashVegas]

53. And It's So Much Worse With Consolidation

There are even fewer management jobs - real, decision-making jobs that give one a chance to prove their merit - available.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. This is the walmart model

and the only way it will end is when every retail worker in every retail establisment across the land walks off the job and refuses to go back until unions and union protections are in place

[spinbaby]

6. Shop unionized stores if you can

Locally, here in Pittsburgh, the Giant Eagle grocery chain is unionized.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. I do both raphs and Henry's are

[Sherman A1]

22. Agreed

Retail could never be completely Union even in the most ideal circumstances, however if more chains and stores were unionized the others would need to stay in the game by providing decent working conditions, wages and benefits. The problem of course is that we are currently on the other end of the spectrum where Unionized employers are having to compete with those that practice these types of worker abuses. The very least we can do is not shop at these establishments when we learn of their behavior, the next thing we can do is to let those employers know that we will not be shopping there and will pass on our feelings to others. It might not be much, but it is a start to help protect retail workers, who educated or not (and I work with some great folks at the Retail Grocery Store at which I am employed, who have degrees and many that do not, but are far from being stupid) deserve to be treated with respect for the work and service that they provide to both the employer and the customer. A fair day's work deserves a fair day's wage.

[cut.your.crap]

49. Union is not necessary

I've been a trucker. I've had the Teamsters try to get into every job I've had. They are very persistent. They will get a large chunk of money from you. Your job will change. Not necessarily improve. I've worked retail as well.
I can say I never considered joining a union, because to most working people, they are outdated and parasitic. Most people who support unions have no clue what they are saying. They don't work these jobs, they just shoot their mouths off.
What really needs to happen is government has to step in and change laws so working people aren't in poverty. Want to support a non-union, fair treatment retailer? Shop at Aldi grocery stores. Very cheap. Very basic. Good to their help. Mostly the poor shop there. Aldi is the exception, it should be the rule.

[Cassandra]

4. When somebody says...

"they should get an education, then get a better job", that doesn't really solve the problem. There still exists a job that needs a warm body who is treated badly and underpaid. Even if the current occupant does better, someone will still suffer in that job.

[Union Thug]

5. thanks for this. Further proof of just how far employers will

go to screw their employees. It's time for renewed labor organizing and increased direct action against employers. We may only be in the early stages of the rebirth of a labor movement in this country, but if conditions continue to erode for the US worker, expect blowback.

[peacetalksforall]

7. High level employees like lower level employees get to train their Indian

replacement who either comes here to train or the employee gets shipped there to train. Highly paid people are training their replacmements in certain sectors.

[The Cleaner]

10. I've always wondered, WHY do employees acquiesce to this!

Are they threatened that they may lose their severance pay if they refuse to train their Indian replacements? It's like, they're getting laid off anyway, and they know it. I'd give them the finger, then promptly tell them to train THIS. Then I'd walk out.

Why do people acquiesce to this kind of mistreatment??

[CrispyQ]

26. Financial desperation.

They need the x number of weeks pay.

[The Cleaner]

39. I can see that, BUT...

What about principle? And could a person use his/her savings to cover?

I know it's difficult financially and in all other ways, I've been laid off a time or two myself. But if every American worker told his/her boss they're refusing to train their Indian replacement out of principle, don't you think that could have stemmed the tide of outsourcing American jobs, just a little?

And what if it got in the press that workers were pissed, REFUSING to train their Indian replacements? Wouldn't that have been bad PR for companies, with added pressure from the public and from lawmakers? And maybe it would have curtailed American jobs being outsourced?

Just a thought.

[WinkyDink]

28. Oh, I don't know. Rent, maybe? Food? Children's medical needs?

WTH??

[blues90]

32. Also there is that "at will clause "

I worked hard and finally became a manager . I worked for ford dealerships for 30 years .

I was fired after 12 years without even being a good reason why or the details , I was told some things are not tolerated . I could never get the answer to what I did since in the entire 12 years I was never written up for one single problem .

Now if I were female or none white then they had to give three writeups and I was involved in all the processes with write ups . They protected themselves from sexual harassment or discrimination that way .

At will is a way they can fire you for no reason at all , you stay because it's your will and they fire you if that's their will .

Also it got to the point if you were ill they took a vacation day away .

Now it's impossible to find another job like this and most all jobs here pay an average of $10 per hour , you can't find one let alone two so you are screwed unless you happen to be set in a valued job these dyas and even then anything can happen . and then bam you are done to start all over t the bottom with no way to get further up the long ladder .

[The Cleaner]

38. Yeah, I like how companies paint "at will employment" to YOUR benefit

when in reality the purpose of at will employment is to screw the employees and prevent lawsuits against the company for wrongful termination. They'll say someting like, "at will employment is beneficial to you because you're not signing a contract." I call bull on that one.

I seem to remember a European country (France?) that tried to switch over to at-will employment but people, particularly college students, protested. That was maybe, 1-2 years ago.

[raccoon]

47. That sucks. I live in an "at will" employment state too.

"I could never get the answer to what I did since in the entire 12 years I was never written up for one single problem . "

Do you have an idea what it was? My first guess (and of course I know nothing about your situation) is they wanted to put somebody else in your job.

My second guess would be, somebody higher up didn't want you there; maybe felt threatened by you. Especially if you were more competent than s/he.

[NashVegas]

55. We've Become Dependent on Two-Income Families, That Doesn't Help

It used to be the secondary income was a bonus. Now, it's required.

[DaveJ]

8. They also discriminate more that private companies

My wife works for a big box hardware store and every person they hired, except one maybe, into the early management trainee program was a white male under 30. Most older women who go to work there quit after a few weeks. The store could care less. They never listen to what their employees think, only customers, but then they don't acknowledge the fact that their employees ARE the community.

My wife is one of the few willing to show up at 5:30 a.m. every single day, and they hire people in their early 20s full time, and let them stumble in at late hours because they were partying the night before... the young ones get treated like royalty. When the young ones stumble in with their hangovers at 10 or 11 in the morning, it's time for my wife to go home. Those with families to support are treated like scum.

But they don't care if they discriminate. They apparently think having younger employees might attract a few more customers. And that's all that matters... making their shareholders a few more dollars. They are literally willing to destroy lives if it will make a shareholder 25 cents more.

[Yavin4]

9. This Is Why People Formed Unions

I've said this a million times on this board. Workers are going to get screwed over and over again on everything from working conditions, to healthcare, to pay, etc. unless and until they are willing to form a union.

If you're not willing to form a union, then get use to the harsh treatment, and do not expect the politicians to help you.

[DaveJ]

13. I hope you're not saying they deserve it

Do you think workers at these big box stores have any power? They tried and failed to start unions at Wal-mart for decades and since then Wal-marts power has become practically omnipotent. Same goes for the other big box stores riding on Wal-mart's coat tails.

It IS the government's responsibility to do something about corporations' power being out of hand.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. The federal government has to strenthen the Warner

Act and make it apply to every state of the union, but workers are also partly responsible. They NEED to pull out of work, every store, across the nation at the same time

The reason that Walmart has been succesful is that if you try to unionize piecemeal worst case they close a single store. They can afford to do that. They could not afford to close every store in the United States and start all over

[DaveJ]

17. Who can organize such a thing?

A part time worker making 8 dollar an hour?

As you insinuated below, since the employees are living paycheck to paycheck, when they can't pay rent, they AND their kids become homeless.

Then, they lose their kids to child protective services on top of that. I guess that's why the younger ones get treated better -- the older ones have less power to react. At any rate, the pull-out idea won't work, and the employees are not to blame for it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. So you want pure Marxist theory

or how you organize unions in US History?

It has been done in the past in the US, by the workers themselves... and it is being done RIGHT NOW by the service workers internatioal...

By the way the union organizers for the service workers are working with a mostly immigrant population that knowns unions are not that bad, since unions that are far stronger, exist in their home countries.

Back in the early 1900s workers didn't make much more (comparatively) than they make today. they were also on the edge of starvation. They also were organized by mostly immigrant populations, so perhaps that is where the seed is.

It has to be the workers, and the tools are all over the place. But the first thing that they need to understand is that Unions are not ugly, the companies themselves run quite a bit of anti-union bullshit in employee training, so your first step is to convince them that they need a union.

That is where we may come in. Plant the idea, you never know where it will flourish.

By the way my friend did not know about the Warner Act, which gives him a right to organize and unionize in California since this is NOT a right to work state.

[DaveJ]

23. Nice thought

When I said that people will lose their children, that is not a joke. I don't think child protective services was such a threat in the early 1900s. Parents would rather die than lose their kids. All we can do is be taken advantage of and hope our kids turn out better. These corporations prey on our basic needs. They are more powerful than they were then.

Again it would be nice if we could do this without help, but the government helping would make it much more plausible. That's all I'm saying.

[Yavin4]

29. Corporations Are No More Powerful Today Than They Were in 1900

They literally killed striking workers in the streets.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

56. read up on the Ludlow Massacre in Colorado in 1914

and the 1888 Haymarket Riots. And Henry Ford.

[Selatius]

31. The government has often been ambivalent towards worker causes.

The only time it really seemed pro-worker was when there was a serious threat of a worker-led revolution to topple the government, and the government really only passed pro-worker laws in the blackest depths of the Great Depression in a desperate bid to circumvent the possibility of a general rebellion. Each day there were hundreds of food riots, and unemployed workers were out in the streets, and they were pissed, especially at the cavernous gap between themselves and many of the wealthy industrialists and bankers on Wall Street who were once their employers.

[nadinbrzezinski]

33. And we are quickly entering the same territory

When you look at the stats of the breakdown of wealth we are quickly aproaching those numbers

Once workers figure they have precious little to loose... well you know the movie becuase yuo have studied it.

[nadinbrzezinski]

34. Ok correct me if I am wrong

but where exactly are the Pinkertons right now?

They are not killing your local workers, are they?

And by the way, the workers need to be hungry enough to organize, the government cannot help beyond things like the Warner Act and enforcing it. Our current government has no interest in enforcing the Warner act.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. I was talking to a friend of mine

last night. He works for a retailer... a large one, and things are getting worst every day

So I said what I said above, his answer, well in Cali they will hire our neighbors from the south who are willing to work for 6.50 an hour.

I pointed out to him that until all stores for the chain he works for are unionized they will continue to abuse them, period

He is worried only about food on table.

He is concerned about the micro matters of what am I going to eat tomorrow.

He spends 14-16 hours a day going back and forth from work, his choice to a point since he chose to live in TJ since it is cheaper, more or less, at least rents are.

But the point is... his attitude is pervasive and the company's anti union diatribes don't help

[MorningGlow]

11. Get an education?!?

I must protest. I worked retail in the mid-'90s and nearly everyone in the store, including me, had a master's degree. We were all unemployed teachers who didn't feel like moving to Texas or Japan wherever there was a teacher shortage that year; instead, we slung books and music and bided our time till the market opened up (or we gave up and chose a different profession--whichever came first). Harumph.

[HughBeaumont]

18. Degrees are starting to become like a height requirement.

I'm not sure of the numbers, but hasn't the number of people taking MBAs in something increased 1,000-fold from 15 years ago? At the place where I work, I couldn't tell you how many people are getting their MBAs. Pretty soon, an MBA is going to be as valuable as a high-school diploma; when everyone has one, that renders you a non-entity despite the hours upon hours upon hours of work and sacrifice it takes to acheive one. The process of getting a degree is PAINFUL; ask anyone who has to come from a 9-to-12 hour workday and has to spend 1-3 MORE hours in a night class, then has to do whatever super-involved project or homework assignment they're doled out for that class.

All of this effort only to come into a market where everyone had the same idea you did. In other words they, like you, did what they were told to do and found out they were sold a moldy bill of goods. Not only are we going to have a job market filled with thousands upon thousands of individuals with MBAs fighting for jobs that pay only a little (not a lot) more than they had previously, but we also have to compete with overseas competition that outnumber us 50 to 1.

When does the degree carousel stop, when all of us are PhDs whether our field requires it or not? And where does this leave the people with only a HS diploma looking for a bachelors? Where are THEY going to get in the door?

Do the worker-blamer, corporate-enablers STILL think degrees are the answer? Yes they help, but when does over-saturation come into play?

[DaveJ]

21. Fifteen years ago?

According to this ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Educational_attainment_in_the_United_States ) people with degrees appears to have only increased a few percentage points since 1990.

It does not explain the fact that we are treated like scum by corporations. It's just another excuse they will use.

[WinkyDink]

30. Hence : CANNON FODDER.

[raccoon]

48. Right on!

"Yes they help, but when does over-saturation come into play?"

It did that a long time ago.

[butterfly77]

20. Education is nothing these days...

Its the "who you know" syndrome that is taking place in the job market today.

[lovuian]

24. We NEED UNIVERSAL HEALTH ...soon NOBODY

will be able to pay the exorbitant Health Insurance out there

[Vincardog]

25. We NEED UNIVERSAL HEALTH now roger that

[WinkyDink]

27. Barbara Ehrenreich.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_and_Dimed
This book should be required reading in our schools.

The OP should also be read by whoever thinks "America" and its values ought to be forced upon others.

[sweetheart]

35. sausages

The future is in proving the outputs of labour are contained in a sausage by kapital,
stuffed in a little condom of reanimated republicana alight with criminal inscence.

Soylent green indeed

[ikojo]

37. It's not only retail where people are treated this

way...I've processed health insurance claims and have worked as a customer service rep for a couple of insurance companies. Both jobs suck. Too much overtime and not enough "me" time.

[mdmc]

40. two parties

under corporate rule. Changes are needed!

[Skidmore]

41. Corporations are screwing everyone from

the lineworker in manufacturing to the retail person to the consumer. Time to pull all the fine subsidies they get. How many times do you know of special tax incentives and other such deals to entice one of these bloodsucking entities to a community? They have pillaged the land and made the people dependent on them. How many people do you know who would have the foggiest clue about how to survive without access to the nearest box store or strip mall?

[mdmc]

43. kick

:toast:

[CrispyQ]

54. They are bloodsuckers,

sucking the life blood out of humanity & our planet.

Artificial entities with rights, no sense of community & no responsibility other than profit.

[seabeyond]

42. not everyone is college material. doesnt mean they are throw away

or are not an asset to our society. not everyone has an iq that is college level. not everyone has the character or ability to do college and finish it. i think it is absolutely absurd to say, why dont they go to college and get a degree. if they are so smart than they should realize lots of circumstances stop lots of people from doing college. there are positions and jobs people can do that are vital to our survival and success that does not need college but does need a skill. those have to be paid a living wage, like in the past.

but i feel it is ridiculous to suggest all one needs is a college education. if every person recieved a college degree, the degree would become meaniless.

[Nikia]

44. A lot of college graduates now have jobs that don't require college degrees

There are fields that didn't use to require a degree, but now require it or almost always give it to someone with a degree. Quite a few retail people do have degrees and at some stores that is the only thing that gives them a chance of some day becoming a manager.

[pitohui]

46. well it already is in many, many cases

if every person recieved a college degree, the degree would become meaniless.


the education industry is just that, an industry, sold to all comers who will pay the money or take out a loan, naturally all of these do not end up w. jobs at the end of it, they just end up w. debt

[mdmc]

50. sad

:kick:

[THUNDER HANDS]

51. one of the women i work with at wal-mart got her hours cut from 40 to 8

yeah, 8. One day a week. She has to quit now because who can afford to live working 8 hours a week?

It's so sad, all the cashiers and door greeters and being forced out. They want to make the sales associates have to ring people up and help people on the floor.

[leftofthedial]

52. this is an "ownership society"

a repuke dream

get with the program

get a whip and some slaves for yourself

that's the capitalist way

[Minnesota_Lib]

57. When I worked for Target Corp, those of us whom worked at the corporate offices were told....

...to never, ever tell people who worked in the stores what we earned. Apparently they are paid really low wages and I guess corporate didn't want any morale issues.

Also, I heard the cashiers are dogged by supervisors to sign people up for Target credit cards. Performance evaluations and raises for both the cashiers and their supervisors are weighted heavily by the number of cards they move. Target is also heavily involved in sweat shops overseas (see link below).

BTW, a former co-worker and friend of mine once applied to work in Target's PAC. While waiting for his interview, a PAC employees approached him and asked him about his personal political affiliation. He told him he was a liberal Dem. The guy laughed, according to Kevin, and told him that he wasted his time applying. He didn't get the job (Kevin thought the employee was sent to ask him specifically about politics and then reported back to the interviewer but he could not prove it).

Target's politics and the crappy way they treat their store teams soured me on that company and I finally quit.

http://www.knowmore.org/index.php/Target_Corporation

2003-2004 Election Cycle Contribution Statistics: Target Corp.

Total Spent: $212,440.00

* 17.13% to Democratic Party candidates
* 82.06% to Republican Party candidates
* 0% to Other candidates

TARGETCITIZENS POLITICAL FORUM

2004 Election Cycle Contributions:

$173,240 (21.00% Dem, 78.00% Rep, 0.00% Other)

Plus, Target's CEO, Bob Ulrich, was a big supporter of Minnesota's newest rightwing, fundie nutcase congresswoman, Michelle Bachman (one of her big campaign issues was the elimination of regulations on corporations).

So now I am going to work for another large national retailer at their HQ here in Minnesota. I am not even going to look up who they donate to. I can't afford it. LOL

[951-Riverside]

58. I love how some people attack wal-mart yet ignore these farms and factories who

continue to exploit people who are here illegally.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

59. I've worked retail and it's tough

I've had idiot customers at 7 am and 12 midnight, and idiot bosses that yelled at me and then yelled at me to STOP CRYING. All this in the store, behind the counter. If there had been any customers, they would have seen it. The folks in the next dept. over probably heard it. I know how awful retail is. Your ankles swell, your head hurts, etc.

And that law degree got me a long way in the business world, didn't it??? :sarcasm:

[mdmc]

60. Many folks like you out there

peace and low stress