Quoted: I wish.gov wold swoop in and make my employer give me health ins. at all. I have none. Why did they makeWalMart give without makeing everyone give?

oh yeah, me two!   and maybe some food assistance, and a cushy .gov job with real big bennies, and and and....

stop wishing the .gov would do anything for you besides protect the borders and try to keep the highways passable.

It always comes down to the FREE MARKET!!!

The market always rules!!! (when gov't lets it)


It may be hard to believe, but there are WAL-MART retail people who make more in a year than some airline pilots!!  Small commuter and cargo airlines don't pay squat--because there are pilots practically  willing to fly for free just to get the hours..that damn market again!!

I have never understood the anti-WAL-MART arguments. I can see bashing it because you don't like going there, but that is a lot different than condemning it on principle.


Also...If someone only makes $11, 000 grand in 29 hours a week...well...nothing stops them from working somewhere else for 11 hours to get over the poverty line.

As a WalMart employee, I know that WalMart has a strong antiUnion campain, I watched a hour video on it.

Anyways there is no reason to unionize, there is nothing a Union can offer over what Walmart offers now.

Sam knew what he was doing.

Quoted: Funny thing is EVERY Wal-Mart employee, including part time have access to health care plans at pretty reasonable prices, starting around $35 a month. Wal Mart employees can actually get health care coverage while most of their competition offers squat.

I've spoken with a number of employees. They tell me the money isn't too good, but the bennies make up for it. Fwiw

Quoted: Quoted: Funny thing is EVERY Wal-Mart employee, including part time have access to health care plans at pretty reasonable prices, starting around $35 a month. Wal Mart employees can actually get health care coverage while most of their competition offers squat. I've spoken with a number of employees. They tell me the money isn't too good, but the bennies make up for it. Fwiw

Yeah the first day you work you and your family can be covered under Wlmarts intern Healthcare plan.

Ill find my Benifits book, yes its a book.

For the People that say I HATE UNIONS this is for YOU>.


People just please remember that  UNIONS are all Different....  I am a UNION  HVAC/Sheetmetal worker. and we face a lot of problems in the construction side of the "UNION" fight..  I dont agree with a lot of unions but they are not all the same..  for example we dont have seniority, paid-vacations-paid sick leave or paid any kind of leave for that matter..I can get fired at any time of the day,  we simply have to work hard and make money for our employers and we do it under a union contract..

But when you have to bid on jobs, in the consrtuction industry it always becomes a race to the bottom, that is how much less can we pay the guys in the feild to do all the work and still come out with big profits..?  

DONT forget that UNIONS gave us the "40 hour work week"   and the "weekend"....  Ya some unions take it to far, but let us not forget that there were once children working in mines in America..

Quoted: Quoted: Funny thing is EVERY Wal-Mart employee, including part time have access to health care plans at pretty reasonable prices, starting around $35 a month. Wal Mart employees can actually get health care coverage while most of their competition offers squat. I've spoken with a number of employees. They tell me the money isn't too good, but the bennies make up for it. Fwiw

They did for my Uncle and Aunt...

My Uncles wife… without high school education… went to work at Wal-Mart about 12 years ago as a cashier. Because she was willing to work she made her way into full-time in personal.

Last year she only made a little over $30,000 (not including profit sharing) … see she worked about 8 months because she had a back injury which her Wal-Mart insurance took care of via a back operation.

BTW her husband my Uncle has vasculitis a very serious form of it, which has caused his kidneys to fail… Wal-Mart insurance pays for him to have at home dialysis and treatment for his vasculitis.

Probably a $100,000+ a year in health care cost… Wal-Mart insurance has paid it for years.

If you are willing to work you can eventually do quite well at Wal-Mart.

Ask my Uncle and Aunt about Wal-Mart and you get nothing but praise.  

I dont care just as long as they keep stocking WWB 223. 9mm and Twinkies

J/K  I like Walmart, its good to see they take care of their Employees.

FREE

Quoted: Quoted: A Substantial Number of Wal-Mart Associates earn far below the poverty line In 2001, the last year for which Wal-Mart has released figures for most occupations, sales associates, the most common job in Wal-Mart, earned on average $8.23 an hour for annual wages of $13,861.The 2001 poverty line for a family of three was $14,630. [“Is Wal-Mart Too Powerful?”, Business Week, 10/6/03 and US Dept of Health and Human Services 2001 Poverty Guidelines, 2001] A 2003 wage analysis reported that cashiers, the second most common job, earn approximately $7.92 per hour and work 29 hours a week. This brings in annual wages of only $11,948. [“Statistical Analysis of Gender Patterns in Wal-Mart’s Workforce”, Dr. Richard Drogin 2003]" Wal-Mart Associates don't earn enough to support a family The national median family budget in the United States for a two-person family (one parent and one child) in 1999 was $23,705, well above the average associate's annual wages of $13,861. [“Poverty and Family Budgets” online at www.epinet.org] Wal-Mart can afford wage increases So what should WM pay for a job that requires about a 5th grade education? Is it WM's responsibility to support people who shouldn't be having kids if they don't have the means to raise them? If they don't like the pay they should acquire the skills/knowledge for a job that does! Most of the people I know started out making crap and worked their way into better situations - bitchin' & moanin' don't get it done. A career as a cashier ain't got much potential anywhere that I'm aware of.

I think you missed the point. The above is a "stat" that is derived based upon the required conclusion.

If I have 100 full time employees that make $25k and 200 part time employees that make $5k, the "average" employee only makes $10k which is below the poverty line.

We have had multiple Walmart posts with stats like that. Nearly all the so called Walmart evilness has been debunked by credible sources including ARF.COM members that ACTUALLY work at Walmart (both associate and management).

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: BTW: I think health insurance should be portable and not tied to an employer the same as car insurance. Please explain this in more detail.  I want to make sure you're saying what I think you're saying. Instead of a person being dependent on employer provided health care you can buy it yourself instead. Just like your employer does not buy your car insurance. ie. free market

You can do that. I used to when I was in independant contractor. In fact, my insurance was almost as good as it is today and was cheaper than the "copay" I pay though my current employeer.

I bought insurance for my family through BCBS VA and then BCBS FL. The coveage was what I call "good" at 1/3 the expense of COBRA.

Quoted: For the People that say I HATE UNIONS this is for YOU>. People just please remember that  UNIONS are all Different....  I am a UNION  HVAC/Sheetmetal worker. and we face a lot of problems in the construction side of the "UNION" fight..  I dont agree with a lot of unions but they are not all the same..  for example we dont have seniority, paid-vacations-paid sick leave or paid any kind of leave for that matter..I can get fired at any time of the day,  we simply have to work hard and make money for our employers and we do it under a union contract.. But when you have to bid on jobs, in the consrtuction industry it always becomes a race to the bottom, that is how much less can we pay the guys in the feild to do all the work and still come out with big profits..?   DONT forget that UNIONS gave us the "40 hour work week"   and the "weekend"....  Ya some unions take it to far, but let us not forget that there were once children working in mines in America..

You are right, all unions are different.  I work with them all the time including tinknockers.  Some have great people and are very responsible for their people while others are just cluster fucks who cause prloblems.

My company is a UNION company.  We only hire from union halls where ever we are in the country including the deep south where Mexis are easy to come by.  Problem is that anymore the Labor union is hiring ILLEGALS  to fit the bill because they cannot compete against ILLEGALS that are not unionized.  Low wages either way (union/non-union) in that case.

Just yesterday an employee came to work obviously drunk.  I called the Business Agent (BA) and told him to come out and talk with this employee.  I would not let him go to work in his condition.  The BA arrived and spoke with the employee.  Soon after he told me he would be filing a grievance against my company because "his man" was not drunk and never even drank.  Fine.  Then let's send him down for the BAC test under reasonable suspiscion guidelines.  Suddenly everyone disappeared.

My biggest bitch is that the union will support coplete dumbasses because the dumbass still pays his dues.  

Unions did give us the 40 hour workweek that allowed for weekends off (not that I get them off anyway).  They pushed for safety rules on the jobsite.

Now, I can't get a freaking guy to follow the safety rules that the previous generation cried about because its "too hard" and "takes time."  Trust me, my company had everything there and supervision to push it; guys just don't want to do it.  

When I see Mexis who barely speak English follow the rules and do their jobs right while union guys bitch and moan about it, I don't wonder why jobs have left America.