Walmart is certainly shaking things up recently. A week ago, Walmart laid off more than 11,000 of its Sam's Club workers. Two weeks before that, Walmart closed down 10 Sam's Club stores putting 1,500 jobs at risk. Since the Sam's Club layoffs, Walmart has announced other substantial institutional changes like splitting its US operations in to regions and establishing a global online organization.
Then today, Walmart announced it would laying off another 300 employees from its Bentonville, Arkansas headquarters. Just about a year ago, Walmart laid off between 700 and 800 workers from headquarters.
Between the two layoffs, Walmart has let go around 9% of the 12,000 headquarters staff.
The positions being eliminated this time around were in the corporate affairs, finance, human resources, information systems and legal departments.
We're always concerned to hear about layoffs, especially from a company that is doing so well right now, racking up billions of dollars in sales.
With a 10% cut in Sam's club staff, and a nearly 10% cut in headquarter staff, are there more layoffs on the way?
You can read more about the layoffs, and the memo from Mike Duke from the Associated Press here.
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Posted by Mike - February 4, 2010 01:05 AM
I thought Walmart was one big family? Where is the job security that all the Walmart backers talked about? Is this how top brass treats their family? What a bunch of crock.
On the other hand the company I work for ( unionized grocery store chain ) never had a layoff in company history! Ponder on that!
Posted by steve - February 4, 2010 10:30 AM
Steve-
What company are you referring to? I'd like to verify your claim, since it's so unlikely that a union-strangled company has never had layoffs.
Posted by Ike - February 4, 2010 04:24 PM
Ike
First of all do not refer to my employer as " union strangled "
Second, it is none of your business what company I work for.
I love my union job and UFCW does a great job looking out for my best interest.
Posted by steve - February 5, 2010 11:38 AM
Ike
First of all do not refer to my employer as " union strangled "
Second, it is none of your business what company I work for.
I love my union job and UFCW does a great job looking out for my best interest.
Posted by steve - February 5, 2010 11:43 AM
Since this is the second time that the layoffs of 11,000 Sam's Club workers has come up, let's take a look at it. You neglect to mention that most of the workers were part-time.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/wal-mart-up-as-sams-club-to-cut-11000-plus-jobs-2010-01-25
The vast majority of the layoffs were "demonstrators/samplers". Those are people who give out samples of select products. Those jobs are paid for by the manufacturers of the products they demonstrated. That will now be outsourced to a company called Shopper Events. Shopper Events is co-managed by two other companies.
http://www.shopperevents.com/about.html
As you can see they are Advantage Sales and Marketing and another called Crossmark. These companies specialize in the same type of in-store demonstrations and are describe as the "investors" in Shopper events.
Now, lets look a little closer at this. Crossmark, one of the companies managing Shopper Events, also performs the same work for other clients. One of those clients is the Kroger chain with their UFCW workforce.
http://www.crossmark.com/Who-We-Are/CustomerTeams.html
Why is it then that it is ok for these same people to work for the Kroger chain but not for Walmart?
Posted by tc - February 5, 2010 02:25 PM
Steve,
So, in other words, you are making unverifiable claims. You claim that your company has never had layoffs. I said, "Prove it" and you said "No." If you aren't willing to back up your claims, you probably shouldn't be making them.
Without giving verifiable info, you are just spouting some BS on the internet. You might as well claim that you make $50 an hour bagging groceries because, for all we know, that is exactly what your anonymous company does.
Posted by Ike - February 6, 2010 03:06 AM
One thing that is left at the end of the news article on this is that the executives are not laid off. If this was a cost cutting thing then the executives, who each easily "earn" more than 100 times that of the average schmuck Wal- Mart employee would be fired. They never are.
During my mercifully 18 months as a WM employee, I learned a few things about what the managers and other higher ups actually thought about the employees. Simply put, even when we worked our butts off, we were considered part of their " loss prevention" program. If you were injured, they would fight against you receiving workman's comp. And they would do all they could to avoid paying you overtime, even marking it as a strike against you if you clicked one bit over 40 hours.
I really disliked the store manager's before-holiday season " pep" talk when he started by saying "We know you will take this opportunity of a busy season to steal from us..." He did that speech both seasons I worked there. They see employees as risks, not benefits.
Maybe someone will relate what a Walton female family member said at an Arkansas Wal Mart about limiting employees toilet paper usage to one sheet. I heard about this second-hand but it typifies their mentality.
Posted by Moe - February 7, 2010 06:19 AM
Hey Ike
Why should I give out my personal info just to prove something to you. You are a nobody, i don't have to prove anything to you or anyone else. Take my word for it, the company I work for is a union supermarket chain in the midwest that never had a layoff in company history. End of conversation.
Posted by steve - February 7, 2010 03:37 PM
Steve,
I'm just pointing out that unsupported/unverifiable claims are little more than BS on the internet. People claim all kinds of crazy things on the internet. I'm assuming that you want us "nobodies" to believe what you wrote, otherwise you wouldn't have written it. If you want people to believe what you write, then you would support it with some sort of fact, or at least give enough information about your claim to make it verifiable.
If you toot a company's horn, as you seem to be doing, then I don't think I was out of line in asking you to name the company. Naming the company not only allows everyone to verify your claim, but it also allows us to put your claim in context. Not naming your company suggests that what you wrote is either untrue or that there is other information related to the company that you don't want brought up and put in context of your claim.
For example, your company may have never laid anyone off... but if 75% of its employees are part-time with no benefits, then that's not really that noteworthy because the company is obviously saving money by withholding it from their workforce. Sure it's impressive if a company can survive the UFCW for 90 years without a layoff; but not so impressive when you also learn that only 25% of the workforce gets full hours and benefits.
Bottom line; if you think everyone should just "take your word for" whatever you write without any supportive evidence, then you've got another thing coming. You're just as much a "nobody" as I am; therefore you have no personal credibility, there is only credibility in the evidence of your claim. Your claim has no evidence, just the assurance of another "nobody" that it is true.
Posted by Ike - February 8, 2010 01:30 AM
walmart cut out the district market team. that was a lot of people who had to find other jobs in the company and take pay cuts or find another company to work for. the talk is that the assistant manangers jobs are next. they created a new job title zone manangers who do what the assistant manangers used to do, except they get paid less and dont get the bonus and are hourly. they are getting rid of the dept managers (as they leave the dept they are not replaced) and the zone managers do the work. everyone is hired part time now but most work full time hours, part time = less benefits and thats what they want.
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