Oct. 16, 2006 - 11:09 MDT

MUST BE FIRE

Recently in the Rocky Mountain News on Saturday October 14 is an article of interest to me. By Sophia Pearson of Bloomberg News quoted herein in full:

WORKERS WIN VS. WAL-MART

Pa. jury orders $78 million paid in class action suit

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, owes its hourly employees in Pennsylvania $78 million for unpaid rest breaks and hours worked beyond their regular shifts, a jury ruled Friday in a class-action lawsuit."

"Jurors in state court in Philadelphia assessed the damages after two hours of deliberations."

"Thursday, the 12 member panel sided with two former Wal-Mart employees, finding the company forced workers to miss rest breaks and work later hours without pay."

"The jury said the company did provide unpaid meal breaks as required by law. Wal-Mart denied breaking any wage laws."

"The verdict was Wal-Mart's second loss in a class-action lawsuit over wages in less than a year. More than 70 similar U.S. suits have been filed against the Bentonville, Ark.-based company."

"In December, a California jury awarded $172.3 million to Wal-Mart workers for missed meal breaks. In August, the judge in the case ordered Wal-Mart to obey state laws requiring rest breaks."

"In Colorado, a decade-old lawsuit accuses Wal-Mart of a "sweatshop mentality" in which pharmacists are routinely required to work 12-hour days without lunch or rest breaks."

"Donovan's clients, ex-Wal-Mart workers Dolores Hummel and Michele Braun, sued on behalf of 186,979 present and former employees. Their lawyers claimed Wal-Mart made Pennsylvania workers skip more than 33 million rest breaks from 1998 to 2001 to boost productivity and curb labor costs."

"Wal-Mart executives testified in the first phase of the trial that the company required workers to take scheduled breaks and didn't ignore employees complaints. Records showed some workers chose not to take breaks or neglected to sign out, company officials said."

" Former Wal-Mart employees testified they were pressured by store managers to skip breaks and cut meals short. Two cashiers claimed they were locked in stores after their shifts ended and forced to stock merchandise."

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Having worked many places, both union and non-union I have seen this "sweat shop mentality" in maximum operation. Pressure from above kept many people from their rest breaks and pressured into eating while working as well. Lucky were the ones who dared go to the restroom on their shift.

Corporate tests and experiments long ago proved that workers given uninterrupted lunch breaks and two coffee breaks a day were much more productive than those who did not enjoy having such things.

Makes me remember what people who worked at the drydock where I was employed for a while called supervisors: "pushers." And at that place that is exactly what they were.

So, I am not a witness to Wal-Mart shenanigans but what I read falls into familiar territory for me. So, where there is all that smoke, there MUST BE FIRE . . . . . . . . . .

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