RRC Archives

where the hell have you been??

So your point is what..... I don't get it Chester.

kinda put's that campaign / marketing tool to bed

I hear what you are saying Chester. Pretty freakin sad.

While I'm all for smacking down the weasels at SprawlMart, it sure sucks for the actual people arrested (so far). I wonder if they were even making minimum wage. Isn't it great that the folks with the mops and buckets are in jail right now, but the contractors who hired them (and profited off of their work) are cozy in bed. I'm pessimistic that any WalMart execs are going to do any real jail time.

Part of the irony for me is that the very company that is so virulently anti-union becomes a case study for why low-skilled workers need to organize themselves.

for once tom, i think we might agree...

tomdarch: I actually had a case recently for a group of workers from the Czech Republic who worked for one of these late-night cleaning outfits here in Virginia and I can tell you that many of them don't in fact get minimum wage. Almost all of the major retail chains in the U.S. use these "subcontractors" to clean their stores at night and claim they are not responsible for wages, working conditions, etc. There is a major company based in New Jersey that acts as the general contractor and has most of the contracts to clean the major stores throughout the country and they then sub the work out to these more fly-by-night subcontractors. There was a case recently in California in which the court ruled that the store and the general contractors were "employers" of the workers (and therefore responsible for making sure the workers were paid properly), so there has been some progress made, but you are right - this is a sham setup by these major companies to avoid liability and avoid being a responsible member of the business community.

I missed the part where these people were forced to come here and work for those wages.

Why don't we police the borders more thoroughly so we don't have to detain an assload of illegals.

Wal-Mart had to know what was going on. It was most definitely reflected in the contractor's bid.