One More Reason to Hate Wal-Mart
I don’t care how green Wal-Mart attempts to be, I hate this store. Recent news from Workers.org describes how 4,000 teenagers in Mexico work for tips only at Wal-Mart, even though full time employment of 14-year-olds is banned by International Labor Organization. According to Workers.org, “Just like the U.S. military, which ignores the economic draft and calls its troops “voluntary,” Wal-Mart claims that the teenagers who work only for tips at their Mexico stores are “volunteer” workers.” MSNBC reports,
Wal-Mart is Mexico’s largest private-sector employer in the nation today, with nearly 150,000 local residents on its payroll. An additional 19,000 youngsters between the ages of 14 and 16 work after school in hundreds of Wal-Mart stores, mostly as grocery baggers, throughout Mexico—and none of them receives a red cent in wages or fringe benefits. The company doesn’t try to conceal this practice: its 62 Superama supermarkets display blue signs with white letters that tell shoppers: OUR VOLUNTEER PACKERS COLLECT NO SALARY, ONLY THE GRATUITY THAT YOU GIVE THEM. SUPERAMA THANKS YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING. The use of unsalaried youths is legal in Mexico because the kids are said to be “volunteering” their services to Wal-Mart and are therefore not subject to the requirements and regulations that would otherwise apply under the country’s labor laws.
In a country where most people live on less than $4 a day, these teenagers’ tips must be scanty. There is no doubt Wal-Mart could afford to pay the minimum wage of less than $5 a day, with Wal-Mart de Mexico reporting profits of $290 million for the second quarter of 2007.
Is there no end to this Wal-Mart madness? They don’t seem to stop. I live in a state that has no Target and the only capital city in the US that has no McDonalds… but there is still a Wal-Mart.
OOOHHHH……….. This just makes me so angry. I have been Wal Mart free for almost a year. The thought of Wal Mart exploiting these people to make an extra buck is just sick, especially when it’s children. >:( When ever anyone tells me that they “can’t afford anywhere else” I want to laugh. If a full time student on only one part time salary can afford to live without Wal Mart, then why can’t someone who works full time? You just have to take better care of where and how you spend you money. In the end though, you have items that mean more to you, they’re better made and last longer. I’m tired of the “Me” mentality of this country that has people buying something just to say they bought it or because of the name splashed all over it.
This is not the only reason I do not shop at Wal Marts. Their treatment of women and people with disabilities. When Wal Mart comes into small towns. Everything goes out. Thank God for people in small towns where my sister lives that supports their market that has been there for years. When people are forced to get
[...] no secret: I hate Wal-Mart. Honestly, I have only been inside a Wal-Mart store four times in my life, including buying [...]