dutchman2001nl

FREEHOLD, N.J. - Nine illegal immigrants who worked as janitors at Wal-Mart until they were arrested during federal raids last month have sued the company, accusing it of discrimination.

**What a nerve!**

Mona Williams, Wal-Mart vice president of communications, said the company did not know about the alleged labor violations or that the contractors used illegal immigrants. She said Wal-Mart has long insisted that its contractors obey the law.

** why not sue the contractors?**

** better yet, why not shoot the illegals**

SanBernardino

Because Walmart does this in many of their locations -- it is part of their system and business practices.

Because if you want to talk about ILLEGAL, *that* is far more illegal than immigration, not to mention immoral, reprehensible, and totally repugnant to joke about.

Simon&Vik

Maybe we can sue the US Gov for discrimination too!
After all, they're not letting us be together because of the country Simon was born in...

Sounds pretty discriminatory to me! (More than firing someone because they weren't legal to work for you in the first place...)

Leslie

Better yet, let's all sue Wal-Mart, for long lines and and bad service.

Everybody is sue happy. HI HO HI HO It's off to court we go. I can promise you some ambulance chasing lawyers put those illegals up to this nonsense.

Leslie

Folinskyinla

Hi:

You have not seen the lawsuit. Neither have I. But I would not be surprised if Wal-Mart and the contractors are co-defendants. And if they are not, then Wal-Mart will bring them in on at least an indemnification theory.

Also, change the POV slightly -- most people agree that employers should not employ "illegal aliens" in order to pay lower wages. This lawsuit would seem to be a vehicle to correct that illegal conduct.

ironporer

Maybe the Wal-Mart (legal) employees should try to file a class action suit against Wal-Mart for artificialy holding down their wages by using illegals? I imagine that if suddenly 10 million illegal
aliens were to disappear the laws od supply and demand would dictate pretty hefty salary augmentation for all- starting a "trickle-up" effect.

SanBernardino

Exactly. If folks were serious about the economic and legal issues, they'd focus on the corporations and industries hiring illegal workers. It is pointless to blame the unfortunate people who actually find these pathetic jobs without contracts or benefits to be their most lucrative option. When I hear comments denoucing illegals but not denouncing the companies responsible for their jobs, I tend to feel it is simply racism rather than genuine economic concerns.

Folinskyinla

Hi:

I read an article recently where someone argued that it was LEGAL FAMILY based immigration that also contributed to driving down wages.

I will amdit to a little chagrin that I found the argument somewhat persuasive -- in order to immigrate based upon employment, the law requires a song and a dance far above the family based petitions to establish that there are no american workers ready willing and able to take the job and the person will be at or above the "prevailing wage" for american workers.

There is no such requirement -- all you family immigrants on this list -- nothing preventing you from going to work for Wal-Mart at minimum wage -- you are a perfectly legal source of alien minimum wage workers.

I'm saying I agree with this -- just some food for thought.

Leslie

Excellent point. Large corporations with lobbying power will get a hand slap. The illegals picked up in these raids get rode out of town on a rail.

Leslie

rogerpenycate

For my sins (and lack of alternate employment) I worked at Walmart for 9 months.
Several points:

1/. As an employer they were awful, I have NEVER in my life come across management that treated their staff with such total lack of respect and quite often downright rude. At times I felt like a was a piece of shit, the way I was talked to. I am lead to believe this is true in many/most Walmarts. It got to the point that I hated to go to work.
I'm a pacifist and coward, but how I never smacked my boss over the head with a baseball bat, I'll never know.
.....and all of that for $8,58 per hour

2/. Poor old Sam Walton musy be turning over in his grave, considering he built the company on "Respect for the Individual"

3/. Interesting to note that in lasts weeks "Top 10 richest people in the US" 5 of them were Sam Waltons children - $20 billion each !! If he were alive today he would be worth twice as much as Bill Gates.

4/. The store I worked in had an overnight cleaning crew who were from Latvia, they were earning $6 an hour and worked bloody hard, but were "happy to be here"
If anyone says that the management of my store weren't aware that they were illegals, they are liars, I know for a fact they knew.
I went to work one morning about 6 months ago and the crew had been replaced. Perhaps the shit was hitting the fan then.

5/. My ambition, when I retire is to be a "people greeter" at a Walmart, I hope my Manager is nicer than the dickhead in F'burg VA.

HOW MAY I HELP YOU !!!!!!!! BULLSHIT

Leslie

You've obviously been traumatized.

Wal-Mart is horrible, I hate it. I'd rather spend more at Target than even step in that place.

Leslie

rogerpenycate

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Leslie66
You've obviously been traumatized.

I'm getting over it, it was a "learning curve"
I still can't stop GROWLING every time a drive past one, or pass one of their trucks !!
When the wife needs to go there (one thing, they are cheap) I sit in the car in the farthest part of the car park........GROWLING all the time :0)

The growling comes from the cop that used to be in Hill Street Blues, still makes me chuckle every time I see it/him.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !!

Simon&Vik

He also cared about the environment.
9 yrs ago, you could find all sorts of environmentally friendly products! Recycled papertowels, "green" cleaning products, etc.

Now? Good luck.

Dekka's Angel

Actually you might be referencing the study that was published in August by the Chicano Studies Research Center in LA.

Their finding was that the presence of immigrant workers reduced the wages for all workers at a given work site, by more than 10%. The higher the percentage of immigrant workers on the site, the lower the wages earned by all workers in that position. The non-white, non-immigrant workers suffered the greatest percentage depression in their wages based upon the percentage of immigrant workers on the job site in their same classification.

This was a quasi-national study looking at data compiled across the majority of states. From an organization that was hoping to show that immigrant workers had no detrimental impact on wages for native US workers. Given this, I give the Center extraordinary kudos for their honesty in which was an extremely politically unwelcome message to many in their own community, since it supports something that those in "brown collar"/working class communities have been saying for a long time, only to be pooh poohed about the matter.

It is indeed food for thought. And, for the record, I blame both the employers and those who jingoistically support "capitalism at all costs" for this type of behavior.

cindyabs

It's an interesting study for a sociologist-the whole minimum wage job level and the folks that work in those jobs. I have been working part time (to supplement my full time job) in just such an environment. My earnings have been at and slightly more than the Latvian workers mentioned above, and far less than Roger's earnings at Walmart. In fact one of my coworkers at my current job left "us" to go work for Walmart!! I saw her a few months later and asked how she liked it and she said she loved it, that they treated her far better there than they did at her former job!! I have noticed that customers have occasionally treated me as if I left school after sixth grade and wouldn't know a good Cabernet Sauvignon if it came up and bit me (I'm a cashier for a national grocery chain). Sadly the management for both of these jobs I have had have treated their workers with less care and respect then they merit. Why? Because there is always someone looking for these minimum paying jobs. Basically the attitude is you don't like it? No problem, quit, because there is someone else waiting to take your place. To be fair, it's not just the large chains, I ran across the same thing in my first parttime job in the nearby mall working in a "Mom and Pop" store.....