Employees of 40 Wal-Mart stores in central Florida have formed a workers group to collectively air complaints about what they claim is shoddy treatment by the retail giant.
About 250 employees and former employees have joined the fledgling Wal-Mart Workers Association, spurred by a reduction of hours and schedule changes that they say may jeopardize health care benefits. Organizers say the word-of-mouth campaign is attracting 15 to 20 new members every week.
The members say they hope their efforts will persuade the company to listen to its people and make some changes.
"Management seems like they don't really respect the associates," said Carl Jones, acting chairman of the new group, who makes US$9.40 an hour as the lead cart-pusher at a store outside Orlando, Florida.
"We don't have a voice. We don't have any rights at all," he said.
The company, however, insists most of its associates are happy, and characterized the effort in Florida as another attempt by the unions to get their hands in the pockets of some of Wal-Mart's 1.3 million workers in the US.
"It's within [employees'] legal rights to do that, but this group is a wolf in sheep's clothing. This is a labor organization attempting to masquerade as something else," Wal-Mart spokeswoman Christi Gallagher said.
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