As stated in my previous post, I had contacted Walmart about the reported story that its managers were told NOT to support the democrats in the 2008 election. Walmart's response is that while it is against the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "the card check bill," Walmart in no way encouraged its staff to vote one way or another. Here is the response I received from Jundie of Walmart.com:Dear Karl,
My name is Jundie. I am with the Walmart.com Customer Service Team. Thank you for contacting us about the news story that ran in the Wall Street Journal on August 1, 2008. The article focused on the Employee Free Choice Act, also known as "the card check bill," and the training we provided to managers and hourly supervisors. It quoted several Wal-Mart associates who felt the training encouraged them to vote against democratic candidates, especially Senator Obama because of his strong support for labor unions. The training has concluded, but we want to assure you that as a company we are not taking sides in this election. If anyone representing Wal-Mart gave the impression we were telling associates how to vote, they were wrong and acting without approval. We will work to make sure misunderstandings like this do not happen again, regardless of the subject. We believe that the card check bill is bad for business and have been onrecord as opposing it for some time. We feel that educating our associates about the bill is the right thing to do. However, we are a bi-partisan company and our associates, just as the customers and communities we serve, reflect the wide range of attitudes and political diversity of this country. We work with both Republican and Democratic leaders and our political contributions reflect that as well -- this year we gave roughly half of our PAC dollars to each party. We are at the beginning of what will be a historic election and campaignperiod. Our company will remain bipartisan. We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced.Thank you for visiting Walmart.com. We appreciate the opportunity to serve you and look forward to your next visit.If we may be of further assistance, please email us at help@walmart.com.We're here to serve you 7 days a week!!
Sincerely,
JundieCustomer Service at Walmart.com
I am still a bit skeptical, and the jury is still out for me on this one.
1 comment:
Yes, this reply must be taken with a grain of salt (if not a whole bag). I doubt that anyone at Walmart would admit to any wrong doing.
Walmart has a history of union busting:
http://www.union-network.org/Unisite/Sectors/Commerce/Multinationals/Wal-Mart_union_busting_operator_named_for_threatening_workers.htm
So I am pretty sure that even if they did not explicitly mention not voting Democrat, they urged it.
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