Hackers Leak Walmart’s Guide on How to Silence Workers | Hacker News Reader

Hackers Leak Walmart’s Guide on How to Silence Workers

makingchangeatwalmart.org

I went looking for the guide. Couldn't see it linked from the page linked here, so I followed their Gawker link, and couldn't see it there, so I followed the link to occupywallst.org. I couldn't get their embedded PDF viewer to turn pages, so I clicked the raw PDF.

To save others the trouble, the link is here: http://www.docdroid.net/file/view/86lk/walmart-on-ourwalmart...

A "Guide on How to Silence Workers" is not a good characterization of this document. From the post title, I expected something like "Here's how you subtly threaten and intimidate people into doing what you want." I don't see anything like that here. There are 13 slides. Several of them depict links between the UFCW, various anti-WalMart organizations, and one consulting group. A couple are pure propaganda along the lines of "Is OURWalMart/UFCW really here to help you? No!"

One of the organizations listed in the document is the same makingchangeatwalmart.org to which the OP links.

Maybe there are things about WalMart that one should get outraged about, but this doesn't seem like one of them. There's more heat than light here.

There were two, the second one seems to be meant for managers, I'm guessing it's what the title refers to:

http://www.docdroid.net/86ln/manager-training.pdf.html?start...

You're looking at the wrong slideshow:

http://www.docdroid.net/file/view/86ln/manager-training.pdf

http://occupywallst.org/article/point-of-public-information/

The articles aren't organized well, and you have to click around to find the actual info.

Always lost in these conversations are the hundreds of thousands of people who shop at Walmart because it stretches the meager family budget far enough to allow those low income people a reasonable existence. All else being equal, Walmart would have better work environments and more protections for its workers. But all else isn't equal and higher wages and more protections for the workers will likely result in higher prices which has an immediate effect on the poor and lower class. It's not a vacuum. Walmart is the logical conclusion of the uniquely American desire to pay the lowest price for everything.

Ironically, those who argue that Walmart is terrible to their workers almost never shop there because they have nice jobs and the ability to choose where to buy their staples.

Incorrect, Walmart can raise the wages of its employees without increasing their prices.

http://www.demos.org/sites/default/files/publications/A%20Hi...

TLDR: Walmart could give all it's low-wage employees a $5.83 raise in exchange for not doing a stock buyback. Their profits would not even suffer.

The other obvious point is that Walmart could pay its workers more in exchange for less profit. That would also not require any price hikes.

From a short-term perspective, increasing the bottom end of the pay scale is not an isolated event. All levels of the scale must be adjusted upward to offset the effect of condensing (in this case drastically) the pay differences between positions with different levels of responsibility.

From a long-term perspective, the management of Walmart does not own the equity in the company. They must act in the interests of the company's owners in order to at least preserve, if not expand, the company itself. The evidence against buybacks presented in the paper you link is quite thin. The management may be making a bad decision, but it is up to the shareholders to correct them.

> From a short-term perspective, increasing the bottom end of the pay scale is not an isolated event. All levels of the scale must be adjusted upward to offset the effect of condensing (in this case drastically) the pay differences between positions with different levels of responsibility.

Prove it.

You're correct, and this is why we need to raise the federal minimum wage.

Maybe I missed it, but I don't see the actual guide. And I doubt makingchangeatwalmart.org is an objective source on what it contains. I'd like to see the actual guide, or at least direct quotations from it, so I can make my own judgements.

The link in the first sentence of the article to Occupy Wall Street is to a page with the alleged guide documents embedded. Why you should believe that these are real, however, I have no idea.

It's about three more clicks deep:

> Original Post <http://makingchangeatwalmart.org/2014/01/16/hackers-leak-wal... >

  1. (OP) Hackers Leak Walmart’s Guide on How to Silence Workers

> ...in the words of [Gawker’s Hamilton Nolan<http://gawker.com/walmarts-anti-union-training-documents-dem... >].

  2. Walmart's Anti-Union Training Documents Demand "Loyalty"

> Occupy Wall Street has posted a set of [internal Walmart documents<http://occupywallst.org/article/point-of-public-information/ >] used...

  3. (Finally leading to...) Walmart Organizes Against Workers

Walmart is disgusting. The bright lights, recent attempts at upscaling their image, and the stupid yellow smiley face are all fronts for what's nothing more than a sweatshop for the unfortunate people who have to work there.

I avoid it...more people should too.

It's just a really unpleasant shopping experience, and I'm lucky to live in a place with alternatives and have a job that lets me afford to shop at alternatives.

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