I keep seeing some people post stuff along the lines of "What do you want Walmart to do?"
I've replied to a few of these posts with a variation of the following - but I wanted to expand a little and maybe get it some more coverage.
We, the "heroes" (a.k.a. Associates of Walmart), are hard working, dedicated, and, frankly, desperate regular people who need to earn a paycheck and provide for our families. In this time of great need, we are literally risking our lives to try and help our communities keep going. But things are going to get worse. Way worse. America is about to send out $1,200+ checks to every American and we all know a good part of that is going to be spent at Walmart, bringing more people into the stores. Therefore, we immediately demand the following changes from Home Office.
- ) A legitimate effort to limit the amount of people in the store at one time. This 1,000+ people per store is rediculous and completely undermines the goal of self isolation, shelter in place, stay at home, and essential services. 1,000+ people in a fully running store might be okay, but when the vast majority of these people are in grocery, it doesn't work.
- ) Restrictions on children entering stores. No one under 16 should be allowed in stores. This is for the safety of the children as well as associate safety. Children, as a general rule, aren't good at things like washing their hands, not touching everything, coughing into their elbow, and social distancing. Additionally, a lot of people are bringing their whole families into the store just because they're bored. Restrict the entry of children to eliminate this.
- ) An immediate halt of all non-essential work (like setting live flowers in Lawn and Garden, pushing Easter freight, softlines price changes, etc.). I've been in stores where they have associates doing touch-up painting projects. Stop this. If it isn't essential, it shouldn't be happening.
- ) Where are our individal bottles of hand sanitizer we were promised a month ago? Get it to the stores. Pretend stores were required to close until associates have these.
- ) Stocking essential freight (non-essentials do not get shipped/stocked) on overnights when the store is closed so that associates are not crowding down an aisle with a bunch of customers.
- ) Hazard Pay. 20% increase (minimum) for all store associates. This will range from about $2.20 to about $5 for hourly associates.
- ) 10% Grocery Discount at all times for the remainder of this pandemic, not just special hours that some of us can't make it to and when some of the stuff we need is out of stock. Heck, give it to us now and don't bring it back over the holidays.
- ) Additional paid time off. If I come to work with 100 degree temp and you're going to send me home for three days, I need to be able to get paid for it - and not just four hours of reporting pay. Give us a way to take care of our families while still being able to support ourselves. As suggested below, allow long term associates to utilize the old sick/personal hours that have been locked away for ten years or so.
- ) Actual required enforcement of social distancing. Management and Security walking the sales floor and anyone (associate or customer) not staying six feet apart is removed from the store immediately. Empower your store staff to make these decisions and let them know you will back them up when they do.
- ) Some actual recognition for our fallen coworkers in Chicagoland. Ya donked up, Walmart. Anyone involved in the decisions that direcrly lead to our fellow associates dying needs to be terminated immediately and needs to be made an example of. "This is what will happen to you if you don't take this seriously." Take lessons from this tragedy and learn how to apply them in other stores. I live in the same area that these two are from and literally nothing has changed in the way we work since they passed.
Associates: Share this on your FB feeds. Print it out and put it in your breakrooms. Someone make a youtube video of different associates reading different parts of it and cut in the ads where Doug calls us heroes.
We can make a difference. We can be the spark that lights a f