Over the years, A.G. has noticed numerous negative changes in Wal-Mart’s medical benefits. “They’re not really benefits now at all,” he says. "Once when Wal-Mart managers were explaining the health insurance options, one associate laughed out loud because the premium was more than her earnings."
A.G. earns $8.10 per hour and takes home about $500 every two weeks. He has no health benefits through Wal-Mart because they would cost him approximately $200 every two weeks, or 40% of his paycheck. A.G. gets by with some health benefits through the Veterans Affairs (VA).
Read more about A.G.’s concerns in his own words:
“Shifts have been intentionally run on skeleton crews well before November of last year. This store is being remodeled into a Supercenter. It will be much more difficult to service and maintain such a store with the understaffed conditions that exist. No efforts or urgency on management's part have been made to remedy this condition.
Associates who use the existing Open Door policy to voice complaints and concerns are now being systematically targeted and harassed into quitting. Two friends of mine are being targeted right now: one is a Diabetic and the other is a mother of a child who needs medical attention on a regular basis. After years, her availability is now 'unacceptable,' and she must be available to work any hours that they need her. Also, they have used strong-arm tactics to attempt to change my long-established availability.
Management is seemingly rewriting any and all known rules and policies to suit their own needs. One manager recently said, 'This is not a democracy. This is a dictatorship, and I'm the dictator!'"
More Wal-Mart Worker Stories:
A. G. White
Bettie Madsen
Cindy Starns
Cynthia Murray
Dana Razaie
Diane Muthig
Five Workers From New York
Greg Pierce
Josh Smith
Kristen Bonardi Rapp
Lance Hindman
Mona Curtis
Ollie & Patricia Wells
Rosetta Brown
