Walmart suddenly closes five stores nationwide for 6 months due to 'plumbing issues'

[Newsjock]

Source: Tampa Tribune

Plumbing problems at a Wal-Mart Supercenter in Brandon will force the store to immediately close, and remain closed for at least six months, according to company officials. A similar problem will close at least four other Walmart sites around the country.

... The problem appears to have cropped up at several other Wal-Mart sites. A store in the Odessa/Midland, Texas area also closed on Monday for similar reasons, according to a report in the Midland Reporter-Telegram. Wal-Mart officials issued a similar statement, citing their desire to serve the community “in the long run.”

The ABC television affiliate in Livingston, Texas also reported at a local Wal-Mart will close for six months for plumbing issues.

The Fox 23 television station in Tulsa, Oklahoma reported that a Wal-Mart in that area will close “due to ongoing plumbing issues that will require extensive repairs.”

Officials with Wal-Mart confirmed Tampa was among five sites nationwide closing due to plumbing issues, and said they believed the issue did not pose a health or safety risk to employees or customers.

Read more: http://tbo.com/news/business/plumbing-woes-force-brandon-walmart-to-close-6-months-20150413/

[hr]
Source: San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Walmart announced Monday that it is temporarily closing its Pico Rivera supercenter on Washington Boulevard due to plumbing problems but City Manager Rene Bobadilla said a union official told him that all 530 employees have been laid off.

... James Enriquez, the city’s public works director, said officials have not been notified of plumbing issues at the store. The company would be required to pull permits before undertaking extensive work.

“If I were a property owner I’d want to make sure my store was closed as little as possible,” Enriquez said. “I would want a permit to be in place the day I was going to close — but we haven’t received anything.”

Read more: http://www.sgvtribune.com/business/20150413/530-pico-rivera-walmart-employees-laid-off-after-sudden-closure-of-supercenter

[NYC_SKP]

1. Asbestos?

I'll bet that it's some toxic substance for them to be so secretive about it and willing to lose 1/2 year's sales at each superstore.

Wow.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Nah, they have been having issues with meth labs

those are just as toxic.

I am almost also going to speculate on Chinese construction materials.

[NYC_SKP]

7. Construction materials crossed my mind, thus the asbestos thought.

It can be found in low-grade drywall, acoustic ceiling tiles, and inferior insulating materials, including those used with water pipes and ducts.

And, this would be consistent with the claim of "plumbing problems".

[jwirr]

9. Are all these stores in states likely to have inadequate building laws? Interesting theory.

[NYC_SKP]

11. Building codes are one thing, corrupt inspectors and contractors are quite another.

California and New York City have very strict codes, but plenty of incidences of cheating on them.

So I wouldn't conclude that Texas, Florida and Oklahoma building codes are necessarily inadequate so much as contractors might be unscrupulous and inspectors negligent or corrupt.

[jwirr]

13. Yes. I agree that is a real possibility. Once worked for a company involved in construction. To this

day I do not trust man made things.

[KamaAina]

29. Nope. One's in California.

Very strict building codes here. Earthquakes, y'know.

[jwirr]

33. Okay then that is not the real problem.

[arely staircase]

3. homophobic vandals? nt

[shenmue]

4. Wow

That's pretty strange. I'm not too far from the Brandon one.

[NightWatcher]

5. Shitter was full

(Insert Randy Quaid photo emptying the shitter on his RV)

[Arcadiasix]

6. Have you ever been in a Great Walmart Of China restroom?

Got tetanus shot?

Seriously every one I've been in is discussing.

[blkmusclmachine]

8. ,

,

[WillowTree]

10. How many of those stores are having union issues, I wonder.

Just a curious question.

[KitSileya]

19. That was my immediate thought too.

Convenient excuse for breaking up nascent union organizing, is my bet.

[libodem]

31. ding ding ding

We have a winner. You can bet its not the building of the transsexuals' stalls.

I was thinking the associates flushed wet wipes down the tubes because they are too poor to afford housing with bathing facilities.

[Agschmid]

12. Union busting?

[Sherman A1]

16. Looks to be a real possibility

I continue to be amazed that a company with the resources of Wal Mart is afraid of it's own workforce.

[MosheFeingold]

25. In Midland, Texas?

Bush's hometown? Oilfield hell? Unlikely.

[951-Riverside]

14. They're being turned into makeshift detention centers for the coming mass unrest

[MosheFeingold]

27. Now, this, I believe

Midland is hell-hole center for fringe Republicans.

[Newsjock]

15. Of possible relevance: 23 arrested at union protest in November

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2014/11/13/23-arrested-in-protest-at-pico-rivera-walmart/
23 Arrested In Protest At Pico Rivera Walmart
November 13, 2014 11:59 PM

Police arrested dozens of people protesting working conditions and wages at a Walmart in Pico Rivera Thursday after they allegedly refused to move from an intersection they were blocking.

Officers took 23 people into custody around 6:30 p.m. in the 8500 block of Washington Boulevard when they inhibited traffic at Washington and Paramount boulevards, sheriff’s Lt. Alex Villanueva said.

[ridulfo-etna]

23. I think so

http://capitalandmain.com/tag/walmart-pico-rivera/

news from October, 2012.

[onethatcares]

17. isn't there a law

that requires a notice of a certain time span prior to laying off a large number of employees?

I don't know the name of it but I've seen it quoted when insurance or IT companies do the lay offs.

me thinks this closing will allow the managers to filter who returns.

[Omaha Steve]

18. The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act

http://www.doleta.gov/programs/factsht/warn.htm

Snip: Employee Coverage

Employees entitled to notice under WARN include hourly and salaried workers, as well as managerial and supervisory employees. Business partners are not entitled to notice.


What Triggers Notice

Plant Closing: A covered employer must give notice if an employment site (or one or more facilities or operating units within an employment site) will be shut down, and the shutdown will result in an employment loss (as defined later) for 50 or more employees during any 30-day period. This does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer. These latter groups, however, are entitled to notice (discussed later).

Mass Layoff: A covered employer must give notice if there is to be a mass layoff which does not result from a plant closing, but which will result in an employment loss at the employment site during any 30-day period for 500 or more employees, or for 50-499 employees if they make up at least 33% of the employer's active workforce. Again, this does not count employees who have worked less than 6 months in the last 12 months or employees who work an average of less than 20 hours a week for that employer. These latter groups, however, are entitled to notice (discussed later).

An employer also must give notice if the number of employment losses which occur during a 30-day period fails to meet the threshold requirements of a plant closing or mass layoff, but the number of employment losses for 2 or more groups of workers, each of which is less than the minimum number needed to trigger notice, reaches the threshold level, during any 90-day period, of either a plant closing or mass layoff. Job losses within any 90-day period will count together toward WARN threshold levels, unless the employer demonstrates that the employment losses during the 90-day period are the result of separate and distinct actions and causes.

FULL sheet at link.

[jmowreader]

20. Two possible explanations here

What we'd like it to be: Walmart being eeeeeeeevul again and putting three thousand people out of work for some unspecified atrocity.

What it probably is: The fire sprinkler system in these six stores was installed wrong. There's only one plumbing system in a Walmart that would take six months to tear out and replace, and also only one plumbing system in the building it's illegal to be open to the public without.

[MosheFeingold]

26. Probably

Wal-Mart also doesn't own a lot of its buildings. I could see them trying to bust a national lease.

And I've seen how big-box stores get built: one plan, same contractors and suppliers move from jobsite-to-jobsite.

So a screw up of six is not unimaginable.

[durablend]

21. Me also thinks they're trying to "flush" the unions out

Not likely some shady supplier of building materials at the five (is there six?) stores weren't built at the same time.

[durablend]

22. Another possibility (tinfoil)

They did say they were going to increase pay for workers at their stores. Since everyone knows those at the top simply cannot be allowed to lose money they'll start closing stores to keep the current payroll spent chainwide at the same level (fewer employees + higher wages ~ same as ~ more workers making less money).

Of course they'll never admit that and keep saying "those durned toilets keep clogging up!"

[Aerows]

24. Many of them coincide

with the locations inherent to the Jade Helm 15 operations, and would be an excellent storage and operations site for the exercise.

It doesn't take 6 months to fix plumbing issues - after Katrina, they flew in air conditioning units on helicopters and rebuilt the one that was wiped off the map in around 4 months, and that was pretty much a scorched earth situation.

I'm not implying anything nefarious, just noting a plausible scenario, at least from my POV.

[KamaAina]

28. Plumbing issues?

Does that mean the plumbers' union is trying to organize those stores?

[Liberal_in_LA]

30. yep.

[Skittles]

32. anyone who cannot see this is a warning to anyone trying to "organize"

is very naive indeed