Workers Assail Night Lock-Ins by Wal-Mart - NYTimes

[Cassandra]

This is an appalling but not surprising story. Welcome to the future of the workplace:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/national/18WALM.html?hp

""Wal-Mart secures these stores just as any other business does that has employees working overnight," Ms. Williams said. "Doors are locked to protect associates and the store from intruders. Fire doors are always accessible for safety, and there will always be at least one manager in the store with a set of keys to unlock the doors."

Retailing experts and Wal-Mart's competitors said the company's lock-in policy was highly unusual. Officials at Kmart, Sears, Toys "R" Us, Home Depot and Costco, said they did not lock in workers.

Even some retail industry experts questioned the policy. "It's clearly cause for concern," said Burt Flickinger, who runs a retail consulting concern. "Locking in workers, that's more of a 19th-century practice than a 20th-century one.""

[mmm]

1. There next move is to weld shut all fire doors!

muhahahahaha... let the employee-rats try to rip them off then!

Employees wouldn't rip them off so much if the company did not treat
them like absolute shit.

[bleedingheart]

2. Does anyone remember the gals who died in that shirtwaist factory

in New York's garment district?...they were locked in and most burned to death or jumped to their deaths...

There is a reason why we have OSHA...to bad people are so forgetful or just plain stupid.

[DBoon]

4. Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

Read about it - was 1911, so I obviously don't "remember" it.

Doors were bolted to prevent theft. A fire broke out and many female sweatshop employees were killed.

http://www.historybuff.com/library/refshirtwaist.html

[wryter2000]

5. The Triange Shirtwaist Factory

But it happened again in a chicken plant during the Clinton administration. A few folks died in a fire because the fire doors were locked to prevent theft.

It'll happen again and again and again as long as the bosses are allowed to do any-damned-thing they want.

[supernova]

6. 25 people died in Hamlet, NC

worst workplace disaster since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory.
You could still foot prints on the steel door where people tried to get out.

Chilling.

The owner (a mom & pop operation) eventually went bankrupt. Good riddance.

[ikojo]

9. I had read that the doors to the Chicken processing plant in Hamlet, NC

were PADLOCKED shut in order to keep the underpaid employees from stealing the company's precious chickens.

People need to remember Hamlet, NC as much as they do the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire because failure to remember means it will happen again.

Another interesting tidbit about the fire in 1911 NYC is that the executive offices were located closer to exits so there were very few executive deaths in that fire. Figures. The working class is disposable.

[PVnRT]

3. That's Wal-Mart!

That's one way to keep costs down - create a horrible workplace environment (for all but a few that get promoted to keep the rest in line) that people quit a lot, meaning you don't have to give them raises.

[BuelahWitch]

7. Target does it too

I worked overnight for them during the Xmas season in Nov/Dec. Locked from about midnight till 6 am. I felt sorry for the smokers...

[TheDalaiMama]

8. I have worked in office buildings that were secured after a certain

time....and retail stores that are secured after a certain time..

That makes sense..to keep outsiders from coming in..but if the workers couldn't get out in case of an emergency..that's a different story.

I hope walmart rots, and I boycott the place.

dalai

[Wickerman]

10. In college I worked overnights in a K-Mart

we were locked in at 9:30 and "released" at 7:00 AM. We got an 1 1/2 hr lunch break - unpaid. We couldn't leave the building, of course. We had a 12x15 foot breakroom in which to watch the one network channel that ran all night. Back then smokers could smoke inside, so those who couldn't spent their lunch hour and 1/2 with chain smokers getting their nicotine fix.

We were contract cleaners (you can't even imagine how filthy a K-Mart can get in the winter in the midwest). They had one overnight worker who did inventory type stuff. Sometimes, we could hear the bump and scurrying of workers who were secreted in the viewing rooms with he mirrors - staying overnight - all night, to make sure that some low wage janitors didn't snitch a Snickers Bar. I've done a lot of different jobs in 43 years - this was beyond horrible.

I would imagine they are lying if they say that NO ONE is in their stores overnight.