Lance Hindman, Local 2008
Former Wal-Mart Employee
Little Rock, Ark.
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Former Wal-Mart worker Lance Hindman, now a member of Little Rock, Ark. Local 2008 and Kroger meatcutter, says there?s only one word for the benefit factor at Wal-Mart: "Lousy."
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When Lance Hindman thinks about his working days at Wal-Mart, he tries to remember the friendships he had with his co-workers. "They were friendly, good people," he says.
The rest of his memories as a three-year Wal-Mart employee aren't so pleasant. Hindman, a meatcutter for Kroger in Greenbrier, Ark. and member of Little Rock Local 2008, says that at Wal-Mart there's constant stress about sales. The atmosphere is full of pressure, he says. "If your work was caught up and you were talking to other guys in the backroom, a manager would crack you down and say you needed to be cutting meat."
As an experienced meatcutter, Hindman started out earning $8 an hour at Wal-Mart. His wages at Kroger, after only four months on the job, he says, are equal to what some managers make at Wal-Mart.
When asked about health benefits, he says, "Wal-Mart gets a chunk of change from you coming and going." Hindman explains that you either pay a large deductible for your doctor visits or they take more out of your wages for the insurance. Hindman has one word for the Wal-Mart benefit factor: "lousy." After three years at Wal-Mart, he says he still hadn't qualified for pension benefits.
Another thing about Wal-Mart, Hindman says, "I'd never want to move up in that company. What they want are yes men, not problem solvers. Their managers turnover a lot, and the ones I had didn't really know the meat business. So I never had any confidence in them."
It's a different story working for a union employer. "It's a lot more fun to show up for work," Hindman says. "Everybody takes care of business, working together."
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