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More Post-GOP Tax Cut Heist Mass Layoffs |
| By
Stephen Lendman |
| Walmart is the latest offender, the world’s largest private employer with
around 2.1 million workers and staff. It’s also one of the most abusive, notorious for anti-worker practices, including low-pay, poor or no benefits, opposition to unions, racial and gender discrimination, and other mistreatment of its workforce and suppliers, along with disturbing environmental practices. A 2005 documentary titled “Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price” scathed the company’s unethical practices, its use of undocumented workers for after-hours cleanup crews, paid well below minimum wage. Its entry into communities devastates small retailers, unable to complete against its predatory practices. The advocacy group Making Change at Walmart, sponsored by the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), calls for transforming the company into a responsible employer. Like present and former workers, it accused Walmart of mistreating employees, paying them poverty wages, assigning them erratic schedules, and other disturbing practices. It’s a corporate predator, exploiting workers, communities and suppliers for maximum profits. According to ThinkProgress (TP), Walmart announced up to $1,000 employee bonuses on Thursday - the company and Trump claiming its proof that GOP tax cuts benefit workers. TP explained the fine print, unmentioned in the public announcement, saying: The bonus is only for workers employed at the company for at least 20 years, a tiny fraction of its employees. Beneficiaries will be rewarded on an unexplained sliding scale. For its 2.1 million employees, the $400 million announced bonus amounts to an average of $190 per worker - the equivalent of less than a way below poverty $10,000 annual salary, not enough to feed a family and pay rent in substandard housing. In FY 2017, Walmart had pre-tax profits of around $20.5 billion. The great GOP tax cut heist will save the company almost $2 billion annually, maybe more - over 10 years likely over $20 billion. It’s end-of-2017 $400 million bonus is one-time. The company will benefit hugely from annual tax savings - almost nothing passed on to workers. TP: “(I)t appears (Walmart’s) announcement was timed carefully to cover for thousands of unannounced layoffs.” At least 68 stores are closing in America alone, including in hurricane-ravaged Puerto Rico. In some cases, “employees were not informed of the closures prior to showing up to work on Thursday,” TP explained, adding: They “learned that their store would be closing when they found the store’s doors locked and a notice announcing the closure.” Growing evidence shows Trump’s “middle class miracle” is nightmarish for American workers - a jobs killer, not a boom, unrelated to economic growth. In 2017, ahead of the expected tax cut, jobs growth was slowest in the country since 2010. TP: Walmart was “praise(d) on national TV, while local news chronicled the devastation of mass layoffs” - mainstream media ignoring them. VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org (Home - Stephen Lendman). Contact at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html |