Today the INSIDER EXCLUSIVE “Goes Behind The Headlines” in “JUSTICE IN AMERICA – WALMART & Gary Drake’s Story , ….. to examine how Benjamin Yormak, @ Founder & Mgr Ptr, Yormak Employment & Disability Law successfully represented Gary Drake in a showdown with this corporate giant.
Wal-Mart has been subject to criticism by numerous groups and individuals.
Among these are labor unions, community groups, grassroots organizations, religious organizations, environmental groups and Wal-Mart customers.
They have protested against Wal-Mart, the company’s policies and business practices, including charges of racial and gender discrimination.
In 2005, labor unions created new organizations and websites to influence public opinion against Wal-Mart, including Wake Up Wal-Mart and Walmart Watch.
In November 2005, a documentary film critical of Wal-Mart (Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price) was released on DVD.
With close to 2.2 million employees worldwide, Walmart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce.
These issues involve low wages, poor working conditions, inadequate health care, as well as issues involving the company’s strong anti-union policies.
Critics point to Walmart’s high turnover rate as evidence of an unhappy workforce, although other factors may be involved.
Approximately 70% of its employees leave within the first year.
In 2008, Walmart agreed to pay at least $352 million to settle lawsuits claiming that it forced employees to work off the clock. “Several lawyers described it as the largest settlement ever for lawsuits over wage violations.”
Walmart has also faced accusations involving poor working conditions of its employees. Walmart has also been accused of ethical problems. It is said that the Walmart employees are gender discriminated when trying to be hired and discriminated against in the work area.
Walmart has been accused of allowing undocumented immigrants to work in its stores.
On October 23, 2003, federal agents raided 61 Walmart stores in 21 U.S. states in a crackdown known as “Operation Rollback,” resulting in the arrests of 250 nightshift janitors who were undocumented.
In 2012 The New York Times reported that Walmart had been made aware eight years earlier that executives of Walmart México, its subsidiary in that country, had paid millions of dollars in bribes to local officials to expedite permits for construction and operation of its many stores in that country.
Critics of Wal-Mart call the homespun stuff a fraud, a calculated strategy to put a human face on a relentlessly profit-minded corporation.
What is paradoxical and suspect to people outside Wal-Mart, however, is perfectly normal to the people who work there. It reflects a deal that Sam Walton, Wal-Mart’s founder, made with the people who worked for him.
“If you’re good to people, and fair with them, and demanding of them, they will eventually decide that you’re on their side,” Walton says in his autobiography, Made in America
But the deal was a lot more than just a matter of the occasional visit from Mr. Sam. Wal-Mart demonstrated its concern for workers in many ways that were small but specific:
time and a half for work on Sundays,
an “open door” policy that let workers bring concerns to managers at any level,
the real chance of promotion (about 70% percent of store managers started as hourly associates)
Sam Walton died in 1992, but the language of that deal still peppers the dialogue of Wal-Mart executives and the company’s official literature.
A quote that runs, in large type, across the top of a page in Wal-Mart’s associate handbook is typical: “The undeniable cornerstone of Wal-Mart’s success can be traced back to our strong belief in the dignity of each individual.”
That’s all changed now…
In March 2013, Walmart placed last among department and discount stores in the American Customer Satisfaction Index, the sixth year in a row the company has either tied or taken the last spot.
Wal-Mart continues to pay its workers as if their employees don’t actually need to eat more than once a week, live in an enclosed space and, on occasion, take their kids to see a doctor?
Ben Yormak has earned the highest respect from citizens and lawyers alike…. as one of the best Trial lawyers in Ft Myers, Naples…. In Florida….. and in the United States
His goals….. Not ONLY To get Justice for his clients…but to make sure that everyone is treated with equal respect and dignity as guaranteed under the Constitution of the United States.
He has built a substantial reputation by consistently winning cases other law firms have turned down. His amazing courtroom skills and headline grabbing success rate continue to provide his clients with the results they need……And the results they deserve.
Walmart is spending millions of dollars to ADVERTISE they are “fighting hunger”…
Yet thousands of Walmart employees live in poverty
You can contact Ben Yormak or call (239) 985-9691