Armando corporate watch/reason 972 not to shop Wal-Mart

I deliberately set the “reason” bar at 972 because that’s the area code in suburban Dallas. And that’s where some of Wal-Mart’s anti-union thuggery in Texas broke out, according to a federal lawsuit

Bloomberg has the details.

Here’s the basics of the lawsuit allegations:

Cashiers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, asked a federal judge to order the company to stop threatening to fire Texas employees who join a lawsuit claiming unpaid wages.

Workers’ lawyers sent out notices Aug. 4 to more than 100,000 current and former Wal-Mart and Sam's Club cashiers in Texas, inviting them to join the litigation. Wal-Mart managers asked employees to turn over the notices and sign statements that they never worked off the clock as the suit claims, according to court papers. The cashiers asked U.S. District Judge Samuel Kent to order Wal-Mart to stop “improper communications” with workers. A hearing on the request is set for Aug. 23.

“Wal-Mart's conduct borderlines on criminal witness intimidation,” the cashiers said in an Aug. 15 request to Kent. It's illegal under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act “for Wal-Mart to threaten its current and former associates with adverse consequences for filing claims under this lawsuit,” workers said in the suit.

And here’s the thuggery in detail, in Lancaster, Texas, where my newspaper is. (Sadly, such things don’t often get leaked to me, even though I should appear to be liberal enough on my editorial page. And, if they’re ever leaked to the Dallas Morning News — which I doubt — they probably don’t go far from there.)

Anyhow, on to the specifics:

In (one) affidavit, filed Aug. 15, former employee Latasha Walters said a personnel representative of the Lancaster, Texas, Wal-Mart told her “if I filled out the opt-in notice and mailed it in, I would not be eligible for re-hire at that store or any Wal-Mart store.” The personnel representative “also informed me that she was having all cashiers at her store who received similar opt-in packets to bring them into the store and turn them over to her,” Walters said.

Remind me not to go to Wally-World for ANYTHING anymore.