I found this while clicking around the blogosphere and it is disturbing: Walmart guilty of discriminating against another transgender woman. I can’t really say I’m surprised.
“Sam’s Club wasn’t safe for me as a transgender woman,” Bost said. “No one should be treated the way I was while just trying to do my job. I care about doing good work, but my efforts were met with bias, hostility and retaliation from coworkers and supervisors who targeted me for being transgender.”
Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club in general are toxic. I wish I could say I was kidding but I worked at Wal-Mart. It was an absolute hell. There was rampant favoritism in both stores and if you didn’t fit their perfect little mold, you were out. I don’t even want to imagine how bad it would be for someone who is trans.
“Walmart maintains a strong anti-discrimination policy. We support diversity and inclusion in our workforce and do not tolerate discrimination or retaliation of any kind,” Walmart spokesperson Randy Hargrove told LGBTQ Nation in an emailed statement. “While we disagree with the EEOC’s findings, we are open to discussions with Ms. Bost regarding a conciliatory resolution.”
No, you guys don’t. Your policies are garbage. They have always been garbage. I know this for a fact. Because one of my former co-workers was suing the hell out of you guys when I was transferring to a new store because she ended up sexually harassed by a fellow co-worker who was a known serial harasser! She was the thirteenth victim of this asshat, management knew about it and when she reported it, they reacted with “Oh, him? Yeah, he does that” rather than actually firing this guy. But it gets worse:
Despite the regular bombardment of discrimination stories and generally poor treatment of workers, Walmart continues to score highly on the Human Rights Campaign‘s Corporate Equality Index. Pride At Work, the nonprofit that represents LGBTQ working people, has criticized HRC for the way it scores the CEI for years.
There’s a reason for that, it seems.
The corporation is a “diamond sponsor” for HRC’s upcoming National Dinner high dollar fundraiser. Companies at that level give the organization at least $35,000 annually.
In other words, Wal-Mart is buying good press. Which is very typical. Again, I know this for a fact as I worked there. Any sort of charity work that they did? They made darn well sure to publicize it. The CMN thing? Oh yeah, my managers made sure to tow the party line and tell everyone who would listen just how awesome Wal-Mart was for raising that money. If we gave anything to local charities, management made a huge deal over it. Wal-Mart loves to spread the cash around in order to get good press and cover up the bad. They’ve been doing this for a very long time, long enough to have had their own PAC. (It was featured in one of our employee magazines many years ago.)
Because you know, spread enough money around and it will make all your problems go away. In the case of Wal-Mart, I wish I could say I was joking.
Iacon East 