The security cameras that were all over the store didn’t catch a thing when a robber stepped behind the counter and pointed a gun at the manager’s head, that’s because they were fake. The manager had just taken over the store after 8 years with the company. She’d lived in the neighborhood most of her life and knew most of the customers. On her second day in charge, the back wall of the store had collapsed, and water had poured in. Three weeks later, they were only coming around to get estimates on repairs.
In the time she’d been promoted to manager, the Chief Operating Officer of Family Dollar had both appeared on “Undercover Boss” and left the company to “pursue other interests.” He probably had a hard time living with his conscience, realizing that the company exploits workers and is part of what’s wrong with America today. Sure, showing up on “Undercover Boss” and playing Santa Claus is great- but, bailing out a few people doesn’t mean the rest of the company’s employees won’t hate you for your stunt.
The robber fired a shot in the store. Luckily, no one got hurt. The new manager wanted to quit, but jobs are hard to find. She has 2 kids at home and a disabled baby daddy. The robber has continued on a spree, hitting several other dollar stores. The police think they are close to finding him. Family Dollar put a security guard in the store for about a week- and added real video surveillance cameras and panic buttons throughout the store.
But, here is the crazy part. The “manager” wasn’t being paid as a manager yet. After 8 years with the company, most as an “assistant manager”- she was still getting paid a whopping $9 an hour. The manager’s job, which pays a whopping $800 a week, wasn’t hers yet- she was an “acting manager.” And I always thought actors were paid better than their real-life counterparts.
My advice was to tell them that if she’s not being paid as a manager, she’s not responsible to do the duties of one. Their response was to cut her hours back to 30 a week and that she “no longer had a store.”
A little poking around online finds that Family Dollar has settled lawsuits galore, for violations of the Fair Labor Standards Act [1], and that their expectations of “managers” amount to being slave labor that must work 60 hours plus to make things work via their allotted budgets. Meaning management is lucky to make around $13-$14 an hour. This is a company that’s traded on the New York Stock Exchange.
Who invests in companies that engage in corrupt and illegal labor practices? Where are the investigations by state attorneys general into a company that’s been sued and lost in several states over its crappy practices? For all the people that talk about unions being the demise of American manufacturing- it’s these kinds of management practices that gave unions their moral high ground to organize.
And the store that had the shot fired- used to qualify as one of the “high-risk” stores eligible for higher manager pay, but they took away that status too- just weeks after the robbery.
One other well documented despicable practice of this “business” is that when employees leave the company they aren’t entitled to cash in their earned vacation time. As a condition for hiring, you are forced to sign that right away.
Family Dollar stores don’t deserve to be in business with business practices like this. Boycott Family Dollar.
Why the labor movement hasn’t successfully moved to organize the retail industry is beyond me.
Well, Mr. Ise, maybe the reason the retail industry hasn’t organized is because a lot of those people don’t want to be organized. Likewise for the Honda employees in Marysville. I know a few “career WalMart people” that actually love their jobs and just shake their heads at those of you who want them to unionize. And, before you ask, these are “floor associates” at WalMart and Sam’s Club, not members of the management team.
What is beyond me is why you can’t see what the “labor movement” (aka unions) has done to the US economy. What was a good idea, and maybe even a necessity years ago, is now an idea that’s outlived its usefullness.
OK, with that – let the hating towards Bubba begin!! :)
Exploitation comes with a 401K, ESSP, health and dental plan. Who knew?
http://corporate.familydollar.com/pages/teammember.aspx
>>> Exploitation comes with a 401K, ESSP, health and dental plan. <<<
Those bastards!! And to make matters worse, they even offer those “benefit” to part time associates! Oh, the horror!!
Union organizing in America, more myth than fact? Something I write in a letter to the editor some time back.:
….it bears mention however that one of the most under-reported stories over the past decade is that most workers, particularly in the private sector, do not and will not have a realistic opportunity to collective bargain. Employees too often face ferocious, often illegal, resistance when attempting to unionize where workers are subjected to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation by employers. An analysis by Cornell University’s Kate Bronfenbrenner of 1999-2003 data on union elections found that:
63%of employers interrogate workersin mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union;
54% of employersthreaten workers in such meetings;
57% of employers threaten to close the worksite;
47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits; and
34% of employers fire workers.
A final shame is that even when workers elect to form a union, over half of those workers have no collective bargaining agreement a year after the election.
Know the facts before you post. The team member was and asst manager and was never offered a store manager position. All cameras in the store were real cameras not fake. The team member has not lived in the neighborhood for years but recently moved to the area. The asst manager did not have her hours cut as she works 40 hrs and paid
Joe- I do know the facts. She’s lived in the neighborhood longer than I have, and I’ve known her since she was a pre-teen. Only a few cameras were real. She was the acting store manager when the robbery took place.
She was not a holding store manager as the manager was still working in the store. The person you are speaking of is only an asst manager and the cameras in the store are real and there is not a few of them. The assistant manager was getting paid to do the job that she was hired to do.
If the neighborhood would help clear out the crack houses maybe this would be a safer neighborhood
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