WalMart--Fair and Proper?

[Barth Jones]

Help me understand this.

Except that I, and probably the others, are the ones standing around in the marketplace--waiting to be hired. The first--not the last, were the grumblers. I am not grumbling. Poor Lazarus could do nothing--while he was waiting. I yet have a little strength, unlike him, and will indeed continue, if God sees fit, to work my hardest for, yes, what's right.

It's all true, we should be humble. We should trust God. We should submit. But what if Martin Luther hadn't opposed the Catholic church of his day? What if Martin Luther King wouldn't have pressed on through his opposition? I'm hardly the one or the other, but I can't help but to sing my song. And if my song doesn't suit your hearing, am I in the wrong for your sake?

 

[jasonc]

I never said anything of the sort. try being told, your retirement is now changed. effectively july. I go to a defined benefits plan. I will not have the older promised payment I could have if I stayed. instead i will have what i can save. i understand the reasoning but they could have grandfather us in and put new hires on the 401k. this plan now will cost them more.

try saving money on 30k a year .though i work more then just there. still that isn't a lot.

 

[Barth Jones]

Help me understand this.

What's up? A slave?

Do you really think people apply to work at WalMart because that's the job they've always wanted? People apply there because they need a job. A person working his best at a job that hardly pays because he needs a job, might not be slavery, but it might be the closest thing to slavery that we have today, at least in America. And I've never met anyone in WalMart, that I've known not to do their best.

And I'm not asking to be paid $18.00/hour as a sales associate or that management step down to store level salaries. I think Jason said it right--it's about "honest wages." Honest on the employee's part, and on the part of management.

 

[Brother Mike]

Except that I, and probably the others, are the ones standing around in the marketplace--waiting to be hired. The first--not the last, were the grumblers. I am not grumbling. Poor Lazarus could do nothing--while he was waiting. I yet have a little strength, unlike him, and will indeed continue, if God sees fit, to work my hardest for, yes, what's right.

It's all true, we should be humble. We should trust God. We should submit. But what if Martin Luther hadn't opposed the Catholic church of his day? What if Martin Luther King wouldn't have pressed on through his opposition? I'm hardly the one or the other, but I can't help but to sing my song. And if my song doesn't suit your hearing, am I in the wrong for your sake?

Calling yourself a slave, Big shots, The could take a pay cut to give us money.

Let's get real here. I may not be singing along with your song, but you have lot's of language that concerns me. Like you have been let down, or disappointed. ya, you know better than grumbling, and know some scriptures, but it don't mean something is not wrong inside, something that needs examined and fixed.

Walmart is fine, they pay what they want, and if folks don't like it, they can leave. Some stay and become managers, some don't. Lot's leave and come back, because the grass is not greener.

If you think there is some injustice, let me tell you, it's not the way to think. I just want to help, and I get it. I was turned down by 6 trucking companies yesterday. It's a long story, but there is more to it. I don't feel the way you do though.

I just want to help because I see issues, but I can go away also.

Mike

 

[Barth Jones]

Okay, yes, there's some bitterness. But it goes back further and has more to do than with WalMart. Do you think the Reverend Dr. King dealt with bitterness inside? Do you doubt for a minute, Rosa Parks had some bitterness? John's Revelation discloses, "I wish you were either cold or hot!" I could deal with it by slacking off on the job and bad-mouthing store management, like others, but I don't. And I couldn't. Dr King dealt with it by preaching, Rosa Parks by standing her ground.

Answering your charge, I think there is injustice in far too many places, and WalMart is just one part of my experiencing it. Perhaps I've chosen somehow to be impoverished rather than to swim downstream. Perhaps my unwillingness to be a "yes man," has in it's end on earth, poverty. Even so, I will look to God as my sustainer and my helper, and I will stand my ground.

Let me ask you this, and I don't care to hear about your race, or with whom you associate, if you were alive during the Civil Rights movement (and I've been using it here only as an example), honestly, would you 1) watch the movement, 2) be a little involved in the movement, or 3) would you give it your best fight? Would it depend on what your church did, or the impression God made on your heart? Would you talk a certain way around people who were for the movement, and another way around the opposition? Well, I'll tell you, I would lay down my life like the best of them. Not for fame, but for the principle--love never fails.

 

[Brother Mike]

Ok, you finally admit what is very evident in your post. There is bitterness. You say God is your sustainer, then you do well. God certainly has failed nobody that has really trusted in him.

Let's get something straight though, any bitterness at all does not end well. I don't need to post scriptures about it, You should know them. It don't matter who had bitterness in the past, it should have no place in us, zero.

You don't consider yourself a Yes man. I get that, but I read it more that your unwilling to submit to those above you if you don't agree with everything they say and do.

Submitting is when you don't agree, but do it anyway out of respect for the position and God. Anyone can say they submit if it's something they can just tolerate. That is not real submission though.

Walmart is just a business. I know what you went through, My son tells me stories. He just told me they always make new polices that are stupid, won't work, and just follows them anyway until they figure out it won't work. He understands the game, and does what he is told, and even when He is told to do one thing, they complain about something He did not have time to get to. He knows that he won't win, but he submits and keeps a super attitude.

You compare the wrongs done to the black community to this situation with Walmart. I submit to you that you have allowed this to build until it seems just as big. Your perception is way off here, and it started little by little. Now there is bitterness.

You need to be free of this. I can tell you what I have gone through, things completely unfair. I can tell you the time I was down and felt there was no hope, hating all involved. Things can weigh on you that heavy, and it's not good. If interested I'll P.M you, it's very personal, but if you think it might help, I'll share. If not, then OK.

Whatever the case, you need to be free of this.

blessings.

 

[Barth Jones]

Submitting is when you don't agree, but do it anyway out of respect for the position and God. Anyone can say they submit if it's something they can just tolerate. That is not real submission though.

You make a good point.

 

[Brother Mike]

You make a good point.

Brother, if they were hurting you, causing your family pain, had taken you captive, had treated you worse than all the other Associates they mistreat, I would be there with a hack saw to bust you out of there.

I know that is not the case though, but you have elevated your experience to the same level as someone being horribly mistreated and enslaved. That is a big issue. You also don't like authority when authority seems to be treating you different than you think you should be treated. There is nothing wrong with being the yes man, if your not hurting people. If we can't obey man when we don't like things, I can promise we won't obey God if He asked us to do something that would seem to hard or impossible to us.

He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is your own?
(Luk 16:10-12)

The key to getting blessed by God is being faithful in someone elses things. If policies, and contradictions, and being pulled every which way, then getting yelled at for not doing something you had no time to do, upsets you. Then you disqualify yourself from what God would like to give you later.

You want to stop the blessings of the Lord to where you only get a tiny bit of what the Lord can do, then be the one that complains and finds grievances.

When another employee comes to you and tells you it don't make sense, it's not fair, they don't pay enough. You should be the first one to speak up and say, "You work for them, they pay you. It don't matter how it don't make sense, because they are paying you for things that don't make sense. If you don't like it, then find another Job, but don't come to me telling me how bad it is."


Servants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not only when their eyes are on you as pleasers of men, but in simplicity of purpose [with all your heart] because of your reverence for the Lord and as a sincere expression of your devotion to Him. Whatever may be your task, work at it heartily (from the soul), as [something done] for the Lord and not for men,
(Col 3:22-23)

If God is truly the one that takes care of you, gets your bills paid, gives you good things, makes great plans for you. Then what happens at a job is no big deal. What they pay you is no big deal, they are not the ones taking care of you. Because you love God, and you know God is your real source, then every task given, unfair, dumb, don't make sense, you do as working unto God, the one that takes care of you, not to men.

If your not working for the Lord, then what man does, what man pays you is going to get you upset. Your looking at the wrong source to make you happy.

Long enough, will continue later, please read over a few times, let the scriptures get inside and meditate on them. God wants to bless us, and help us get our thinking in line with the way He thinks.

Mike.

 

[th1b.taylor]

Barth,
My major is life and I graduated the Eighth Grade. I have served on both ends of the spectrum in business being both Laborer and Owner. I began at the age of 14 as a Carpenter and served 8 yrs in the Military. I exited the Service as a Gas Station Mechanic/Gas Jockey. From there I worked for Western Western Electric installing Switch Board Systems. From there I repaired Gas, Diesel and Electric Forklifts and then back to swinging my hammer building houses. My final jobs were as a Commercial Driver, in short I majored at life.

I despise Social Engineers and, son, that is the ¿science? you're practicing here. Social Engineering is Communism and it fails just as severely as Marxism does. I never gave any of my income away and neither should any top level personal, they earned their pay scales with effort and perseverance.

And these ¿pay raises? are nothing of the kind, no, this is jacking the economy into oblivia and nothing more. When I hired on with Western I had a new car and ate all the T-bones I wanted at 4.25 an hour. At the end of my work life I worked as many as 70 hrs a week, as did my wife. I made 13.60 an hour ad my wife made more than I did and we just got by.

Every time a raise, such as has just passed, is put into effect, merchandise increases in cost making the poor poorer. You need to study recent and far past economic history, you are acting like a very uneducated fool.

 

[Barth Jones]

With all due respect, there is a great difference between socialism and equality. Socialism says, "do your job and you'll get paid what your coworkers get paid, because we say so." Equality says, "do your job well and you'll be rewarded well, because here we believe in equality." But it's clear that I won't gain my point here. I won't spend more strength than I have. God bless.