Another Reason Not to Shop at Wal-Mart. New York Times (reg req): Workers Assail Night Lock-Ins by Wal-Mart. The reason for Mr. Rodriguez's delayed trip to the hospital was a little-known Wal-Mart policy: the lock-in. For more than 15 years, Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, has locked in overnight employees at some of its Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. It is a policy that many employees say has created disconcerting situations, such as when a worker in Indiana suffered a heart attack, when hurricanes hit in Florida and when workers' wives have gone into labor. [Dan Gillmor's eJournal]

What a wonderful company! They only seemed to have changed the policy when they found out the paper was investigating. They had managers saying employees would lose their jobs if they left through a fire exit. There were people who dealt with major injuries because managers had led them to believe there was nothing they could do but wait for someone to show up with a key. Yes, the doors were locked but no one had a key. Are any of these managers being reprimanded? I love the fact that, becaue of the 40 hour a week restriction, employees would have to clock out say at 1 and just sit around until someone let them out at 6AM. The companiy wants us to believe that this does not happen now, that it happened at only a small group of sotes, that it is not really responsible for the horrible actions of its own managers. Well, what do you expect? The whole corporate culture at Wal-mart is so anti-worker and always has been. How many of those new 'legal' immigrants will get a job at Wal-mart? A job they have to keep, no matter what, or leave the country? I bet Wal-Mart is really looking forward to getting their hands on those indentured servant.  12:07:05 AM