World Affairs Brief, April 24, 2015 Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief (http://www.worldaffairsbrief.com).
WALMART STORE CLOSURES—RUMORS AND HYPE
About the only thing you can say for sure about the sudden closure of five Walmart stores is that the official excuse that they are closed permanently due to “plumbing problems” is a lie. All kinds of wild conspiracy rumors have emerged such as those claiming that DHS is building an underground tunnel network, or that they are being commandeered by FEMA to use for housing the mass of illegals from Central America. The notorious KGB disinformation outfit, calling themselves the “EU Times” (which has no physical presence in the EU) capitalized on this phony conspiracy to add their own twist that, “special forces have taken over the stores.” Don’t ever believe or pass on any “news” that comes from the fake “Sorcha Faal” or “EU Times.”
But as Jobs with Justice said, Walmart’s excuse “doesn’t hold water” and is most likely just taking revenge on stores whose employees gave them the most labor trouble and forced Walmart to increase their minimum wage labor costs, increasing expenses by billions.

Walmart suddenly announced that it would be immediately closing five stores for at least six months due to “plumbing problems.” While the company claimed the problems have persisted for the last few years, in each incident, Walmart only gave employees a few hours’ notice that their stores were closing.

But if there were catastrophic plumbing problems, the leaks and the smells would have been very noticeable and city inspectors would have had to be involved and condemned the stores. None of that happened in any of the five stores.

 According to ABC News, “no plumbing permits have been pulled in any of the five cities where the stores were suddenly closed for at least six months.” The cities where locations were closed include: Brandon, Florida; Pico Rivera, California; Livingston, Texas; Midland, Texas; and Tulsa, Oklahoma.

And to confirm the vindictiveness of this move Walmart’s spokesperson, Delia Garcia, claimed “these are not layoffs” just before clarifying that “everyone will have to reapply as if new employees” once the stores reopen. Normally, laid off employees would be given automatic rights to their jobs back. This policy indicates they don’t intend to hire back those who protested.

Given Walmart’s well-documented track record of retaliating against employees who speak out for better working conditions, it’s much more likely that this recent spate of store closings is just the latest effort to silence dissent within the company’s workforce.

This wouldn’t be the first time Walmart has abruptly closed a store that just so happens to employ a large number of outspoken and well-organized employees. In 2005, Walmart closed a store in Quebec shortly after its employees at the store voted in favor of forming a union. The Canadian Supreme Court later ruled that Walmart’s actions were illegal and ordered the company to compensate the fired employees.