Items Tagged with 'walmart'

A workplace fatality that brought attention to the issue of crowd control in the retail industry appears to be – finally – headed toward a resolution, after Walmart recently withdrew its appeal of a $7,000 OSHA fine over the incident.

Workers at a Mira Loma, California warehouse that ships goods for Walmart launched a two-day strike last week to protest alleged unsafe working conditions and retaliation against workers who complained about those conditions.

It’s 4:18 a.m. and the strip mall is deserted. But tucked in back, next to a closed-down video store, an employment agency is already filling up. Rosa Ramirez walks in, as she has done nearly every morning for the past six months. She signs in and sits down in one of the 100 or so blue plastic chairs that fill the office.

Since the Rana Plaza building collapse killed more than 1,100 people in April, retailers have faced mounting pressure to improve safety at Bangladesh garment factories and to sever ties with manufacturers that don't measure up.

Walmart and an industry group representing many U.S. retailers say they will not join an international pact intended to improve factory conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry – although many global retailers have signed the agreement.

Complaining of working conditions that allegedly include hazardous equipment and chemical exposure, Walmart employees filed a formal ethics complaint this week with the company’s corporate executives in Los Angeles.