Corporate Greasiness Report: Walmart Adding Wage Caps and Part-Timers

This evening, through a friend's blog, I happened upon this article:

Wal-Mart to Add Wage Caps and Part-Timers
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE and MICHAEL BARBARO

Wal-Mart, the nation’s largest private employer, is pushing to create a cheaper, more flexible work force by capping wages, using more part-time workers and scheduling more workers on nights and weekends.

The full text of the article can be found here.

Now this is what bothers me about this. Wal-mart has been trying to put a smiley face on their evil-corporation image (pun intended) for at least the last year, adding organic foods to their roster of products-for-cheap and pushing for more eco-friendly practices from their vendors. This I appreciate.

But this is not a company which is short on cash - and the people running the show are worth billions. So WHY are they undermining the value of the very workforce that keeps them in business? These are people with lives to lead - rent to pay, and all too often, extra mouths to feed. And what are they giving their loyalty to? A corporation that tries to push them out of whatever little advancement and seniority advantage they end up seeing in favor of the next person who agrees to 20 hours a week because they have no other choice.

I understand the push for low prices - heck, I'm on a budget too. But I'm appalled that the lower prices Wal-mart stands for are forced to come out of the pockets of the people who work there.