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Diane DeVoy Wal-Mart Employee, 6 years
In many respects, Diane DeVoy was a typical Wal-Mart hourly employee. She is a single mother, struggling to take care of her two children and she really believed in the company when she first started working there. As she says, “I was a hard worker and I gave them all my time and energy.”
Like many Wal-Mart employees, even though she worked full-time for the company, she was forced to seek public assistance for herself and for her children because she couldn’t afford the company’s health benefits or make ends meet on her meager salary. Then she learned that male co-workers with less experience were being paid more than she was. She was hassled by management when she took a leave of absence to care for her dying parents. She was forced by managers to perform dangerous work when she was seven months pregnant.
To address the unfair treatment she was receiving, Diane joined a few co-workers who wanted to unionize the store. Management retaliated by intimidating and threatening Diane and her co-workers. After a violent hurricane almost destroyed her house, Diane was fired from Wal-Mart. Since then, she has been speaking out about her experiences with the company, in the hopes of making it a better place for future generations of employees.
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