Wal-Mart suddenly closed five stores in four states on Monday for alleged plumbing problems. The closures could last up to six months and affect roughly 2,200 workers in Texas, California, Oklahoma, and Florida, CNN Money reports.
Wal-Mart employees say they were completely blindsided by the news, having been notified only a couple hours before the stores closed at 7 p.m. Monday.
"Everybody just panicked and started crying," Venanzi Luna, a manager at a store in Pico Rivera, California, told CNN Money.
All workers will receive paid leave for two months. After that, full-time workers could become eligible for severance, according to CNN Money. But part-time workers will be on their own.
Local officials and employees have questioned Wal-Mart's reasoning for the closures. 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.
A city official in Pico Rivera confirmed to CBS Los Angeles that the city has not received any permit requests for building repairs. In Midland, Texas, where another store was closed, a city official told ABC News that his plumbing inspector was turned away when he visited the store and offered to help secure construction permits.
Wal-Mart plumbing technician Codi Bauer, who worked at the now shuttered store in Brandon, Florida, questioned the company's time frame for the repairs.
"Even if they had to replace the whole sewer line, it wouldn't take six months to replace a whole sewer line in that store," he told WFLA.
Some employees believe that the stores were closed because of worker protests for higher pay.
Employees of the Pico Rivera store were among the first to hold Black Friday protests in 2012. "This is the first store that went on strike," an employee told CBS Los Angeles.
"This is the first store in demanding changes for Walmart."It's pretty obvious the plumbing problems are all the backed-up horseshit from the Leftists and Union Thugs who want to destroy Wal-Mart and the Capitalist system as we know them.
WALL STREET TO WALMART: OCCUPY BLACK FRIDAY
99pickets.org
Date: Friday, November 23, 2012 - 12:00pm
Address: A Walmart in North Jersey - TBA , NJ
Boycott Walmart - Support Workers Fighting for Fair Waging and Fair Treatment In the wake of a series of unprecedented Walmart retail and warehouse strikes, Walmart workers, labor allies and community supporters have put Walmart on notice for Black Friday: End retaliation and attempts to silence workers or face nationwide strikes and direct action.
On Black Friday—the busiest shopping day of the year—Occupy Wall Street, 99 Pickets, ALIGN, Rev. Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping, Retail Action Project, and allies will occupy a Walmart store in North Jersey in solidarity with these courageous workers.
Join us as we clog the checkout lines, take over the store with shopping carts, sing songs, picket the store, and disrupt Walmart's business.I'm sure there are some readers who would think it's unreasonable of me to call these Organizers Communists, and to make the claim that there picketing is done for the purpose of destroying Capitalism.