Walmart Getting Hit With Serious Backlash After Killing The Greeter Job!

What gets some people so upset about the number of people that refuse to work are the number of people that would want to work but for one reason or another can’t.

Just because you are confined to a wheelchair doesn’t mean that you are automatically excluded from working somewhere it just limits the number of things that you can do. Any place that has a spot for you should be able to give you something to do if you want to work.

For years there was a Walmart that was near my home where a guy in a wheelchair that pretty much had no usable legs that worked as a greeter.

Now, he didn’t just sit at the front of the store and wave at people. This guy would move in his power chair around the store helping people look for things that they needed if they needed help looking for something.

Here he was, fully within his rights to not bother working one day in his life and he came to work about 25 hours a week. The fact that the might not be allowed to do that anymore is absolutely heartbreaking.

As Walmart moves to phase out its familiar blue-vested “greeters” at some 1,000 stores nationwide, disabled workers who fill many of those jobs say they’re being ill-treated by a chain that styles itself as community-minded and inclusive.

Walmart told greeters around the country last week that their positions would be eliminated on April 26 in favor of an expanded, more physically demanding “customer host” role. To qualify, they will need to be able to lift 25-pound packages, climb ladders and stand for long periods.

That came as a heavy blow to greeters with cerebral palsy, spina bifida and other physical disabilities. For them, a job at Walmart has provided needed income, served as a source of pride and offered a connection to the community.

Now Walmart, America’s largest private employer, is facing a backlash as customers rally around some of the chain’s most highly visible employees.

Walmart says it is striving to place greeters in other jobs at the company, but workers with disabilities are worried.

Donny Fagnano, 56, who has worked at Walmart for more than 21 years, said he cried when a manager at the store in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, called him into the office last week and told him his job was going away.

“I like working,” he said. “It’s better than sitting at home.”

Fagnano, who has spina bifida, said he was offered a severance package. He hopes to stay on at Walmart and clean bathrooms instead.

Walmart greeters have been around for decades, allowing the retail giant to put a friendly face at the front of its stores. Then, in 2016, Walmart began replacing greeters with hosts, adding responsibilities that include helping with returns, checking receipts to deter shoplifters and keeping the front of the store clean.

Via Western Journal