Wal-Mart says it’s trying to do right by its soon-to-be-laid-off employees in Juneau. For example, it’s flying in trainers to help with job skills. But it’s also been strictly sticking to a corporate policy that left some outgoing employees in the dark about a state-organized job fair held specifically for its employees.
About a minute’s walk from Wal-Mart, a small room at Gruening Park has been transformed intoa mini job fair. Up to 168 Juneau Wal-Mart employees could lose their jobs this week, so the state organized the Jan. 29 job fair to help.
“We’ve got TSA, Fred Meyer, Verizon, AT&T, Home Depot, and IGA,” said Ray Brogdon, an employee at the state’s unemployment office.
He says the hope is that Wal-Mart associates can find new jobs before they have to step into his office.
And at about an hour into the event, prospects look good. Some Wal-Mart associates who walked through the door already landed a job interview. But for one of Juneau’s largest employers to be shutting down…
“It’s a little slow right now but we’re looking at probably around 12 o’clock, until we’re done here until 2 p.m., that it should start picking up and hopefully be able to assist everyone that comes in,” Brogdon said.
In the afternoon, it does pick up. And Wal-Mart associate, Bradford Rich, goes from booth to booth to speak to the stores hiring. He found out about the job fair the same way he discovered Wal-Mart was closing: he read about it on Facebook.
“And some other my coworkers had seen it, and we all talked about it. I didn’t realize it was specifically put on for us until I read the whole shebang,” Rich said.
Wal-Mart announced it was closing 154 of its stores in the U.S. in January–potentially laying off 10,000 employees. And Juneau was on that list.
Rich, who’s worked at Wal-Mart for two years, says the news hit him hard.
“Best way to describe it as a family member died. It’s that kind of feeling of loss,” Rich said. “I’m full grown and when I went to work for them I had planned on working there until I retired. And like I said, we didn’t know until that Friday that they were closing down so it was like a death in the family.”
So he says he was excited when he heard the Department of Labor was organizing the jobs event. Rich is a manager at Wal-Mart’s deli. And he wants to find something similar at one of the other stores in town.
But, working his shift at Wal-Mart, he couldn’t find any information that the job fair was even happening.
“They would not allow us to have any job fair. They are going to give us a class on resumes and that’s going to be done at the store. But they will not support the Department of Labor to come into the store,” Rich said.
“Yes, I had heard that,” said Heidi Drygas, the head of the state Department of Labor. “I had heard they had requested that we not be on the premises.”
She says it’s not uncommon for the state to organize this type of response in communities facing mass layoffs. In Bethel, when the Swanson’s grocery store shut down, displacing 80 employees, the Department of Labor stepped in to help with job relocation.
“Typically, employers welcome that sort of interaction with a state agency tasked with reemploying workers so not sure why there was that… I don’t want to say resistance, just decision on behalf of Wal-Mart management,” Drygas said.
Wal-Mart’s corporate spokesperson says there’s a company policy that forbids outside groups from engaging in any demonstration and soliciting or distributing literature at their stores. That includes the state’s job fair flyers. But Wal-Mart is flying in development trainers to help employees with resumes.
Lisa Mielke, the statewide rapid response coordinator, said she wasn’t at the meeting between Wal-Mart and the Department of Labor. The Juneau Job Center was, but officials declined to comment for this story. And Mielke says she’s not sure why the job center wouldn’t talk.
“We have Wal-Marts through Alaska and they’re a big employer that hire lots of people,” Mielke said. “And so we have a good working relationship with them.”
Wal-Mart has 12 other stores in Alaska.
Mielke says the Department of Labor did everything it could to get the word out about the job fair. Staff placed flyers in bus stops, convenience stores — even inside Safeway and Fred Meyer.
Still, one Wal-Mart associate I spoke with didn’t know it was happening, and she missed it.
In all, about 20 Wal-Mart employees scored new jobs from attending the job fair. Magesty Tauay was one of them.
“Well, I like to socialize with people. I like to get along with people. I make friends easily. I don’t have to get used to them,” said Tauay. “I just walk up and said, ‘Hey, I’m Magesty. Nice meeting. You have a wonderful day.’”
She says Fred Meyer and Home Depot offered her a job. And she needs it, because she sends money back to her family in American Somoa.
“Every paycheck I have, if I have that much, I send my parents money. But if they do really need it, I don’t care about myself or anything. All I care about is my parents,” she said.
And she says she heard about the job fair at a meeting that morning at Wal-Mart.
But Bradford Rich says he wishes Wal-Mart would have done more to promote the event.
“I would have appreciated it if they had done that. I just want to thank the people that did this here. ‘Cause at least we did have something to go to,” Rich said.
The Department of Labor plans to hold another job fair for Wal-Mart’s employees after the store closes this week.
