I was up late with Damian last night so I napped today. When I did I had this really horrible dream reflecting something that happened when I worked at Walmart (over 4 years ago.) It was the first place I worked after I left home and moved to the USA.

A little bit of history on the source of the dream; when I was going through orientation for Walmart we had to watch a couple videos about the evils of unions and how to deal with someone who approaches you about them. We had to fill out a questionnaire about them too and sign an anti-union pledge as well I believe. I just barely 18-years-old at the time and very naive, I believed everything in the videos. At one point my manager flat out told me that I could lose my greencard if I joined a union (which I believed.)

Some time later one of my coworkers approached me and said he was having a talk at his place after work about starting a union. Being the good little worker bee I was, I went to my manager, like the video taught me, and reported him. He was fired a couple days later. It didn’t occur to me at the time that it was because of the union thing.

So my dream:

The person who was fired from Walmart showed up at my door. They were addicted to methadone or some other drug and very angry at me. He said I had destroyed his life and he couldn’t get a job after Walmart fired him. He told me his wife had left him after being jobless for months and wouldn’t let him see his children. I was afraid he was going to kill me though I woke up before anything like that happened.

Anyhow, the dream unnerved me a little. I haven’t really thought of Walmart since I left it and moved here to Spokane. A lot of crap happened there, stuff that in retrospect, I can’t believe I let happened. I allowed myself to be discriminated against for being a woman, I worked off the clock so I wouldn’t get fired for overtime since I also would have been fired for not finishing my job, I drove machinery I was not certified on because my manager said so. I saw people dispose of dangerous chemicals down the drain so we wouldn’t have to pay for hazardous waste disposable and didn’t stand up for anyone who was demeaned by another. Not exactly moments I am proud of, but ones that shouldn’t be forgotten either.

It amazes me that people can shop there. I think they know exactly what kind of things Walmart does and gets away with but turn a blind eye, all in the name of saving a buck. It is funny because when Michael and I crunched the numbers we save a ton more by not shopping there.

Soapbox aside though, I wish I would have never turned that guy in, he was a nice hard worker, he didn’t deserve to be fired over something like that.