Mona Curtis has worked at Wal-Mart since 2002. Her story is just one example of Wal-Mart’s apparent desire to cut wage and health care costs by pushing out senior associates, as revealed in a recently leaked memo from Wal-Mart’s top benefits executives. In her own words:

“My name is Mona Curtis. I have been a door greeter at Wal-Mart in Hillsboro, OH ever since it opened in 2002. When I first started working at Wal-Mart I thought it was a great place to work. My co-workers were very friendly and my managers were willing to work with me on my schedule. Prior to being hired, I explained to Wal-Mart I could only work four days a week. I’m a foster parent, and I have to attend trainings every Saturday. On Fridays, I volunteer at the local soup kitchen and I attend church every Sunday.

Recently, I noticed a change in culture when a new manager came in. A few of my co-workers have been terminated, and schedules have been changed without notice. I believe Wal-Mart is making these changes in order to push out the older associates in favor of younger associates as a way of phasing us older associates out in order to hire younger associates.

Once I realized what was happening, I wrote a letter to the Bentonville office to address my concerns. The letter was supposed to be confidential and I thought I would be protected under Wal-Mart’s confidentiality and open door policy. After being informed of my letter, my store manager began to harass me. She told me if I was not able to work on any day they scheduled me, she would cut my hours. I explained to her how much I needed the income and could not afford to have my hours cut. Then, my manager told me to apply for partial unemployment in order to make up for the cut hours. I applied for unemployment, believing that I was going to be compensated. I was denied partial unemployment and I later found out my manager had sent a letter to the Unemployment office, directing them to deny me. To this day, management continues to harass me and pressure me to quit.”

Click here to read the memo from Wal-Mart Executive Vice President of Benefits, Susan Chambers, discussing reducing costs by, in part, replacing senior associates.

More Wal-Mart Worker Stories:
A. G. White
Bettie Madsen
Cindy Starns
Cynthia Murray
Dana Razaie
Diane Muthig
Five Workers From New York
Greg Pierce
Josh Smith
Kristen Bonardi Rapp
Lance Hindman
Mona Curtis
Ollie & Patricia Wells
Rosetta Brown