Walmart soon to open hiring center, look for local service vendors

by Timothy Rutt

 

Walmart Neighborhood Market manager Jennifer Gonzales addresses the Altadena Town Council Tuesday night.

Walmart’s Altadena supermarket is coming closer to reality, as the retailer reported to the Altadena Town Council that it will soon open a hiring center and look toward local vendors to provide maintenance and other services

However, opponents of the store are still active in organizing the neighborhood and criticizing the retailer’s business and employment practices.

Jennifer Gonzales, manager of the Altadena Walmart Neighborhood Market, told the council Tuesday night that they were about to sign a lease on a job center that would be located near the site of the planned market.  The hiring center, to be open in December, will have three terminals for job applicants, altho’ applicants can also appy at a Walmart store or walmart.com.  

Gozales said that in the next couple of months they will have an event for local vendors to apply for plumbing, electrical, and other maintenance jobs that will need to be done in the store.  

Gonzales said that the store was also partnering with Foothill Workforce in its search for potential employees.

Opponents to the store also had their say, both in asking questions and in the public comments part of Tuesday’s meeting.  Members of Neighbors Building a Better Altadena (NBBA) addressed several Walmart issues and their own plans of canvassing the neighborhood door to door. 

NBBA, along with the Arroyo Food Co-op, the Altadena Community Market, and RIPE Altadena, was holding a food drive that day in different locations to benefit the Altadena Food Pantry.  Monica Hubbard at NBBA pointed that out as an example of how the community can work together, as the drive for World Food Day was put together “in about an hour”

NBBA will hold a screening of “Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price” on Friday at 6:30 at the Altadena Community Center, 730 E. Altadena Dr.

Among the speakers, Mary Donnelly Crocker of Young and Healthy asked Gonzales to consider local community services that would help some of her employees get health insurance.  Goznales said that health insurance for Walmart fulltime employees kicks in after six months, and that part-times are eligible for coverage after a year. Gonzales said that Walmart had several different health insurance providers, and that health insurance was available for family members of employees as well.

In response to an audience question, Gonzales said that the store was not planning to sell guns or ammo as part of their site-to-store service.