Wal-Mart's gloves are down

In recent years Wal-Mart has been taking large steps in cracking down on violators of company policies. Employing investigators with impressive, and even intimidating, backgrounds to build cases against suspected violators, Wal-Mart maintains that all employees are treated equally when it comes to investigations. The company has employed in their security departments, investigators with CIA and FBI backgorunds who are quite good at what they do. Violations to be investigated can include high ranking executives mis-using company funds, all the way down to promiscuity among lower employees. However some claims have been made that the Big Brother-like watch employees are kept under and the lengths taken to cath violators is a scare tactic being utilized by Wal-Mart to keep employees on track, and even to keep some from speaking out. One man, fired for fraternizing with a lower level employee, made the claim that the investigators singled him out for speaking out against working conditions in several central american factories he had visited.
In the late 19th century, during what is known as the Gilded Age, huge impersonal corporations flourished. During this age of industry workers rights and freedoms were severly limited. Unions were only begining to form and were ineffective. Anti-company thinking and actions, such as strikes, were quickly put down by whateveer means nessesary. the company policies were upheld strictly however workers had virtually no other options other than to follow them and keep their jobs,it being the only thing supporting them.