The 5 Stores Wal-Mart Closed Mysteriously Are Re-Opening

Jade Helm conspiracies abounded when Wal-Mart suddenly and without warning closed five stores in April.  The move also caused more that 2,200 people to be laid off.

From Business Insider:

Six months later, the retailer is now reopening the stores and inviting previous employees to reapply for their jobs.

Walmart said it closed the stores in California, Texas, Oklahoma, and Florida because of persistent plumbing issues.

But Walmart employees — who said they were blindsided by the closures — have a different theory about why the stores may have been closed.

They say Walmart shuttered the stores in retaliation against workers protesting for better pay and working conditions, which is something Walmart has been found guilty of doing in Canada.

The UFCW — a labor group representing Walmart’s laid-off workers — filed a claim with the National Labor Relations Board demanding that the company rehire the employees.

Walmart employees weren’t alone in their skepticism.

The closures also fueled a bizarre conspiracy theory that the US military was planning to enact martial law this summer under the guise of a special-operations exercise called Jade Helm 15.

According to the theory — which has no apparent basis in reality — the military was planning to use the shuttered Walmart stores as “processing” facilities for Americans once martial law was hatched.

Walmart has denied that the closures had anything to do with labor activity or Jade Helm.

“The reason for the closures is to address the plumbing issues that we have at these stores,” Walmart spokesman Lorenzo Lopez told Business Insider in April.

All laid off workers received paid leave for two months. After that, full-time workers could become eligible for severance.

Some workers were also hired at nearby Walmarts during the closures.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/wal-mart-reopens-5-stores-it-suddenly-closed-2015-9#ixzz3l5pjsDcA