Employers have begun looking at employees differently. A good work force is an asset only until such time as savings have to be made. Then the workforce is disposable, generally in direct proportion to the salary. The higher the salary the more disposable a person is. Wal-Mart had embraced this big time, according to company documents.
Wal-Mart doesn't care about it's employees. It doesn't particularly care about its customers. It knows that so long as it sells cheap stuff in high volume then somebody out there will buy it.
Again, why does WM have to "care" about its employees? It has to make good business decisions, including business decisions regarding employees and employee relations, period.
Employees have ALWAYS been the place to look when a company needs to make savings. The higher paid employees have ALWAYS been in jeopardy when the accountants come and say the company needs to save x amount by year's end. (Fire one engineer, save $100K.)
This is not new. This is business.