The phone rings, the party on the other end gives all the details and within hours a jet is roaring it's way across the country. Sounds like the beginning of a great movie, huh? But this is not a pleasure trip or some sort of a vacation, it's a plane full of lawyers and public relations experts deployed like a SWAT team.
What's the urgent problem you ask? It's any hint or sign of that Wal-mart employees are talking to each other about unionizing at Wal-Mart stores.
How do you think the worlds biggest retailer does it? How can they afford to sell their goods for so little in yet stay on top and make so much money? Maybe they buy in bulk and then they turn around and sell products to the consumer at lower prices. Maybe it's because they don't make a ton of profit and they are just good to the people. These could, I guess all be real scenarios, but I doubt it!
What is really going on at Wal-Mart? How come they are so profitable? Maybe we should take a closer look at that great big store that has such great prices. Then maybe we should ask the employees!
Worker's at Wal-mart are forced into unpaid overtime and some long term employees who are more costly are pushed out and low wage, temporary, younger workers are brought in and given these positions. They are offered horrible benefits that they can't afford and we as tax payers are left to pay for those costs. Some employees say they work in anti-worker environments. Read more about employee benefits and working conditions from Dana Razaie a Wal-Mart employee.
How is this possible and why doesn't somebody do something about it?
One solid way of making all of this go away would be to unionize and get better treatment...right? Collectively come together and be many voices instead of one. Seems simple enough! Hold on, remember the jet in my opening paragraph? That jet is one of Wal-Marts union busting jets. They have a "union hotline" for all managers, if any talk of unions comes up. Wal-Mart has not only been successful at becoming the largest retailer in the world, (according to Wikinvest Wal-Mart made $408 billion dollars in FY2010) but they have also perfected the Art of Union-Busting.
After years of research from the Washington-based pressure group Human Rights Watch, some information is now available. It's even worse than some of us may have thought. There are security cameras and a "manager's toolbox", a manual which openly describes itself as a guide on "how to remain free in the event union organizers choose your store as thei
r next target".So, I ask you again. How do they do it? Well, it is very clear that it is done on the backs of their employees.
It's possible that people could give a darn about this story. They would probably say, if you don't like your job, quit! Which seems reasonable.
The problem isn't that these people should just quit, it's that Wal-Mart is taking advantage of their own corrupt system and that is what is wrong here.
I ask you to remember these employees the next time you save a couple of bucks while shopping at Wal-Mart. Think twice about where you shop and stop supporting these unfair practices. Nobody deserves it!
Wal-Mart photo from City-Data.com
Wal-Mart smiley face from www.blogacause.com
I agree with you. Why would anyone want to work for such a sleazy company? That's horrible that Wal-Mart is keeping it's employees from Unionizing. Some of the benefits that the Wal-Mart employees can't afford is probably health care, which is a HUGE issue with tax payers that have to pay extra for those who can't afford to get the care they need. It's all just so sad.
ReplyDeleteWal-Mart has reached such incredible size and power they seem to have become to big to fail. I think what keeps Wal-Mart so powerful is how unintelligent/uninformed the majority of shoppers are. I don't mean that as an insult, I just think Wal-Mart and other large corporations, especially those in the media have done a great job of keeping things like Unionizing at Wal-Mart and the horrible conditions there out of the media and out of the public's mind. There is little hope conditions will improve at Wal-Mart as long as people keep shopping there. And why would people stop shopping there if they don't know about the atrocities Wal-Mart employees go through, they've got the best prices in town.
ReplyDeleteNice overview of a company's anti-union practices. I'd like to see a little more media connection here. Isaac makes a good one; or how about some parallels with "Harlan County, USA"?
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