Question

Wal-Mart is one company that works hard to avoid unionization. The company says it does not have unions because it takes care of its employees. It surveys employees regularly, and many

workers have been promoted from cashier and stocker jobs to management jobs. A company-wide stock ownership program has generated significant long-term returns for employees.

Unions counter that Wal-Mart uses aggressive and even unfair labor practices to prevent

unionization. When a union tries to organize workers, the company often reacts with a coordinated “union prevention” program. Mandatory employee meetings are held in stores, where

managers and supervisors read prepared scripts explaining the consequences of unionizing and show videos emphasizing the negatives of unionization.

As a result, at Wal-Mart in the United States, virtually no workers are unionized. In fact, when unions have won elections in some Wal-Mart locations, the firm has outsourced the jobs to

independent contractors or even closed stores. Even outside the United States, Wal-Mart has been aggressive at resisting unionization of any workers in Canada, despite more union-friendly

Canadian laws.

To put more pressure on Wal-Mart, unions have formed a coalition called Wal-Mart Watch. This organization has targeted Wal-Mart organizational practices. For instance, extensive publicity about deficiencies in health benefits offered by Wal-Mart have led to the firm revising its

plans. The Watch also has encouraged workers to file legal complaints that Wal-Mart has violated

anti-discrimination laws. The watch has established its own Website (http://walmartwatch.com) that contains numerous articles discussing Wal-Mart actions. That Website has a blog that allows previous and current employees to post comments, as well as outsiders to provide input and opinions also.

The ultimate goal of the Watch is to be able to unionize employees at Wal-Mart because of its huge number of workers. As Wal-Mart grows and adds more stores, its growth also results in the decline or closing of other retailers, in which there are often a significant number of unionized workers. How Wal-Mart will change over the next years and the effects of the Watch on those changes will be interesting to observe.

Questions

Describe the advantages and disadvantages of Wal-Mart’s aggressive union prevention efforts.

Go to http://walmartwatch.com, and review some of the articles and blogs. Then identify your view of the Watch’s efforts.

Answer 1

ADVANTAGE :-

the advatage to wlmart's union prevention efforts are that begin part of a union can create some issues. it seems that Wal-Mart is trying to prebvent some of these issues from arising they may be afraid that if unionized some emplye will complain about the " fees " and "Dues"

DISADVANTAGES :-

the disadvantage of Walmart's prevention efforts are that most employee might prefer to be unionized . becoming a union can sometimes allow for higher wages and better health for employees. there is also the fact that beign a union means that employees cannot just simply be fired . there must be "just cause" to fire and employee . this may allow employees to feel that they can speek more openly and freely about issues regarding the comppeople make the same hourly wasge as most college students that work. if i worked at walmart i would push to become unionized walmart also seems to have a good amount of publicitu concerning unfair gealth benifit