Unionization at Wal-Mart

Unionization at Wal-Mart

Unions have attempted to gain control over Wal-Mart employees in many instances. A classical example took place when the meat packers of Wal-Mart unionized (Demetrakakes 2003). Soon after, Wal-Mart announced that it would no longer be cutting its own meat and switched to pre-packaged meats only. Other instances have been documented that Wal-Mart has shut down shopping centers for good because employees have unionized. In order for employees to be part of a union, a vote must take place. The ballots are secret, but watchdog groups are persistent in their claims that Wal-Mart threatens their employees. When a union vote is happening, supposedly Wal-Mart has official anti-union dispatch members that come to the rescue if unionization is beginning.

Wal-Mart has millions to lose and Unions will gain thousands in union fees if employees unionize. Unions would not confess that money might be the reason why they are so against the chain. They claim that their main purpose is to protect employees. Therefore the battle is ruthless. They are both full-blown, head to head, against each other. Unions have a substantial impact on the compensation and work lives of both unionized and non-unionized workers (Mishel & Walters, 2003) The unions claim to raise wages by about 20% and assist in negotiating other benefits for their workers also. Unionized workers are more likely than their non-unionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans (Mishel & Walters, 2003).

As you can see, if unions got their hands on the two million Wal-Mart workers, imagine the wage hike and benefit costs for the giant. As noted above, the arguments from protesters, who are mostly unions, are contradicting from Wal-Mart's stance on the same topics. The six main arguments from anti-Wal-Mart protestors are: 1)-Front line employees that work at Wal-Mart are paid poorly and are not paid a living wage, 2)- Wal-Mart does not offer affordable health care plans to its employees, 3)-Wal-Mart discriminates against women, minorities, and elderly in the workplace, and Wal-Mart consistently ignores labor laws, 4)-Wal-Mart ruins communities by running competing businesses into the ground, 5)- Wal-Mart buys most of its products abroad and does not support American jobs, and 6)-Wal-Mart contaminates the environment by polluting air and water.

Despite the current impasse, the stakes continue to be high for both sides. Wal-Mart faces the first serious unionization threat since its founding in 1962. For decades, the company's strategy of placing stores in small towns and rural areas kept it largely free of exposure to unions. But in recent years, Wal-Mart has been pushing into the heavily unionized supermarket industry, as well as into big cities where workers are more familiar with organized labor. Even though the company has prevailed so far in Las Vegas, the UFCW has an even more ambitious plan to sign up Wal-Mart workers elsewhere, starting with 117,000 in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and ...