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All businesses in the end must generate profitable cash flows to survive. The ethicacy of their strategies to avert unionization must be balanced against the fact they are the U.S.' fifth largest employer, have a supply chain that makes it possible for the majority of families with incomes at $40K or less to make ends meet with their low prices, and consistently launch new products exceptionally well (Maher, Zimmerman, 2009). This last point drives revenue and jobs into the consumer packaged goods sector. Wal-Mart has been unethical in how they have attempted to alleviate unionization in core markets in the U.S. Yet the long-term implications of this strategy on a global level will not scale, as the case study shows. The case shows that the real professionals at socialism, the Peoples' Party of China (Communist Party) demand their workers get 8% raises per year regardless of how the economy...
This is unionization at its extreme and if allowed to flourish in the U.S., would cripple the economy. The more moderate approach of indexing union concessions to the actual performance of a business is a more realistic solution. Wal-Mart has advocated this approach and others like them for dealing with unions long-term.
References
Kristi Ellis. (2007, February). WAL-MART, UNIONS COME TOGETHER FOR HEALTH CARE. WWD, 193(30), 26.
Mei Fong. (2006, August 10). Wal-Mart Meets With Officials From China Union. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.2.
Graves, Lawrence. (1988, April). Wal-Mart, Unions Continue to Be at Loggerheads. St. Louis Business Journal,(1) 8(28), 10A.
Kris Maher, & Ann Zimmerman. (2009, April 17). U.S. News: Union Intensifies Efforts to Organize Workers at Wal-Mart. Wall Street Journal (Eastern Edition), p. A.4.
Wal-Mart Porters Wal-Mart Strategic Management Wal-Mart mission is based on the model that by simply saving people money so they can live better. The philosophy and overall business strategy was developed based on a simple idea created by founder Sam Walton: offer shoppers lower prices than they can get anywhere else. This strategy has been the basis of an incredible history and growth record for the company. This strategy still guides the
Wal-Mart This work will discuss two problems or issues in my work setting (Wal-Mart) for their significant ethical implications. The work will look at ethical, legal and value principles in the face of the issues or problems. Wal-Mart has taken considerable grief and many legal hits over the last ten years, in part because of its massive size but also because of its massive success and arguably bad ethical decision
Furthermore labor laws in terms of the international workforce have been entirely ignored, as workers are paid less than half of minimum wage in China, for example. This is earned for shifts of 16-20 hours per day (Hightower, 2002). Public knowledge of such practices has become so prominent that citizens are opposing Wal-Mart's expansion even in the face of its promise to cut prices lower than any of its competitors.
Wal-Mart and Employee Rights Labor cost is always considered as the main issue, mostly in case of employees' unionization at Wal-Mart. This was noticed when Wal-Mart showed a remarkable earning at the rate of 44% per annum for its labor working on hourly basis. Another point which brought this issue ahead was when the sales clerk of Wal-Mart in 2001 earned wages below Federal Poverty Scale. According to an issue of
With no actual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program in place to introduce the Wal-Mart Statement of Ethics, which was required by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for Wal-Mart to go public, the company floundered and alienated entire local and regional governments in Germany, ceasing labor unions to sue them to stop the Statement of Ethics from being enforced (Talaulicar, 2009). German workers, when handed the Statement of Ethics,
Also, the stores in the suburbs may also be chain stores, although locally or regionally based, rather than nationally-based chains like Wal-Mart. Consumers do not feel the same connection to these establishments, they way they might to old-fashioned mom-and-pop stores, or corner urban bodegas. One further irony of Wal-Mart's employee policy is that even employees who are angry at the company they work for, who are being most hurt by