The following is a paper on a practical proposal addressing a local problem. This paper is a summary of my research on the employees’ rights violation at the giant Wal-Mart retail stores.
The paper has information on how the rights of the employees have been violated (low salary, poor working conditions, employee discrimination and inadequate health care).
Due to the employees’ violation at Wal-Mart, the information in the paper provides guidance on how workers can go about resolving their issue (by forming or joining trade unions). It goes in depth to explain how these unions work and finally gives a justification on the whole issue.
Wal-Mart is the largest retail store in America and the world. The retail store is still spreading its dominance worldwide, starting in Asia where it has its stores in over ten countries, Europe and South America. The giant retail store is still planning to expand its business dealings on an even wider scope in the near future.
The giant store possesses incentives that are geared towards profit making, due to the recent recession though, the incentives tend to hurt its workers. With Wal-Mart’s effort to make a way into hypermarket cultures all over the world, lots of severe setbacks have come into play.
What is more, low-wages, low benefits, employment discrimination, poor healthcare, anti-union policies, and bad working conditions have made Wal-Mart an evil business in the eyes of their employees. This paper will therefore concentrate on Wal-Mart’s employee violations, propose a solution to this and finally find a justification on the whole issue.
“With about two million employees worldwide, Wal-Mart has faced a torrent of lawsuits and issues with regards to its workforce. These issues involve low wages, poor working conditions, inadequate health care, employee discrimination, as well as issues involving the company’s strong anti-union-policies” (Keil & Lee 336).
Criticism has pointed out to Wal-Mart’s soaring turnover rates as proof to a discontented labor force, even if other aspects may possibly be involved. A study has shown that, roughly seventy five percent of its workers leave inside one year with the firm.
Wal-Mart’s full-time hourly associates receive, a standard, 10.11 dollars every hour; with 34 hours in a week, a worker gets 17,874 dollars in a year which is 20% lesser than an average retail employee. The firm is also accused of poor employee working conditions.
This is evidenced by lawsuits against the firm asserting that workers are sometimes forced to work off the clock (where overtime pay is refuted), are denied lunch breaks or even stopped from taking rests.
The best solution on the problems affecting Wal-Mart employees lies in the forming and joining of labor unions that will advocate for the workers’ rights. Labor unions and particularly in the United States are lawfully distinguished as representatives of employees and workers in various industries.
“Activities by labor unions in the United States today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their membership, and on representing their members if by any chance the management attempts to violate contract provisions” (Zieger & Gall 548).
In this case therefore, forming and joining labor unions is the way forward as they will advocate policy implementation and legislations on behalf of the employees, despite the fact that wall mart has strong anti-union policies.
With the union again, the workers will notably gain some equity and bargaining power, this comes about when violations against the workers have been experienced (Zieger & Gall 548).
The union makes sure that the law is followed and that a contract term drafted by a single party, is intrinsically biased (the union makes sure the employees and the management are the stakeholders in contract drafting), “as a result the union brings the management and the workers as close as to equal as possible providing a legal counter weight to the management” (Zieger & Gall 548).
The employees are also responsible in electing their own representatives in the union who will air their grievances to the union in cases of employee violations, in order for the union to take corrective measures.
As a justification for what the workers need to do, there is a tight regulation in the labor union on private-sector union membership by the NLRA (National Labor Relations Act).
This law is run by the National Labor Relations Board, a self-governing national organization, this union and others are controlled partially by federal government and partially by government laws.
General they have displayed vigorous growth for pay, and workers conditions are put through negotiations with selected local and government officers.
When joining a labor union, employees must either be granted voluntary acknowledgment from the employer or acquire majority employees in the bargaining-unit vote to be represented in a union; in both cases, the federal government is to endorse the union (Zieger & Gall 548).
“Once the union has won the support of a majority in the bargaining unit and is certified in a workplace, it has the sole authority to negotiate the conditions of employment;” (Zieger & Gall 548) as shown by Zeiger & gall (548) again, the management and the union together draft the stipulations and conditions of service in lawfully binding contracts.
When violations do occur in the workplace, majority contracts bring in other parties to take care of their differences, via a complaint procedure to see if the problem can be jointly resolved. “If the union and the employer still cannot settle the matter, either party can choose to send the dispute to arbitration, where the case is argued before a neutral third party” (Zieger & Gall 548)
A number of U.S. economists are trying to analyze whether Wal-Mart has a positive or negative impact particularly on the American economy. The major irony behind this is that the analysis is sponsored by Wal-Mart itself.
In attempting to mend its reputation and reach out to critics Wal-Mart conducts gatherings and conferences in Washington D.C., despite this, Wal-Mart is evidently dragging down American living standards when they violate their employees’ rights.
They do this when they pay poverty level wages and other benefits. Conversely, they argue that they have the lowest pricing which is beneficial to consumers, particularly the poor while keeping the overall inflation checked.
To alleviate this it is necessary that its workers form or join labor unions. There many advantages in these unions, some of these are better wages and benefits for its members, improved work conditions together with social networks providing financial, emotional and legislative hold up.
The actual gain from a union though is the provision of another stronger voice in bargaining during contract formation.
Works Cited
Keil, Stanley. & Spector, Lee. The Impact of Wal-Mart on Income and Unemployment Differentials in Alabama. Review of Regional Studies; Winter, 35 (3), 336-355. 2005. Print.
Zieger, Robert, & Gilbert, Gall. American Workers, American Unions: The Twentieth Century. Maryland. John Hopkins University Press. 2002. Print.