![]() That applied not only at the company’s stores, but also at its large network of distribution centers. Tate, who devised the policy of uncompromising resistance that would characterize Wal-Mart’s labor relations posture for decades to follow. Instead, Ortega notes, he brought in a union-busting consultant named John E. When Walton learned in the 1970s that some of his workers were talking about unionization, he did not try to address their concerns. “We really didn’t do much for the clerks except pay them an hourly wage,” Walton wrote in his autobiography, “and I guess that wage was as little as we could get by with at the time.” As Bob Ortega points out in his 1998 book In Sam We Trust, Wal-Mart Sam Walton deliberately used superficial forms of paternalism to gain the loyalty of his workers while keeping labor costs at rock bottom. ![]() ![]() While some have sought to romanticize founder Sam Walton and pin the blame for the company’s notorious labor policies on his successors, the exploitative approach was there from the start. In 2012 the green initiatives were overshadowed by a scandal involving reports that top Wal-Mart executives sought to cover up a bribery scandal in its Mexican operations.įacing growing competition from online merchants, especially Amazon, Wal-Mart announced in January 2016 that it would close 154 outlets in the United States and another 115 abroad, mainly in Brazil. The one way in which Wal-Mart has made some progress in improving its image is with regard to the environment, though critics charge that the company’s much vaunted commitment to sustainability is largely hype meant to deflect attention from its continuing retrograde practices in other fields. For more than two decades, the giant retailer has been at the center of controversies over its low wages, overtime pay abuses, meager employee benefits, gender discrimination, negative impact on small business, immense dealings with China, tax avoidance and much more. stores while retaining the hyphen in its corporate name). (Or Walmart, to use the spelling the company now applies to its U.S. If the average person were asked which large company most epitomizes corporate misconduct and lack of accountability, there is a good chance the response would be: Wal-Mart.
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