Politics Within Wal-Mart

It has been constantly reported that Wal-Mart has tried its best to abolish any labor union within its company. From ruthlessly dismissing the member workers of the union to shutting down the union-centered stores, Wal-Mart has been on its endless dispute against the labor groups. Although there has been boundless censures toward Wal-Mart’s oppression towards the legal organizations, absence of labor union has allowed Wal-Mart to be saved from any unexpected strikes or demand for higher wages.

Though such worker-management policy of Wal-Mart looks unjustifiable with a cursory look, Wal-Mart’s such persecution of the labor organization is indeed legal. According to current labor law, it is up to the entrepreneur body’s decision to accept the existence of labor union or not.

However, as the union workers take huge proportion of the presidential election in each constituency, things will likely to change. Recognizing the huge potential popularity that can be gained by appealing to the labor union members, presidential candidates of both sides have proposed various bills to protect the rights of the unions. In addition, the current legislative body is already proposing the new bills to grab the attentions of the workers, such as making it easier for workers to unionize companies.

Labor union is the advanced form of democracy in today’s capitalist society in order to grant proper rudimentary rights and guarantee of basic living standard condition to all workers. In other words, the government’s approach to protect the existence of the labor union is inevitable in order to promise the improvement of the Wal-Mart workers’ working conditions. Nonetheless, it is also critical to draw the clear line on the level of power that unions can possess.

Despite the fact that union can provide the substantial power to the workers against the exploitation, chances are, the power of the union can be easily abused. From uncontrollable strikes to unfeasible demand for the working condition improvement, things can definitely go out of hands, considerably damaging the efficiency of the company. As the arbiter of the current situation, the government will need to be able to balance the power struggle between the company and the workers in order to provide both the maximum revenue to the company and the ameliorated living standards of the workers.