Sumitted to: Mr. Garrioch
By: Jeong Min Jane Park
Student ID: 111056
For: English Composition
On: Wednesday, Marth 7th, 2012
Whatever the reason is, and however convincing that is, something unjust should never be considered as a natural consequence nor be allowed in this society. But the reality is such an irony. There are tragedies happening everywhere. People lie, don’t trust each other, and the social gap is getting widened day by day. And frankly, one of the main factors of degrading the world justice has been quite near us: Walmart.
Though there are tons of problems I could find from Walmart, the most serious factor was its relationship with people. Meaning by people, it not only includes the consumers who want cheap products, but also covers those who work for the company. And for this article I would like to accentuate more on the latter. Walmart associates are working under a desperate working condition and intolerable treatment. Walmart is providing neither sufficient wage nor proper health care program for the associates. Walmart does not even listen to their associates protesting on the road. Walmart is not doing right.
To start with the labor, Walmart is said to provide a very low working condition. According to the “Rating toward Working for Walmart” by the people who used to work there, Walmart does not treat their “associates” as their “associates”, not even as human beings in some cases. What they basically do is to order those workers for whatever they need, even if it is not related to their work. After the workers finish what they are said to do so, Walmart employers force them to do another thing, completely different task from what they have done.
For example, when one of the associates was employed for the counter work, the employer first ordered him to carry the boxes for several hours. Right after he was done with that, the employer gave him another task of cleaning the restrooms. When he had finished all that, the last thing that the employer did was shouting at him for not concentrating on his work at the cash-counter. This kind of situation could hardly be understood in common sense. What is more surprising is how often it happens in real life, at Walmart.
Some could justify the situation for being paid a lot. But at Walmart, that is not the case. According to an article in New York Times, “The average full-time Wal-Mart employee is paid only about $17,000 a year.” Considering the fact that the workers at General Motors had an average wage of $29,000 per year, Walmart is putting a very petty amount of money for their workers.
They not only provide low wages, but are also very weak at Health Care Plan. “The company's health care plan covers fewer than half of its workers”. Since the company does not offer a proper health care program for their workers, associates tend to rely on other sources. “When they reach 65, most Wal-Mart employees will rely heavily on Social Security - if the privatizers don't kill it. And many Wal-Mart employees already rely on Medicaid to pay for health care, especially for their children.”
Because of all those inadequate conditions provided by the Walmart Corporations, there are associates protesting everywhere: in front of Walmart itself, on the road, and on the Internet. Even just on Youtube.com, there are lots of them. The fact that their working conditions have not greatly changed through years shows how Walmart does not listen to what their family members are shouting out of their heart. What was significant for me was that most associates were not being violent during the protest. Actually the only thing that I thank for Walmart comes out of the process of protesting.
While watching several protesting videos online, it was quite shocking to see how there was no violence involved during the whole procedure. There are also people protesting toward big companies in Korea, such as Samsung or Hyundai. However, there is whole lot of difference between them. Basically there is no protest in Korea that does not involve severe injuries. Big companies usually hire a notorious group of gangsters to put down the protesters. Thus, compared to those situations, Walmart is not being “terrible” on treating protesters.
However, not being violent does not mean they are doing it right. What really should happen are Walmart faculties listening to every single member of the associates, and finding out what the associates need in the first place. Having run for almost 30 years, it is now time for Walmart to move their whole attention from profit to people. By the time they realize their fault on their people, and try to fix it for the people, Walmart would turn to be a real “super” market from a “super hell” for everyone.
Works Cited
-Jobbite. “Working for Walmart.” Jobbite.com. Feb, 2012. (http://www.jobbite.com/reviews/wal-mart)
-Krugman, Paul. “Always Low Wages, Always Low.” New York Times. 13 May 2005.
-PagosaFirst. “Pagosa First Walmart Protest- Feb 4, 2012. Protesters Speak Out.” Youtube.com. 4 Feb, 2012. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=yeVXZTtmbJM)
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well this is the korean version of protesting, just for fun (though it is rather infuriating than fun)
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