Walmart 3rd ver

Whatever the reason is, and however convincing the excuse is, something unjust should not be considered as a natural consequence nor be allowed in this society we are living. But the reality is such an irony. There are tragedies happening everywhere. Frankly, what degrades the world justice has been quite near us: Walmart. Walmart has been criticized by various groups of people, including their labor unions, religious organizations, environmental groups, etc. It has been accused for bad working conditions, low wage without sufficient health care programs, and discrimination regarding gender.

To start with, Walmart has been facing accusations of low wage. According to an article in the 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 get an average wage of $29,000 per year, Walmart is providing a very petty amount of money for their workers. The study estimates that low wages force employees to accept $32 million annually in health-related services and $54 million per year in other assistance, such as subsidized school lunches, food stamps and subsidized housing.

Even with the small amount of salary they get, Walmart associates have to work in poor working conditions. For example, according to an article in Common Dreams, a 2005 court case in Missouri showed Walmart denied to pay for overtime works for approximately two hundred thousand people who were forced to work over the legal working hour. The workers were not allowed to have breaks to have their meals. Walmart has also committed similar incidents in other states, including Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Minnesota. Moreover, pharmacists working for Walmart have been degraded to be treated as part time employees for reduced working hour and salaries.

Some more nonsensical incidents are taking place at Walmart. According to New York Times, ten percent of Walmart's stores locked the nighttime employees inside the market building, holding them like prisoners. There has been some concern with Walmart's policy of locking its nighttime employees in the building. It has been implicated in a longer response time in dealing with various employee emergencies. Walmart said this policy was to protect the workers and the store's contents. But whatever their purpose is, the associates still consider the policy as violent and inhumane.

Furthermore, despite such problems mentioned previously and the advertisement of Walmart with the guarantee of health care programs that they offer, unbelievably high percent of Walmart associates suffer for paying their health insurance bills. According to Bloonberg Business Week, Walmart only covers 44% of its 1.3 million U.S. workers’ health care fees. The other half of the associates including both full-time and part-time workers, have to join and pay for health care programs by private organizations. Walmart has currently informed that they have increased the amount of workers who can get their health care plan.

Shown in New York Times, even that amount of low percent was the result of raising the number of workers being supported with the health plan. Walmart announced that the company’s health plan now covers more associates by 8 percent. But even with the increase, less than 47 percent of the associates would actually get the financial support for their health care. Normally 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.

Last but not least, Walmart has also been accused of problems regarding gender discrimination. From the beginning of the hiring process to the end of their retirement, female associates are said to be discriminated at the work place. For instance, Duke vs. Walmart inc. was a discrimination case on more than 1.5 million female employees. Dr. William Bliebly who evaluated Walmart’s employment policies said that the men and women not being created equal in the workforce is what Walmart is doing and what they should essentially not be doing. However, according to USA Today, Supreme Court has recently ruled the Walmart case of sexual discrimination on the side of the company, which would make it even harder for the female associates to remain working there.

Walmart associates have been protesting against such problems through formal Walmart labor unions and other organizations such as Our Walmart. According to the interview with Our Walmart leader, a former Walmart associate, Walmart has hardly ever respected their associates. Especially when they get hurt, Walmart does not provide proper care through hospitals, but only with their own doctor, who humiliates the hurt associates. The system eventually leads to the point where the associates have to get their own health care insurance outside the company in order to get proper care on their body.

Regardless of how convenient and popular Walmart is for the consumers, Walmart would have to remember the fact that the associates are the main sources in maintaining their company. What really should happen are Walmart owners listening to every single employee, 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 faults towards their people, and try to fix it for them, Walmart will turn to be a real “super” market.