Walmart Trade Unions

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Recommended: History of unions and their impacts on employers (peer reviewed)

With over 2.3 million employees and stores in 28 different countries, Walmart is the largest retailer in the world. The company also has a history of famously being anti-union. Walmart is likely opposed to unions because they see them as being detrimental to the effectiveness of their company. One way this can be done is through strikes. If the company does not agree to conditions such as wages or benefits requested by the union, they are allowed to strike. This can lead to costs from lost production and other problems including decrease in sales from negative publicity. Another way is through a decrease in human resources control. Many unions negotiate a system that is based on seniority. For example, if the company needed to terminate workers, they would have to terminate the workers they hired most recently, whether they were productive or not. In August 2004, a store in Saguenay, Quebec made history, becoming the …show more content…

Workers are not allowed to join or form trade unions of their choice. The only union that is allowed to exist, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), is controlled by the government. For many years, the ACFTU focused on setting up union branches in state-owned companies. They tended to avoid foreign-owned companies because they did not want to scare off investment. Over the years, however, the number of state-owned companies decreased and this resulted in a decline in the number of its state members. To offset this, the ACFTU decided it was time to expand its membership in the foreign-owned sector. In 2004, the Chinese trade union selected Walmart as their main target. Their reason being if they could get Walmart, the largest retailer in the world to cooperate, they could get other foreign-owned companies to accept unions as well. Using a grassroots organizing approach, the ACFTU began to recruit Walmart

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