Wal-Mart (WMT) defenders of the faith of "every day low pricing" is warning its management and supervisors that if Democrats win the election in the Fall, it will be easier for workers at the world’s largest retailer to create unions.
Most Wal-Mart shareholders believe that keeping organized labor out improves margins.
Although it is not clear that Wal-Mart would face higher personnel costs if unions made their way into the company, the history of the labor movement says that higher wages and better benefits would be likely.
For the country at large, unions in Wal-Mart may not be a good thing. The reasoning may be tortured, but it is probably accurate.
Wal-Mart does a service for a huge number of Americans and immigrants which is not and cannot be matched by any other corporate institution. It provides affordable medicine, food, and clothing to people who might otherwise have to go without. It also acts as a de facto bank for people who have no other relationship with a financial firm.
Wall-Mart is, in essence, a safety net for the poor and near-poor which the government does not and cannot provide.
A unionized Wall-Mart would be a mixed blessing. It may do some harm to shareholders and it may do some good for the company’s work-force. At the same moment, it could do a devastating amount of harm to the Americans poorer citizens.
Douglas A. McIntyre
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