Adrianne Shropshire

Unionizing Wal-Mart China

In 2004 Wal-Mart China announced that if its associates wanted to form a union, Wal-Mart would support their efforts. Well, maybe it wasn't quite so encouraging. It was more like, "we won't stop you but you can only affiliate with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions".

Wal-Mart agreeing to unions seemed an odd step. An indeed some in the media were skeptical. Harold Meyerson penned a piece titled 'Wal-Mart loves Unions (in China)' that looked critically at the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and questioned WMs willingness to align with an authoritarian regime and their related trade union association. Meyerson had a great line about WM values, "The noblest of the Bush administration's goals, surely, is that of spreading democracy ... When America's largest employer feels more affinity for the political legacy of Mao Zedong than for that of Franklin D. Roosevelt, it's time to start democratizing our own back yard". There are, apparently, some transparency issues between the ACFTU and the Chinese government.

Obviously, many questioned the ACFTU's style of trade unionism, where little to no time is actually spent trying to increase wages or improve working conditions. But with that said, many foreign companies have agreed to abide by Chinese law that makes the formation of a union mandatory if workers ask for one. It seems to make sense, saying yes to the union is a mostly painless process and saves a company from numerous headaches down the line. All markers seemed to indicate that Wal-Mart would make the concession and nothing would be done to actually improve the lives of workers within WM China. Sure you can unionize, whatever.

Fast forward two years and What?! No WM stores in China have a union? Shock of all shocks. Even with a sweatheart deal with the nations only labor federation Wal-Mart cannot bring itself to allow talk of union membership in any store, in any country on this planet. Their initial response? Well, of course, no workers asked for one. A position that they later backed away from because, of course, workers have asked.

Now the ACFTU is pissed. And while they may not do collective bargaining, they got it in for Wal-Mart. But of course, most labor federations across the globe have it in for WM, including our own two. The difference is the ACFTU's relationship to it's government and the government of China's "acknowledgement" that low wages and poor working conditions are resulting in social unrest. And increased social unrest presents a roadblock to China's phenomenal economic expansion.

Wal-Mart vs. China. With the NBA championship decided and the US about to get tossed from the World Cup by Ghana tomorrow, this has got to be the hottest ticket going. Even better than the hometown version: Wal-Mart vs. the Bronx.

Adrianne Shropshire: Author Bio | Other Posts
Posted at 6:50 AM, Jun 21, 2006 in Labor | Wal-Mart
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