The products are cheap and so are the business practices.
With the recent opening of Wal-Mart on Cumberland Avenue, a new topic of conversation has sparked among UT students:
Currently the world’s largest retail enterprise and employer, Wal-Mart has paid approximately $1 billion in damages to U.S. employees in six countries since 2005 for failing to pay employees fair wages, according to the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Wal-Mart also opposes any collective action by employees, denying them the right to form unions and protect their rights.
Wal-Mart has also been connected to the deaths and injuries of hundreds of people in workplace accidents and publicly charged with taking part in bribes.
Although some feel that boycotting the companies involved with these
practices is a solution to the problem, Robert Naylor, a senior in global studies, community liaison for the Progressive Student Alliance and the regional organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops, differs in opinion.
After witnessing the affects of sweatshop conditions in the Dominican Republic on a United Students Against Sweatshops trip, Naylor became impassioned about worker’s rights and believed that raising awareness rather than boycotting retailers provided more protection for employers.
“If the only place that you can afford is Wal-Mart, that’s where you’re going to shop,” he said. “I think that expecting voting with your dollar to solve poverty and workers rights actually takes away power from the hands of the people who it actually affects.”
Assistant professor of sociology and specialist in labor right’s issues, Michelle Christian studied the ethics of Wal-Mart’s business practices during her graduate program at Duke University. Christian agrees that targeting revenues from a company such as Wal-Mart would put jobs, both domestic and foreign, into jeopardy and that a ‘flight mentality’ is not the solution to the issues at hand.
“If you boycott Wal-Mart, there’s still people that work at Wal-Mart, whose jobs are at Wal-Mart; people that want to buy food from Wal-Mart, and there’s all those people in the supply chain who are creating those products that are going into Wal-Mart…” she said. “All companies and institutions react to pressure to peoples’ own awareness. They will then respond and then react to that.”
Christian said large, international corporations such as Wal-Mart can do even more damage by setting a poor example of business practices for smaller companies.
“Almost half of our country has an Apple iPhone now, we buy our favorite products like Nike shoes, we wear all of our college apparel that has our insignia on it, our preferences and tastes, especially in America, (are) shaped by these global brands and where we even buy it,” said Christian. “All of these companies carry a lot of influence in bringing products to us, setting not only what the product is, but the standard in which the products are made.”
Although a majority of retailers have a code of conduct to ensure that workers are being treated ethically, many companies self-monitor these outside firms to make sure that standards are being met.
Christian believes that much tension is created in a manufacturers’ attempt to balance implementing these codes of conduct while also meeting the financial pressures being placed upon them by the retailers themselves. She notes that there are certainly holes in the system.
However, Naylor remains hopeful, advocating that raising awareness is key and bringing people together for “little victories” in organized actions.
“I think that it’s a human rights issue that students have influence over, and I think that it’s a very important cause for (them) to care about,” Naylor said.
Ultimately, Christain and Naylor acknowledge the power students have to truly make an impact on labor rights.
“You have a lot of power at this point in your life as a voice,” said Christian. “As potentially making a difference on campus, and also as a generation.”
