Company Conflict Confusion

I’m gonna look at how two different companies handled an issue and compare their actions. The two companies I will be comparing are Amazon and Walmart. The issue at hand will be the unionization of their workers. Amazon has been experiencing criticism over it’s actions recently – and Walmart is notoriously one of, if not the, most anti-union company in America.

Amazon has been actively engaging in anti-union activity. In 2018 there was a leak of an internal training video that featured a heavy anti-union message. The video didn’t just paint unions in an extremely negative way, but they also encouraged their workers to spy on one another and report any union-activity to the higher ups. Kinda like the Stasi encouraged citizens of East Germany to spy on their neighbors, and rewarded them for alerting the authorities of any anti-communist activities. Amazon, in a similarly authoritarian manner, encourages workers turning on each other.

Despite this, Amazon did increase their minimum wage to $15 nationwide years ago. Amazon also pays for their employees education, 95% of the tuition up to $12,000, if they’re studying in the fields of IT & Computer Science, Transportation, Healthcare, and Mechanical & Skilled Trades. These are the types of behaviors are there to dis-empower pro-union movements. After all, employees won’t want to organize and pay union fees for a union when they’re happy with their work already, and their needs are met.

Walmart, on the other hand, just straight up HATES unions. They even get a sniff of any type of union activity and they strike with a fury that hasn’t been seen since the second world war. For example, in the year 2000, seven dudes working in the meat cutting department of Walmart decided to unionize. Days later Walmart took the entire meat cutting section and shut it down. Not just for the Walmart with those seven guys, but in ALL Walmarts. They got a scent of union activity and just shut down and entire section of their business and replaced it with machines as a sign of pure dominance over their workers. Badass.

Or the dude who worked in Walmart for 14 years, and then as soon as he started associating with OurWalmart, a pro-union organization, Walmart found an excuse and fired him.

Absolutely brutal. And, while I have great respect for the zero prisoners approach that Walmart takes, I can’t help but think that Amazon’s approach is wiser. Give your enemy what they want – if they want higher wagers or better healthcare just let them have it (as long as that still leaves you in the green). If, that stops unions or protests, and in general increases productivity, then it’s smart even from a business perspective – which is the only perspective companies care about.

Plus, think of all the great PR! Think of all the tweets your public relations managers will get to make in regards to how much better your company is! I don’t think that translates to greater sales, but you’ll finally be able to style on that snarky Wendy’s account.

Cheers!