Up Against Walmart Karen Olsson Analysis

575 Words3 Pages
English 101-253 20th February 2012 evil or good Wal-Mart? This paper will analyze the conflicting views of two articles, Karen Olsson’s “Up Against Wal-Mart” and Sebastian Mallaby’s “Progressive Wal-Mart. Really.” We will look at how Wal-Mart has become to be known as the evil company who abuses their workers and look at conflicting viewpoints to this theory that show how and why Wal-Mart is actually helping their workers. In Karen Olsson’s “Up Against Wal-Mart” her main argument against Wal-Mart is how badly they treat their workers. She talks about how the company as a whole tries to push their employees to the limit by having the take on the job of two people so they won’t have to spend money hiring and paying someone else to be on…show more content…
Karen Olsson talks about how an American cannot live on the wages walmart offers their hourly employees. Jennifer Mclaughlin has worked for Wal-Mart for over three years now and earns $16,800 a year. “The way they pay you, you cannot make it by yourself without having a second job or someone to help you, unless you have been there 20 years or you’re a manager.” She states that Wal-Mart managers force her to work overtime, off the clock, and that practice is not only localized to her store only, it is a nationwide practice. “Wal-Mart settled similar lawsuits involving 67,000 workers in New Mexico and Colorado, reportedly paying more than $50 million.” (Olson, They Say I Say pg. 348) In a way to make sure unions do not come into Wal-Mart the have interrogated workers, confiscated union literature, and fired union supported all in violation of the law. She also talks about how Wal-Mart has a team of union busters sent from their headquarters in Bentonville, Arkansas. They are said to put up cameras around stores to keep an eyes on supposed union organization. Sebastian emphasis’s that Wal-Mart keeps its prices low for impoverished and low income families by keeping wages

More about Up Against Walmart Karen Olsson Analysis

Open Document