Revision of essay # 1

Here is a new version of my essay #1, please feel free to give me a ffed-back.

Thanks.

Although, I agree with Sebastian Mallaby that Wal-Mart should make sure it secures profit for its shareholders and that low-income families benefit from the company’s low prices on food and other products, I support Karen Olsson’s point of view. People rush at Wal-Mart’s doors when a new store opens in their area to look for a job, because they need to work; and so far, this company is the one that is offering them one. Still, it is unacceptable to me that, in America, people get treated this way. Wal-Mart’s associates are working in conditions that can be described as slavery for a company that represents the world’s largest retailer with $220 billion in sales, and is the biggest private employer in America (Olsson 1). When Karen Olsson spoke to some of Wal-Mart’s employees, they described their working conditions in these words to her: “I was asked to work off the clock, sometimes by the store manager (…) they would know you’d clocked out already, and they’d say ‘do me a favor, I don’t have anyone coming in (…) could you stay here?’ ” says Liberty Morales Serna, a former employee in Houston, just to explain how he was made to work without been paid; a fact that goes against the labor law (Olsson 3). The associates should be paid at least for the work they do if the company cannot pay their overtime. The United States Department of Labor (USDL) has clear rules established regarding the rights of workers and responsibilities of employers, which are been deliberately ignored by Wal-Mart’s management. We should wonder where the people, who are responsible for the strict application of these rules by this company, are. These associates do not have a union, and cannot have one anyway to fight for them by negotiating a contract with Wal-Mart on their behalf. Wal-Mart is so determined to keep its costs low that it would stop at nothing to impose its anti-union politics in all its stores. Indeed, the company has engaged a firm of consultant that developed a program specifically designed to banish the unions in all its stores by using intimidation tactics. The store manager sometimes confronts his associates to make sure he is going to make the fight against union a personal problem to treat.