Wal-Mart: The New Southern Plantation

An interesting comparison between Wal-Mart and the southern plantation:

Throughout its career, at home and abroad, Wal-Mart has maintained two key policies: a paternalistic attitude and a powerful aversion to trade unions. To attract outside investors, the poorest southern states (…) often boast of their low wages. For Wal-Mart’s 1.3 million US associates, the situation is simple: there are no unions. Mona Williams, Wal-Mart spokesperson, explains: “Our philosophy is that only an unhappy associate would be interested in joining a union, so that’s why Wal-Mart does everything it can to make sure that we are providing our associates what they want and need.” Always assuming they do not need too much. (…)

Jesse Jackson, the civil rights leader and former presidential candidate, was only slightly exaggerating when he said that Wal-Mart was a modern plantation, with workers toiling in its stores rather than in the fields of the deep south.

LINK/IMAGES [extract, more comparison pictures] LINK [full article]