Controvesial Corporations

Throughout the blog I have mentioned that Wal-Mart is a controversial corporation, but have not had information to back it up. This week I researched other controversial companies. Nike, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are controversial companies because of their human rights violations.
One company that is controversial is Nike. Nike it taking advantage of workers the third world countries. First, Nike moved their factories to cheap labor countries.“While Nike workers in the U.S. were paid between $8 to $11 an hour, Nike found it more profitable to go where the pay was $2.60 for a ten hour day such as in Indonesia. Of course the price for their shoes did not decline correspondingly.”(Plawiuk) . The corporations’ product did not go down in expenses, yet they pay women in Vietnam less than minimum wage, children in Pakistan six cents an hour and any workers who try to form unions are arrested, explains Plawiuk.
Nike is not the only big name company we know of that violates human rights. Coca-Cola is yet another controversial company. Coke denies the accusations of violation human rights. However, it has been pointed out by author Chris Mercer that the pollution from the factory is contamination the ground water in India. On a more intense level Coke has been accused of murders in Columbia Coke companies. “the alleged intimidation and murder of union workers from its bottling plants in Colombia” (Mercer). These accusations have caused schools, one of which being New York University, to ban Coca-Cola products. It has also brought up website and groups trying to revel the evil behind the company, such as killercok.org. Yet Coke is still a large successful corporation, similar to Wal-Mart and Nike.
Wal-Mart has a similar human violation, but the corporations violations do not only occur in other countries. Wal-Mart opposes workers unions. The corporation holds meetings to scare the workers out of forming unions, as the article US: Wal-Mart Denies Workers Basic Rights explains. Wal-Mart threatens workers they will lose other benefits if they are to create a union. However, Wal-Mart uses witty circumlocution to deny all the accusations by Human Rights Watch.

These three companies are denying workers all over the world of basic human rights. After researching it is understandable why people have a churlish disposition towards the corporations. Unfortunately not enough people know of the violations Nike, Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola are committing so they are still large corporations. Still, people are trying to inform others causing Wal-Mart, Nike and Coca-Cola to be controversial.


Bibliography
Mercer, Chris. "Coca-Cola facing storm on human rights." Food Ingredients - Yeast, Sweeteners, Food fibers, Flavors. 16 Jan. 2006. 24 Oct. 2009 http://www.foodnavigator-usa.com/Financial-Industry/Coca-Cola-facing-storm-on-human-rights.

Plawiuk, Eugene W.. "JUST DO IT! BOYCOTT NIKE." Yahoo! GeoCities: Get a web site with easy-to-use site building tools.. 24 Oct. 2009 http://www.geocities.com/athens/acropolis/5232/edmonton.htm.

"US: Wal-Mart Denies Workers Basic Rights Human Rights Watch." Home Human Rights Watch. 30 Apr. 2007. 26 Oct. 2009 .

Wal-Mart Survey

My survey was to know how students at our school view Wal-Mart. On the survey the questions were when was the last time you went to Wal-Mart? I asked this because it gives a somewhat of an idea on how often students go to Wal-Mart. Another question was, what are your feelings towards Wal-Mart? The options being, it’s great, whatever and it’s an evil corporation. The reason this question was asked was to see how high school students view Wal-Mart. The next question was also to get an idea of how high school students feel about the company. The question was, do you prefer Wal-Mart or target?
The results came out as I had anticipated. Nine out of ten students say the go to Wal-Mart sometimes and one male student said they knew the store well. Three out of ten said they preferred Wal-Mart instead of target. The students who preferred Wal-Mart were all male. Five of the seven who said they preferred were female. Seven of ten students feel indifferent about Wal-Mart , four of which were male. Two female students feel that Wal-Mart is an evil corporation, and one male student loves Wal-Mart. Eight out of ten students have not gone to Wal-Mart in the last couple of months, and two said they had been there recently. Four of the eight were female.
Now that we have covered the lovely data from the survey it is time to interpret the numbers. The data came out just as I had expected. Students feel indifferent about Wal-Mart having heard that it is not an honest corporation. Also Wal-Mart is in Glenwood, so students who do go to Glenwood for shopping tend to go for higher quality merchandise. The students who seem to be in favor of Wal-Mart I believe were being belie. However only a few students are supportive and a few feel that other corporations are ethically better than Wal-Mart.
This survey did not give me any new ideas of what to write about. As I have said in earlier blogs I would like to show both sides of Wal-Mart. I am not trying to enervate Wal-Mart, I would personally like to learn more about the company so I can form an educated opinion. I would also like to teach other students about the corporation so they can form their own opinions as well.

How reliable is my source?

The website I used is undoubtedly reliable. Since Wal-Mart is an auspicious company their website is nicely laid out to present themselves well. The page has Wal-Mart friendly colors and their logo left justified, making it look extremely professional. The inviting layout intrigues customers to learn more about Wal-Mart's product and employees. As a matter of fact this website is where I found my background information. It was easy to find information about history, employees and what someone may be looking for. I trust the that the website is accurate, because when doing my research I found it was the most detailed. I also have notice that it is updated daily with needed information. Plus, Wal-Mart itself is clearly the creator of the site. This causes it to be reliable but bias. The site is bias because it is created by the company, so they are only going to update it with information making them look anything but churlish. Wal-Marts website has ten tabs in which you can find information all about the corporation. The ten subjects are: home, about us, facts and news, health and wellness, careers, community and giving, diversity, sustainability, Investors, suppliers. When looking through the site these tabs and there content present Wal-Mart as a wonderful company, but some may say the website is full of belie information.
Although the website is a bias source, the information is bowdlerized but reliable, the site is professionally designed, accurate and credible. Wal-Marts website will also be useful for compare and contrast later in the blog when readers will learn of the other side of the corporation.
　
Bibliography
" Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.." Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.. 10 Oct. 2009 .

Whats Going On Currently With Wal-Mart

Fun Fact: Wal-Mart changed there logo design in 2008. Wal-Mart like many others have been effected by the recession, however this does not stop them. Though the recession but a delay in the project, currently in Manassas VA Wal-Mart is adding a bigger store. Manassas already has a Wal-Mart, but as you know our society seems to always go for bigger and better. Though it almost seems ridiculous,the opening of the new Wal-Mart will offer more jobs for locals. "The store plans to employ about 500 workers." ( Scarton). Of course all the new opening is helpful because of the jobs it offers, but is it necessary? Wal-Mart at the moment has plenty of stores and plenty of money. "Walmart Stores Inc. has 8,100 retail locations under 55 different banners in 15 countries. With fiscal year 2009 sales of $401 billion, the firm employs more than 2.1 million worldwide." (Scarton). My question is how much is to much?


Personally was hoping to find a source that shows the good bad and ugly of Wal-Mart. It is commonly stated that Wal-Mart is somewhat of an evil corporation, but I have yet to find any information on this. So my goal before the end of the semester is to be able to show both sides of Wal-Mart. That way others and myself are able to form our own opinion on the store and other large corporations.

Bibliography

Scarton, Bennie Jr. Manassas Journal Messenger (VA); 10/06/2009 Article 2W63669439326 http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nfh&AN=2W63669439326&site=src-live Newspaper Source