walmart labor practice
142487020
Anthropologies of class: power, practice and inequality
Introduction: class and the new anthropological holism Don Kalb 1. The concept of class James G. Carrier 2. Dispossession, disorganization, and the anthropology of labor August Carbonella and Sharryn Kasmir 3. The organic intellectual and the production of class in Spain Susana Narotzky 4. Through a class darkly, but then face to face: praxis through the lens of class Gavin Smith 5. Walmart, American consumer citizenship, and the erasure of class Jane Collins 6. When space draws the line on class Marc Morell 7. Class trajectories and indigenism among agricultural workers in Kerala Luisa Steur 8. Making middle class families in Calcutta Henrike Donner 9. Working class politics in a Brazilian steel town Mao Mollona 10. Export processing zones and global class formation Patrick Neveling 11. Global systemic crisis, class, and its representations Jonathan Friedman.
James G Carrier D P Kalb
141350717
Arts Labor in the Age of Occupation
In the fifteen years I have been writing and publishing art criticism, I've seen a few shifts in the art world. There was the rise of participatory art and social practice, and a version of these that flourished al biennials labeled "Relational Aesthetics; which a fellow critic, Howard Halle, recently called conceptualism For oligarchs THere, was the rise of interest in periormance and calls to end object making although an artist friend recently asked, "Does that mean were going to leave it to Nike, Sony and Walmart to put all the objects into the world?" And then.came the worldwide Oceupy movement, inlluenced by the Arab Spring, the European Summer, and, in the fall of 2011, Occupy Will Street (OWS) I was not involved in earlier iterations of OWS. lifer Bloonibergville. an encampment near City Hall in New York that started in the summer of 2011. I became involved with OWS shortly after September 17, when the occupation started and some of the questions it raised, naturally involved how it might relate to the present and future Occupy Wall Street dovetailed in many ways with current strains of an. like social practice, in which artists function more as event planners, organizers, sociologists, and activists, and panieipaiion that involves an made or completed by groups rather than singular, individual "geniuses." There is also an overlap with lite 1900s, which brought performance, video, installation. Land Art earthworks, and the interdisciplinary mergers of media like dance film, theater, and writing. It was also an age of radical politics, and although the failures of many projects were already obvious in the '60s, some of these weren't apparent until die '70s, when Institutional Critique which would become a recognized institutional form in the "80s entered the art world. What the '60s had that was absent except in a nostalgic, mannered, and aestheticized form umtil OWS, hoNvcves, was a real sense of Utopia and possibility. In the millennial era, one could In' an activist artist, but one was generally still working within a system of galleries, museums, biennials, curators, critics, collectors, interns, publicists, and other satellite figures. And neohberalistn, which had supposedly saved us from the economic crisis of the 70s, had put into place a system in which artists who wanted to participate often had to incur huge debt to obtain BFA and NITA degrees similar to professionals in other fiekk, except that art remained a precarious, risky venture. So, when the Occupy movement erupted it was speaking a language familiar to many in the art world. Historically, art has been funded with exceptions, of course by the wealthiest one percent. Only in recent years have trustees, collectors, and patrons moved into the foreground, influencing the production and exhibition of art particularly with the rim of global art (airs. OWS's famous call for "horizontality," adopted from die "horizontalidad" used in the movements that erupted in .Argentina for lowing t he economic crisis of 2001. called for a more equal distribution of management of power But horizomalism could also be contrasted with art's hierarchical pyramid, most notably in its system of canonization, which coincided with die rise of capitalism.(2) Occupy's main strategy, taking up residence in public space, echoed social practice's attempt to move art into different spheres. The crises highlighted by OVVS resonated with some scholars and critics too. Critical theory, which entered art historv in the 70s and "80s. had risen out of the revolts 01 the '60s. Inn had become a somewhat .stultified, boutique sysinn of analyst and interpretation. And the financial crisis in journalism brought on by the rise of the internet as well as the supplantaiion of critics by curators in the art power equation precipitated a "crisis in criticism." And then came a real, actual, and unexpected revolution: the mass protest movements that erupted on the global stage in 2011.
Martha Schwendener
148483710
Food Stamps, Unjust Enrichment and Minimum Wage
A number of large retail chains with monopsony power, such as Walmart, pay their low level employees so little that these employees are eligible for food stamps and other governmental benefits. In addition to paying low wages, these chains often have hourly restrictions so that their employees are not eligible for overtime pay. At times the chains violate the wage and hour provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) by making hourly employees work "off the clock," a practice known as wage theft.One of the reasons these low wage retailers can pay so little is because their employees can supplement their income with food stamps. Another reason is the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour has not been raised since 2009. Paying anything more seems generous. Whether to raise the minimum wage is fiercely disputed. This paper suggests the debate focus not only on the effect of the minimum wage on jobs, but also on the unjust enrichment of monopsonistic employers. By applying the law of unjust enrichment (also referred to as restitution) the government should be able to recover from these employers the amount of food stamps their low paid employees receive at taxpayers' expense. A lawsuit in unjust enrichment should make the public aware that with food stamp payments and other benefits, the government is subsidizing monopsonistic employers.
Candace Saari Kovacic-Fleischer
67786819
The law of the labour relations commission some aspects of Japan's unfair labor practice law
The aim of this article is to explore aspects of Japanese law on unfair labor practices, with reference to the distinctive features of the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) system. Modeled on the National Labor Relations Act in the United States, the Labor Union Act of Japan provides for a system of prohibiting and redressing unfair labor practices. Also, like the National Labor Relations Board in the United States, the Labor Union Act established a system of LRCs as independent administrative agencies in charge of unfair labor practice procedures. These LRCs have some distinctive features, in that the law applied by LRCs as administrative agencies has the nature of administrative law, and that they tend to play the role of adjusting the relationship between labor and management, based on their function of dispute adjustment and their tripartite composition. These features of LRCs appear to have influenced Japan's unfair labor practice law. In this sense, Japanese unfair labor practice law can be said to be "the law of the LRC."
Ryuichi Yamakawa
152188603
Shopping as 'best Practice' Analyzing Walmart's Debated sustainability Policies
Nowadays, companies who want to engage environment friendly consumers increasingly rely on green economy oriented campaigns. Such categories of (ethical) consumers are numerically increasing, and expressions evoking environmental friendliness are becoming particularly trendy. In this vein, words such as 'sustainability' have been variously recontextualized/reframed and have become an 'ought to' for media savvy companies 'with a vision' Walmart, the American multinational retail corporation, being a relevant case in point. It is no accident that, on the first Google page for 'sustainability' 'Walmart' proudly surfaces:http:/corporate.walmart.com/global responsibility/sustainability. The company has made an explicit commitment not just to expand the business but also to improve communities and enhance the sustainability of the products they sell, by encouraging more responsible production practices, while at the same time making product choices more affordable for customers, as reported on its website. However, as the world's largest company, Walmart is an easy target for attack mainly by environmentalists. Sometimes, Walmart gives its critics grounds for some legitimate criticism in a variety of fields ranging from the supply chain emissions to renewable energy and preserving habitat. Such criticism resonates across the media, owing to their 'lack of closure' (Laclau and Mouffe 1985) finalized to offer an unbiased perspective. Against this 'complexified' (Macgilchrist 2007) background, our study aims to examine, from a broadly Multimodal and Positive Discourse Analysis perspective, the Walmart website 'sustainability' pages with their variety of communicative strategies, advertising 'responsible' Walmart positive attitudes to fundamental issues like Energy, Waste, Products and Responsible Sourcing.
Lucia Abbamonte Flavia Amorim Meira Cavaliere
231779826
Corporate Social Responsibility Analysis of Walmart in China
The paper will analyze the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of Walmart in China based on ISO 26000 standard. Firstly, the seven aspects of ISO 26000 standard would be included, which is organizational governance, human right, labor practices, environment, fair operating practices, consumer issues and community involvement and development. Then would be a critical analysis according to the CSR investigation. Next the conclusion part would be briefly summarized the what aspects need to improvement. Finally, some recommendation would be given that based on the analysis before.
Xi Chen
147276621
Walmart in South Africa: Precarious Labor and Retail Expansion
In 2011 Walmart's bid to buy a controlling stake in South Africa's Massmart Holdings, Inc. went before the country's Competition Commission and Competition Tribunal, both of which would determine whether to grant the merger outright or to place conditions on it. Massmart Holdings comprises a number of branded subsidiaries in the South African market, including Walmart style general merchandise dealers, electronics retailers, do it yourself building suppliers, and food wholesalers Game, Dion, Builder's Warehouse, and Makro, respectively as well as the more recently acquired food retailer, Cambridge Food. South African unions, most prominently the South African Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union (Saccawu) with support from the Global Union Federation UNI Global and, in the United States, the United Food and Commercial Workers, fought the merger.
International Labor and Working Class History
Bridget Kenny
143286192
Developing Social Emotional Skills for the Labor Market: The Practice Model
Although there is a general agreement in the literature of the importance of social emotional skills for labor market success, there is little consensus on the specific skills that should be acquired or how and when to teach them. The psychology, economics, policy research, and program implementation literatures all touch on these issues, but they are not sufficiently integrated to provide policy direction. The objective of this paper is to provide a coherent framework and related policies and programs that bridge the psychology, economics, and education literature, specifically that related to skills employers value, non cognitive skills that predict positive labor market outcomes, and skills targeted by psycho educational prevention and intervention programs. The paper uses as its base a list of social emotional skills that employers value, classifies these into eight subgroups (summarized by PRACTICE) then uses the psychology literature drawing from the concepts of psycho social and neuro biological readiness and age appropriate contexts to map the age and context in which each skill subset is developed. The paper uses examples of successful interventions to illustrate the pedagogical process. The paper concludes that the social emotional skills employers value can be effectively taught when aligned with the optimal stage for each skill development, middle childhood is the optimal stage for development of PRACTICE skills, and a broad international evidence base on effective program interventions at the right stage can guide policy makers to incorporate social emotional learning into their school curriculum.
Nancy Guerra Kathryn Lynn Modecki Wendy Cunningham
158203874
Overcoming Collective Action Problems Facing Chinese Workers: Lessons from Four Protests against Walmart
In contrast to various structural accounts of collective inaction or short lived contention of Chinese workers, the authors take an agency centered approach to explain how the few sustained labor protests during closure bargaining develop against all odds. They suggest that workers' capacity to resolve collective action problems is essential to understanding why a few contending workers are able to sustain protests whereas many others fail to do so. They argue that workplace representatives and external labor activists are crucial for helping Chinese workers resolve the collective action problems that prevent the formation of sustained labor protests. Their comparative analysis of four protests against Walmart store closures including one unusually long, one relatively sustained, and two short lived shows how presence and strategic capacity of workplace representatives and external labor activists shape protest duration. The authors conclude by discussing lessons learned from these cases of closure bargaining for future development of labor contention in China.
Chunyun Li Mingwei Liu
153595530
Political Bias in NLRB Unfair Labor Practice Decisions
Previous research has suggested that U.S. presidents appoint members to the National Labor Relations Board who reflect the administration's own union management predilections. No adequate empirical evidence has yet been reported, however, to show that, once appointed, Board members act in a biased manner. The present study develops and tests a choice model of Board member decisions in selected unfair labor practice cases over the 1954 77 period. The evidence strongly supports the popular belief that Board decisions are heavily dependent upon shifting political winds.
William N Cooke Frederick H Gautschi