Walmart in the Global South : workplace culture, labor politics, and supply chains / edited by Carolina Bank Munoz, Bridget Kenny, Antonio Stecher.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bank Munoz, Carolina, author.

Contributor:

Bank Muñoz, Carolina, editor.

Kenny, Bridget, editor.

Stecher, Antonio, editor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Wal-Mart (Firm).

Discount houses (Retail trade)--Social aspects--Developing countries.

Discount houses (Retail trade).

Discount houses (Retail trade)--Economic aspects--Developing countries.

Discount houses (Retail trade)--United States.

Business enterprises, Foreign--Developing countries.

Business enterprises, Foreign.

Labor and globalization--Developing countries.

Labor and globalization.

Globalization.

United States.

Developing countries.

Genre:

Electronic books.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (280 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [2018]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

As the largest private employer in the world, Walmart dominates media and academic debate about the global expansion of transnational retail corporations and the working conditions in retail operations and across the supply chain. Yet far from being a monolithic force conquering the world, Walmart must confront and adapt to diverse policies and practices pertaining to regulation, economy, history, union organization, preexisting labor cultures, and civil society in every country into which it enters. This transnational aspect of the Walmart story, including the diversity and flexibility of its strategies and practices outside the United States, is mostly unreported. Walmart in the Global South presents empirical case studies of Walmart's labor practices and supply chain operations in a number of countries, including Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Nicaragua, Mexico, South Africa, and Thailand. It assesses the similarities and differences in Walmart's acceptance into varying national contexts, which reveals when and how state regulation and politics have served to redirect company practice and to what effect. Regulatory context, state politics, trade unions, local cultures, and global labor solidarity emerge as vectors with very different force around the world. The volume's contributors show how and why foreign workers have successfully, though not uniformly, driven changes in Walmart's corporate culture. This makes Walmart in the Global South a practical guide for organizations that promote social justice and engage in worker struggles, including unions, worker centers, and other nonprofit entities.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction. Situating Walmart in a Global Context: Workplace Cultures, Labor Organizing, and Supply Chains

Chapter 1. Walmart in Brazil: From Global Diffusion to National Institutional Embeddedness

Chapter 2. Walmart and Labor Conditions in South Africa: Local Retailing, Contract Labor, and Union Challenges

Chapter 3. Walmart Workers in Chile: A Case of Union Democracy, Militancy, and Strategic Capacity

Chapter 4. Rank-and-File Union Activism in Walmart Argentina

Chapter 5. Walmart Culture in the Information Technologies Industry in Mexico

Chapter 6. Walmart's Direct Farmer Program in South Africa: Developmental State Victory or Corporate Whitewash?

Chapter 7. Brokering Development: NGOs and Walmart in Nicaragua

Chapter 8. Walmart's Human Traffi cking Problem: The Shrimp Supply Chain in Thailand

Final Reflections

Contributors

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

1-4773-1570-5

1-4773-1569-1

OCLC:

1286806107