Never let it be said that Wal-Mart is stupid. Venal, sure. Cruel, often. But stupid? Not by a long shot. We're in the busiest shopping season of the year -- what better time to
announce that the company is willing to "allow its workers to set up a trade union if they want." One catch -- the announcement pertained only to Wal-Mart employees in China. Another catch --
Chinese unions bear more resemblance to Wal-Mart management than they do to authentic free trade unions.
Indeed, "official" Chinese unions such as those seeking to deal with Wal-Mart are so benign, from an employer's perspective, that
many have questioned why Wal-Mart would seek to exclude them:
Andrew Rothman, a former US diplomat who is now the China country head for CLSA Emerging Markets, an investment bank, says, "Most multinational companies of any size in China have a union presence, and I've not heard of it causing a problem for anybody." That's little wonder, because the federation unit at most companies confines itself to such things as organizing outings for workers or, less often, administering workers' health or unemployment insurance payments.
Wal-Mart didn't really want to deal with the Chinese unions, toothless as they are, because doing so could increase the chance of unionization in other countries with real unions. But the Chinese government, which gets along with Wal-Mart just fine, wanted the company to work with their house unions -- the more workers in official unions, the less chance of a real free trade union movement developing in China. So Wal-Mart waited to cave until the holidays, allowing them to get good press in the US for "working with unions" at a time of year when good PR is critical for a retail operation, while conceding nothing in the US and losing no advantages in China. Sure, American unions can try to use this to their advantage in the future, but by then most Americans will forget that this China episode ever happened. It's a neat trick -- and just another example of the evil genius that is Wal-Mart.