{"id":4,"date":"2010-09-15T21:45:08","date_gmt":"2010-09-16T05:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/?p=4"},"modified":"2010-09-17T10:26:52","modified_gmt":"2010-09-17T18:26:52","slug":"ethical-wal-mart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/2010\/09\/15\/ethical-wal-mart\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethical Wal-Mart?"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>Thomas <\/a>Coughlin, former vice chairman at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was accused of committing a financial misconduct of misusing large sums of corporate funds for personal profits.\u00a0 He defended that the money was used to control union activity in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has publicly opposed unionization, which is believed to reduce efficiency of the company by introducing unnecessary labour policies. Wal-Mart previously closed down a store that had enlisted in a labour union, but claiming the store\u2019s lack of profits to be the main cause.<\/p>\n

This case can be viewed as unethical from two aspects. Firstly, Coughlin prioritizes his self-interests before the interests of the company. These misconducts often lead to significant consequences because the individual responsible tends to cover up his mistakes by following up with more unethical decisions. Coughlin\u2019s actions may also influence others to commit the same crime, so the issue of ethics should be taken seriously.<\/p>\n

Secondly, Wal-Mart\u2019s opposition to labour unions may be considered unethical because the workers\u2019 perspectives are often neglected<\/strong>. Business ethics is a strong player in the controversial debate regarding labour rights. Although I recognize the company\u2019s perspective, workers should be able to voice their thoughts and unions should not be oppressed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A9086-2005Apr22.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The controversy of labour unions and their rights can be further investigated on this site: http:\/\/reportermag.com\/article\/04-17-2009\/union-controversy-brings-both-sides-to-table<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Coughlin, former vice chairman at Wal-Mart Stores Inc., was accused of committing a financial misconduct of misusing large sums of corporate funds for personal profits.\u00a0 He defended that the money was used to control union activity in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has publicly opposed unionization, which is believed to reduce efficiency of the company by introducing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2898,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2898"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4"}],"version-history":[{"count":25,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4\/revisions\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/opalleung\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}