Wal-Mart is the biggest corporation in the world. It owns more than 5,000 stores worldwide and has more than 1.3 million workers in the United States. This doesn’t include the millions of factory workers. Wal-Mart runs local supermarkets and small grocery stores out of business. There has also been a record of worker abuse in Wal-Mart as well. From forced overtime to sex discrimination, Wal-Mart is known for its sweatshop conditions. Other worker rights violations that have been found in factories that produce goods for Wal-Mart include locked bathrooms, starvation wages, pregnancy tests, denial of access to health care, and workers being fired and blacklisted if they try to defend their rights. Child labor and union busting are other issues relating with Wal-Marts poor reputation. Wal-Mart has also failed to provide their workers with health insurance. The reason why Wal-Mart is able to maintain low prices is because of the substandard labor conditions that employees work in overseas to produce goods. The company continues to demand lower prices from its suppliers which make workers conditions more abusive to meet Wal-Marts requirements. In 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit against Wal-Mart by it workers in more than 3 countries.
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