WaPo Drops the Ball (again)

In reporting on unions at Wal-Mart, the WaPo really drops the ball, according to the Columbia Journalism Review.  After reporting that Wal-Mart works willingly with unions overseas, the Post glosses over the fact that their polices in the US are blatantly illegal.

I think “recognition of unions is required by law” in the U.S. too, though it’s not much followed anymore. But it’s interesting that a union leader in Britain would call Walmart “honest.” Certainly that would never happen here.

And that’s where this story falls down. There’s no evidence, beyond the above boilerplate quote about “prevailing practice”, that Walmart was really pushed to discuss the disparity between its U.S. labor policy and its policies in other countries—much less the lengths to which it will go here to keep its American workers from organizing. That includes blatantly breaking the law.

I too often find these days that Post business stories seem thin, leaving me wanting quite a bit more. This one’s not an exception. It could have used more reporting and more space.