NewsTaco

By Chris Tilley, Other Voices

The New York Times recently dropped a bombshell about Walmart, the world’s largest retailer and biggest private U.S. employer. The Times revealed that in 2005, an internal Walmart investigation found evidence that its rapidly growing Mexican affiliate had distributed $24 million in bribes to speed approval of new stores by government officials. Rather than pursue the evidence or alert U.S. and Mexican authorities as required by law, Walmart shut down the investigation.

The news probably didn’t surprise Betty Dukes. She was the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of 1.5 million female workers who accused Walmart of gender-based discrimination regarding pay and promotions. The Supreme Court rejected the suit last year when its conservatives deemed the “class” of current and former Walmart employees as too broad.

Walmart wasn’t as lucky in dozens of other lawsuits. Its current and former workers have repeatedly sued it for forcing them to work extra hours without pay. The company has lost or settled over and over at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. Walmart also got into legal trouble for responding to successful union organizing drives by closing unionized stores or departments in the United States and Canada. After Walmart bought Chile’s largest supermarket chain in 2009, labor law violations in those South American stores spiked. Viewing Walmart’s overall record, it’s hard to avoid concluding that this is a habitual offender. The corporation is so arrogant that it seems to think it can ignore the law.

But it would be a mistake to view Walmart as a single bad apple. Just to take one example, sex discrimination suits have been brought against numerous other retail chains, including Abercrombie & Fitch, Best Buy, Home Depot, and Publix. Even Costco, sometimes held up as a worker-friendly “anti-Walmart,” has faced similar lawsuits. And looking beyond retail, we know that leading up to the market’s 2008 crash, dozens of financial service firms and executives bent or broke the law. The problem isn’t a few bad actors. It’s an environment that incubates unethical and even illegal corporate behavior.

It’s tempting to throw up our hands. What can we do when a dog-eat-dog market pushes companies to compete even to the point of cutting corners?

There’s an answer to be found where you might not expect it: Brazil. In that sometimes chaotic country of 200 million people, Walmart is the No. 3 retailer and a relatively responsible corporate citizen. Walmart generally complies with Brazilian labor laws, engages in collective bargaining with Brazilian unions, and has even cooperated with unions and government officials to eliminate child labor in the meat-packing plants that supply its stores.

Tight regulation contributed to this distinction. Since 2002, the Brazilian government has stepped up the enforcement of its labor laws, supporting unions and boosting pay for those at the bottom as part of a drive to increase productivity and build a bigger middle-class market. Brazilian regulators have particularly targeted large companies like Walmart without hurting the economy. Brazil has enjoyed rapid and across-the-board growth as nearly 30 million people moved out of poverty in the past decade.

The irony of the latest revelations on Walmart’s wrongdoing in Mexico is that Mexico had been viewed as the biggest success story in Walmart’s global empire. At a time when Walmart’s U.S. stores were experiencing declining same-store sales, Walmex continued to boom. Now it appears that boom may have been bought, not earned.

What the cases of Mexico and the United States, on the one hand, and Brazil on the other, tell us is that corporate wrongdoing flourishes where it’s permitted. Corporate arrogance will reach its limit only if we draw the line.

Chris Tilly is the director of the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Los Angeles. He’s writing a book on retail work around the globe.

[Photo by Walmart Stores]

I read this sentence this morning:

Hispanics are achieving a status as super-consumers that is making other minority groups and even the mainstream consumer look anemic.

After I was done flexing my super-consumer might I finished reading the article. It was in Huffing Post, and it talked about how Latinos are leading the U.S. economic recovery, uphill as it may be. The numbers are well known:

• $1.2 trillion projected purchasing power in 2012
• 50 million plus projected population

Latinos are touted as the great hope for the economy – we’ve been hearing this for a while now. We also heard, since the beginning of the economic downturn, that this would be a long term and jobless recovery.  Almost every economist that ventured out of their shell at the beginning of the turmoil said and repeated that this recession would be different, that it would take longer to recover, and that unemployment would be a problem for the long run (Here’s a report from the Wall Street Journal from August of 2009 that talked about slow and jobless) . And we’re surprised that the recovery is moving like a slug?

You’d think that knowing what we knew, and knowing what we know – that the recovery would be difficult and that Latinos would be pumping life into the economy – we’d be doing things a little differently. Instead we’re cutting education funding, limiting access to political participation, scapegoating immigrants, attacking healthcare reform, and passing outrageous state-level laws that make being Latino in public a crime of suspicion.

There are some for profit organizations that see things a little differently.  Think what you may of Walmart, its reputation being well deserved or not, the company has put together what amounts to a full court press to cajole, attract and woo the Latino consumer  (I reiterate, consumer. How it allegedly treats or mistreats its workforce is another question entirely). The Huffington Post explains, Walmart has:

been attracting increasing numbers of Hispanics to their stores by integrating them into all facets of its business, including merchandising, marketing, operations, and community outreach programs. One campaign called “The Best Heritage is a Good Education” addressed the need for higher learning while acknowledging the importance of culture – displaying a genuine understanding of what’s important to the community.

The point is that if Walmart get’s it…

Walmart has even challenged its manufacturing partners to provide products specifically designed for Hispanic consumers and their needs.

It’s not that difficult a formula. The way that Latinos are now positioned in the fabric of the U.S. society and economy, if Latinos thrive the U.S. thrives. It really is that simple. And we can take it a step further: the things that will help Latinos thrive will help all other Americans thrive. Namely, access to quality education (read here equity in public education funding, higher education grants and college student loans); affordable healthcare; small business and entrepreneur opportunities (read here micro-lending, economic development and start-up incubators); comprehensive immigration reform; to name just a few.

The difference is a shift in perspective. Walmart now sees the Latino consumer as “our” customer, not just as “a” customer. And that paradigm shift makes a big difference.

So I’ll say it again. If Walmart get’s it…

[Photo By DieselDemon]