News

• UNI Global Union and other stakeholders demand Walmart stand by its own Statement on Ethics and end its unethical practices in Mexico and elsewhere
• Stakeholders including Walmart workers file global ethics complaints with company in Mexico, United States, India and Bangladesh
• Call for Walmart CEO and Chair to be removed from Board because of negligent mishandling of Mexico scandal
• UNI, UFCW, business leaders, suppliers and environmentalists meet in Mexico to escalate action and mark first anniversary of the Walmart Mexico scandal exposure

Mexico City 23 April 2013 - Walmart has failed to clean up its act one year after the New York Times broke the story of the company’s alleged $24 million bribery scandal to secure Mexico’s retail market. In response UNI has brought together stakeholders in Mexico to co-ordinate a global plan of action to force Walmart to change its behaviour. Workers and other interested parties have pledged to use Walmart’s own ethics complaint system to air their grievances and a new whistleblowers website is poised to be launched where workers can anonymously tell the truth about Walmart without fearing repercussions.



UNI Global Union General Secretary Philip Jennings said, “Walmart has still not got the message: you cannot continue to bite the hand that feeds you: Walmart should treat its loyal workforce with the respect they deserve. Neither has the management under CEO Mike Duke and Chair Rob Walton made any meaningful attempt to get to grips with corruption which seems to permeate the organization despite a personal assurance from Walton. What happened in Mexico is ethically and morally unacceptable. UNI joins with all other right-minded people who are calling for Duke and Walton to be held accountable and stand-down. The company must clean up or face the consequences. Walmart is using its power to destroy the American dream and holding its workers down in poverty.”



UNI is joining other interested parties in Mexico City today to assess and discuss the impact of the rapid expansion of Walmart in Mexico and to call on the company to end its unethical business practices and recommit to its own statement of ethics which prohibits the giving of bribes and to hold those responsible for this scandal accountable. Concerned communities in Mexico, the United States, India and Bangladesh are filing complaints to the company’s global ethics office.



Background

Since April 2012, more details on Walmart’s unethical practices in Mexico have come to light. A second New York Times article published on December 18, 2012 indicated that top executives in Walmart de Mexico were not only aware but authorized the practice of using bribes to get stores built.



“Walmart’s rapid expansion has remade the Mexican retailing landscape and now it turns out that bribery may have played a large role,” said Héctor de la Cueva, general coordinator for the Center for Labor Research and Union Consultation. “Many businesses closed, jobs were lost, and livelihoods disrupted as a result, and for many of those impacted it is impossible to seek redress.”





In addition, leaders of the company are alleged to have used their power to advance personal interests and quash investigations into alleged corruption, in direct contradiction of the company’s own Statement of Ethics. The New York Times story outlined that in 2005 a whistleblower alerted the company to this practice, eventually prompting top executives in Bentonville to become involved in the decision on how to respond to the allegations. But rather than notifying shareholders or the U.S. government of possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) or undertaking a full investigation, leaders in Bentonville decided that the best course of action was to close down the investigation.



Both U.S. and Mexican prosecutors said last year they were investigating the bribery allegations. After the New York Times report, Walmart officials said they had started a corruption investigation of the Mexican unit and expanded the probe to the company’s operations in China, India and Brazil.



Walmart de Mexico

The first Walmart store in Mexico opened in 1991. Walmart de Mexico is the country’s largest private employer, with more than 200,000 employees. Twenty percent of Wal-Mart’s more than 10,000 stores worldwide are in Mexico, following rapid growth over the past decade. The company controls over 50% of the Mexican retail market.





For more information or an interview contact



Richard Elliott Mobile: +41 79 794 9709

richard.elliott@uniglobalunion.org





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