Walmart part deux

All right folks, it is time to discuss Walmart's actions outside of the United States. I've already spoken about Walmart's unethical actions within the U.S. As you probably know, Walmart imports a lot of products. Walmart contracts with foreign factories to produce goods for their stores. While Walmart doesn't directly own or operate these factories, their actions indirectly create the circumstances for ethical violations to occur and to continue unchecked.

Walmart, in an effort to keep prices low, puts pressure on the factories to produce items at a certain cost or they'll walk. The factory is left with two (both equally unsavory) options: close down the factory when Walmart cancels the contract or lower prices to Walmart's standards by lowering working standards and pay for the workers. There have been numerous lawsuits filed by these workers against Walmart. According to Global Exchange,

In September 2005, the International Labor Rights Fund filed a lawsuit on behalf of Wal-Mart supplier sweatshop workers in China, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Swaziland. The workers were denied minimum wages, forced to work overtime without compensation, and were denied legally mandated health care. Other worker rights violations that have been found in foreign 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.

Just last week, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the case of Dukes v. Walmart. A group of women from Walmart's operations around the world banded together to hold Walmart accountable for allegedly discriminating against female employees. The hearing was to determine if the women could be classified as a 'class' and if so, this would be the largest class action lawsuit in history. In typical large corporation style, this case has been dragged out for 11 years, according to Walmart Watch.

So the question at hand: is Walmart really culpable in the mistreatment of the workers producing its wares although it does not own the factories? I definitely think so because Walmart is a large corporation with a lot of power, which it knows. It regularly uses this power to knowingly manipulate vendors. When faced with financial ruin, these companies turn to ethical compromise which is not OK either. This is a systems problem, starting at the top.

 Let's not forget that we, the consumers, are part of this system as well. As those of you who know system theory, a change in any part of the system causes the entire system to change. In other words, small change can lead to big change. You can do something.

Resources:

Students Against Sweatshops

International Labor Rights Forum


- A

Naked

....feet that is! Tuesday April 5th is One Day Without Shoes, a movement started by Toms Shoes. This wonderful organization sells shoes (that are super comfortable I hear!) for a philanthropic cause: for every pair bought, they give a pair to a child in need. How great is that?! You can buy online and I personally have spotted them at Whole Foods.

So the premise of the event is to go one day without shoes. Simple, right? There are events being held across the nation so be sure to check out the website to find one near you! As for me, I don't think the boss would take kindly to me walking around barefoot so I will be participating in the Virtual Without Shoes event.

Shoes are one of the many many things we take for granted. Can you imagine walking miles without shoes? Playing games without shoes? Walking in the extremely hot summer sun without shoes? People are picking up entirely preventable diseases from walking around barefoot.

What do you guys think, will you be participating in the event? Do you own a pair of Toms shoes?

- A

The speculation game

I recently watched The Colbert Report. On this particular episode, Stephen Colbert had Laurie Garret on, who is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. The topic of the day: rising food prices. I'm sure we've all noticed that going to the grocery store has become increasingly expensive in the past few years and Laurie spoke about why this was happening.  I don't know about you guys but I had no idea what was going on globally causing the increase until I watched her interview.

Ms. Garret mentioned many reasons why food prices have increased:

• Fires and floods (Pakistan, anyone?) wiped out crops
• Foot & mouth disease is currently being battled in 14 countries, reducing amount of meat allowable for export
• Gas prices have increased, increasing transportation costs for food
• Speculation

It was this last reason that I was most interested in (as none of us can control natural disasters). Speculation? What is that? Speculation is the process by which investors around the world agree to buy X amount of a commodity at a later date. As I understand it, this is a problem because of the nature of supply and demand. Let's reach back far into our brains to the mandatory high school economics class we all had to take. Remember anything? When the supply of an item is low yet demand is high, the price goes up. The speculators reduce the supply of an item by buying it, putting it out of commission for say three months while demand increases, causing prices to increase. The problem is that this process is largely unregulated. Lobbyists (funded by large companies) and the companies themselves have thus far prevented regulation from being passed to regulate the whole process.

Both Ms. Barret and a special report published by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) cite high food prices as inciting factors in riots across the world. According to the IATP, developing nations across the world are now consuming less food, with 43% of people polled in these countries stating that they have cut back on food purchases. The undernourished demographic has increased because of this and continues to grow.

Think about it, if food is expensive and thus a nuisance to buy for us, think about the poor in developing countries. Not only do those people have to pay outrageous prices, there may not even be enough to go around as their governments cannot import enough. The effects of the rising prices go beyond nutrition to political unrest and unnecessary deaths caused by riots.

Once again, big business is holding the 'little' people down. And yet again, the solution is the same: regulate! Boy do I feel like a broken record writing these posts but really people, I know this is America, the land of the free and free enterprise but is it really a free life we're leading when businesses who do not have our interests at heart are underhandedly, secretively dealing to do what's best for them, not for us? I feel the answer is no.way.


Resources:

Reflections on Global Food Crisis



- A

Fast is not fab

I think we can all agree that sweatshops are bad. Working people long hard hours while paying them little and forcing them to work in uncomfortable conditions is deplorable. How lucky are we that we live in the United States where we don't have to deal with this issue, right? Wrong. Today, in continuation of my retail series, I'll be talking about Forever21, the 'fast fashion' giant that has garnered criticism of the treatment of its workers.

The garment production industry is big business in California. Forever21 has been accused of (and documented through interviews with employees) running sweatshops in the state. According to 39th & Broadway, Forever21 employs Mexican immigrant labor because it is cheap. With this comes the sub par conditions in which they are working: no running water, no bathroom, rats, and cockroaches. Apparently paying them very little and abusing their workforce in the United States is not even, oh no. Forever21 employs millions of employees around the world, like India, where the labor is even cheaper and the ethical violations even greater.

As we all know, Forever21 constantly updates its offerings; in the world of 'fast fashion', you've got to be the quickest, with the newest, shiniest thing, and Forever21 certainly delivers. The result of this is their workforce is forced to work overtime, unpaid! Workers may even have to take work home, again, unpaid! Forever21 is the bad guy here, but the store is really a symptom of a greater problem: our insatiable appetite for new things fast.

Like many retailers, Forever21 can certainly afford to pay their workers better and provide more comfortable working conditions, but as is always with corporate greed, the goal is to minimize spending, which starts at the bottom: the workers. The pyramid below illustrates this well.

(Source)

Again, unionizing is very important and the documentary Made in L.A. follows three women who fought for years to get Forever21 to change their labor practices. Has anything changed? Forever21 would like to say yes but there is still a long way to go. Change is not going to come out of the goodness of their heart as it is a business, it has no heart. Change has to be demanded and I choose to not shop there until significant progress is made.

Additional Resources:

39th &  Broadway

Forever Unfair

The Garment Worker Center

- A

Be Green

One goal that I decided to set for myself ever since I bought a car last year, and consequently increased my carbon footprint, is to try and live green to my best ability. I have researched the issue and started going regularly to a local Farmers Market to obtain delicious produce and support local farmers. I also started recycling everything that could be recycled. Before becoming hard-core environmentalist, however, there are a few simple actions that can be taken toward becoming green. I have listed the ones I am currently working on, but these are definitely not the only ones. 

To reduce paper use, take no receipts when possible, especially at gas stations.

No bottled water. I mean, seriously.  Bottled water is in many cases no better than what we can access from the tap and the plastic bottles it comes in are a huge hit on sustainability and being green. A couple of easy-achieved alternatives to bottled water are purifiers (which could be recycled) and reusable bottles that could be refilled for the road, work, etc. 

As a follow-up to point #2, no Styrofoam cups please. Bring your own coffee mug to work and help save the planet. 

Another easy way to avoid plastic products is to bring your own utensils from home instead of using plastic ones at work.  

Choose a reusable bag when shopping please! Keep a couple in your car so you can never forget to bring it along (I’ve heard that excuse before). Also, if you must use a plastic bag in the store (e.g., for fresh vegetables), keep it and bring it back next time you shop and re-use it. 

Reduce your use of paper towels and opt for cloth towels that can easily be washed with a regular load of laundry without taking any extra water. 

If you use a lot of sandwich plastic bags regularly, you might want to consider containers instead that could be washed and re-used. 

This is just a basic list of small actions anyone can easily take toward the road to becoming green. If you have other suggestions or something that you do, please do not be shy and share them with us!

-          Krasi

Feel good time

Krasi recently wrote a post about volunteering and organizations in Houston that one can volunteer at. Well today I would like to follow up and add to that list. All of these organizations are wonderful and add to the community through the variety of missions. While in college, I was involved in an organization that required members to complete a certain amount of volunteer hours. This came out to about an hour a week. While volunteering in any way (sporadically, one time event, regularly) is wonderful, I found that becoming a 'regular' at an organization took the experience to another level. If I was tutoring children in an under-served area, those kids became my friends and I looked forward to seeing them as they did me. While packing food for the under-nourished, I became grateful for what I had and was in awe at how much people gave (unfortunately, many people still go hungry). While I don't volunteer as regularly as I used to (it's on my list for 2011!) I can't stress enough the importance of giving of yourself and your time. Not only will the people you're helping benefit but you'll also gain experience, perspective, and even new friends!

Now on to the list of Houston organizations that can use your help!

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center

Houston Food Bank

Harris County Citizen Corps

Memorial Hermann

Interfaith Ministries

Boys & Girls Club


Do you guys volunteer? What are your favorite organizations to volunteer for?


- A

Human Trafficking Update

This past week I came across a couple of new developments in the field of anti-human trafficking and decided to share them with you. Please encourage anyone who might be interested in the issue to review this educational information. It’s never too late to become a modern day abolitionist! 

 First, Free the Slaves has joined hands with CNN in a yearlong reporting initiative which will emphasize cases of modern-day slavery. The initiative is called CNN Freedom Project and the videos featured in the first week of the project are available on Free the Slaves homepage. 

Second, an email from Children at Risk informed me that Volume 2, Issue 1 of the Journal of Applied Research on Children (JARC) focuses solely on the issue of human trafficking as it relates to children and stresses the importance of spreading awareness, becoming involved in the fight, and eventually eliminating the horrible practice. Children at Risk is a non-partisan research and advocacy organization dedicated to addressing the root causes of poor public policies affecting children.

-          Krasi