At Walmart's fall shareholder meeting, a group of Walmart workers and a United Food and Commercial Workers analyst held a separate event to talk about
problems at the company, and how understaffing could cause problems for customers. Despite Walmart's continuing dismissive attitude to workers' attempts to gain a greater voice at the company, one major investor recently took action. Lila Shapiro at Huffington Post
reports that:
On Tuesday, the Netherlands' biggest pension fund, Algemeen Burgerlijk Pensioenfonds, with more than $300 billion in assets, announced that it was blacklisting the largest retailer in the world for noncompliance with the United Nations' Global Compact principles. The Global Compact presents a set of core values relating to human rights, labor standards, the environment and anti-corruption efforts. Sixteen other companies were blacklisted along with Walmart, nearly all of them excluded for producing chemical or nuclear weapons that violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
ABP said on Wednesday that the decision to pull its investment from Walmart was not hasty. The fund declined to say how much money is involved, but according to ABP records, it had invested some 95 million euros, worth $121 million today, in U.S. Walmart stores as of June 30, 2011. The fund first sent a letter to Walmart executives in 2008, a year after ABP formalized its responsible-investing policy. Four years later, after many meetings with employees and all levels of management, ABP concluded the retail giant was still falling short.
The event during the shareholder meeting played a part in ABP's decision:
But [ABP senior sustainability specialist Anna] Pot, who attended that meeting, thought it was useful. Although it was not the only factor driving ABP's decision to divest, it was among them. Also high on the list: a job description found on Walmart's website last June, seeking a new director of labor relations whose listed duties included "support continued union free workplace."
There's an interesting contrast here. When Walmart workers rally outside corporate headquarters or speak to shareholders, Walmart comments in variously dismissive or patronizing ways. When a major pension fund that has invested more than $120 million in the company pulls out, Walmart declines to comment at all. But you have to wonder if it will change the tone the next time workers try to get Walmart's attention.