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UNI writes to Prime
Minister Singh: Wal-Mart should not be let into India before it respects workers' rights Letting Wal-Mart enter Indian retail trade could harm the government's efforts to promote economic integration, says UNI in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. An arrival of Wal-Mart could in fact confirm the fears that opening up the retail market could have negative repercussions on workers and local competitors, particularly small and medium sized enterprises. The letter has also been sent to Mr Kamal Nath, the Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry. Union Network International UNI, which with 14 million members is the largest of the global unions, has over 20 affiliates in India and has a long history of engagement in the country. Its intervention with the Indian government comes as a response to recent talks with Prime Minister Singh and Wal-Mart Director John Menzer, where the company tried to put pressure in favour of opening up the market. Wal-Mart is openly violating workers' rights - In stark contrast to many other major retail multinationals, such as Metro, Ahold, Carrefour, Tesco and others, Wal-Mart is openly defying its obligations to respect the internationally guaranteed right of its workers to establish and join trade unions of their choice, UNI General Secretary Philip J. Jennings says in the letter. - In the United States, the company is involved in a major class action lawsuit, where women workers have established that there is a pattern of systematic gender discrimination. Its refusal to provide affordable health insurance to a majority of its workers breaks with established practice on the U.S. labour market and has lead to legislative action in a number of U.S. States. In Canada, the company recently closed a store where the workers had decided on union representation rather than accepting to negotiate a collective agreement. - Wal-Mart has indeed come to epitomise the concept of social dumping and cruel price pressure on suppliers and business partners, while providing enormous incomes for its major shareholders and senior management, UNI states. Wal-Mart entry could backfire on market liberalisation - Our concern is that an entry of Wal-Mart on the Indian retail market could seriously harm the kind of economic integration process which your government has declared that it supports, by confirming the fears of strongly negative effects for workers and local competitors, particularly small and medium sized enterprises. - We know that the Congress Party, which you represent, has strong social objectives, which coincide with our own basic values as a labour movement, the global union says in its letter to the Prime Minister. - This is the reason for us to draw your attention to the risks of an uncontrolled entry of Wal-Mart into the Indian retail sector, and in the case of the company starting to operate in the country, would ask you to take strong measures that ensure full respect for workers fundamental rights and economic and social interests, and the unconditional compliance with the ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, which all governments are bound by. UNI also says that it is prepared to continue the discussions with the Indian government about how to avoid the problems that Wal-Mart could bring with it to the country: - As the global trade union that represents five million organised commercial workers around the world, who constitute one third of our total membership, we have always been supportive of international trade and investments – including in the retail trade and distribution industries – but also underlining the importance of a social dimension.
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