Socially responsible fund dumps
Wal-Mart for labour abuses

UCS/CALM

Wal-Mart has been dumped from the ranks of the United States’ leading index for "socially responsible" investing because of its purchases from sweatshop factories in China and Central America and its dealings with a repressive regime in Burma.

Long the target of labour activists because of its militantly anti-union policies and its use of sweatshop labour, Wal-Mart claims it is working to prevent labour abuses in its foreign factories.

But, says Charles Kernaghan, director of the National Labor Committee, a labour rights advocacy group, "In any country, if you find the worst factories, you’ll find Wal-Mart."

New York-based KLD & Co., which now compiles the Domini 400 Social Index, concluded that the company’s activities no longer meshed with the index’s goal of promoting investment in companies that help improve labour standards overseas.

"We’ve been looking at them for years," KLD president Peter Kinder said. "It was not a quick decision, but we had to make it."

The move prompted at least one mutual fund, the $1.4 billion Domini Social Equity Fund, to sell its Wal-Mart holdings. The Catholic Values Investment Trust, which invests in companies that do business consistent with "core Catholic values," reportedly was considering dumping Wal-Mart stock as well.

Wal-Mart posted sales of $191 billion last year.