Giving
Our Position
It's a Matter of Justice
"As Franciscan Sisters of Mary we live the Gospel as sister to all. We give our life by being present, hospitable and compassionate, choosing to stand with our sisters and brothers who are poor and on the margins of society."
One of the ways the Franciscan Sisters of Mary choose to "stand with our sisters and brothers who are poor and on the margins of society" is to add the company Wal-Mart to our investment exclusionary list. Our decision was made because of Wal-Mart's failure to meet FSM guidelines for socially responsible investing.
These guidelines include:
- recognition of the human worth and dignity in employment policies and practices
- implementation of non-discriminatory employment
- engagement in honest and fair practices in purchasing
In addition, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary, both as a Congregation and as individual members, no longer make purchases at Wal-Mart or its subsidiary, Sam's Club. Our purchasing decisions were made after much research into and study of Wal-Mart's management philosophy and operating practices. Some of their practices include low wages, inadequate employee benefits, discrimination based on gender, "off the clock" work hours for which employees are not paid, retaliating against employees who wish to organize unions, "price squeezing" of manufacturing suppliers, and aggressive attempts to locate in communities against the wishes of the residents. In recent years, Wal-Mart has been named in numerous law suits regarding abuses of labor laws, failure to pay worked hours and overtime, exploitation of illegal aliens and a class action suit for gender bias in not promoting women to higher positions while consistently paying them lower wages and salaries.
Certainly there are positive aspects of the company Wal-Mart; its supporters, justifiably, point to its low consumer prices, value to stock holders, employment of 1.4 million workers and outstanding results in operating efficiencies. But "economic efficiency is not a value that trumps all others, and Wal-Mart's efficiencies, although they confer considerable benefits, also confer some costs," writes George Will of Newsweek. Therein lies the dilemma. The "costs" of which Will writes is borne, along with others, by the employees of Wal-Mart. What is good for business in general may not be good for working people in particular.
These employees have human faces. Barbara Ehrenreich, author of the book "Nickel and Dimed; On (Not) Getting By in America", writes from her own experience about the difficulties of low wage workers meeting living expenses. "That afternoon Alyssa, one of my co-orientees, now in sporting goods, had come by ladies wear to inquire about a polo shirt that had been clearanced at $7. Was there any chance it might fall still further? I had no idea - but why was Alyssa so fixated on this particular shirt? Because of Wal-Mart's rule that (employee) shirts have collars, only polos, not tees, could be worn. At $7 an hour, a $7 shirt is just not going to make it to her shopping list."
Civil society needs to balance capitalism if it is to work for the entire population. Wal-Mart, in its globalized race to push wages to the bottom, is a corporation "gone amok," the opposite of how Ford and General Motors brought people into America's middle class. It was Henry Ford who realized that if he wanted one of his automobiles in every home, he needed to pay employees enough so that they could afford to buy them, a win-win situation for both sides. The same principle could certainly apply to a $7 polo shirt.
One example of a company that seems to meet the balance between the need for profit and paying just wages is Costco. The company's president and CEO, Jim Sinegal, states "we think when you take care of your customers and your employees, your shareholders are going to be rewarded in the long run. And I'm one of them (shareholder)". While Wal-Mart makes twice as much profit as Costco, Sinegal believes it's better business to make a nice profit (but not a killing) while investing more in Costco's workers. He says I don't see what's wrong with an employee earning enough to be able to buy a house or having a health plan for the family."
The FSM's position follows closely the social teaching of the Catholic Church, who throughout the past century has served as a strong advocate for the rights of workers to receive a just wage and to organize in protective unions. This is seen in such Church documents as "The Church in the Modern World", "Mother and Teacher" and Pope John Paul II's "Centesimus Annus, 1992". In these documents, the Church strongly advocates for sufficient wages to support workers and their families, and that such remuneration not be left solely to the market place and the freedom to join trade unions. Although the case is made by some that Wal-Mart's wages are only $3 less than union wages, for a full time position this translates into an additional $6,240 annually. For a worker who is struggling to pay bills, this increase can make a dramatic difference.
While we recognize that Wal-Mart has recently made attempts to address its critics through public relations efforts and small policy changes, the Franciscan Sisters of Mary will continue to refrain from making purchases there until the company shows more substantive changes.
As consumers, may our purchasing decisions be thoughtful and knowledgeable.
Joanne Klenke, FSM
Former Treasurer, Franciscan Sisters of Mary
(Sources: "Newsweek" (George Will), July 5, 2004; "Nickel and Dimed: on (Not) Getting By in America", by Barbara Ehrenreich, Metropolitan/Owl Publisher, 2001; and "Fortune 500", (Jim Hightower), March 8, 2004.)