Wal-Mart Exploits Teen Labor in Mexico

Last summer, a Newsweek article entitled "Teens at Work" brought to light Wal-Mart's questionable use of teenaged laborers at the retailer's stores in Mexico. The article explained how Wal-Mart takes advantage of a legal loophole in Mexico, which allows the use of unsalaried youths if they are "volunteering" their services. Wal-Mart labels the teens, ages 14-16, "volunteers" rather than workers -- despite the fact that they wear company vests, have assigned work hours and provide grocery bagging services for Wal-Mart's customers. They work for tips and do not receive a salary.

In the Newsweek article, top labor officials in Mexico disagreed with Wal-Mart's policy. Mexico City Federal District Labor Secretary Benito Mirón Lince said, "In economic terms, Wal-Mart does have the capability to pay the minimum wage [of less than $5 a day], and this represents an injustice." Wal-Mart de Mexico is the country's largest private employer with $550 million in profits during the first half of 2007.

Wal-Mart has a history of sweatshop labor in overseas factories and unfair labor practices in the U.S. and other countries, including Mexico. The company has over 80 wage and hour lawsuits pending against it in the United States, and in February 2005 was forced to pay $135,540 in civil money penalties to the U.S. Department of Labor over charges of 24 child-labor violations.

Wal-Mart demonstrates time and time again that it will do anything to get out of paying its workers a fair wage -- or any wage at all, in this case. This video portrays just one, egregious example of Wal-Mart's willingness to twist the truth and take advantage of its workers -- and these teens are indeed workers. By bringing more attention to the issue, we hope Wal-Mart will get the message that it needs to pay these teen workers.

To write to Mexico labor officials and Wal-Mart executives to tell them Wal-Mart should pay the teen workers, visit our action page.

Comments

[BionicWoman]

In Mexico a child graduates from school at the 8th grade. There is no high school. Most people can not afford college. What would you have them do? These articles about Walmart always take everything out of context. Unfortunately the readers do not have the common sense God gave a coconut to figure this out!

[Lt]

Wall-Mart is the capitalist pig in the room,

they exploit everything they get near in their greed

[realitytrumpsbull]

Why is the color of the vest dark blue, and why no wal-mart logo? Fact-check this one, please.
People are trying to hustle US companies. That's a global effort, for sure. Mexico has a 1 trillion dollar GDP. In one gesture of international friendship, a US tourist got held up and walked to an ATM machine and got relieved of a thousand dollars at gunpoint.
Yaay, Mexico. Close the border for a decade, and let them open up their own stores or something. Insofar as Wal-Mart is concerned, well, they employed people in other countries, import stuff made in China, do business around the globe, and profit by it. I would say if you're looking for a career, hustling people in the parking lot to carry their groceries probably really isn't going to get you anywhere. Maybe be an equipment operator, tour guide(to someplace besides the ATM machine), knowledge worker, or some other type of fabrication or construction. I would be leery and suspicious of someone running up to me in the parking lot. That's what shopping carts are for. I think this video was a hustle.

[realitytrumpsbull]

Maybe it would be better just to prohibit both business AND travel and trade between the US and Mexico of all kinds, for about 10 years, until everything levels out. Bring the US companies home from their 'globalization' expansion thing, and let all countries involved take a little 'time out'. About 10 years' worth. No drugs, no humans, no furniture, nuttin, not so much as a phone call. For a decade....

[Semaj51]

Jere is an interesting note -- right now, in the United States there is a large grocery chain which basically has the same labor problem. The military commissaries, which has branches in almost every military base, has unpaid baggers at every store who are responsible for bagging the groceries and carrying them out to the cars. These baggers only work for tips.

[cynara]

All supermarkets in Mexico do this (Ley, Gigante, Comercial Mexicana, Soriana, etc..). That said, all the supermarkets in Mexico are run by giant multinational corporation which walk all over Mexican labor laws with impunity. Which is a problem, not just for the Mexicans forced to live in the conditions imposed upon them by international corporations (wages so low they don't buy food, labor abuses, no workers compensation, etc...). It also becomes a problem for the US, when these workers flee North, across our border to escape these working conditions.

Now, we, the US, could be putting pressure on our multinationals to respect labor laws and salary concerns wherever they are located. This would benefit not only the local laborers, but our laborers here in the US, who no longer have to try to compete with slave laborers in Mexico (causing benefit and job loss here), not to mention competition from unionized immigrants fleeing conditions in their home country. Unfortunately, through trade agreements like NAFTA, the US does just the opposite - it encourages our multinationals to cut costs however possible, and in countries with weak corporate law enforcement, like our southern neighbor, this means skimping on labor costs.

[not one of the sheep]

Wal-Mart could have avoided all these allegations if Hillary were back on the board. You mean NAFTA hasn't sent all these jobs overseas yet?