[Onthebarricades] US/GLOBAL: Immigrants organise boycott of Western Union

[Andy]

      Immigrants in U.S. Boycott Western Union Co. 
     
      September 19, 2007  
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            WASHINGTON -- U.S. immigrant groups are ratcheting up a boycott of Western Union Co. in hopes of forcing the global money-transfer industry to reinvest in the immigrant communities from which it profits. 

            Foreign workers complain that wire-transfer firms set extortionate fees and exchange rates, and that the industry fails to give back to immigrants. Western Union is being targeted for its size: It is the largest money-transfer player in the United States and ranks among the largest in the world. 

            "We choose to stand up for our right to live in dignity and fight for our families," said Francis Calpotura, executive director at the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action. The network of 158 immigrant groups is spearheading the boycott, begun last week in California and slated for nationwide expansion starting on Monday. 

            Immigrant workers in the United States send home some $70 billion in earnings a year, and the firms handling this trade skim more than $14 billion a year, mainly in transaction fees, market analysts say. 

            Remittances from foreign workers around the world amounted to around $250 billion last year, and the figure is increasing by nearly one-third a year, according to the World Bank. 

            Western Union, spun off from the U.S.-based First Data Corp. in September 2006, is a business worth $4.5 billion. Migrant workers say the company owes its success to them and they mean to cash in. 

            "Western Union makes billions from Mexicans, and they give us pennies. It's time for Western Union to reinvest meaningfully in our communities," said a representative of the Oaxaquena Federation, who declined to be named. 

            The company countered that it could not have attracted so much business had it charged uncompetitive fees. 

            Additionally, the Colorado-based firm announced late last week that it would give away $50 million in educational and economic charity during the next five years. It said its "Our World, Our Family" initiative will channel the money through the philanthropic Western Union Foundation and through Mercy Corps, a U.S.-based international aid group. 

            "Education and economic opportunity means providing people around the world with the tools to succeed," said company president and chief executive Christina Gold. "With Our World, Our Family, we will help open doors to new opportunities supporting global citizens on their journey to a better life." 

            Even so, protest leaders said they plan to press on with their boycott. 

            "The new initiative merely re-packages [the company's] current giving program," the Transnational Institute said in a statement. "It fails to address the campaign's key demands." 

            Our World, Our Family would raise Western Union's overall philanthropic spending to 49 cents of every $100 in profit, up from 41 cents, according to the Transnational Institute. It compared this with $2.30 for every $100 of profit for leading retailer Wal-Mart and $7.50 for ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's, a unit of Unilever. 

            Protesters said they would pressure Western Union to increase its charity and to give directly to groups working with immigrant communities. Mercy Corps, they said, lacked the experience of working with such communities in the United States. Boycott organizers also want the company and its subsidiaries, Vigo and Orlandi Valuta, to reduce their transaction fees and set more favorable exchange rates. 

            In many poor countries, remittances from workers overseas exceed international aid. 

            Remittances to Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed $60 billion in 2006, and about three-fourths of this came from workers in the United States, according to the Inter-American Development Bank. This money exceeded foreign direct investment and official aid combined. In six of the region's countries, it accounted for more than 10 percent of national income. 

            The largest recipients of remittances are Asian countries, including India, which receives about $26 billion a year; China, which receives $23 billion; and the Philippines, which receives $14 billion. 

            The flows are so large that development lenders -- the Inter-American Development Bank in the western hemisphere and the Asian Development Bank to the east -- and the governments of countries receiving remittances are seeking ways to lower transaction costs and channel more remitted money into investment projects. 

            The transaction costs of money transfers often exceed 20 percent, researchers have said, adding that reducing these costs by even a few percentage points could yield savings of billions of dollars a year for the workers who are sending money home.  
     
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