Talk about slow election results, it took Home Depot more than two months to report the results of its May 30th. stockholder’s annual meeting. According to a company press release, Home Depot stockholders voted against a resolution that would have created “Social Accountability Standards” for suppliers and contractors to the company around the world. These human rights standards include the right to form and join unions, and no use of forced labor or child labor. Because Home Depot “has extensive overseas operations,” the resolution said, human rights violations can cause “negative publicity…and loss of consumer confidence…which can have a negative impact on shareholder value.” Not to meantion the negative impact on child labor. The resolution called on Home Depot to “commit itself to the full implementation of the aforementioned human rights standards by its international suppliers and in its own international production facilities and commit to a program of outside, independent monitoring of compliance with these standards.” The Home Depot release tersely stated: “The stockholders rejected a proposal relating to international workforce standards.”
After informing the public that its stockholders rejected a call for international human rights standards for its suppliers, Home Depot goes on to boast that Fortune Magazine has called the home improvment giant “the 6th. most admired company” in America. One has to wonder if the Fortune Magazine survey contained any questions about condoning the use of sweatshop labor? The “most admirable” thing for consumers to do is avoid companies that don’t aggressively deal with sweatshop labor anywhere on the globe. Globalization without international labor rights standarads, is simply exploitation on a grand scale.
