Charges of racial slurs and mistreatment of workers has triggered a boycott of Wal-Mart stores by a group called the Mexican American Political Association. According to an account in The Fresno Bee, a Wal-Mart store in south Fresno was the object or an organized boycott led by Ben Benavidez, president of MAPA. Benavaidez told the paper he was organizing a boycott of all Wal-Mart and Sam’s club stores in California and the southwestern states. According to MAPA, they have been discussing their complaints with Wal-Mart for a month, but were not getting anywhere. MAPA says it received complaints from current and former workers at Wal-Mart, about such remarks as: “You see on Mexican you’ve seen them all.” and “We dont want our store front to lok like a Mexican flea market,” and comments about “how Mexican women like to buy body-revealing clothes,” the newspaper said. MAPA is accusing Wal-Mart of employee harassment, intimidation, anda mistreatment. “I’ll bet you Sam Walton is turning in his grave right now.” Benavidez told the Fresno Bee. MAPA says it is considering legal action if Wal-Mart does not hold serious talks with the group.
For more information about the Mexican American boycott of Wal-Mart, go to the group’s website at www.mapa.org.
