RP to join global boycott on Western Union in October

Migrant workers and their families in the Philippines will join the global campaign to boycott Western Union, a money-transfer service giant, in early October, an international group of migrant workers said Tuesday. Christine Clemente, research officer of the Philippine-based Migrant Forum in Asia, said that leaders of the Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (Tigra), the group coordinating the boycott move, will be in the Philippines on Oct 7 to lay down details of the activity. The global campaign to boycott Western Union began on Sept 10, in the US after the firm ignored Tigra’s appeals for social responsibility. “We gave Western Union 100 days [beginning May 23, 2007] to respond to our request that it abide by the Transnational Community Benefits Agreement (TCBA), said Francis Calpotura, executive director of Tigra, in a statement. “We asked them [Western Union and its subsidiaries] to lower their fees, set a fair exchange rate, and commit to reinvest $1 per transaction in a Fund that would benefit families and communities of migrant workers all over the world," Capoltura said. Tigra had sent appeals to the Western Union’s board of directors and shareholders. The group also made “thousands of phone calls, emails, and sent postcards coming from at least 70 cities in the United States since May. “But Western Union ignored our demands," Capoltura said. According to Tigra, Western Union, as a leading competitor in the remittance market, is being asked to set an example by adopting the TCBA. “We're asking those businesses that serve as Western Union agents in our communities to honor the boycott and place an ‘out of order due to boycott’ sign over their Western Union advertisement," Capoltura said. He said business establishments that opt to support Western Union's predatory relationship with immigrants and migrant workers will be subjected to pickets and boycotts. All over the globe, there are over 200 million immigrants and migrants supporting a populations and economies of sending countries. Capoltura said there over 158 immigrant organizations from 66 cities in the US supporting the campaign against Western Union, along with migrant networks in Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Immigrant communities in the US – Filipinos, Mexicans, Salvadorians, Somalis, Kenyans – had launched the global campaign against Western Union's high rates of remittance charges. The 2005 US Census shows there were 2.8 million Filipinos in the US; 2007 estimates border around 4 million. Families and relatives of over eight million overseas Filipinos are no strangers to receiving remittances. Most of them use the services of money transfer agencies like Western Union charging migrant workers 8-15 percent in service fees and commissions. Tigra said that in February 2007, Western Union added 600 more locations in the Philippines, bringing its total number of outlets to over 6,000. In 2006, Western Union made a total of 147 million transactions, which would have been a healthy fund for what would essentially be a Community Reinvestment Act applied to a company that controls 17.4 percent of the remittance market. In 2006, Western Union's profits were nearly $1 billion, and that in the past five years the company has nearly tripled the number of outlets, which today stand at 305,000 worldwide. Western Union has over 52,000 agent locations in 38 countries and territories of the Asia Pacific region. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV