Citing labor abuses, Oslo disinvests in globalist monster
Norwegian Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen revealed Tuesday that two new stocks will be banned from the country's so-called "oil fund," which now is called the Norwegian Government Pension Fund - Global and currently is worth about $250 billion. It ranks as one of the biggest pension funds in the world.
The ministry reported that it's excluding Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Wal-Mart de México "in line with recommendations from the Council on Ethics for the Fund."
Halvorsen's finance ministry officials cited "serious" and "systematic violations of human rights and labor rights" as its reason for pulling out of its Wal-Mart investments.
Halvorsen was quoted in a government statement as saying that the exclusions "reflect our refusal to contribute to serious, systematic or gross violations of ethical norms in these areas through our investments in the Government Pension Fund - Global."
Investing in Wal-Mart, Halvorsen claimed, "entails an unacceptable risk that the Fund may be complicit in serious... violations of norms."
US-based Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer with revenues of nearly $300 billion, has been harshly criticized for its labor practices. Norway's Council on Ethics claimed that an "extensive body of material indicates that Wal-Mart consistently and systematically employs minors in contravention of international rules, that working conditions at many of its suppliers are dangerous or health-hazardous, that workers are pressured into working overtime without compensations, that the company systematically discriminates against women in pay," and that attempts to organize workers into unions are stopped.
The council's assessments involve Wal-Mart's business operations in the US and Canada and at its suppliers in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Namibia, Malawi, Madagascar, Swaziland, Bangladesh, China and Indonesia.
The council and Norway's central bank wrote to Wal-Mart last fall, asking them to comment on the allegations. The Norwegian Finance Ministry said Wal-Mart never responded.
Source: Aftenposten
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