City officials in Portland, Oregon, announced last week that they’re divesting the city’s investment portfolio of 36 million dollars worth of holdings in Walmart. The decision comes after the adoption of a socially responsible investment protocol by the Portland City Council last year, which now evaluates holdings that may spur ” health and environmental concerns, abusive labor practices, and corrupt corporate ethic and governance.”
One wonders if Portland isn’t following the lead of Norway, which dumped 430 million dollars worth of Walmart holdings in 2006 for similar reasons, citing ” serious and systematic” abuses of human and labor rights.
Maybe the Wisconsin Retirement System should consider following suit?
Good post Steve. I agree Wisconsin should do this and maybe we do have some ability to do this at the local level in some parts of the state.