San Pedro Sula Walmart was very good some years ago at trying to split progressive ranks by pretending to care deeply about its environmental footprint even as it rough handled its workforce by underpaying women, busted unions, and settled millions of dollars for practicing wage theft. They were going to listen supposedly. They were going to change. Skeptics like me and many others argued that they cared no more about the environment than anything else other than their own corporate interest, and they were only doing those things that saved them money anyway.
The proof continues to pile up on this corporate criminal.
This week Walmart pleaded guilty to 6 counts of violating the Clean Water Act in California by improperly dumping hazardous wastes and one count on pesticide disposal in Missouri, and agreed to pay $82 million in fines.
Isolated case? Hardly!
According to the New York Times:
The guilty plea comes after settlements that Wal-Mart reached with California and Missouri in 2010 and 2012 on the same charges. Tuesday’s fines include $60 million for violations of the Clean Water Act in California; $14 million for a violation of the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act in Missouri; and a $7.6 million civil penalty to the E.P.A. In total, Wal-Mart will have paid more than $110 million to resolve all these related cases. Wal-Mart, which had $128 billion in revenues last year, said the payments should not have a material effect on its business.
Put this together with their bribery mischief in Mexico, India and China, and god knows what else and we are all left to wonder when we are going to start dealing with the company as the corporate criminal it has proven to be?