Essay 4608

From The Chicago Tribune…

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Western Union boycott divides

Mexican activists are at odds on the best approach for firm to serve loyal customers

By Oscar Avila and Antonio Olivo, Tribune staff reporters

The resentment some Mexicans feel toward the money service that has become their lifeline is apparent in a flier making the rounds on both sides of the border. “Western Union, your fees are a rip-off,” it says, showing the image of a masked bandit.

The familiar black-and-gold sign of Western Union is a fixture in Mexican towns like Nochistlan and immigrant enclaves in the U.S., a symbol of the popular yet polarizing mechanism through which workers send remittances to their families south of the border, a flow that totaled $23billion last year.

Now, the complex relationship between Western Union and its Mexican clients has taken another turn as a bloc of Mexican community leaders urges countrymen to boycott the company. Another faction, meanwhile, has teamed with Western Union to launch innovative job-creating ventures in needy towns, including Nochistlan, arguing that the company should be cultivated as an ally.

On one hand, residents in places like Nochistlan are grateful to wire-transfer companies such as Western Union for offering a financial lifeline to isolated places typically underserved by banks. But family members in the U.S. often grouse that the companies charge too much. For a same-day $100 transfer to Mexico, for example, Western Union charges nearly 15 percent.

The growing debate over the role of Western Union has split key organizers of the huge immigration marches held in Chicago over the past two years.

Liberal Mexican activists, including some labor leaders wary of corporate influence, joined the national boycott of Western Union last month. Those critics say the company has a social responsibility to help poor communities where it makes so much money and that its philanthropy lags behind the efforts of other corporations.

They consider that especially galling because Western Union had about $2.3 billion in revenues in the first six months of 2007, much of it from fees paid by immigrants sending money home.

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