By T.M. Shultz
MERIDIAN TWP. - Clementine Mthethwa of Swaziland shivered in the bitter cold Thursday afternoon on the sidewalk outside the Wal-Mart store in Okemos.
The 40-year-old factory worker from southern Africa makes sport shirts that are bought by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and sold in its stores. She said she makes a penny for every five shirts she puts together. That earns her about $35 a month in U.S. currency.
"They should give people better wages," Mthethwa said.
She and two other international workers - one from Colombia and the other from Mexico - along with about 14 Michigan State University students and employees were protesting what they said were Wal-Mart's poor wages and its tendency to squash a community's individuality.
"Wal-Mart may seem convenient, but in the long run, it's just hurting communities," said Tommy Simon, 20, a member of the MSU organization Students for Economic Justice.
The protest group - sponsored by the International Labor Rights Fund - spent about an hour outside in the cold, then went inside the store and spoke briefly with several store managers. The managers greeted them politely and allowed them to introduce themselves.
Store manager Steve VanElls declined to speak about the issues the group raised, as mandated by store policy, he said. But Beth Keck, Wal-Mart's director of international corporate affairs, said later by telephone that Wal-Mart is a good community partner that pays fair wages.
Keck said Wal-Mart works with suppliers who aren't in compliance with Wal-Mart's policies in those areas and tries to get them to change. If that doesn't work, she said, the company goes elsewhere for the product.
Debbie Hertzfeld, who works at Ingham Regional Medical Center, stopped to find out what the protesters were doing. She said she had no idea anyone was concerned about the company's retail pay scale or what foreign workers who provide products for Wal-Mart were earning.
"I stand behind them 100 percent," Hertzfeld said of the protesters after speaking briefly with them.