Wal-mart entry could wipe out small retailers: Wade Rathke

Mumbai, Apr 18 (UNI) Even before retail giant Wal-Mart could set its shop in India, anti Wal-Mart activist responsible for dragging the retail major to various courts in the US, Wade Rathke is in India to mobilise public opinion against the retalier.

In a workshop organised by the Maharasthra Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the city today, Mr Rathke was particulary vocal against the Wal-mart labour practices.

''When Wall Mart entered the retail market in Bangkok, sixty thousand people lost their jobs, in India the effect can be devastating,'' he said.

Rathke is the chief organiser of Community Organisation and Reform Now (ACRON), which also mobilised the public in South Korea and Germany against the retail major, the two markets from where Wal-Mart subsequently withdrew.

According to Mr Rathke, Indian government should frame strict regulatory environment in India to ensure that labour standards are not set aside by the reatil major when it enters Indian market.

He suggested that business association in India should press for a legislation in parallel to the 'Patman law' which exsists in USA, where a retail major who wants to set up shop has to prove that there is a neccessity for such facility.

Mr Rathke, who spearheads a union of Wal-Mart workers, cautioned about the predatory pricing Wal-mart follows when it enters a new market which is thirty to fourty percent below the market price, which can wipe out the small competitors in the market.

The workshop also discussed various aspects of a campaign which by representative of various organistion, who are opposing FDI in reatil in the country, also decided to build an intense and broader resistance to corporate onslaught on retail in India.

UNI