Chihuahua nips Wal-Mart: in-dispensa-ble and indefensible

Dspensas — coupons or credit vouchers — are commonly used in Mexico not just for social programs (Mexico City’s “old age pensions” are not cash payouts, but can be used for food and necessities, like the ATM cards states in the U.S. used to replace food stamps).  They are not just for social programs, though.  Businesses often provide dispensas.  There’s certain tax advantages for the employer (who lowers their payroll taxes) and they are often presented to potential employees as a company benefit.  Which, for most employees, they are.

What no one seems to have thought of until now was that these limit the consumers’ rights.  It’s a modern recasting of an old problem, that was one of the major factors in the Revolution… peonage and the tienda de raya (company store).  While Mexico was the first country to outright forbid slavery, the more “modern” economic form of slavery, peonage, remained.  It was simple enough:  people were legally enjoined from leaving their jobs until their debts to the employer were settled.  And, of course, the employee was not paid enough for basic necessities, receiving script for a company store that sold goods far beyond any reasonable price, keeping the worker in hock forever.  Of course, this system was used throughout the world (and still is), even in “advanced” countries well into the 20th century.

The 1910-20 Revolution was based in a lot of different grievances, but both the rural and urban workers saw themselves (and rightly so) as the main force for radical change.  The “radical” 1916-17 Queretaro Constitutional Convention’s delegates included not just rural revolutionaries and union members themselves, but a contingent of what was then a new specialty, labor lawyers.  What emerged was unique:  the first consitution on the planet to include an entire labor code.  While Article 123 of the Constitution has been “reformed” over the years (usually to the benefit of employers), and has its oddities (Mexico is probably the only country in the world where making your employees go to a cafe to pick up their paycheck is a constitutional violation), it has stood up pretty well, and is the basis of most 20th century labor codes. Article 123 specifically forbids employers to pay in company script, or force workes  to buy from the company store.  Dispensas, however, as long as they are not your paycheck, and not making you buy on credit, are perfectly legal.  UNLESS…

Enter the chain stores and debit cards.  Of course, the chains have the ability to process debit cards, and if your dispensa is a debit card, you’re shit out of luck if you want to shop at a mom-n-pop in most places.   My local abarrotes — which does have a scanner — handles credit purchases the old fashioned way.  If Lolita knows you, she writes down what you owe her in a school notebook, and when you pay she deducts the outstanding amount.

What about when the employer is a chain-store?  The State of Chihuahua got an injunction from the Surpreme Court against Walmart because their “social benefits plan” which includes company debit cards as dispensas.

So, all you WalMart employees out there… when you think of calling yourself a “peon”… you’re right.