FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Immigrant Groups Protest Western Union on High Cost of Remittances With Mother's Day Message

New York, NY - On May 10, 2007, in the spirit of Mother's Day, immigrant and community organizations will gather in front of 787 Seventh Avenue in midtown New York City to call attention to the high cost of remittances sent by immigrants to their home countries via Western Union. They will send Western Union a special message: lower your fees and reinvest in immigrant communities on behalf of mothers across the world.

A press conference will start at 1:00 PM at John Jay College, 445 West 59th Street in New York City, at Room 3534-N (Economics Department Conference Room). Among the speakers will be Western Union shareholders and working mothers who will give their personal testimonies. A colorful demonstration parallel to the shareholders' meeting starts at 3:00 PM at 787 Seventh Avenue.

The demonstration, co-sponsored by La Union de la Comunidad Latina (La Union), Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action (TIGRA), and United for a Fair Economy (UFE) will feature street theater, puppetry, blown-up photos of immigrant mothers, and mariachi performances, after the Mexican tradition of mothers being serenaded on Mother's Day, which is observed on May 10 in many countries. A religious ceremony will also be observed in honor of working mothers who live far from their children. The demonstration comes on the heels of May Day rallies organized by immigrant rights groups nationwide; the high cost of sending remittances is a key problem facing immigrants across the country.

"Western Union takes advantage of my need to send my love and my financial support to my family," says Elizabeth Mendoza a community leader of La Union, and mother of two.

Representatives from Mexico, the Philippines, and Europe, as well as 15 cities across the US, will be present at the demonstration.

Inside, at the law firm Sidley Austin, the remittance industry giant's legal counsel since 1969, Western Union will be holding its first shareholders' meeting since the company became publicly traded. Representatives of TIGRA and Responsible Wealth (a project of United for a Fair Economy) will attend the meeting using proxies provided by Responsible Wealth. They will deliver a Mothers Day card to CEO Christina Gold, who received a bonus of $16 million in 2006.

Participants of the Mother?s Day demonstration are calling on Western Union to adopt the Transnational Community Benefits Agreement, or TCBA, within 100 days. It would:

The World Bank estimates that remittances sent by immigrants living in the US and other rich countries back to their homes in impoverished countries now eclipse the amount the rich world spends on foreign aid. Yet much of this money is being eaten up by the high cost of fees charged by companies like Western Union, which earns more than $1 billion annually in profits. An immigrant worker who makes minimum wage in Brooklyn needs to work a full week to pay off a year?s worth of Western Union fees and commissions.

As Francis Calpotura, director of TIGRA, explains: "Western Union depends on immigrants for their bottom line. The only question is can immigrant families depend on Western Union to care about their welfare??

La Union is a community organization based in Brooklyn affiliated with TIGRA, a network of more than 100 immigrant organizations across the US.

Responsible Wealth had filed a shareholder resolution on behalf of TIGRA asking the company to review its remittance policies and evaluate its reinvestment practices, but the company did not allow shareholders to vote on the proposal. Responsible Wealth is a national network of businesspeople, investors and affluent Americans who are concerned about deepening economic inequality and are working for widespread prosperity.