7-Eleven corporate has a lot to answer for.
Back in January, ICE conducted nationwide raids of 7-Eleven franchises. These sweeps terrified and intimidated members of immigrant communities. What made these raids especially painful in the larger sense was that, for decades, 7-Eleven had been a very immigrant-friendly company, one that drew people newly arrived in this country. As more information about the raid, and about 7-Eleven corporate’s involvement, has emerged, the story has become ever more troubling.
Daily Kos’s Gabe Ortiz followed up at the time:
”This is yet another example of the escalating attacks from the Trump administration and its rogue ICE agency on immigrant communities,” said immigrant rights group Make The Road New York. “This is a family separation tactic—nothing more, nothing less—meant to stoke fear in the hearts of our community. But we also know that workers have rights in this country, regardless of immigration status. We encourage all workers to review their rights in case of an ICE raid.”
Nearly one year later, one version of events is this: While ICE targeted employees and managers, 7-Eleven is using the fallout to prey on franchise owners. The more likely version, it turns out, is that 7-Eleven cooperated with ICE and directed the agency to specific franchises, as reported by Lauren Etter and Michael Smith for Bloomberg.
You see, 7-Eleven franchises raided by ICE can then be pressed by corporate to produce any and all subsequent accusations of immigration law violations. That’s the sort of thing that would allow corporate to yank the franchise.
At a minimum, what’s happening is an exercise in opportunism on the part of 7-Eleven corporate and CEO Joe DePinto, who took over in 2005. Or maybe he’d call it making lemons into lemonade. There’s a logic to it: If franchises are being very publicly investigated for immigration law violations, 7-Eleven might as well cooperate with ICE and squeeze what benefit they can from the situation, i.e., franchise takeovers.
Turns out, this tactic is very much in line with DePinto’s leadership historically. Corporate’s openly seeking excuses to seize franchises. Since DePinto took over 7-Eleven, the corporation has moved away from celebrating diversity, increased demands on franchises, and invested millions in investigating franchise owners.
The corporate investigators have used tactics including tailing franchisees in unmarked vehicles, planting hidden cameras and listening devices, and deploying a surveillance van disguised as a plumber’s truck.
In addition to these covert initiatives, DePinto’s 7-Eleven installed cameras in every store in 2012 to allow any-time monitoring by corporate. Still more intrusive, corporate’s even hired “mystery shoppers” and sent corporate employees in to seek out evidence that could be used to prove breaches of the franchise agreement.
Some franchise owners have fought back against 7-Eleven’s aggressive tactics with lawsuits. Four such owners, whose conflicts with corporate go back years, were among those targeted by ICE in January. They’re understandably suspicious. 7-Eleven, of course, via its chief compliance officer—she started in January—denies that it’s targeted the franchisees they’ve warred with.