US: The Ten Worst Corporations of the year 2000

by Jim Lobe

Washington, Jan 2001 (IPS) -- Companies from Big Oil, Big Tobacco, and the  pharmaceutical and bio-technology sectors are among a list of 10 “most  irresponsible” corporations of the year 2000 released here this week by  Washington-based Multinational Monitor magazine and the Corporate Crime Reporter  (CCR).

The list, which has been compiled each year since 1987, found that two oil  companies - British Petroleum (BP)/Amoco and Phillips Petroleum - ignored US  environmental and worker-safety regulations; while the disclosure of internal  documents showed that British American Tobacco (BAT) systematically promoted  smuggling of its cigarettes on a global scale.

It also charged that Glaxo-Wellcome, along with other pharmaceutical giants, has  actively tried to block efforts to distribute cheap, generic anti-AIDS drugs in  poor African countries.

“The ‘Ten Worst Corporations of the Year’ highlight in stark terms the consequences of corporate power run amok,” according to Robert Weissman, the  editor of Multinational Monitor, a monthly which is part of the organisational  network run by Ralph Nader, who won about three percent of the vote as the Green  Party candidate in November’s presidential elections.

“These include despoilment of the natural environment, infliction of preventable disease, smashing of unions, invasions of privacy, corruption of  democracy, and more,” he added.

Co-author of an accompanying article and CCR editor Russell Mokhiber said the 10  corporations and the activities which landed them on this year’s list were  “just the tip of the iceberg” of corporate misconduct in the United States and  overseas.

According to the authors, the listed companies all engaged in behaviour that  clearly put their narrow corporate interests ahead of the public or  environmental welfare.

Aventis, the French bio-tech company, was scored for introducing Cry9C corn,  sold under the name StarLink, into the environment and, more shockingly, into  the conventional food supply, when it had not yet been approved for human  consumption by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

As a genetically modified organism (GMO), StarLink had gained EPA approval for  use in animal feed or non-food industrial purposes only, but the approval was  conditioned on Aventis notifying farmers of the critical importance of isolating  it from other corn to prevent contamination.

The GMO, however, spread either because uninformed farmers did not maintain the  required buffer zone or because it was mixed in grain elevators. The corn ended  up in commercially sold taco shells and other foods.

While Aventis offered to buy back all StarLink corn, its main efforts have been  directed at speeding EPA approval of the crop for human consumption despite  evidence that it poses allergenic risks.

BAT, the world’s second largest tobacco company, is not alone in the industry in  promoting international cigarette smuggling, which is designed to evade excise  taxes and create more demand in target countries, according to the article.

But internal records uncovered by the International Consortium of Investigative  Journalists (ICIJ) have made it clear that BAT, despite its own denials, has  used smuggling as a deliberate strategy, according to the article.

[The UN and the World Health Organization, the UN Specialized Agency have the ‘Tobacco Initiative’ and a WHO negotiating conference on control and regulation of tobacco and smoking. But BAT is part of the group of corporations with which the UN is consorting, and is described as “partners” in the UNCTAD-International Chamber of Commerce project for investment promotion guides (that take account of private-sector assessments of a country) for individual developing countries to promote foreign investments.]

BP/Amoco, despite its reputation for sensitivity to environmental concerns, has  been forced to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines for environmental  violations and a failure to pay royalties to the US government during the past  year, and, along with other oil companies, has been lobbying the US Congress to  open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling.

Along with other oil giants, according to the article, the company has also been behind Republican efforts in Congress to harass a public-interest group for its efforts to uncover Big Oil’s underpayment of government royalties.

Phillips Petroleum made the list this year as a result of a massive explosion at  its plastics plant in Pasadena, Texas last March in which one person was killed  and 74 injured. It was the third fatal accident at the Phillips’ plant there  since 1989 when another blast killed 23 people, and the fourth within a one-year  period.

The federal agency that oversees worker safety found that the company did not  adequately train its workers and has proposed fining it 25 million dollars for  its negligence.

The article reported that the company, along with other members of the Chemical  Manufacturers Association, recently lobbied for legislation which would not  require the chemical companies to make public estimated “worst-case” scenarios  for accidents which could take place at their facilities.

DoubleClick, Inc., the world’s largest Internet advertising business, also made  the list this year for its alleged efforts to obtain confidential information  about Internet users.

The attorney general of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, sued the company this year  for failing to disclose to users that the company is systematically implanting  “cookies” - electronic surveillance files which compile information about the  user’s Internet-cruising habits - on the hard drives of their computers without  their knowledge or consent. It has reportedly collected 100 million consumer  profiles in this way.

In a rare double-hit, this year’s list charged both the Ford Motor Company and  Firestone, a subsidiary of Japan’s Bridgestone, with “reckless homicide” in  connection with the more than 90 deaths and hundreds of injuries in hundreds of  deadly accidents caused by tire failure of Ford Explorer sports utility vehicles  in the United States and elsewhere.

While evidence of the potential lethality of the Ford-Firestone combination  accumulated steadily since 1990, both companies failed to act to remedy the  problem until 2000 when a federal agency opened an investigation,  according to the article.

Glaxo-Wellcome was cited for its efforts to prevent Cipla, an Indian generic  drug-maker which produces a key anti-AIDS drug on which Glaxo claims to have  patent rights, from distributing them in Ghana and elsewhere in Africa where  only a tiny fraction of the more than 20 million people afflicted with HIV/AIDS  can afford the western-made drugs.

Defence giant Lockheed Martin also made the list for testing a toxic component  of rocket fuel on human subjects, a step medical researchers and  environmentalists denounced as unethical and unscientific.

The chemical, perchlorate, has been found in water wells near a big Lockheed  plant. The testing, in which 100 people are paid 1,000 dollars each to take up  to 83 times the “safe” level of the chemical perchlorate, is apparently aimed  at persuading the EPA that it is not as toxic as previously believed.   If the EPA then permits higher concentrations of perchlorate in water supplies,  the company will save millions of dollars in clean-up costs, according to the  article.

Two other companies are also cited in this year’s list: Smithfield Foods whose  near-monopoly power in the US pork industry is threatening family farms across  the nation and spreading factory farms that are polluting water supplies in key  rural areas; and Titan International, a wheel and tire manufacturer, which,  according to the articles, has systematically resorted to illegal tactics to  replace its unionised work force.