Unions, outsourcing, health insurance, sweatshops, pensions - labor issues run the gamut from the dramatic to the relatively mundane. Multinational corporations require massive numbers of employees to make their machinery to run and to make a profit. Exploitation seems often to be a part of business. From the murders of union officials in Colombia, to Wal-Mart fighting on state courts against laws requiring it to provide minimum amounts of health insurance benefits to its workers, modern business seems to be a war between those who do the work and those who sign the checks.
Hanjin Heavy Industries & Construction was the first ship building company in Korea, established in 1937 at Youngdo, Pusan as "Chosun Heavy Industry Co., Ltd.", according to their website. The company builds everything from hospitals to apartment buildings through its construction segment and patrol boats to oil tankers through its shipbuilding segment.
GE is closing light bulb manufacturing plants in Ohio and moving contracts to joint ventures in China. GE claims it cannot afford to produce CFLs in the US. Policy Matters Ohio argues conditions in China violate the GE Code of Conduct. Report discusses how conditions violate Chinese labor law. There is also concern over workers' health as they are dealing with dangerous levels of Mercury. Although the lightbulbs may be energy-efficient, that does not mean they are environmentally friendly.
Burger King had hired Diplomatic Tactical Services to spy on the groups. After the story was picked up by Florida newspapers, the New York Times, and The Nation, Burger King released a statement saying it had fired vice president Steven Grover and spokesman Keva Silversmith for comments they had made about the activists online. They also claimed to have stopped using DTS because of violations to the Burger King Code of Conduct.
Dole Food Company, Inc. is the world's largest producer of fruits and vegetables such as bananas and pineapples, and also produces cut flowers and nuts. Dole has a history of operating plantations in the US and across the globe, often creating poor working conditions and unsafe environmental conditions such as pesticide use, soil erosion and deforestation.
Nokia, based in Helsinki, Finland, is a global leader in telecommunications and the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer. While it maintains several manufacturing units in Europe and the US, Nokia is shifting some of its production to Southeast Asia, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe in order to keep production costs low and margins and profits high.
Excerpt: "This is a report of a Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) labor rights assessment of Lianglong Socks Co. Ltd (hereafter “Lianglong”), a hosiery factory in Zhuji City, People’s Republic of China. Zhuji City is located in the eastern Chinese province of Zhejiang and is a major center of hosiery production. Lianglong is a producer of hosiery for RJ McCarthy, a supplier of Catholic school uniforms for a number of Catholic District School Boards in Ontario, Canada. The factory also reportedly produces for Wal-Mart.1 According to factory management, Lianglong employs roughly 200 workers.
Stanley Inc. (also known by the name of its subsidiary Stanley Associates) is a rising star among providers of information technology and business process outsourcing services to the U.S. federal government, particularly the Department of Defense, from which it gets about two-thirds of its revenues. The rest comes from civilian agencies ranging from the Department of Justice to the Library of Congress. At the end of its last fiscal year, the company had a contract backlog worth about $975 million.
'''Sodexo''' (Sodexho Alliance prior to 23 January 2008, Euronext: SW) is a French multinational corporation and one of the largest food services and facilities management companies in the world. It is present in 29,000 sites within eighty countries, earning revenue in 2007 of €13.385 million. Sodexo has two major lines of business: food and facility management services, and service vouchers and cards.
Barrick Gold Corporation is the largest pure gold mining company in the world, with its headquarters in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; and four regional business units (RBU's) located in Australia, Africa, North America and South America. Barrick is currently undertaking mining and exploration projects in Papua New Guinea, the United States, Canada, Australia, Peru, Chile, Russia, South Africa, Argentina and Tanzania. On January 20, 2006, Barrick acquired a majority share of Placer Dome.
Acer Inc. is one of the world's largest PC manufacturers, with revenue of $461.7 billion worldwide in 2007 according to the company's website. (Acer Preliminary Financial Information 2007)
