The ten worst corporations of 2005

[Guest guest]

" Zepp " <zepp

Tue, 02 May 2006 19:24:21 -0700

[Zepps_News] The ten worst corporations of 2005

 

 

 

 

http://www.sfbg.com/printable_entry.php?entry_id=393

 

Focus on the Corporation - The 10 Worst Corporations of 2005

By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

OK, we know that, in the Internet age, harking back to 2005 seems like

looking back on an ancient era.

 

But, if you will, indulge us for a moment as we reminisce and present

Multinational Monitor's 10 Worst Corporations of 2005. (For the full

story, go to <www.multinationalmonitor.org>.)

 

Listed alphabetically, here are the 10 Worst Corporations of 2005 and

brief lowlights of the activities that earned them a place on the list:

 

BP: In March, 15 workers were incinerated, and more than 170 injured,

following an explosion at BP's sprawling refinery in Texas City, Texas.

It was the third fatal accident at the Texas City BP facility in the

last four years. Nationwide, BP's facilities have had more than 3,565

accidents since 1990, ranking first in the nation, according to a 2004

report by the Texas Public Interest Research Group (TexPIRG).

 

Delphi: In October, Delphi CEO Steve Miller took his company into

bankruptcy, with the explicit purpose of trashing the social contract

between unionized auto workers in the United States and the auto

industry. He proposed slashing worker wages from $27 an hour to a mere

10 bucks. And, in a fit of staggering arrogance, Miller and Delphi

simultaneously proposed huge bonuses for company executives.

 

DuPont: Deadly chemicals from DuPont's perfluorinated, chemical-based

coatings and related sources are now in the blood of 95 percent of

people in the United States. DuPont has claimed that it does not know

how the chemicals got there. But Glenn Evers, formerly one of the

company's top technical experts, says that DuPont hid for decades that

it was polluting people's blood with a hyper-persistent chemical

associated with the grease-resistant coatings on paper food packaging.

(For a complete history, see www.ewg.org.) In December, the U.S.

Environmental Protection Agency agreed to settle claims against DuPont

for a paltry $16.5 million. On a happier note, the agency and DuPont

announced that the chemicals will be phased out by 2015.

 

ExxonMobil: In the face of a virtually complete scientific consensus

that global warming is real and happening -- and considerable agreement

that it is happening faster than expected just a few years ago --

ExxonMobil continues to insist that " scientific evidence remains

inconclusive. " So far, the cynical, profit-motivated, short-term and

self-interested views of ExxonMobil have mattered more than the

evidence-based perspective of the world's climatologists. That's because

the most profitable corporation on earth has lots of political power and

is skilled at amplifying its views (see ExposeExxon.org for details),

and the climatologists do not and are not. While the world burns,

ExxonMobil is raking in record profits -- more than $36 billion in 2005,

the highest ever earned for a single company in one year.

 

Ford: Ford Motor Company's factory in Mahwah, New Jersey once the

largest auto assembly plant in the nation, dumped millions of gallons of

paint sludge -- enough to fill two of the three tubes of the Lincoln

Tunnel -- into a now-residential area, revealed a series published in

the Bergen Record (see www.toxiclegacy.com). Tests commissioned by the

Record found lead, arsenic and xylenes in the sludge -- some at 100

times the levels the government considers safe. Reporters with the

Record dug up documents showing that Ford executives knew as early as 34

years ago that its waste had contaminated a stream that feeds the

Wanaque Reservoir.

 

Halliburton: The company has effectively made a business model of

crooked dealing with the U.S. government. Getting caught, over and over,

doesn't seem to affect things much. In February, the U.S. Army agreed to

pay Halliburton's KBR subsidiary nearly $2 billion for work that nobody

can prove ever took place. In March, the company revealed that the U.S.

Justice Department opened a criminal inquiry into possible bid-rigging

on foreign contracts by Halliburton. In June, at a Congressional

hearing, Bunnatine H. Greenhouse, then the senior contracting specialist

with the Army Corps of Engineers, testified, " I can unequivocally state

that the abuse related to contracts awarded to KBR [Halliburton's

subsidiary] represents the most blatant and improper contract abuse I

have witnessed during the course of my professional career. " And the

list of abuses goes on and on ...

 

KPMG: KPMG " admitted to criminal wrongdoing in the largest-ever tax

shelter fraud, " said U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in August.

KPMG managed to escape with no conviction or plea agreement, thanks to a

" deferred prosecution " agreement by which the firm promised to pay $456

million in fines, restitution and penalties and do better in the future.

That won't quite make up for the harm the company inflicted. According

to the government, " KPMG has admitted that it engaged in a fraud that

generated at least $11 billion in phony tax losses which, according to

court papers, cost the United States at least $2.5 billion in evaded

taxes. "

 

Roche: On license from the San Francisco-based company, Gilead, Roche

makes the anti-flu drug, Tamiflu. Tamiflu appears to be the best

available pharmaceutical defense for those exposed to the avian

influenza. For now, avian flu is not communicative among humans, but if

the disease mutates so that it is, the global consequences could be

dire. For Roche, this is good news -- suddenly its poorly selling

product is in such great demand that the company literally can't make

enough. Rather than licensing production broadly, the company has

engaged in a series of obfuscations about how difficult it is to

manufacture Tamiflu, and maneuvered to keep as much control over the

global supply as possible. That's helped the company's bottom line --

Tamiflu is suddenly a billion-dollar-a-year earner -- but it leaves

global public health in a needlessly precarious position.

 

Suez: Suez has been a leading purveyor and beneficiary of the global

trend of water privatization -- the selling off of public water systems

to private entities, or the turning over of control and management of

public systems to corporations. The result has been lousy service,

jacked up rates and targeted efforts for well-off households at the

expense of the poor. In a notable case in El Alto, Bolivia, mass

demonstrations in January 2005 led the Bolivian government to cancel a

water privatization contract with Aguas del Illimani, of which Suez is a

major shareholder.

 

W.R. Grace: Federal prosecutors in February charged Grace with knowingly

endangering residents of Libby, Montana, and concealing information

about the health affects of its vermiculite mining operations.

Vermiculite was used in many common commercial products, including

insulation, fireproofing materials, masonry fill, and as an additive to

potting soils and fertilizers. The vermiculite deposits in Libby were

contaminated with a form of asbestos called tremolite. Federal officials

charge that Grace knew the residents would get sick -- they allege Grace

learned in the 1970s of the toxic nature of the tremolite asbestos in

its vermiculite, but failed to turn the information over to the

government, despite a legal duty to do so. The company allowed workers

to leave the mine site covered in asbestos dust, allowed residents to

take waste vermiculite for use in their gardens and distributed

vermiculite tailings to the Libby schools for use as foundations for

running tracks and an outdoor ice skating rink.

 

Nominations are now open for the worst companies of 2006.

 

--

" Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about

wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order.

Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down

terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so "

-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004

 

Pay your taxes so the rich don't have to.

 

http://www.zeppscommentaries.com

For news feed, http:////zepps_news

For essays (please contribute!) http://zepps_essays