Human Rights

Human rights abuses, once committed primarily by repressive governments, are increasingly carried out in the corporate interest. In the global marketplace, it is easier than ever to hide abuses in developing countries from the consumers on the other side of the world. Energy companies might pay off militias to gun down local activists, factories might poison the farmland, air or water of the communities in which they do business. Most often, the people who do the hardest work - sewing garments, mining for precious metals, building the prisons and dams - are the ones most vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

JSW Group

Company Snapshot: 

The JSW Group is a $3.7 billion worth conglomerate with interests in steel, energy, minerals and mining, aluminium, infrastructure and logistics, cement and IT. The Group projects its power sector company, JSW Energy, as one of its companies to watch out for. JSW's projects, notably its power plants in Jaigad, in the Western Indian state of Maharashtra, and its plans to set up aluminium smelters and mines in the tribal tracts of Andhra Pradesh have attracted significant resistance from local communities, including farmers.

MALCO Ltd

Company Snapshot: 

The Madras Aluminium Company Ltd. (MALCO) is part of Vedanta Resources, a London listed metals and mining major with Aluminium, Copper and Zinc operations in UK, India and Australia. MALCO is a primary Aluminium producer in South India with operations encompassing mining, refining, smelting and power generation.

Mobile Connections

Review: 

How has corporate social responsibility developed in the mobile phone industry in recent years and are social and environmental standards improving as fast as the product applications? This briefing will include a follow up on the ‘High Cost of Calling: Critical Issues in the Mobile Phone Industry’ report4, with the focus mainly on sourcing policies and practices and supply chain responsibility of the major brand companies.

CSR Issues in the ICT Hardware Manufacturing Sector

Last edited by SOMO on October 20, 2009 - 6:00am
Review: 

This report examines the ICT sector, a relatively young sector that often portrays itself with a clean image of highly skilled jobs and ‘clean rooms’ where professionals work in a controlled and dust-free environment.

Acer

Last edited by SOMO on October 20, 2009 - 5:59am
Review: 

Poor working conditions exist in factories owned by subcontractors for Acer and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. Employees work long days in an unhealthy environment for a wage that is insufficient to live on. Such is the situation revealed in research conducted by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO) on the ICT hardware sector.

SOMO conducted research in nine factories in China and the Philippines that supply parts for Acer and Fujitsu Siemens Computers. Working conditions in these factories are simply appalling.

JSPL (Jindal Steel & Power Ltd)

Company Snapshot: 

One of the key companies in the family promoted Jindal Group, JSPL has grown from a moderately performing company in the steel sector to the largest sponge iron manufacturer in the world. Steered by Naveen Jindal, a Member of Parliament (2009), and one of four heirs to the business founded by his father, O.P. Jindal, JSPL realised a 2008 turnover in excess of $2 billion (Indian Rupee 100 billion. US $1 = Rs.

Ford Motor

Last edited by lenazun on December 17, 2009 - 2:55pm
Company Snapshot: 

Ford, one of the great names of the auto industry, has played a major role in shaping both the horizons of everyday life and the conditions of toil on the job. Founder Henry Ford transformed automobiles from an amusement for the wealthy to a conveyance for the common person, while in his workplaces he introduced mass production on an unprecedented scale. Ford fell behind General Motors in the 1920s and experienced decades of management instability.

Alliance One International

Last edited by on June 17, 2009 - 11:07pm
Company Snapshot: 

Alliance One International Inc a joint owner of Limbe Leaf Tobacco (with Swiss-registered Continental Tobacco Company), which buys its tobacco leaf from growers around the world, including farms that support child labor. The company made the US Fortune Global 500 in 2007, and is based out of North Carolina but operates globally.

Nike

Company Snapshot: 

Nike is the world's leading supplier of athletic shoes, apparel and sports equipment with revenue in excess of $16 billion USD in 2007. Operating in more than 160 countries around the globe Nike and is subsidiaries can be found in most shoe retailing stores. In addition to manufacturing their products Nike also runs a chain of retail stores known as Niketown.

Sappi Ltd.

Company Snapshot: 

Sappi Ltd., a global player in the pulp and paper industry, is headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa. Sappi Ltd is comprised of two divisions: Sappi Fine Paper (domiciled in London), and Sappi Forest Products (domiciled in Johannesburg), and employs some 16,000 people in Southern Africa, North America, and Europe; it bills itself as "the world's leading producer of coated fine paper and chemical cellulose" on its corporate website.