• Human Rights at Unocal
  
• Dow Bhopal
  
• Xcel Energy
  

Human Rights at Unocal

Unocal, one of the largest oil and natural gas exploration and production companies in the United States, is the only U.S.-based company with significant direct investments in the Burmese oil and gas industry. Lawyers representing several Burmese citizens and two human rights groups filed a lawsuit in 1996 accusing Unocal of using forced labor and contributing to other human rights violations in Burma. This lawsuit challenged Unocal's and other U.S. corporations' efforts to seek competitive advantage through conducting business with governments that oppress their populations, according to Earth Rights International and International Labor Rights Fund, which represented the Burmese plaintiffs.

In 2001, As You Sow joined with other concerned shareholders in co-filing a resolution asking the company to link executive compensation with the Company's ethical and social performance. In 2002 another resolution asking Unocal to comply with the International Labor Organization's declaration on fundamental principles and rights at work, including bans on forced labor and child labor was supported by 34% of shareholders.

In April 2004, Unocal settled the lawsuit and agreed to compensate Burmese villagers for complicity in atrocities carried out by soldiers providing security for their pipeline in Southern Burma during the 1990s.

In addition to providing compensation, the case broke significant new legal ground that other companies will need to heed. A 1997 ruling upheld the idea that a corporation, like an individual, can be held liable under the Alien Tort Claims Act for complicity in egregious human rights abuses. Other courts have since followed that decision in cases against other multinational corporations. In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that Unocal could be held liable for the allegations.

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Dow Bhopal

On the night of 2nd December 1984, 40 tons of a deadly gas escaped from storage tanks of the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India and silently spread through heavily populated areas. The gas was methyl isocyanate, highly poisonous and lethal to the eyes and respiratory system. Official counts put the number of deaths at 3,000, with another 2,000 people dying over the next few years of complications, and over 100,000 injured. NGOs and other sources put the number of deaths at 20,000 or more. It is the worst industrial disaster ever.

In 1989, Union Carbide settled with the Indian Government to pay a sum of $470 million in damages to the government. Bhopal victims and advocates believe that this sum is too paltry to pay for all the deaths and injuries and the long-term harm done to the ground water and environment in Bhopal. In 1994, Union Carbide sold all its interests to Dow Chemicals.

In 2004, a shareholder resolution was voted on at Dow asking for a report describing new measures to respond to the problems facing survivors of the Bhopal disaster and to assess the impact that the Bhopal matter may have on the company, its reputation, its finances and its expansion in Asia and elsewhere. As You Sow carried out an extensive solicitation for this shareholder resolution creating a fact sheet and informing top institutional investors of financial risks faced by Dow because of its inaction concerning Bhopal especially as liabilities including the court case were transferred to Dow when it bought Union Carbide assets.

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Xcel Energy

"Xcel Shareholders - Investing in Manitoba Hydro's Environmental Destruction and Human Rights Abuses is Just Bad Business", declared the 2001 headline of As You Sow's full page ad in the NY Times. For decades Canadian utility Manitoba Hydro has caused devastating ecological and social impacts on the lands of the Pimicikamak Cree Nation (PCN). In 1977 Manitoba Hydro agreed to redress the adverse impacts of its dams on affected peoples but failed to follow through. The PCN and its supporters applied extensive pressure on the Manitoba and Minnesota governments to address this issue. Manitoba Hydro's largest customer is Minneapolis-based Xcel Energy, the fourth largest U.S. public utility. Xcel had been criticized by political and religious leaders, human rights and environmental organizations, for its role in contributing to the destruction of indigenous communities.

As You Sow led an investor group whose pressure prompted Xcel's CEO and senior management to visit the PCN on their native lands. After two years of shareholder dialogue and resolutions at Xcel, combined with growing grassroots pressure and litigation, the Manitoba government unveiled an action plan to implement key parts of the 1977 agreement in 2002. Significantly, Xcel agreed to monitor and report back to shareholders on the actions taken by Manitoba Hydro to implement the action plan. This reporting required was then adopted by Minnesota's Public Utilities Commission as a condition for approving future contracts between Xcel and Manitoba Hydro. A preliminary report was provided to the PUC in 2005 with a revised report still to come. Our shareholder partners were the General Board of Pensions of the United Methodist Church, the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Rochester Franciscans and Linda Sourbis.

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