Corporations

Patricia Hurtado, February 27, 2010, Bloomberg - Coca-Cola Co. was sued by Guatemalan workers who say they endured a “campaign of violence” by people working on behalf of bottling and processing plants Coke owns or owned there after they engaged in union activities.

Jose Armando Palacios of Guatemala and eight other plaintiffs filed the complaint Feb. 25 in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleging negligence, deceptive practices and other claims against Coca-Cola, the world’s biggest soda maker.

The plaintiffs said they were the victims of violence and retaliation by individuals associated with Industria de Café SA, or Incasa, which operates an instant coffee and Coca-Cola bottling plant in Guatemala City. The plaintiffs said Incasa “is or was previously owned by Coca-Cola.”

January 27, 2010, Davos, Switzerland — The Public Eye Awards' Committee announced today that the Polaris Institute's nomination of the CEO Water Mandate has won in the Greenwash category.

Since 2005, at a ceremony outside the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, the Public Eye Awards have been given out to corporations that have exhibited irresponsible and damaging behaviour. At this year’s event Nobel Prize Laureate Joseph Stiglitz will be giving the keynote address.

In 2009, Polaris submitted a nomination of the United Nations' CEO Water Mandate in the 'Greenwash' category for its role in facilitating greater control of water resources by multinational corporations while simultaneously 'greenwashing' socially and environmentally damaging corporate behavior.

In Zurich, Switzerland the Public Eye Awards' Committee announced today that the Polaris Institute’s nomination of the CEO Water Mandate has been shortlisted in the Greenwash category.

Since 2005, at a ceremony outside the World Economic Forum in Davos Switzerland, The Public Eye Awards have been given out to corporations that have exhibited irresponsible and damaging behaviour.

In 2009, Polaris submitted a nomination of the United Nations’ CEO Water Mandate in the ‘Greenwash’ category for its role in facilitating greater control of water resources by multinational corporations while simultaneously ‘greenwashing’ socially and environmentally damaging corporate behavior.

On January 27th the CEO Water Mandate will join a group of corporations and institutions vying for a Public Eye Award in the ‘Global’, ‘Swiss’, ‘Greenwash’ and ‘People’s Award’ categories.

A coalition of groups including ATTAC Denmark, Corporate Europe Observatory, Focus on the Global South, Friends of the Earth International, Oilchange International and Spinwatch organized The Angry Mermaid Award to recognise the perverse role of corporate lobbyists, and highlight those business groups and companies that have made the greatest effort to sabotage the climate talks, and other climate measures, while promoting, often profitable, false solutions.

Watch the Angry Mermaid video here

Here is the Press Release from the Angry Mermaid Award website:

For immediate release: Tuesday 15 December 2009

*****
THE ANGRY MERMAID WINNER IS...

Monsanto wins award for worst corporate climate lobbyist in Copenhangen
*****

The Corporate Stranglehold over the United Nations: How Big Business Already Wields Significant Power over the UN Water Agenda is a new REPORT from the Polaris Institute that outlines how water multinationals play an increasing role in controlling the United Nations' agenda on water issues.

The report deals with the corporate stranglehold inside the UN by water services companies, the food and beverage industry, plus numerous other large water using multinational corporations and their business associations.

Read the full report HERE

Excerpt from the Introduction:

Patti Lynn, October 14, 2009, MinutemanMedia.org - Things aren’t looking pretty for drinking water these days. Recent articles from The New York Times and the Associated Press have exposed unchecked pollution, grave gaps in oversight, decaying infrastructure, and concerns about emerging contaminants.

Yet one voice sees the decay of our water infrastructure through a rose-colored glass. “We’re bullish on water in the next 10 years,” said Nestlé Waters North America CEO Kim Jeffery, on a recent call for analysts. How exactly can he say this, given recent reports?

Ranjit Devraj, October 1, 2009, Inter Press News Service - As India faces its worst drought in four decades, a dispute over water resources between farmers in the Kala Dera area of western Rajasthan state and a Coca-Cola bottling plant located there has sharpened.

Farmers and activists in Kala Dera who have been campaigning for the closure of the bottling plant operated by the global beverages icon said that if they do not succeed in closing down the Coca-Cola plant in this drought-hit year, they probably never will.

Kala Dera is located 40 kilometres outside Jaipur, the capital of arid Rajasthan state, one of the main attractions of which is the Thar Desert, considered the world’s seventh largest desert and Asia's third.

OTTAWA/ August 26, 2009, Polaris Institute Press Release - Today’s announcement from the Office of the Minister of State, Denis Label, that Canada’s Economic Action Plan will provide $1,631,600 to bottled water producers Eaux Vives Water Inc. raises a number of major concerns:

The announcement erroneously states that Eaux Vives Water is a Saint Mathieu-d’Harricana, Quebec firm. While Eaux Vives Water has a plant in Quebec, its head office is located in Toronto and it is listed by the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission as a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley.

In North America, recent industry data shows that the bottled water sector has a diminishing market value and may not be able to create the long-term employment intended by Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

Bottled water is an environmentally harmful product filling landfills and causing carbon emissions.

Anna Lenzer, Mother Jones, August 12, 2009 - THE INTERNET CAFÉ in the Fijian capital, Suva, was usually open all night long. Dimly lit, with rows of sleek, modern terminals, the place was packed at all hours with teenage boys playing boisterous rounds of video games. But one day soon after I arrived, the staff told me they now had to shut down by 5 p.m. Police orders, they shrugged: The country's military junta had declared martial law a few days before, and things were a bit tense.

I sat down and sent out a few emails—filling friends in on my visit to the Fiji Water bottling plant, forwarding a story about foreign journalists being kicked off the island. Then my connection died. "It will just be a few minutes," one of the clerks said.

Leora Broydo Vestel, New York Times, July 17, 2009 - Evian’s roller-dancing babies may have masses of adoring fans, but companies that sell bottled water have been getting quite the collective spanking of late.

Bottled water makers, it seems, are under seige. The Environmental Working Group, which found chemical contaminants in tests of bottled water, has begun calling for more oversight of the bottled water industry. Proponents of low-carbon lifestyles , meanwhile, are urging consumers to eschew bottled water and fill up reusable bottles with tap water instead.

Restaurants have started to pull bottled water from their menus, and cities like Toronto are delivering chilled, dispensable drinking water to public events so people won’t have to buy it.