Social Welfare Action @ Eastern Michigan University

14 Malignant Companies and Why They Would Make Dr. Evil Blush

Alter.net post a informative story about The 14 Worst Corporate Evildoers that included some of SWA member's favorite topics.

Wal-Mart
Many people have heard of the way that Wal-Mart steamrolls its way into every possible town, destroying local supermarkets and countless small businesses. We have also heard about Wal-Mart's long track record of worker abuse, from forced overtime to sex discrimination to illegal child labor to relentless union busting. Wal-Mart also notoriously fails to provide health insurance to over half of its employees, who are then left to rely on themselves or taxpayers, who provide for a portion of their healthcare needs through government Medicaid.

Less well known is the fact that Wal-Mart maintains its low price level by allowing substandard labor conditions at the overseas factories producing most of its goods. The company continually demands lower prices from its suppliers, who, in turn, make more outrageous and abusive demands on their workers in order to meet Wal-Mart's requirements.

Coca-Cola
Between 1989 and 2002, eight union leaders from Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia were killed after protesting the company's labor practices. Hundreds of other Coca-Cola workers who have joined or considered joining the Colombian union SINALTRAINAL have been kidnapped, tortured, and detained by paramilitaries who are hired to intimidate workers to prevent them from unionizing.

Coca-Cola is also one of the most discriminatory employers in the world. In the year 2000, 2,000 African-American employees in the U.S. sued the company for race-based disparities in pay and promotions.

You can read the source of alter.net's article over at Global Exchange and their "Most Wanted" Corporate Human Rights Violators of 2005 Report.

December 13, 2005 in Global Issues | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Squirrels on Crack???

Drugs in London are on the rise!  Do residents now need to worry about strung out squirrels terrorizing the streets?  According to The Guardian, a Brittish news site, squrrels in south London may be digging up drugs that have been burried by crack addicts.  Read more at The Guardian.

Posted by Melissa Helton

October 20, 2005 in Global Issues | Permalink | Comments (0)

Polio back in Somalia

Polio has reappeared in Somalia, three years after the World Health Orginazation declaired the country free of the desease.

A 15-month-old girl in the Somali capital Mogadishu was confirmed to be infected by the paralysing disease on Monday, the head of the United Nations' health agency's campaign against polio, Dr Bruce Aylward, said in Geneva.

The WHO has not determined how the infant had caught polio, but suspects it might have come from Yemen, across the Gulf of Aden, where 400 polio cases have been reported, Aylward said.

"With Somalia, 19 countries have been reinfected in the last 24 months," he said.

Read more about this story at Aljazeera

September 20, 2005 in Global Issues, Human Rights | Permalink | Comments (0)

Suggest an Item to BLOG

  • Email Josh
    Email Mel

Categories

  • Domestic Issues
  • EMU
  • General
  • Global Issues
  • Human Rights
  • Labor
  • LGBT
  • Local
  • Womyn's Rights

Recent Posts

  • SWA Party Canceled
  • SWA Holiday Party
  • 14 Malignant Companies and Why They Would Make Dr. Evil Blush
  • Students with Chidren & Welfare Rights at EMU Holiday Open House Party
  • Arson at EMU?
  • Bird Flu Panel Presentation
  • Domestic Violence Awareness
  • Hero and Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dead at 92
  • Hi, I've been charged with conspiracy and money laundering!
  • The Rich Just Keep Getting Richer!!!!

Archives

  • December 2005
  • November 2005
  • October 2005
  • September 2005

  • Hurricane Relief Fund
    100% goes twords survivors

Subscribe to this blog's feed