Dow Chemical sues Bhopal survivors

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Corporate ethics

http://www.greenpeace.org/international_en/news/details?news_id=95504

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How low can Dow go?
Dow sues penniless Bhopal survivors

Mon 23 December 2002

In a stunning example of corporate insensibility, Dow Chemical, the worlds largest chemical company, and new owners of Union Carbide is to sue survivors of the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India. While the site of the disaster lies covered in toxic waste and survivors struggle with continuing ill health and deadly pollution from the site, Dow has decided to add to their woes with a Indian lawsuit.

Yes that's right - the very people Dow should be helping are now facing a lawsuit from one of the world most powerful corporations. Why are they acting in such an amazingly perverse manner? On December 2nd a peaceful march of 200 women survivors from Bhopal delivered toxic waste from the abandoned Carbide factory back to Dow's Indian headquarters in Bombay with the demand that Dow take responsibility for the disaster and clean up the site. Dow obviously has other ideas because they are suing survivors for about US$10,000 for "loss of work". That's US$10,000 compensation demanded for a two hour peaceful protest where only one Dow employee briefly ventured out of the Mumbai corporate business park to meet the women protestors.

Satyu, a Bhopal activist and one of the protestors charged by Dow highlighted how ridiculous this "loss of work" claim is: "Thousands of us lost their lives, many more have not been able to do our jobs for the last 18 years and 150,000 people in Bhopal are still suffering ill health because of the Union Carbide gas tragedy in 1984. Even today people die and children are born with gas related diseases. It is outrageous that Dow is charging us US$10,000 and tries to shut us down from seeking justice from them".

The damages demanded by Dow will amount to about 10 years income for the survivors charged but is less than one days sales revenue for Dow. Also Dow is seeking to silence protest by demanding that survivors be banned from holding protests within 100m of Dow offices in India.

Dow has just appointed a new CEO, William Stravopoulos, who engineered the Dow merger with Union Carbide in 2001. If this lawsuit is how he intends to deal with the ongoing Bhopal disaster then it will be a huge public relations own goal. Dow proudly proclaims it slogan as "living improved daily". How does that fit with the suing of poor protestors who have a real grievance with the company?

good way to open 2003.

[GeneralTacticus]

I think that's all that needs to be said.

[Bereta_Eder]

Dow Chemical.

The company who made silicon breasts that exploded inside the bodies of women when they were flying in airplanes

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by paiktis22
Dow Chemical.

The company who made silicon breasts that exploded inside the bodies of women when they were flying in airplanes

terrorists

[Bereta_Eder]

BTW the last name is wrong. It's StavRopoulos, not StRavopoulos.

It makes an important difference.

In the frist case it means "son of the cross"

in the second case it means "son of the one with a limited vision/crosseyed"

Appropriate mispelling in this instance though

Oh and somebody needs to call his uncle. He knows who he is

[Bereta_Eder]

Originally posted by OneFootInTheGrave


terrorists

By accident

[Bas]

Hooray for capitalism.

[aaglo]

Down Chemicals

[DRoseDARs]

The REALLY sad thing about this whole mess would be if some attourney actually takes this case...or if some judge actually hears it in his/her court...

It stories like this that make me wish peaceful protests would turn violent and destructive...

[Urban Ranger]

Yeah, spray them toxic chemicals around all Dow plants and offices. That would be fine retaliation.

[Ted Striker]

You know, this kind of crap makes me sick. If companies like Dow would do the right thing in the first place they would find it so much cheaper and beneficial in the long run.

I won't go into the details but Tylenol did this very well in the 1980s.

[Dauphin]

At face value it looks appalling, but have you got a less biased source.

[Kropotkin]

While dow chemical seems to be total morons it's a fair question to ask what the corporation has paided during the years since the accident. As the site isn't cleaned it hints that they haven't payed enough. If laws actually worked as they should Dow should be really careful to start talking about lawsuits as they should get about a millions times more lawsuit demans back.

But as most sane and informed people knows, the laws seldom works in a unbiased and sane way even in Western Europe and the US there's not chance in hell that the real victims will get what they deserve in India.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Originally posted by Sagacious Dolphin
At face value it looks appalling, but have you got a less biased source.

Well I doubt they would be making this up, and if you check their website there is a report from the actual protest too.

This seems to be to trivial for the major news media.

If you imply that the protest might have been violent - Indian women in a violent protest - now that would be reported all over the world.

Well am I implying that violent protests give you coverage or what.

[TheBirdMan]

Dow is a leading science and technology company that provides innovative chemical, plastic and agricultural products and services to many essential consumer markets. With annual sales of $28 billion, Dow serves customers in more than 170 countries and a wide range of markets that are vital to human progress, including food, transportation, health and medicine, personal and home care, and building and construction, among others. Committed to the principles of Sustainable Development, Dow and its approximately 50,000 employees seek to balance economic, environmental and social responsibilities.

Dow people around the world develop solutions for society based on the company's inherent strength in science and technology - to constantly improve the essentials of life. This distinctive contribution we make to society helps customers succeed, stockholders prosper, employees achieve and communities thrive.
As the company's philanthropic arm, The Dow Chemical Company Foundation contributes more than $18 million annually to charitable and educational institutions in Dow communities on behalf of Dow and its employees around the world.

Now be fair. This is from www.dow.com. As you can see, Dow stands for "Social Responsibility"