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2003:

Michael Smith reports on Tata's army of worker-volunteers, who produce social capital as well as profits [India] -...The Tata group, one of India's largest private sector conglomerates (involving about 80 companies), is renowned worldwide for its commitment to social welfare...Housing for employees, company-run hospitals and schools, and rural development projects such road building, tree planting and well digging are all part of the Tata package...But now Tata's social ethos is under threat because of the forces of globalisation...The company has also sought the help of the Confederation of Indian Industries, in creating a network of like-minded companies that maintain community initiatives. They include Thermax and Forbes Marshall engineering in Pune and TVS, the scooters and automotive giant based in Bangalore. (Michael Smith, Guardian [UK], 10 Apr. 2003)

US firm faces $1bn claim for complicity [South Africa] - Fluor, the biggest US publicly traded engineering and construction company, faces a $1 billion claim by black former workers who allege they were discriminated against under apartheid. Anglo American, the world's second-biggest mining company, and diamond producer De Beers also face a lawsuit by former employees who say they were enslaved, beaten and tortured under apartheid. Lawyer Ed Fagan said a lawsuit would be filed today in California federal courts. The suit will argue that Fluor paid blacks less than whites and that the company helped repress workers during a 1987 strike in which two were killed. (Jonathan Rosenthal and Antony Sguazzin, Business Report [South Africa], 7 Apr. 2003)

• Anglo stock hit by class action suit [South Africa] - Shares in Anglo American and Sasol fell sharply on Friday after it was disclosed that US lawyer Ed Fagan and local representative John Ngcebethsa were planning to file a class action suit for damages against Anglo and Fluor, a US company that worked with Sasol, for their role in human rights abuses during apartheid. (Max Gebhardt, Business Report [South Africa], 7 Apr. 2003)

• Lawsuits Force Anglo, Sasol Shares Lower [South Africa] - Government does not back the multibillion-dollar lawsuits [in U.S. courts] for apartheid reparations being brought against SA corporate giants, but will also not intervene to stop them, says Justice Minister Penuell Maduna. (Rob Rose & Julie Bain, Business Day [South Africa], 7 Apr. 2003)

• Anglo case to start in New York - The apartheid reparations class action lawsuit, which includes commodity giant Anglo American (Anglo) as a respondent, is set to start May 19 in a New York court...Anglo, along with the world's largest diamond miner De Beers which is 45% held by Anglo, faces a $3.1 to $6.1bn apartheid lawsuit...US construction and engineering group US Fluor Corporation is also facing a claim of between $900m and $1.4bn. (Justin Brown, News24.com [South Africa], 7 Apr. 2003)

• Sasol slumps on apartheid claim [South Africa] (AFP, 7 Apr. 2003)

• Ed Fagan, SA lawyers take aim at Fluor [South Africa] (South African Press Association, in Mail & Guardian [South Africa], 6 Apr. 2003)

• Diamond industry hit by £3bn suit - The maverick lawyer who forced Swiss banks to pay out huge reparations to Holocaust victims yesterday took on the diamond industry, demanding billions of dollars be paid to South African workers "exploited" during the apartheid era. (Fred Bridgland, The Scotsman, 5 Apr. 2003)

• Ed Fagan meets local lawyers and claimants [South Africa] - Local lawyers and US class action lawyer Ed Fagan have announced in Johannesburg that they would be suing US company, Fluor International, for more than $700 million in damages for discriminatory wages paid to the company's employees in South Africa in the 70s and 80s. (SAPA, 5 Apr. 2003)

• Lawyers say to file apartheid suit against Fluor (Reuters, 5 Apr. 2003)

• Anglo Rejects $6bn Reparations Claim [South Africa] - Anglo American has swept aside pressure from a US lawyer that it must provide between $3 and $6 billion in reparations for apartheid-related damages. The group claims that questions of reparations to individuals is a matter for South Africa and its courts, if necessary. In a strongly worded statement issued on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange on Friday, the UK-listed mining group said it had already made "extensive contributions" to reconciliation and reconstruction in South Africa. (David Mckay, Mineweb [South Africa], 4 Apr. 2003)

Global Compact Participants Implementing Host of Supply Chain Initiatives - Reflecting a growing trend within the Global Compact initiative, Tweezerman, a leading manufacturer of personal-care products, announced that it plans to implement a new supplier agreement that mandates adherence to the nine principles of the Global Compact...Other companies that have submitted related examples [actively incorporating the Global Compact principles into their supply chains] to the Global Compact Learning Forum are: Petro-Canada, William E. Connor & Associates, Bayer AG, Li & Fung (Trading) Ltd., Ericsson, Robert Stephen Holdings, OneNest, and Engineers India Limited (U.N. Global Compact, 13 Mar. 2003)

2002:

NGO Launches US Apartheid Reparations Law Suit [lawsuit in U.S. court against companies for past conduct in South Africa] - A non-governmental organisation has filed a lawsuit against 21 multinational corporations and leading international banks for helping prop up the apartheid state...The companies and banks named in the lawsuit are: Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Exxon Mobil, Caltex Petroleum, Fluor Corporation, Ford, General Motors and IBM in the United States; German-based Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Dresdner Bank, DaimlerChrysler, and Rheinmetall; Credit Suisse and UBS in Switzerland; Barclays Bank; British Petroleum, Rio Tinto and Fujitsu ICL in the United Kingdom; Total-Fina-Elf from France and Royal Dutch Shell from the Netherlands.  The list was expected to grow by at least 100 names. (South African Press Association, 12 Nov. 2002)

• Global Firms in Court for Supporting' Apartheid - A lawsuit has been lodged in a US court against 21 global business giants alleged to have earned billions through propping up apartheid. (Rob Rose, Business Day [South Africa], 13 Nov. 2002)

• Apartheid victims file lawsuit in US (AFP, 12 Nov. 2002)

• International Law Suit Filed on Behalf of Apartheid Victims - Khulumani et al. v. Barclays et al. - Today the law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, P.L.L.C. along with other firms in the United States, joins with the South African firm, Abrahams Kiewitz, in filing a complaint that seeks to hold businesses responsible for aiding and abetting the apartheid regime in South Africa in furtherance of the commission of the crimes of apartheid, forced labor, genocide, extrajudicial killing, torture, sexual assault, and unlawful detention...For example: IBM and ICL provided the computers that enabled South Africa to create the hated “pass book system” and to control the black South African population. Car manufacturers provided the armored vehicles that were used to patrol the townships. Arms manufacturers violated the embargoes on sales to South Africa, as did the oil companies. The banks provided the funding that enabled South Africa to expand its police and security apparatus. (law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, 12 Nov. 2002)

• Summary of the Complaint - Khulumani et al. v. Barclays et al. (law firm of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll, 12 Nov. 2002)

Social development in Tamil Nadu [India]: The Murugappa Group of companies [leading engineering company and the market leader in products like steel-strips, steel-tubes and bicycles] is promoting social development in the villages of Tamil Nadu...The foundation provides assistance in the areas of education, medicare and research in rural development. (InfoChange [India]) [added to this website on 10 Sep. 2002]

Compendium of speeches, press releases and articles from the "Lekgotla: Business Day" - Johannesburg -1 Sep. 2002 [BASD (Business Action for Sustainable Development) hosted a high profile business day during the Johannesburg Summit that brought world business leaders together with NGOs, labor unions, government officials and others - to discuss initiatives and partnerships towards sustainable development] [includes speeches by Prime Ministers of Canada & Denmark; Tokyo Sexwale, Business Coordinating Forum of South Africa; Reuel Khoza, Chairman of Eskom; Phil Watts, World Business Council for Sustainable Development; Sir Robert Wilson, Rio Tinto; Wladimir Puggina, International Fertilizer Industry Association; Heinz Imhof, Chairman of Syngenta; Mohamed Rafik Meghji, International Federation of Consulting Engineers] (Business Action for Sustainable Development, 1 Sep. 2002)

Big business and labour sign deal at the World Summit for Sustainable Development [South Africa] - The union-inspired South African declaration for achieving sustainable environmental conservation targets within realistic economic and production strategies is now set to go international. South African signatories include Sasol (synfuels and chemicals), Iscor (steel production), Columbus Stainless, Eskom (power generation), Telkom (telecommunications) mineral resources companies Assmang Chrome, De Beers, Goldfields, Impala Platinum (Implats) and Ingwe Coal and industrial groups, Barloworld, Dorbyl Engineering and Rotek Engineering, and unions MWU-Solidarity and the National Union of Mine Workers. Among the companies locally who have firmly said they will not sign for the present are Highveld Steel, the country second largest producer, and multinational operators Dow Chemicals and Sappi (pulp and paper). (Lawrence Bedford, EyeforChem, in Ethical Corporation Magazine, 28 Aug. 2002)

Environmental Fiduciary: The Case for Incorporating Environmental Factors into Investment Management Policies - In this report, we show that fiduciaries who manage funds for institutional investors such as pension funds, foundations and charitable trusts should incorporate environmental factors into their portfolio management policies. [includes reference to DuPont, ST Microelectronics, IBM, Baxter Intl, Smithfield Foods, US Liquids, Weyerhauser, Georgia Pacific, ChevronTexaco, Marathon Oil, Deutsche Telekom, Nestle, Southern California Gas, ITT, Textron, Corning, Whole Foods, Hains Celestial] (Susannah Blake Goodman, Jonas Kron & Tim Little, The Rose Foundation for Communities and the Environment, 21 Aug. 2002)

Uganda's Museveni blasts power dam critics - President Yoweri Museveni said in remarks published yesterday a controversial $550 million Ugandan power project [Bujagali dam] would go ahead whether environmentalist critics liked it or not...The consortium building the dam for AES, which will be the owner and operator of the project, is made up of Sweden's Skanska AB, Veidekke of Norway, Swedish-Swiss engineering firm ABB, U.S. General Electric and France's Alstom SA. (Reuters, 21 June 2002)

• ‘Bujagali Will Go On’ - President Yoweri Museveni yesterday said the planned construction of Bujagali hydro-electricity power station must go on regardless of whether or not donors provide credit facilities to fund it. (Hamis Kaheru, New Vision [Uganda], 20 June 2002)

• UGANDA: President Says Dam Will Go On With Or Without World Bank - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said yesterday that construction of the controversial Bujagali Dam will go ahead as planned regardless of whether the World Bank approves funding for the project. (UN Wire, 21 June 2002)

CEOs pledge no less than 20 per cent of philanthropic budgets to ICT [information and communications technology] for development: Microsoft Joins Hewlett Packard, Equitable Cardnetwork, Masreya, MIH Group, Vivendi Universal as Signatory of CEO Charter for Digital Development - At a special meeting of the General Assembly today, Microsoft announced its commitment to pledge no less than 20 per cent of its philanthropic budget to information and communications technology (ICT) for development under the CEO Charter for Digital Development, a recent initiative by the World Economic Forum. (United Nations, 17 June 2002)

• TECHNOLOGY: U.N. Calls On Rich, Poor To Bridge Digital Gap (UN Wire, 19 June 2002)

Asbestos victims win landmark case [UK] - Three people affected by asbestos cancer have won a groundbreaking case for compensation in the House of Lords...They were appealing against previous rulings by the Court of Appeal and the High Court denying them compensation on the basis that they were exposed to the deadly dust by more than one employer...Most victims of illnesses associated with the deadly dust come from areas linked to heavy industries such as shipbuilding and engineering. (BBC News, 16 May 2002)

• Sector Reports - UNEP DTIE is facilitating the preparation of a series of sector reports [for World Summit on Sustainable Development], whereby international, industry organisations and associations take stock of progress towards sustainable development and outline future challenges and actions to be taken (United Nations Environment Programme)

• Sector report - Consulting engineering

Britain Faces Fresh Protests Over Turkish Dam Project: The British government will be the target of stinging criticism Tuesday for considering backing a new dam project in Turkey which threatens to uproot thousands from their homes and destroy sites of historical and environmental interest..."The government's Export Credit Guarantee Department (ECDG) is facing a decision about whether to support Yusufeli without any policies to ensure that public money isn't spent on yet another potentially destructive project," said Hannah Griffiths of Friends of the Earth...British engineering firm Amec first requested ECGD backing for the Yusufeli dam in 1998. The firm is part of an international consortium--led by the French company Spie Batignolle (Sebastian Naidoo, OneWorld UK, 22 Jan. 2002)

2001:

British Engineering Company Withdraws from Ilisu Dam Project [Turkey]: Balfour Beatty, the international engineering, construction and services group, has decided to pull out of the controversial Ilisu Dam project in Turkey. The decision follows a thorough and extensive evaluation of the commercial, environmental and social issues inherent in the project, the company said in a statement Tuesday. (Environment News Service, 14 Nov. 2001)

China awards lung disease compensation: A court in eastern China has awarded compensation to nearly 200 farmers who developed lung disease while digging a tunnel...The farmers in the eastern province of Zhejiang claimed that engineering companies who hired them took no steps to protect against high levels of silicon dust in the tunnel...Ten of the farmers have already died of silicosis...The ruling comes as Chinese legislators are expected to approve a new law aimed at reducing the number of industrial accidents and diseases. (BBC News, 25 Oct. 2001)