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Political opinion/trade union membership: Novo Nordisk equal opportunities toolbox in Novo Nordisk equal opportunities toolbox (Novo Nordisk)

Other materials:

2003:

Intel e-mail case heads to state high court [California] - Ruling could redefine parameters of free speech rights in cyberspace - When Ken Hamidi was fired from Intel over a work injury dispute...the engineer sent six e-mail messages to thousands of Intel employees from 1996 to 1998, criticizing the computer giant's employment practices. Intel asked Hamidi to stop and tried to block his e-mails, but to no avail. (Harriet Chiang, San Francisco Chronicle, 2 Apr. 2003)

Arrests begin in Suizhou retired textile workers’ protest [China] - China Labour Bulletin was reliably informed today that a retired worker who wrote the protest banners and poems displayed by former employees of the Tieshu Textile Group, in Suizhou City, Hubei Province, during their collective demonstration outside the factory gate last week has now been secretly arrested...China Labour Bulletin urges the Chinese authorities to end the arbitrary detention of workers for their involvement in legitimate and peaceful demonstrations and instead to respond to the demands of the workers for an end to official corruption and non-payment of basic wages and pensions. (China Labour Bulletin, 21 Mar. 2003)

Supreme Court to take up Nike and free speech [USA] - S.F. activist sued, saying firm lied about working conditions (Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle, 11 Jan. 2003)

• Supreme Court takes free speech vs. advertising case [USA] - The court will use the case brought against sporting apparel giant Nike to define the differences between corporate free speech and product advertising for companies accused of transgressions such as poor labor and environmental practices. (Josh Richman, Tri-Valley Herald, 11 Jan. 2003)

2002:

press release: China: Internet users at risk of arbitrary detention, torture and even execution (Amnesty International, 26 Nov. 2002)

• full report: People's Republic of China: State control of the internet in China -...Amnesty International is concerned at reports that some foreign companies may be providing China with technology which is used to restrict fundamental freedoms. [refers to Websense, Sun Microsystems, Cisco Systems, Nortel Networks, Microsoft, Sohu.com - a Chinese Internet portal reportedly funded by overseas companies and financed by leading investment banks and other venture capital firms from the West] (Amnesty International, 26 Nov. 2002)

• {···español} China: los usuarios de Internet, expuestos a la detención arbitraria, la tortura, e incluso la ejecución (Amnistía Internacional, 27 noviembre 2002)

Nike in free speech battle [Kasky v. Nike: U.S. court case relating to Nike’s treatment of workers in a Vietnam factory] (Rebecca Spencer, Corporate Watch [UK], 13 Nov. 2002)

Short-sighted victories in free speech - The case against Nike in the US [Kasky v. Nike, case alleging false advertising regarding labour conditions]...could have devastating consequences for companies and campaigners alike, says Mallen Baker -...The risks involved in disclosure have just gone through the roof. (Mallen Baker, in Ethical Corporation Magazine, 13 Nov. 2002)

Kodak Fires Worker For Anti-Gay Message [USA] - Eastman Kodak Co., known for its support of a diverse workforce, is under fire for firing an employee for disagreeing with the company's position on supporting gay and lesbian workers...Recent lawsuits against AT&T and Verizon Communications involved employees who felt they were being unfairly reprimanded for not supporting the companies' respective diversity policies. (C Lisotta, Gay.com/PlanetOut.com Network, 31 Oct. 2002)

• Kodak Manager's Firing Ignites Christian Right [USA] - Eastman Kodak Co. is fielding both praise and protest for its decision to fire an employee who sent an email to about 1,000 Kodak employees in which he described National Coming Out Day as "disgusting and offensive." (Gfn.com News [Gay Financial Network], 30 Oct. 2002)

Unions say threats to free speech and other rights a growing issue in white-collar workplaces [USA] -...Limits on scholarly research in colleges and universities by conditional corporate giving....Soley [Professor Lawrence Soley] charges that priorities and research of physics and engineering departments are being influenced by large defense contracts; biology and chemistry departments by drug companies and biotech firms; and computer science departments by chip makers and software firms – a development that has led many universities to place the interests of business ahead of students and basic research. (American Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, 23 Oct. 2002)

U.S.-China Summit Must Focus on Rights -...Bush should use U.S. trade links with China to push for respect for Chinese workers' rights to free expression, association and assembly; lifting of restrictions on independent unions; and acceptance of a mission from the International Labor Organization on freedom of association. The United States should also urge the immediate release of detained labor activists. (Human Rights Watch, 22 Oct. 2002)

California supreme court decision potentially devastating for corporate responsibility reporting and SRI funds worldwide - The decision by the California courts against Nike [in the case of Kasky v Nike, relating to Nike's public defense of allegations of “sweatshop” labour in its Asian factories] has created a great deal of uncertainty among US corporations, reports Peter Clarke (Peter Clarke, Director of SRIMedia, in Ethical Corporation Magazine, 17 Oct. 2002)

Shell faces litigation - Fourteen individual plaintiffs filed a class action suit [in a U.S. court] against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport, plc, on September 20 for alleged human rights abuses in Ogoniland, Nigeria...the complaint alleges that Shell knowingly instigated, planned and facilitated in unprovoked attacks by the former Nigerian military government against the unarmed residents of Ogoniland, resulting in murder and gross human rights abuses. (Tomorrow: Your sustainable business toolkit, 26 Sep. 2002)

• Berger & Montague, P.C. Files Class Action Complaint Against Royal Dutch Petroleum and Shell Transport, p.l.c. - Shell is charged with purchasing ammunition and using its helicopters and boats and providing logistical support for "Operation Restore Order in Ogoniland" a military foray into Ogoniland designed to terrorize the civilian population into ending peaceful protests against Shell's environmentally unsound oil exploration and extraction activities in Ogoniland. (Berger & Montague, 23 Sep. 2002)

AltaVista tries to beat Chinese ban - AltaVista has hit back at the Chinese ban on its search engine, promising to find alternative ways to reach China's 46 million surfers. (BBC News, 12 Sep. 2002)

Google, Alta Vista: Resist Chinese Censorship - Dear Dr. Schmidt and Mr. Barnett [CEOs of Google & AltaVista]: We are writing to express our outrage at the Chinese government's reported blocking of access to Google and AltaVista...Companies that do business in China have an opportunity to play a proactive role in opening space for Chinese citizens to express themselves freely. Unfortunately, Yahoo!, along with a number of Chinese internet businesses and research institutes, has voluntarily signed a public pledge on "self-discipline" in China that commits the company to investigate and block websites based on their content. (Human Rights Watch, 7 Sep. 2002)

ANZ Fined Over Free Speech [Australia] - The Finance Sector Union today called on the ANZ to review its relationship with its workers after the Federal Court fined it $10,000 for breaches of the Workplace Relations Act. Justice Wilcox imposed the fine after fined the ANZ had breached the law on four counts for threatening to sack suburban branch manager Joy Buckland for talking to the media about work issues. (LaborNET, Labor Council of New South Wales [Australia], 23 Aug. 2002)

China's Workers -...[China] continues to deny its workers the most basic rights of association, petition and expression -- including rights that China, by accepting other international accords, long ago promised to respect. (editorial, Washington Post, 15 Aug. 2002)

China: End Political Abuse of Psychiatry -...official psychiatric theory in China continues to condone the involuntary treatment in custodial mental asylums of dissidents and nonconformists including Falun Gong members, independent labor organizers, whistle blowers and individuals who complain about political persecution or official misconduct. (Human Rights Watch, 13 Aug. 2002)

• China holds rebels in Soviet-style asylums (Oliver August, Times [UK], 13 Aug. 2002)

• China's use of 'political' psychiatry grows - The use of psychiatry by China to detain and institutionalise dissidents at least equals and probably surpasses similar practices in the former Soviet Union, according a report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch. (Richard McGregor, Financial Times, 12 Aug. 2002)

• full report: Dangerous minds: Political Psychiatry in China Today and its Origins in the Mao Era (Human Rights Watch and Geneva Initiative on Psychiatry, Aug. 2002)

Yahoo! Risks Abusing Rights in China - Yahoo! Inc. risks complicity in rights abuses if it remains a signatory to China's "Public Pledge on Self-discipline for the Chinese Internet Industry," Human Rights Watch said today...Signatories to the voluntary pledge agree to investigate all websites to which they provide links, block anything the Chinese government would consider "harmful information," and report those sites to Chinese authorities. (Human Rights Watch, 9 Aug. 2002)

• Yahoo! Risks Abusing Rights in China - Human Rights Watch Letter to Terry Semel [Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo!] (Human Rights Watch, 30 July 2002)

2001:

Tech Firms Vie to Veil Web Sites for the Saudis: Net-Filtering Deal Could Yield Millions - Nearly a dozen software companies, most of them American, are competing for a contract to help Saudi Arabia block access to Web sites that the Saudi government deems inappropriate for that nation's half-million Internet users...Responding to critics of the sale of content filters, software company executives say that they are only providing politically neutral tools..."The government feels the need to intervene. Once we sell them the product, we can't enforce how they use it." [Matthew Holt, a sales executive for Secure Computing, of San Jose, California] (Jennifer Lee, New York Times, in International Herald Tribune, 20 Nov. 2001) 

• full article: Companies Compete to Provide Saudi Internet Veil (Jennifer Lee, New York Times, 19 Nov. 2001)