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Headlines : Corporations"Dance with the devil" in Myanmar
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions has released the updated list of companies doing business in Myanmar, the military dictatorship formerly known as Burma where slave labor is still in use. Boycotts of these companies are credited with the pull-outs of Pepsi Cola, Levi Strauss, Adidas, Carlsberg and Premier Oil, contributing to a decline in foreign direct investment in Myanmar from $304 in 1999 to just $191 million in 2002. Myanmar’s government has staged several massive prisoner releases recently in a desperate bid to clean up its global image, but no substantial political reforms are underway yet.
[Posted By gavin_rose]Republished from Asia Times Online
Rolls-Royce, a venerated name in British corporate culture, has been put in the spotlight for making a turn that a labor group calls a betrayal of its stated commitment to social responsibility.
The company is being accused by one of the world’s leading trade union movements of having business links in military-ruled Myanmar; its name appeared this week in a list compiled by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU).
Rolls-Royce is among the new names on the list of 439 multinational companies with economic ties in Myanmar, charged the 28-page document, “Doing Business with Myanmar”, that was released by the Brussels-based ICFTU.
Other prominent names from Britain’s corporate world on this notorious list include the insurance company Lloyd’s of London, the Cambrian Group – a conglomerate of petroleum consultants; pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, and wood industrialist Robbins Timber.
“The main reason why foreign enterprises should not engage in investment or trade with Burma is because of the financial benefits that the junta reaps from these activities,” states the ICFTU in its report. “[It] contributes to allowing the military to remain in power and perpetuate their criminal rule over the country.” (The country was known as Burma until 1989, when…
Posted by gavin_rose
Savanna Reid is an environmental student writing in Las Vegas, originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
