{"id":755,"date":"2009-12-11T11:12:32","date_gmt":"2009-12-11T11:12:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/?p=755"},"modified":"2009-12-11T15:15:25","modified_gmt":"2009-12-11T15:15:25","slug":"big-green-and-with-blood-on-its-hands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/2009\/12\/11\/big-green-and-with-blood-on-its-hands\/","title":{"rendered":"Big, green and with blood on its hands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Top US retailer Kohl\u2019s is really, really proud of its award-winning environmental credentials. It has a whole website devoted to \u201cKohl\u2019s green scene<\/a>\u201d, and it sees being\u00a0retail\u2019s green giant as a reflection of its corporate responsibility<\/a>. But workers around the world regret the firm has not been so diligent when it comes to sorting out the working environment in the sweatshops it supports. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Kohl\u2019s is a company that considers itself in the vanguard when it comes to corporate good practice on environmental matters. On 2 December this year, Kohl\u2019s declared<\/a> it had become \u201cthe first retailer to announce a commitment to reach net zero US greenhouse gas emissions as part of its ongoing partnership with the US Environmental Protection Agency\u2019s (EPA\u2019s) Climate Leaders program.\u201d<\/p>\n

It had already received the agency\u2019s Green Power Leadership Award for both 2007 and 2008.<\/p>\n

According to Ken Bonning, Kohl\u2019s executive vice president of store planning and logistics: \u201cWe want to demonstrate that it is possible for a large company to have a successful business model and operate in a sustainable way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the type of corporate green hype that rankles with the US-based International Labor Rights Forum<\/a> (ILRF). \u201cUnfortunately Kohl\u2019s focus on sustainability hasn\u2019t spilled over to the labour rights of its workers,\u201d it says. \u201cKohl\u2019s has been connected to a number of sweatshops over the past two decades and yet hasn\u2019t taken the necessary steps to implement its code of conduct (called the Terms of Engagement) which includes freedom of association.\u201d<\/p>\n

Working for Scrooge: Worst companies of 2009 for the Right to Associate<\/a>, published by ILRF on 10 December, puts the spotlight on a part of the company\u2019s \u201csuccessful business model\u201d that isn\u2019t winning any prizes. This includes human rights abuses at the firm\u2019s suppliers in Nicaragua and Turkey.<\/p>\n

They earn the company a place on ILRF\u2019s \u201ctop offenders\u201d list, which features corporations \u201cselected on the basis of their ties to violence against trade unions and suppression of the universal right to organise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Working for Scrooge\u2019 profiles Menderes Tekstil<\/a>, a textile factory located in Denizili, Turkey, that produces bed linens for Kohl\u2019s and other leading retailers. Workers began to affiliate with the textiles workers\u2019 union TEKSIF, in response to unsafe working conditions in the factory that led to numerous injuries and the deaths of four workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne incident which took place on November 20, 2008 resulted in the death of an employee when he fell into the funnel of a coal boiler. After the tragic accident management ordered three workers to climb into the funnel in order to retrieve their slain colleague. They were all severely injured in the process,\u201d the report notes.<\/p>\n

Conditions at the factory were \u201cextremely dangerous\u201d, the report says, adding attempts to unionise the factory were \u201cstifled\u201d.<\/p>\n

This is clearly at odds with Kohl\u2019s corporate policy. Kohl\u2019s corporate governance webpages<\/a> note: \u201cResponsible corporate citizenship is a company core value, therefore social, economic and environmental considerations are integrated into our purchasing and risk management processes. Incorporating socially responsible principles into our daily business activities generates benefits not only in the present, but also for the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

And the company\u2019s \u2018Terms of Engagement for Kohl\u2019s Business Partners\u2019 states: \u201cKohl\u2019s will only do business with Business Partners whose workers are treated fairly and who in all cases are present voluntarily, not put at risk of physical harm, fairly compensated, and allowed the right of free association and not exploited in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Commenting on the violations in Turkey, the ILRF report notes: \u201cDespite Kohl\u2019s own high moral standards and repeated calls for action, it continues to avoid comment or action since these events were brought to light.\u201d<\/p>\n

Others on ILRF\u2019s list of the worst companies for anti-union behaviour in 2009 include food giants Dole, with violations in Cameroon, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and the Philippines; Kraft, with violations in Argentina, China, Honduras and the United Kingdom; and Nestl\u00e9, with violations in Colombia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia and Tunisia.<\/p>\n

Kraft Foods, the largest food company in the US and the second largest in the world, recently fired 160 workers at a plant in Argentina, who had protested over the company\u2019s inadequate preventive actions on swine flu after an outbreak in the country.<\/p>\n

All four companies make grand claims about their corporate responsibility. All four are well loved household names. And all four are on ILRF\u2019s \u201ctop offenders\u201d list when it comes to failure to act on labour rights violations in the supply chain.<\/p>\n

As for Kohl\u2019s, there\u2019s something unsavoury about parading the corporation\u2019s fashionable \u201cgreen scene\u201d while ignoring the unseen human rights violations that cast doubt on the entire \u201csocially responsible principles\u201d it says permeate its \u201cpurchasing and risk management processes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Workers in Turkey died making products sold by Kohl’s. In both Nicaragua and Turkey they were fired for standing up against oppressive and unjust working conditions.<\/p>\n

Is that really the record of an \u201cenvironmentally friendly\u201d company? I suppose it depends whether a corporation believes workers are part of the world it is so publicly and profitably seeking to save.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Top US retailer Kohl\u2019s is really, really proud of its award-winning environmental credentials. It has a whole website devoted to \u201cKohl\u2019s green scene\u201d, and it sees being\u00a0retail\u2019s green giant as a reflection of its corporate responsibility. But workers around the world regret the firm has not been so diligent when it comes to sorting out […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[128,127,131,129,130],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":761,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755\/revisions\/761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hazards.org\/greenjobs\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}