Global scourge of corporate buck-passing on workers' rights
As Bhopal and Foxconn show, multinationals can evade responsibility.Twenty-five years [ago]...a deadly gas leak from Union Carbide's [now part of Dow] factory in Bhopal, India, killed more than 3000 people...Which company should be liable? Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary running the plant, or Union Carbide's American parent company...A similar question has arisen this week in relation to the continuing deaths at a Foxconn factory in China. Foxconn, the world's leading electronics manufacturer and one of Apple's major suppliers, has been linked to 10 worker suicides at one of its Chinese plants this year alone...While Foxconn no doubt bears substantial responsibility for its factory conditions, what of Apple...?