Aventis: Making Human Guinea Pigs

Ten Worst Corporations
of the Year 2000

Each year the Multinational Monitor publishes its annual list of the Ten Worst Corporations of the Year. Appearing on the Year 2000 list are:

Aventis: Making Human Guinea Pigs

The biotech company recklessly raced its genetically modified StarLink corn to market. Not approved for human consumption, StarLink soon found its way into the human food supply.

British American Tobacco Co.: Smuggler of Death

Industry documents uncovered in connection with the U.S. state litigation against the tobacco industry reveal that British American Tobacco for decades promoted and facilitated a worldwide cigarette smuggling scheme, with extensive efforts in Latin America and Asia. Cigarette smuggling evades excise taxes, lowering cigarette prices and increasing smoking rates.

BP/Amoco: Lawbreaker

The oil giant which likes to portray itself as environmentally responsible paid major fines and entered settlements in 2000 for illegal disposal of hazardous waste, alleged Clean Air Act violations, and underpaying royalties for oil produced on federal and Native American lands.

DoubleClick: Cookie Crook?

DoubleClick is rubbing up against the edge of internet privacy protections, having acquired the ability to match consumer information from web usage and purchases — mostly gained without consumer knowledge or informed consent — with consumers' names and addresses.

Ford/Firestone: Reckless Homicide?

Ford and Firestone placed the lethal combination of Ford Explorers and Firestone tires on the road, leaving the deadly mix on the road even after they had overwhelming evidence of the consumer hazard.

Glaxo Wellcome: Patents Over People

Glaxo Wellcome and other drug manufacturers persist in engaging in a variety of tactics to block African and other poor countries from making available cheap generic versions of lifesaving AIDS drugs.

Lockheed Martin: Testing Its Pollutant on Humans

The Los Angeles Times reported in November that on behalf of military contractor Lockheed Martin, Loma Linda University is conducting the first large-scale tests of a toxic drinking water contaminant — a rocket fuel component — on human subjects.

Phillips Petroleum: Deadly Employer

A massive explosion at a Phillips Petroleum plastics plant in Pasadena, Texas in March, 2000 killed one person and injured 74.

It was the third fatal accident at the sprawling petro-chemical complex in the last 11 years, including a 1989 blast that killed 23 people and an explosion in June 1999 that left two dead.

Smithfield Foods: Pig Out

To the detriment of family farmers, Smithfield Foods is rushing to consolidate control of the meatpacking industry, most recently with a proposed merger with IBP Inc.

While wrecking havoc on the farm economy, the big hog companies are also destroying farm country.

The rapid growth of factory farms and the resulting mountains of untreated livestock manure are fouling drinking water supplies and causing a public health risk throughout the United States.

Titan International: Union Buster

Approximately 1,000 United Steelworker of America (USWA) workers at two Titan facilities have struck the maker of agricultural, off-road and construction tires, wheels and assemblies since 1998.

The viciously anti-union Titan CEO Morry Taylor responded to a National Labor Relations Board unfair labor practices complaint by reportedly telling the Natchez Democrat that, "I figure in five years they'll get that to the first federal court.